never been here before

It was such a small thing. But it didn’t feel small. And then I realized… that was sort of the point. Lots of us have our online “community” of friends. People we interact with on facebook, twitter, etc, that we have not met in real life. We might someday, but for now, we’ve connected online likely because of similar interests or perhaps political views. Either way, it’s a community. It’s different from those in real life, of course, but it still feels faithful to call it a community. A new and large part of my online community comes from one thing we all have in common: the subscription to a magazine called Christ and Pop Culture . Part of subscribing is a membership to a private Facebook group where we interact on all things Jesus and pop culture related. From there, friendships are “formed” and twitter followings have begun. This is a story from that community. I suppose it started when Matt Poppe and I followed each other on Twitter. I have no clue who foll...

I've always been more comfortable in melancholy and sadness, more so that the average human being. It's something that 2017 taught me to lean into more, but also be careful of, since it can lead to unhealthy ways of thinking and skewed perspectives on reality. So I've been in a place where I'm learning to own this part of my personhood, but trying hard not to let it sink me deep into a place where I don't belong. It's a tricky tightrope, one I'm thankful to walk because it means I'm learning healthier ways to find proper perspective, rather than just the tried and true "snap out of it" attitude that is so prevalent in my culture. And I've never been more aware of that as I have this Advent season. This advent season has so far been full of a lot of joy... but also a lot of sadness. It's usually just sadness for me, so I'm thankful for those joyful moments. I've also learned to be thankful for the sad ones, because in both...

This is Day 15 of a series of posts for the month of October. I’m joining Kate Motaung over at  Five Minute Friday  for the annual Write 31 Days challenge.  I will write about themes found in the book of Joshua each day, with a different word prompt.   Today's prompt word is: REMAIN It’s far too easy to read quickly past a phrase in Joshua 7:12, “I will not be with you anymore.” Achan had sinned. He broke the covenant God made with his people by taking some of the devoting things for himself. This break int he covenant affected all of Israel, not just Achan. And that’s why they lost at the first battle of Ai. The Lord didn’t remain. I can’t help but wonder if God being the one who fought for Israel during this time wasn’t intended for a developing of trust and dependance. This is not something that comes naturally for us. We depend on ourselves first. Then maybe those in our circle. But God is rarely our first go-to. So maybe their victories, ...

This is Day 13 of a series of posts for the month of October. I’m joining Kate Motaung over at  Five Minute Friday  for the annual Write 31 Days challenge.  I will write about themes found in the book of Joshua each day, with a different word prompt. Today's prompt word is: TRY I know sometimes I read the stories of the Old Testament and feel like God’s people didn’t even try. Maybe it’s because we hear so many stories of how they screwed up and God kept chasing after they holiness. It never seemed to end... he kept on chasing them because they stopped... trying? I don't know. They stopped something. We’re never like that, right? Post Exodus, Israel had 4 generations worth of bad habits to undo. I’m not talking about remember to floss. This was about what god to worship. They were still God’s people during their time in Babylon. Yet they didn’t act like, choosing instead to worship a multitude of pagan gods part of Egypt’s culture. So I gues...

This is Day 12 of a series of posts for the month of October. I’m joining Kate Motaung over at  Five Minute Friday  for the annual Write 31 Days challenge.  I will write about themes found in the book of Joshua each day, with a different word prompt. Today’s word prompt is INVITE. So when I decided to write on the book of Joshua for the Write 31 Days challenge with Five Minute Friday, there were four unknown prompt words. Each Thursday night, for years, Five Minute Friday has revealed a word to inspire our writing. But for the Write 31 Days challenge, we were given all the words. Expect the (4) Five Minute Friday prompts words. I say this because today is a prompt word I didn’t know about, and I couldn’t think of anything about the word “Invite” that has to do with the book of Joshua. Because there is nothing about this book that involving inviting. There’s a lot of plundering, a lot of commanding, a lot of conquering, a lot of war. ...

This is Day 11 of a series of posts for the month of October. I’m joining Kate Motaung over at  Five Minute Friday  for the annual Write 31 Days challenge.  I will write about themes found in the book of Joshua each day, with a different word prompt. Today’s word prompt is WRITE. It took me years to understand the history of Israel, our history. I still am missing a lot, but the more I read and study, the more the string of history, holding together the lives of God's people, makes sense to me. The time and place of God's people in the book of Joshua is what I would label as "penultimate." For generations, they heard about how God would give them a Promised Land, a lang flowing with milk and honey,  He promised to make them a great nation, and that a great King would come from their lineage.  Here's the thing that would have driven me CRAZY if I were one of God's people back then: that I didn't know what the fulfillment of all th...