By Amy Butler Listening to a friend share devastating medical news this week, I sat listening and found myself unable to come up with any helpful or even appropriate response. Thoughts flashed through my mind as if on repeat film…
Praying angry
So much death. So much hurt. We look around now, and it’s all we see. State-sponsored executions, with more to come. Mass shootings. A plane crash in Afghanistan. It’s hard to come away from this with any feelings of hope….
I’m tired of saying “I’m Sorry!”
I’m sorry. It may be the most common phrase in my work. I am sorry about the death; I am sorry about the diagnosis; I am sorry you didn’t like the music, the sermon, the temperature. It seems that I…
Bruises that forever hurt: The death of a reporter and friend
But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. -Isaiah 53:5 (NRSV) Just one week ago, I wrote about…
Is God in control?
How does God interact with the world? Does God directly manage and determine the course of global and human events? Many Christians think so. Several years ago a parishioner who was dying of cancer and had only days left said…
Say THIS not THAT: 9 things to edit out of Christian helping speech
Nine Things Christians Can Edit Out of Our “Helping Speech” A few months ago I was really struggling with anxiety and migraines. I felt overwhelmed and and a general sense that life was too much to handle. I called on…
Sunday’s coming: Freedom from Racism
He shot them at prayer meeting. On June 17, in the year of our Lord 2015, a 21-year-old white supremacist millennial named Dylann Roof shot nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., in cold blood…
Why I struggle to jump on the terrorism bandwagon
I’ve never visited Charleston, S.C. My perspective and reflection is limited by my experience — like everyone else. As I listened to the reports and read articles, comments and threads popping up all over the Internet and social media, I…
Monday’s songs: The words we know
I had no idea what to say. Somewhere between realizing I had to lead Sunday school and looking over what I had planned to teach, I was gripped by the fact that I had no words. What exactly do you…