rebelling against low expectations
“If I take one more step, I’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been.” Sam Gamgee said to Mr. Frodo as he stood on the edge of adventure in The Fellowship of The Ring. We’ve all been there, standing on the edge of something new and different from anything we have ever experienced before. We have all had hobbit moments. The question is, how will we respond to them? Will we sit on the fence...
“You Christians always talk about God being like a father, but what does that mean?” her eyes searched mine, but they weren’t accusing. Just questioning. “What does it mean if someone is like a father?” My heart broke. While my earthly father is far from perfect, I never had the struggle of not knowing what a father is supposed to be like – the very struggle the girl sitting in front of me...
Last year was an interesting year, wasn’t it? I remember doing our Drama Camp week the first week of March. At that time, I had only heard about the two COVID cases in California. Then, a couple weeks later, we were in a national quarantine. I’ll be honest. At first, I enjoyed staying home. I had a lot more time to write—and more free time in general without having to go anywhere. But after the...
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...
It was four years ago, around this time of year. The flat was silent, empty. I had just arrived home from university. I didn’t even take my coat off. I just dropped my backpack, sank down on the floor, and cried my eyes out. It would be two more years before the doctors worked it out, and by that time I was resigned to how my life was changing–how it would have to change if my...
As I’ve been dealing with social distancing, canceled events, and the overarching fear and uncertainty engulfing our world, I’ve been thinking about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the final two years of his life, which he spent in prison for suspected political resistance against the Nazi regime. While our circumstances and Bonhoeffer’s are very different, I believe there’s much...
“What is life going to be without them?” I was in tears as I talked to my mom. “They’re the best family ever. Why do they have to move?” I wasn’t ready for our dearest friends to move to California, a thousand miles away, with no hope they’d ever come back. We led a church together. All of us kids were close. I had the worst crush on their eldest son, and our parents had a deep friendship. I...
I once had a pair of shoes that I wore until the bottoms were so thin that rocks poked up through the soles and my toes poked down. I wore them even though my mother said that they weren’t presentable, because I thought they were comfortable. They made me feel sassy and confident and tough and earthy. I wore them until socks would have protected my feet more than those shoes. And when I...
I’m sitting at my laptop, waiting for the list of Bible Bee qualifiers to come out. We may have crashed the site in our haste to find out who moved on and who didn’t. All the more suspense for when we actually pass, right? It comes. My name isn’t there. My. name. is. not. on. the. list. I scan the list, thinking my eyes aren’t working. My friends are on there, practically...
I really like being in control. I always have. I enjoy knowing exactly what is happening, when it is happening, why it is happening, and how I can change it. I know everyone values different things, but I’m pretty sure most people can relate to some extent. Because of my obsessive (and often sinful) desire for control, there was one question that graced my lips more often than any other. Why...
rebelling against low expectations
