rebelling against low expectations
Election 2020. The next huge decision on our calendar we all needed this year. The one we’ve been looking forward to all year. Not! 2020 has been a crazy year, for sure. The election has, in no small part, only added to the craziness for those of us in America. Election Day is yet another thing to deal with this year after a long line of tense and exhausting processes that have at times...
When will it all end? It’s a question I have been asking myself in the midst of the craziness of the year 2020. I remember reading posts on Facebook at the beginning of this year about the wildfires and the loss of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, lamenting and asking “Could it get any worse?” Looking back on those posts now, they were a far cry from what came next. I remember during the...
Deep sigh. I don’t know how to start this article–I’ve been procrastinating finishing it for weeks (and now it has turned into a series)! I was going to name and address some of the disagreements our country (for us Americans at least) and church are dealing with head on. I was going to talk about how divided we are and what we can do to navigate the sharp fights we’ve been having. I was...
I used to think I was someone who didn’t have control issues. That is… until the pandemic spread across the globe. I’ve heard stories of people who don’t like riding in planes because they would rather be the pilot flying the plane than be the passenger. If you would have asked me a couple of years ago if I had control issues like that, I would have said, “Nope. Definitely not.” And then COVID-19...
2020 has been a terrible year. We’re only halfway through it, and I’ve already seen several articles, videos, and online forums label 2020 as “the worst year” of this century, of their lives, and even of all time. (Just Google “2020 is the worst year,” and you’ll see what I mean.) Based on what has already happened so far, I can see why. 2020 Unmasked This year boasts a...
I want to make my position and background clear: I am a white, female teenager, and I live in Minnesota’s Twin Cities—Minneapolis and St. Paul. When I was born, I unknowingly had privilege others would never have, simply because of my background and skin color. Racism is a human construction, founded in sin. From the biblical era, forms of racism have existed as one people group prejudiced...
I woke up this morning, grabbed my phone, and opened Instagram. Stories and posts demand justice for a man named George Floyd, people in protest against our country’s judicial system, and controversy surrounding all of it. It’s easy to get lost in the whirlwind of opinion. How can I sort through all of this? I remember my mom’s words spoken so truly in one of our conversations surrounding another...
Teens filter into youth group, smiling and waving at their friends. But no one talks. No Christian rock blasts in the background. No snacks are passed around. It’s difficult to have normalcy when youth group is through a screen. Online youth group is quite the experience, but it means the world to me to talk with my small group, learn about Jesus, and pray together. I never realized how important...
All the things I had planned to write don’t make sense anymore. I meant to talk about needing beauty in the midst of the cacophony of the world, full of the steady patter of cars and busyness and cement sidewalks—that chaos of busyness. But that’s gone now. I meant to speak of the longing for a great Something, a something that took the discordant notes of the Monday commute and mundane...
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.” (Isaiah 26:3-4) One of my greatest fears is the unknown. I have a strong tendency to overthink and worry about every single thing that could possibly go wrong, especially right now–when there is so much unknown! I am in a lockdown with no...
rebelling against low expectations
