Earthquakes, trauma – and silences that erase
Any eerie silence that minimizes or denies an earthquake - or any other trauma someone is facing - shouts to those willing to hear: Look deeper. Ask, Why?
The blessing of mourning
There is a time to mourn. And much fights against our doing it. But what short-circuits our grief also blocks us from Jesus’ promise of comfort and blessing.
Dear wounded, grieving one, I pray you float
Was there grief in that ark? Yes! Was there tension? Absolutely. And anger. And fear. So many emotions; such great loss. Yet through it all, they were upheld.
Divorcing: When God does what he hates
Repeatedly, in Scripture, the Lord reveals the anguish that divorcing his people causes him. Yet at times, he’s responded to nonstop betrayals in just that way.
Spiritual sundowner’s: When darkness overwhelms you
Darkness can increase disorientation. It can increase anxiety and depression. Can something similar be true spiritually? Can spiritual sundowner’s be a thing?
So blinded for so long, I choose light
Even when people I love fight against it, I choose light. As I dare to go with God where fear, obligation and guilt forbid, I find hope and joy. I choose life.
Light is breaking through
In the very act of seeing what is brown, murky and decidedly unsafe, there’s movement. There’s life. And the light is breaking through.
photo courtesy Ryan DeLaney
Waiting for hope
It feels wonderful to find yourself waiting in quiet hope and encouraging others to do the same. It feels dreadful to seek the God you thought you knew while hope continues to hide. It feels like a betrayal on God’s part, or a failure on yours, or both.
My Gettysburg legacy and this turning time
In a very real way, I was there when my great-great-grandfather Lorenzo Whitaker survived the Civil War, and more specifically, the Battle of Gettysburg.