Words, labels, profiles, inventories, diagnoses, inclinations, proclivities, test scores etc…. all tell us something about ourselves. But one label by itself tells us nothing. My saying I’m a mother does not tell anyone about the quality of my mothering. My saying I’m a trauma survivor tells you nothing about the trauma, my telling you that …

…..began the heartfelt status message of the BlackLivesMatter facebook page in response to the tragic killing of two New York police officers by an African American man who, by many reports, was on a path of self-destruction even before this crime which was precipitated by an attack on his girlfriend that culminated in his final …

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Many Christian churches begin this season with the lighting of the first candle of the Advent Wreath; the candle that represents Hope. Advent came to be one of my favorite times to be in fellowship with my fellow Christians, but it was not always so. Before I became …

What follows is an expanded for readability purposes version of a sermon delivered at New Song Community Church (Columbus, Ohio) on July 21, 2013, one week after the verdict of the George Zimmerman trial. ***********God of Grace and Mercy and Might-be here now for these your people. I yield myself, all that I am, to …

“Congratulations”, the email said, “I hope you feel validated in your ministry.” We celebrated with you in spirit”. This in response to my email indicating that I wouldn’t be present for regular church service because the agency I am blessed to be the leader for, had been nominated and selected for an award, and I …

Been struggling with this concept of late. In this, my self-imposed exile from regular church attendance, intentional effort to listen and hear where God is leading, here in the quiet. There are a few passages in scripture that speak to the responsibility of all believers to take up the mantle of priesthood — a holy …

Although I have absented myself from traditional church routine these past months, I find that I am a bit hardwired to the “church year”. There are days that I can move throughout life without giving church a second thought. That is not to say that I am not thinking about God or praying on some …

It’s Holy Week in Christian Circles. It’s the first Holy Week in nearly 20 years that I have intentionally absented myself from the traditional ebb and flow that begins with Lent, through Palm Sunday, the deliberate embrace of the heartbreak of Good Friday, to the Hallelujah chorus of Easter. I read the status messages of …

It’s so hard to get perspective on anything when the noisemakers crowd out the voices of the truth tellers. My perspective on the media has changed how I take in information. During the 2008 election I made an intentional effort to read, watch and listen to different news sources, not the ones that shared my …

Abba.. How? How do those of us who know you, those who hear you calling us, how do we get and stay quiet when the voices of the world, when the cries of those who surround us crowd out all else?  This has been my challenge this week, o’God. This week when the media screams …