I went to a dance club in college, and even though I had as much rhythm as a flat tire, a guy talked me into dancing with him. Bless my heart. I thought he liked me. I’d hoped the Greek letters on his hat meant he’d infiltrated the frat system as an informant, not as […]
I’m asked that a lot, so I’ll tell you a story. This is the short version, of course, because Leon was epic, and we were but a passing detail. …. I might not have noticed him standing in line at the soup kitchen if he didn’t look so familiar, something about his shiny cheeks. He […]
I wanted to be a feminist. Also, Pretty Woman. I wasn’t entirely sure what either of those meant in my early teens, but I looked up to strong women who were the opposite of me, and Vivian. I tried to laugh like Julia Roberts, and once on a date I spit my gum in the […]
It was around the time R. Kelly believed he could fly, a head injury had left me with short-term memory loss. There had been rain, a car, a tree… I broke. I didn’t know God, didn’t love God…It seemed I used to, but not then. The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is […]
It’s been well over a decade now since I met the little girl who dressed all in black. She seemed so sad, and her walls were high and thick. She did her best to remain invisible, cloaked in a black hoodie with a hole worn in each sleeve where she’d nervously pushed her thumbs through. […]
Randomly on our little farm growing up, you could find the fatherless, the homeless, the soul-starved. Sometimes we all knew everyone at the dinner table, sometimes we didn’t. There’s a reason broken and strange people found rest with our family—they fit right in. Everyone wants to be well, forgiven, and whole but I learned from […]
For six years I was privileged to cook for a very special Care Group at church. After teaching school all day, attending faculty meetings, racing home to cook and set out the food buffet-style by 6:30, it was an act of God. I loved it. One week we served chili, sandwiches, and salad. With no […]
Thank you, but I think I’ll just stay homeless, were not the words I expected to hear when the church offered to put our friend in a motel. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I sat on the sidewalk with him, leaning against the red brick fellowship hall, as he took out rolling papers […]
I’m a church-hopper. That’s no secret. I wouldn’t recommend it long-term, but it’s been a great prescription for me. I’ll tell you why. I’ve found in every sincere gathering of Jesus-followers, there are people who reveal a little bit more of God to the rest of us. Some of you reading this post are on […]
There’s a little solar flower in my kitchen sill. Like me, darkness paralyzes it completely. But it waits, facing east, and even in the grayest dawn, subtly, imperceptibly, it begins to sway. Any Sunlight at all gives it life. Grateful, it sways. At first, it’s awkward and irregular, determined… but as the Sun floods west, […]