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He Walked Among Us
Celebrating Advent Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent—a season that celebrates the arrival of Jesus Christ. It’s a time to pause, wrestle with the brokenness we experience, long for peace, and find hope in the God who came to save us. (This post was originally a letter from my Substack account.) This is my first year choosing to intentionally celebrate Advent as an adult and I’m loving it. The last Sunday of November I cut branches from various evergreens in my yard, fashioned a rough wreath shape, bought candles, and lit the first candle, the Candle of Hope, with my family. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Feeling the…
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Is This Really What We Sound Like?
I listened to another Christian talk the other day. They were defining what it means to “really be a Christian.” I know they meant well, but as I listened I just felt discouraged. People who were not following the rules didn’t make the cut: they lived with their significant others before marriage, didn’t attend the right churches, or didn’t have enough fruit in their lives. I found myself wondering if this person knew that I often enjoy a good beer or a glass of wine. Did the fact that they were bolding confiding in me mean they thought I was good enough? Or were they trying to send me a…
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Celebrities for Jesus and Fred Rogers
In a time when large swaths of the America church have merely mimicked worldly concepts of power, going for bigger, louder, glitzier, we have to return to the small, the quiet, the uncool, and the ordinary. Obscurity may very well be the spiritual discipline the American church needs to practice the most in the coming century. Katelyn Beaty, Celebrities for Jesus My husband and I finally watched It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, the Tom Hanks movie from 2019 about Fred Rogers. Wow. I had instant childhood flashbacks–sitting in my grandma’s den on her little couch, drinking my glass of orange juice, and watching Mr. Rogers calmly explain things…
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Footloose and Fearful: 7 Truths for Our Frightened Hearts
I finally watched the original 1984 Footloose movie a couple of nights ago with my husband. In my defense, I was only three when the movie first came out and it’s not exactly appropriate for toddlers. By the time I was a teenager, we were in a cultic subgroup of Christianity that made the town of Bomont seem liberal by comparison. And then for whatever reason Footloose never made it on my list of pop-culture-to-catch-up-on. I was definitely missing out. There are reasons it’s a classic! Besides the cassette tapes, leg warmers, and core memories brought back by the church ladies’ 80s glasses and haircuts, I found myself noticing the…
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Shaking Up Tradition and Religion
I have a new theme song! Have you ever had a song resonate so deeply that it feels like the theme of your life? This one has been out since 2021, but I just heard it for the first time at the writers conference I was attending last weekend. Yes, writers conference! We will get to that. Also, hello there! It’s been a while. 🙂 “Shake up the ground of all my tradition. Breakdown the walls of all my religion. Your way is better. Your way is better.” Joshua Neil Farro / Rebekah Erin White / Lucas Salles Cortazio / Evelyn Braun Heideriqui This bridge is the heart of everything…
