rebelling against low expectations
Every year has its fears—but this year has had more than its share of them. We’ve had fires, threats of war, and now this unknown that could be hiding anywhere among us—the Coronavirus. There are a hundred things we want to do. Be afraid. Hide. Use every bottle of hand sanitizer. Stock up on toilet paper. Live in a hazmat suit. As we see more and more people come down with this virus, it seems...
It was one of those weeks. Work was insane; three family friends passed away, twelve stressful sagas occurred between Monday and Friday of my typical week, I felt like a chicken with my head cut off, and as my anxiety, depression, overthinking, PMS, and IBS began to cycle, I felt as if I had lost all control. I wrote this in my journal: Suddenly, I feel as if I have forgotten how to let go and...
Teens want our Christianity to be alive. We live in a world full of bright explosions, flipping numbers, and urgent calls from everywhere. There is so much to do, so we want our faith to be powerful, moving, and deeply felt. So when theology comes up, we might sigh. When discussions about inerrancy or impeccability or any other long i-word comes up, we shrug or settle back into that resigned...
I’m not a fan of football. It’s just not my thing. I’ve never been good at sports in general, but I’ve always failed at anything involving throwing or chasing a ball. Therefore, while the world gets excited about Sundays such as Super Bowl Sunday, to me it’s really just another day. However, as I was sitting and thinking about the Super Bowl and football in general, I saw some amazing...
I once had a pair of shoes that I wore until the bottoms were so thin that rocks poked up through the soles and my toes poked down. I wore them even though my mother said that they weren’t presentable, because I thought they were comfortable. They made me feel sassy and confident and tough and earthy. I wore them until socks would have protected my feet more than those shoes. And when I...
What do you do when someone knocks at your door? Jesus is knocking at the door of our hearts. He desires us to open up and let Him have full access to every area of our lives. He has made a way for us to have a relationship with God through His death and resurrection on the cross. But, it is our responsibility to respond to His call for fellowship. He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and...
“Dear God, help me keep this attitude. I’m not feeling this way on my own.” I was sitting in the car and turning over the question in my head: How do I balance romantic dreams with contentment in God’s will? I was not thinking of a specific relationship, but in that moment I decided, nonetheless, that I would be content with whatever God had for me in the future. Yes, I was only a young...
I’ll never forget the day that I stepped onto the airplane at the Atlanta airport. This wasn’t just any plane or a normal trip. I was going to Australia. I was terrified, I was excited, and I was questioning my decision all at the same time. I thought I had lost my mind. About a year earlier, during my senior year of highschool, I felt God leading me to do something that was missions-focused...
Even before I started high school, people were already asking me about my plans for the future. “What are you going to do after high school?” they would ask. “What do you want to be when you grow up? Are you going to college?” I would answer, “I have a couple ideas of what I want to do, but I’m not sure yet,” or even, “I have no clue.” A couple of years ago, I didn’t feel pressured to know what I...
Have you ever put the wrong key into a lock? The key goes in, but, try as you might to get it to turn, it will not open the lock. It can take a while to discover your mistake–some of us spend far longer trying to get it to work than others–but in the end, when the error is finally realized, we feel so silly! How could such a simple solution be so difficult to see? In our world today...
rebelling against low expectations
