Last week a friend gave me a great gift after hearing me complain about being small and weak and not quite up to life’s challenges. He told me: “There’s what God gave you when you were born, your strength and shape, and then there’s toughness. You are tough—don’t get them confused.” This morning as I reread Kelsey’s blog on Freedom and Privilege I thought again of my friend’s words, and of how many lives I see every day that particular wisdom applies to. People struggling forward, practicing hope, trying to survive. Sometimes I’d bet you feel, like I do, that one more challenge will be one too many. That you might just collapse and disappear if one more loved one dies or you get laid of
I left my front door open all day. Not simply unlocked and not wide open, but open enough that anyone could have walked up to the door and pushed it open without turning the door knob. I have done this twice recently. TWICE. In the morning flurry of getting my stuff together for work and my daughter dressed and ready for daycare and both of us out the door on time, I completely forgot to shut the front door. TWICE. I came home at the end of the day and took my keys out to unlock the door. Instead of needing to use said keys, I just cautiously pushed my front door open and stepped inside. I looked around to find that everything was in order. Nothing had been stolen or damaged in the hours tha
“Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” - Apostle Paul (Galatians 5:24) It’s no secret that our society has an incredibly unhealthy relationship with sex. The human body - particularly the female body - has been reduced to a marketing tool that is presented as a thing to be consumed. Rape culture is a phrase that is used often to try to put a finger on the result of such a toxic way to relate to the literal flesh of women. It points to the reality that many women suffer through in their everyday lives, the reality of being seen as something that exists in order to be consumed by the men around them; the men who see it as playful an
