Geeking out on God/Love, striving for more Free and Fearless Living
It’s Christmas time, and while skies darken, lights get brighter and more numerous. The year is closing fast.
This week my children’s school did a “Herdertjestocht,” (“Sheperd’s trail”) throughout the neighborhood, where live-action posts were setup and the kids performed different parts of the Christmas story in the night. Continue reading “Humble Rebels: 5 Ways to Have a Mary & Joseph Spirit this Christmas”
Is it so simple? We were enjoying an outdoor wedding and it was like heaven touched down– the weather, the people, music, everything was amazing. So much freedom and fun, especially for the kids. We stayed all night long.
When a speaker shared about the Adam/Eve story, full heart and humor, I got hit:
If Eve was made for/from Adam so he wouldn’t be lonely, maybe God made all of us for the same reason? [-click to tweet-]
God, lonely? Ridiculous! Blasphemous!
Ok, but here’s a question: did you ever experience a great place, delicious food, or sick beat and not want to share it with someone?
Crap, another friend shared about getting kicked out of church. Arrgh. It’s painful, but sadly not rare– I have my own stories…
People can have different ideas, or giftings that don’t fit traditional parameters (e.g. gender/marital/parental status, etc.), and misunderstandings can be easy. But should talents or abilities cease the moment someone enters a church? Can we, especially those in church leadership, listen to someone if they aren’t preaching from the pulpit?
God has used a whale, worm, donkey and various plants to communicate throughout the Bible. How much more a fellow human?
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Continue reading “Dear Church Leaders: The Revelation Came from the Wilderness, not the Pulpit”
Get back with that Bible!
When Jeff Sessions uses it to support ripping nursing children from desperate, refuge-seeking parents, and the WH Press Secretary–a parent herself— doubles down, I only have one advice:
If your bible encourages, or justifies you hating someone, please: Chuck. It. It’s better to attempt love without fully understanding the how or what, than head for hell clenching the good book in your fist.
(Mark 9:43)
That “good book” has been used bigly to justify fear, hate, greed, horror and flat-out atrocities for ages. Repeatedly we see it’s possible to know– and maybe even love— God’s Words, but fall flat when it comes to *His Heart.
I know, that was me.
In February I got an email from my kids’ school to be alert for “trends and hypes.” All parents were encouraged to give extra thought to the cartoon figures we let our children wear or bring to school, via bags and lunch boxes. My kids attend a school that identifies as Christian, so we knew, in addition to extra singing/music, bible stories and praying, there would be attention to avoiding really frightening stories, or stories of witchcraft, zombies, etc. But this email called out Elsa, Anna, and even Superman. Uh, What??
Continue reading “Busting Religion: Why I Let My Kids Play with Ninjago, Elsa, Anna, Batman…”
Disney’s Brave touched my heart like Frozen, but deeper. In Frozen we glimpse our divine identity and sacrificial love, but Brave touches on the reality of our love-hate relationship with God. (Warning, spoiler alert.)
Fiery and fun-loving Merida wants to live on her own terms, like most of us, but cultural traditions oppress her spirit. Her mom tries to prep Merida for the way of a princess, including arranged marriage and great authority, but the mom and daughter are losing their minds and eachother.
Continue reading “Don’t Make God a Bear: “Brave” Rebellion from Love’s Heart”
I started this post in Nov. 2016 before the first #MuslimBan, then #Charlottseville happened, and now #DACA (deporting children and young adults who grew up in, and contribute to America, because they were not born in the U.S.). Even now, the political developments are whirlwind-like.
The call to protect our people | our borders | our way of life | were fierce already before the election, but look at U.S. now…
This election amplified aspects of America (and the world) that have been hidden from mainstream media’s eye. But festering wounds can never be healed with bandaids and as all things eventually come to Light, Love is mobilizing.
Continue reading “Dirt & Hope Under America’s Rug & The Power of One to Heal (or Hurt)”
If you read #GodSingsBieber or God Loves Drum & Bass, you know I think it’s possible to hear/meet God in places other than “Christian” songs and circles. Now that my own religious lid has been lifted, I’m free to hear *Him everywhere…
(*I use He/His as pronouns for God, but fully recognize God with male and female ‘identity’ -for lack of a better word- as evidenced through the bible and most blatantly through humanity. If you want to contemplate this, check my Transgender God posts.)
On morning my son requested a new San Holo traack, “Light.” We knew the artist from a passionate track called “Victory,” so I was eager to hear the recommendation. We streamed it on #SoundCloud and the car filled up with that catchy melody and tender lyrics that rang like a longing in my heart– “I just want to see the Light…”
I guess I’m not the only one.
Continue reading ““I Just Wanna See the Light” – San Holo and The Hope of Heaven”
How can music banish a bad mood and transport us to a place where problems, cares, fear, sometimes even pain (and certainly time) don’t exist? For a moment there’s just that beat, or lyric line, or bass, or …plug in your own thing– it’s magic. I’ll be feeling down but if a song comes on that rocks, something changes–and even babies know the feeling:
Melodies can spark our spirits, balm our hearts, mirror something of our soul, and sometimes floor us. Who needs Ecstasy when some tracks are flat-out orgasmic?
And Music also heals Socially…
Just think: when we rock to the same jam, things like Race, Gender, ‘Status,’ etc., disappear. Love takes shape in a sea of people grooving. Unity, peace, joy, no fear, no shame, No Problem.
Are these Holy Moments?
Continue reading “#GodSingsBieber? Hearing God’s Heart on the Radio”
How do we have the bible in every language and version (e.g. NIV, NKJV, ESV, NASB, …), study guides, teen/mom/soldier/woman/early reader styles, Comic Bibles…. and still miss the main message?
I didn’t know I owned so many bibles–granted, I’m a self-proclaimed recovering pharisee so I shouldn’t be surprised, but it wasn’t until a friend visited from a country where being Christian is a crime and her daughter longed for a bible, that I really got thinking.
Continue reading “Tower of Bible: All that “Law” but Where’s the Love?”
