The more time I’m in the garden, the more present I am to the reality of the way it works. To the order of things. I think I’m becoming a little naive again. And noticing the flowers and the birds a whole lot more too. 

We find ourselves in a place where we don’t just want to win, we come to feel it as a need. And yet, ironically, winning only provides a moment of relief from the competing swell of inadequacy. Why is that?

The point is not agreement or feeling the same but rather to create space and appreciation for a vast and wide range of prayers, many of which only make sense to a person in crisis. As a reader, look for raw honesty and openness before God as the through line rather than correct or relatable thinking.

I threw a little bit of a fit recently. If you saw what happened, you just might call it a tantrum.

These ideas are like a potluck—a variety of good things we have placed out upon the table for us to sample and to enjoy.

We’re usually the ones sprinting around trying to keep up with everything. Meanwhile, God seems perfectly comfortable moving at a human pace… maybe even a little slower.

Lately, I’ve become convinced that in this cultural moment, revenge and justice are increasingly becoming indistinguishable from each other, which has me worried.

Is it possible the thing that might be best for us is the one thing we don’t have much of an imagination for: the choice to remain.

Last week, while raking, I was hit with something that felt like an epiphany—a way of seeing that felt novel, sudden, and deeply true.

This question can feel awkward and mysterious. The first time I was asked this, I squinted my eyes and asked, “what do you mean?”

I’m uncomfortable talking to other Christians who think differently from me. I find myself making judgments about them and assuming they make judgments about me. I wonder - is there a better way? How do I lean into the uncomfortable instead of avoiding it?

I wonder if one way to think about the summarizing trajectory of the beatitudes is this: when our present pain intersects with the kingdom of God, there is good reason to get our hopes up.

Below are the words I shared before being baptized. I share this in hope that it might continue to open the imagination of my friends and community to the creative possibilities of faith in an age of cynicism.

This summer I embarked on a search to rediscover the joy of running. I entered the space that had become charged with weird energy in search of the simple freedom I felt as a kid.

We’re not here to prove ourselves faithful or acceptable. Rather, we’re here to discover that God is faithful, and we’ve already been accepted.