Spirituality
What I Wish the Church Knew About My Mental Health
Today’s guest post is from Jade Miller. She has written about her experiences with church, faith, and recovery in “Pieces of Me: A Collision of Art, Poetry, Essays, Faith, and Mental Health.” I’m grateful for her story. Content Warning: Emotional/Spiritual Abuse, Suicidal Ideation, Self-Harm, Eating Disorders ___________________ I was 12 the first time I was admitted to…
Read MoreWhy My Boys Wore Spiderman Costumes to Church Today
“Daddy, can I wear my Spiderman costume to church?” It’s Sunday morning and I’m trying to drink my second cup of coffee and procrastinating on getting dressed. “Go find some clothes so I can get you dressed,” I’d told Keenan. (He’s four years old, and this mission usually has a fifty percent success rate.) Today…
Read More10 Reasons Why Christians Should Give Pizza to Everybody
Are we seriously still having this argument? How do you even respond to stuff like: “We’re not discriminating against anyone, that’s just our belief and anyone has the right to believe in anything… I choose to be heterosexual. They choose to be homosexual. Why should I be beat over the head to go along with something they…
Read MoreDear Christianity, I Have a Few Questions
Dear Christianity, We’ve been together a while now. My whole life, to be exact. I know we’ve had our hard times, our breakups and makeups and are-we-going-to-make-it stretches, but you’re still my religion. So I have a few questions for you. I’ve been seeing a therapist lately. (Don’t worry — it’s not you, it’s me.)…
Read MoreDoes Jesus Heal Our Ouchies?
“Does Jesus heal our ouchies?” It’s one of those moments when abstract spirituality meets bruises and scraped knees, and my son wonders with the sort of innocent curiosity possessed only by a three-year-old. I hear myself answering him before I even stop to think about what I should say. /// A baby born too soon…
Read MoreOur Father Who Art in Heaven, Please
Our father who art in Heaven, please be on Earth as it is up there because I can’t do this on my own. Help? The words trip and fall off my tongue sincerely, but without eloquence. Fitting, I suppose. I’ve been tripping and falling through life without much eloquence lately. I have no idea what…
Read MoreWhy I Hate the Bible
I hate the Bible. These words shock me as I form them on my lips, form them with my fingers. They are harsh, ugly. My own mind rebels against this unwelcome sentiment. I try to swallow it. I cannot. You are horrified too. Arguments tumble up and spill out almost instantly — questions and objections and…
Read MoreWhy I Love Blackjack
I lost a hundred dollars in Vegas last month. “I have no interest in gambling,” I’d said. “But I’ll play a few hands just for the experience.” Riding shotgun across the Utah desert bound for Sin City, I Googled “how to play blackjack in vegas”. “I’ll only spend fifty dollars, max,” I told myself. “I know…
Read MoreDear God (A Psalm for Lent)
dear god it’s me again it’s february and i can’t tell where the grey horizon ends and the grey sky begins (i can’t tell much of anything anymore) i heard a song today about how “this is my father’s world / why should my heart be sad?” and well, have you seen your world lately? there’s…
Read MoreOn Ash Wednesday
“ashes to ashes / dust to dust in dying, we rise” I’ve never observed Lent before. I shrugged it off as unnecessary, a sort of overly-religious performance, or at least the strange practice of a liturgical spirituality that I did not claim as my own. But the truth is — I was unwilling to…
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