Looking back, it’s still hard for me to pinpoint just where I went wrong in that conversation. I love the earnestness of the girl on that staircase, her eagerness to seek virtue, her willingness to have a hard conversation. I admire her desire to please God, to make wise choices, to follow the counsel of people she respected. But underneath it all, I imagined God as a kind of benevolent torturer.
How Courageous Persistence Can Lead to Hope: For iBelieve
Generally, clicking “Buy Now” shouldn’t make your hands shake. It shouldn’t make your stomach tie in knots or pump adrenaline through your body. You shouldn’t feel so jittery you want to run screaming from your computer. But that’s exactly how I felt the morning I sat down to purchase a web domain name for a …
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When You Know You’re Not an Artist
If I knew anything for certain when I was a child, it was that I was not the artist of the family—my older sister Katie was. Looking at her work, I knew I’d never be as good as her. I wouldn’t even be in the same universe as her. Anyway, I had my own ‘talents’: …
You Are Not the Problem: For AndiLit
When I was first trying to write regularly twenty years ago, I could not, for the life of me, finish anything. At the time, I was trying to write fiction. I wrote one story about a husband and wife making a hard decision over the phone. I could hear their voices in my head, imagine …
Holy Curiosity About Fear: For Cara Meredith
The other day, one of my kids got upset about some schoolwork in her least-favorite subject. “You can do it,” I told her. She stared at me. I didn’t blame her. Talk is cheap. So I posed a different question. “What’s the worst-case scenario if you fail?” I asked. She told me, her eyes worried. …
Stay in the messy place
Picture this: my child finds a plastic, battery-powered pottery wheel at the thrift store. I express concern that this particular tool may not be worth the money, but she is excited and pulls out her cash. Later, she is ready to use it. I look at the instructions. They talk about “wedging” and “centering.” …
Have You Held On to the Wrong Identity?
A while ago, I commiserated with a friend about how fearful we both were, growing up. Like me, the friend took years (or never attempted) to do all the “fun” kid stuff like riding a bike, swimming, watching horror movies, or going roller-skating. I bemoan this about myself on a regular basis. Like a lot …