Daughters

I have so many friends raising girls right now that I thought I would share with them this small, perfect poem—a guidepost if ever there was one—by the gifted poet, Mark Jarman.

A Prayer for our Daughters

May they never be lonely at parties
Or wait for mail from people they haven’t written
Or still in middle age ask God for favors
Or forbid their children things they were never forbidden.

May hatred be like a habit they never developed
And can’t see the point of, like gambling or heavy drinking.
If they forget themselves, may it be in music
Or the kind of prayer that makes a garden of thinking.

May they enter the coming century
Like swans under a bridge into enchantment
And take with them enough of this century
To assure their grandchildren it really happened.

May they find a place to love, without nostalgia
For some place else that they can never go back to.
And may they find themselves, as we have found them,
Complete at each stage of their lives, each part they add to.

May they be themselves, long after we’ve stopped watching.
May they return from every kind of suffering
(Except the last, which doesn’t bear repeating)
And be themselves again, both blessed and blessing.

From To the Green Man: Poems by Mark Jarman, 2004

Words Matter

“We live in an era that is reliant on words, but our words are no longer reliable.” So it says in the opening chapter of Loaded Words, setting the foundation for the book itself. How can we know what anyone means when they choose to use a certain word? Are they choosing it for clarity? Manipulation? Oppression? Are they using it correctly, with integrity, and good intentions? In 21st-century America, few people–even regular church goers–have a firm grasp on many of the most essential words in the Bible. Sin. Repent. Confess. Submit. And for most people in the culture these words explode like land mines upon hearing, leading them even further from any Grace they may need or seek.

In January of this year I formed a new partnership with a classmate, Leann Luchinger, from my MA Theology program. We hoped we might use some of what we’d learned to help clear the air on some of these key words. Breaking them down into small, easily accessible chapters. Stripping away the misuse and abuse. Restoring the words to their original Hebrew and Greek so that people could see the true meaning for themselves. Then trying to make them understandable to people who weren’t raised with the Bible–or worse, were raised with a Bible that was used more as a weapon than a gift from God.

Most books that play out in the faith world are broken down pretty tidily by audience/genre/target, but Loaded Words speaks to everyone at the same time, in the same room, with the same message, that we may all learn, grown and reconsider together. Pastors, that they may better understand the semantic obstacles that prevent their messages from getting through; church members, many of whom still cringe at the sound of some of these words and lack confidence in how to share them; those outside of the faith, who just can’t find an entry point to Jesus because words (and the people who use them) stand in their way.

If you get a chance to read it, please let us know what you think—what spoke to you, what you learned, what you still struggle with. If you think it might be useful, please recommend it for your own book club or small group (there is a study guide at the end of each chapter).

I would forever grateful, a word that, by definition, leads us back to the heart of grace.

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I want to believe

“I want to overhear passionate arguments about what we are and what we are doing and what we ought to do. I want to feel that art is an utterance made in good faith by one human being to another. I want to believe there are geniuses scheming to astonish the rest of us, just for the pleasure of it.”
— Marilynne Robinson (The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought)

The Passion by Patty Wickman

The Passion by Patty Wickman, 1997

This was the very first image of the very first Renaissance Service I ever did. Folks entered a candlelit sanctuary with this image projected on a photographer’s seamless on the altar…as if to say “Come unto me, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

I sense that these services are about to take on a new life, somehow someway. I welcome your prayers. Pax

A Season of Prayer

Jennifer Kimbrough, Prayer #3
Jennifer Kimbrough, Prayer #3