Entering the temple amongst the noise and cries Of the money changers selling means for sacrifice Filled with holy anger, he lashed through the crowd Turning over tables and throwing them out
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All articles filed in Faith
I Don’t Think God Is a Man
I think god made the trees to remind me to breathe and to stand when everything changes and to make something majestic out of this crookedness.
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Can You Hear Me?
With a plastered-on smile, I faced a rowdy class of Chinese preschoolers and reached down to the tips of my toes to muster up my maximum volume: “If you’re happy and you know it…” I clapped my hands. I stomped my feet. And I turned myself around. “That’s what it’s all about, hey?” But those…
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The Cost of Hustling
As I sit down to write this essay, I am wiping the smeared mascara that coats the skin just below my eyelashes. The black smudges cover up the bags underneath my eyes, which reminds me of the layers of exhaustion most of my days have held. My eyes aren’t smudged from crying this time, but…
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Showing Up
What does it mean, now, for me to show up? Is it me, my body, clean, clothed, and correct, a physical form occupying space? Saying yes, smiling, sorting through small talk while inside my heart races?
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Ending Well: A Liturgy
It has been a long journey, nothing like expected. So many detours from a pre-planned route. Potholes, accidents, missed signs— Decades ago I started out, destination unknown, but expectant and hopeful: Somewhere things settled into a rhythm. Rhythms help us press into the mist; we live in familiar cycles.
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The Foolish Tortoise
“You never know what may cause them…But of this you can be sure. Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them…
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Holding Death
I held death in my arms once. In February 2008 the tiny body of my nephew, born 20 weeks early, was brought to me wrapped in a blanket in sister-in-law Deanna’s hospital room. In my womb a 20-week-old baby kicked. It felt like the hardest thing I would ever have to do, continue growing life…
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Something Beautiful
I hunched down in my uncomfortable bucket seat on Chicago’s commuter train heading to the suburbs. Unfortunately, I’d picked one of the few actually facing other passengers. Tears sliding down my face, I was embarrassed, so I tried to make myself even smaller, hiding in layers of winter clothing. A young woman next to me…
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Finding Springs in the Desert
It all looks the same. Fields split wide open, clusters of rusting cars and square houses bending with the weight of the earth. Buttes appear in the distance, but I can’t seem to get close. A hazy sky mutes the miles, and dry dust kicks up behind the tires of my Jeep Wrangler. Along stretches…
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