Light is breaking through
In the very act of seeing what is brown, murky and decidedly unsafe, there’s movement. There’s life. And the light is breaking through.
Resented without a cause
This is a plea not to suppress anger and grief in such a way that they morph into something malevolent. It’s a call to recognize such malevolence in someone else when it is turned against you. ♥️
photo courtesy Ryan DeLaney
Waiting for hope
It feels wonderful to find yourself waiting in quiet hope and encouraging others to do the same. It feels dreadful to seek the God you thought you knew while hope continues to hide. It feels like a betrayal on God’s part, or a failure on yours, or both.
The dream
Fifteen years ago, I began a journey of awakening. The end of that journey exposed the beginning of my life. At long last, I saw the hard-to-face realities and easy-to-embrace fantasies in my childhood that led to everything else.
Defender of the forsaken, The Sequel
God identifies himself as Defender of the forsaken - especially women forsaken in any number of ways by their husbands, children forsaken in any number of ways by their parents, and foreigners forsaken in any number of ways by the citizens of a land. This same God counts it crucial that his people defend the cause of those who are easiest to abuse.
Defender of the forsaken
If you have been forsaken - by your parents, by your spouse, by people around you who count you "not one of us" - know this: When God finds you among the bereaved and discarded, he himself takes up your cause.
A promise of real belonging
Long ago and far away, God promised a scattered people, “I will be a sanctuary to you during your time in exile,” and, “I will gather you back.”
Homecoming
When my father came home after his second bypass surgery, we did not expect what happened next.
Newborn
Now, at last, my mom is getting to experience what a newborn should experience. But it didn't have to look like this. It didn't have to end where it should have begun, with the middle of the story lost in the chaos of trying again and again to rewrite the start.