I used to believe holiness meant always saying yes. Yes, I can help. Yes, that’s fine. Yes, I don’t mind at all. I practiced self-erasure so well that people called it Christlike. (Because who am I if I'm not useful?) People applauded my disappearing act, as if vanishing was a virtue. No one ever told me that sometimes the most obedient thing a person of faith can do is simply say no. But here’s what I’ve learned the hard way: When “love” looks like exhausting myself to earn

Over the last year and a half, my Pastor--Boss has made a point of telling me to sit with my emotions . Conversations usually go like this: I walk into his office. I plop down. I start complaining about a situation and how it makes me feel.I rehearse all the reasons I’m justified in being upset. And then, inevitably, he says, “Sit with it.” No fixing. No reframing. No immediate prayer to tie it up with a bow. Just… sit with it. Sitting with it means allowing yourself to feel

Hey y’all! This post is a bit of a departure from my usual fare, but with Wicked: For Good releasing this month, I’ve found myself reflecting—and feeling a lot of feelings. Even if musicals aren’t your thing, I hope this reflection finds some resonance in you. The first time I saw Wicked, I was supposed to care about the witches. Everyone does. You choose a side: green or pink, rebellion or perfection. But I found my eyes drifting to the boy who never stopped moving, the one

Listen to me:  I did not want to write this post. It feels too close to the bone, too real, too vulnerable to confess (and then publish on the Internet for presumably the rest of time). This is something I know to be a flaw of mine. And not like a cute “ha ha, I bite my nails and hit curbs, I’m so quirky”  kind of flaw. I mean something I genuinely wrestle with. And while I generally consider myself an open book, there are still things I don’t like admitting or digging into b

"But God loves things by becoming them. God loves things by uniting with them, not by excluding them." -Fr. Richard Rohr, The Universal...

By the sweat of your brow, you will have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from...

In today's fast-paced (often chaotic) world, we are bombarded by endless notifications, news cycles, and busy schedules. It usually feels...

Listen. I get it. If you're in the Methodist world, you're sick of hearing and having conversations like this. If you're not in the...

As Jesus left the house, he was followed by two blind men crying out, “Mercy, Son of David! Mercy on us!” When Jesus got home, the blind...

Once upon a time, the world was perfect. And then it wasn’t. There were some issues with forbidden fruit, a crafty serpent, disobedient...

There are two relatively famous passages in the New Testament, and both of them happen back-to-back in the book of Matthew. The first is...

It is okay to press pause. When the walls suddenly feel to be closing in, the stares or whispers seem to be all too familiar, or the...

Don't tell anyone, but I think I'm secretly competitive. Like, I don't care if you win at Uno, you can have a higher grade than me,...

You know what hurts worse than feeling like you're not good enough? Being reminded that others didn't think you were good enough, either....

One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, he priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came...

What a time to be alive. What a time to be a United Methodist. For those who may not know, the United Methodist church is in a messy...

Jesus, we are one body composed of many parts – bones, sinew, tissue, a composite of ribcage and dust and holy breath which wakes up the...

To be clear, I am not yet a parent. I have, however, had a lot of experience interacting with parents both as a former teacher as a...

My title is misleading -- you should know that right off the bat. There are actually a few "lost" passages, you see. A whole section of...

Conviction is a funny thing. Raised and educated by good Southern Baptists, I now find myself in the tenuous position of being a staff...