For most of my adulthood, I convinced myself that road rage was a funny, cute trait of mine. I’m generally composed and congenial but I can transform into a fireball if someone cuts me off, or zips in and out of traffic like it’s a game of pinball. “I just get righteous anger when people…
I grew up with images of the mother of Jesus as an idealistic, serene lady quietly sitting in the background. Maybe you did too. Mary was “meek and mild,” a docile observer, patiently “pondering” all the lovely things around her. Recently, I heard a preacher critique this sanitized portrayal. He explained that Mary was actually…
Our culture seems increasingly fascinated with scammers. We see it in the popularity of true crime podcasts, in documentaries we can binge about catfishing, fallen televangelists and lavish music festivals that turn into hellish camping trips. But reporting doesn’t seem to quench our thirst for the stories of charming people ripping off the masses. We…
“Imagine waiting until the minister says, ‘You may now kiss the bride,’ for your lips to meet your husband’s for the first time,” Carly said dreamily. We sat in a circle, cocooned in our sleeping bags on the church floor. Carly was the beautiful, vivacious older girl in our Pentecostal youth group, while I was…
“I don’t want to see anyone leave,” one synodical delegate said of the motion to suspend dissenting churches and office-bearers, “but as Abraham was asked to offer up Isaac in obedience to faith, I see this as an act of obedience to faith.” Hearing this analogy reminded me of a college student who was struggling…
Great Creator, / I hold up my one fragile life / between the dirt from which you drew me / and the sun we spin around. / Eight billion of us wander this groaning crust together. / Your Spirit once hovered over the water / and we can only hope still hovers today, / as the seas continue to ruse around us.
The jar of roasted red peppers slipped from my hands and shattered on the grocery store floor around my sandaled feet. In my rush to get through checkout before the toddler melted down and back home for the baby’s nap, I clumsily dropped the jar onto the tiles. “No!” yelled my three-year-old, who shares my…
Schmigadoon! is a light-hearted comedy that parodies musical theatre using the format it satirizes. A New York couple trying to rekindle their relationship through an outdoor camping excursion stumble upon an idyllic town straight out of a Broadway musical set in pre-war, midwestern America. These outsiders, Melissa and Josh, are welcomed in whimsical songs (sometimes…
“Bekett was such an incredible human,” Kristel Forcier tells me. She’s sharing her memories of Bekett Noble, the 34-year-old Redeemer University student who died by suicide November 23, 2022. At the memorial, Redeemer President Dr. David Zietsma described Bekett as “kind, likeable, funny and direct. This is a tragic loss for our community.” Bekett Noble…
The serviceberry tree that nourished my children and me this summer is now a stump. Its remnants are stubbornly woven into the fence between a small Slovak church and a parking lot. On the day we discovered those berries, we scurried along finding low enough branches to pick the dark purple fruit and my five-year-old…
Pray Away, a documentary recently released on Netflix, opens with Jeffrey McCall, a large and gentle man who drives through the rain to a strip mall where he stands under the portico and offers to pray for passersby while wielding a poster board with the words “TRANS 2 CHRIST” emblazoned across it in sticker letters….
The property we move to when the baby is 18 months old borders a grassy, city-owned alley. It is a secret garden, a lost green plot turned into a tiny community park. Eight properties back onto this narrow stretch of land. Neighbors take turns mowing the grass, half-heartedly tending the gardens, letting their dogs run…
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