Featured Articles
“Candide” and the Car Wash
I suppose many attitudes surround people’s work. I can truly say that I enjoyed almost all the jobs I had. Even “humping” freight on the night shift at the truck yard to pay my way through college. Some days, if the freight were heavy, I drove, odoriferous and gulping coffee, straight from the dock to classes at Calvin College on Franklin Street. If I had a few extra minutes I would stop at Fatboy’s Fish Fry on Division and would eat the fish with my fingers on the way to school. With a few exceptions the classrooms were lively enough to keep me wide awake.
Featured Articles
Meeting Big Brother at the ICE Office
Not long ago, I was part of a group from our church that accompanied Javier to the local office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Others from our congregation, pastors included, had made the trip multiple times before to accompany church members who had also been summoned. This time, my first, there were six of us in the van that took off at 6:30 a.m. from the parking lot of our church: two of our pastors, another elder and me, and Javier and his wife.
A Father’s Library, a Professor’s Virtue, and Sanctification
I was raised with a freedom to ask questions about my faith. I didn’t have the sort of fundamentalist baggage that I now discover many
The Difference Between a Time and a Season
While I grieved for the broken relationship between church and pastor, I was also excited about this opportunity for myself. After the initial three weeks
This Wasn’t Supposed to Happen
I remember vividly the day my death-denying illusions were shattered—it happened when I was a senior in high school. A friend had driven home from
Wonder and World-Mending: The Relevance of Denise Levertov to Our Present Darkness
“O Taste and See” was written two decades before Levertov would explicitly identify as a Christian, yet she already intuited that focusing on this world
Learning How to Lament From Jesus
Still, when I compare Old and New Testament lamenting, I can’t shake the sense that the coming of Jesus changed the role of lament for
The Case for “Messed Up” Stories
There was a time in my career when the father of one of my students (in a different decade and a different state) requested a
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Daily blog by our regular bloggers & guest contributors.
Family Heirlooms I Want to Keep
There are elements of my view of the world that now differ from my parents’, but in my change and growth there are many family
Slipping feet, slumbering and sleeping
There on this large kitchen table that at one time had seated them with all five of their children, were three simple bowls of home-made
Can We Keep It Real?
“Keeping it real” touches on the truthful stories we share with each other, rather than the easy, gliding, predictable responses.
Angels At Large
“Ha ha. Anyway, I’m OK. Actually, I’m in a better place now, you know? Having ‘Angel At Large’ status for a while isn’t so bad.”
My Moment on the Camino
I had loved the flower virtually for years, connecting it to my faith and my vocation. And here it was in real life. It was
Dystopia
There is nobility in studying Biology because it enables leadership and creativity needed for the stickiest questions humanity must face.
Through This Present Darkness
Rather than a dramatic epiphany, I’ve been reminded recently of the slow illumination at daybreak that gives you just enough light to make your way.
The Flash, 1962
I asked myself if I would have made different decisions and taken different actions than those my parents took in moving us to the suburbs.
Reviews
You Really Can
Ayers draws upon a vast knowledge of other great Christian thinkers; on art and music and literature, and what I can only imagine are a
Standing Closer to Suffering: A review of Everything is Tuberculosis
A tuberculosis outbreak began in the Kansas City, KS area in January of last year (2024). The outbreak is ongoing, with seventy confirmed active cases
Communion is Everything
I have been waiting for this book for more than twenty years. You see, when I first read Mark Gornik’s 2002 book To Live in
Joyful Companions for These Dark Times
by Angela Carpenter John Hendrix’s The Mythmakers defies simple explanation. On one level, it is the true story of a friendship and a testament to
The Life of a….Prodigal Sheep?
I vividly remember my first “women supporting women” moment. My friends and I were sitting in the back of the school bus in the Spring
When the Church Wounds
I started reading When the Church Harms God’s People over six months ago. Typically, it takes me two or three weeks to read a book
Rooted: Sustenance for Transformation
I often avoid driving the road that passes by the land that once was my grandpa’s orchard. The apple trees are gone now, the old
They Saw a Game: Review of The Unbiased Self by Erin Devers
When I taught Social Psychology in the spring, I began the semester with a story about a football game between Dartmouth and Princeton in 1951.
Poetry
Dwell
In the future we will live in pods of reclaimed wood and very white bed-linens …
Passing the Peace
On good weeks it happens twice. Once on Sunday morning, sunlit sanctuary …
Bearing Witness
ICE arrested someone on my block. Walking my dog, I saw the witness first …
Be opened
to the absence of your own voice filling your inner silence …
A Famine of Words
It says right there in Amos chapter eight: “The time is surely coming,” syas the Lord …
After Denise Levertov’s Essays
My mind stops, one foot in the air …
Podcasts
“Dwell” by Hannah Notess
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Hannah Faith Notess about her poem “Dwell.” Hannah is a poet
“Be Opened” by Deb Baker
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Deb Baker about her poem “Be Opened.” Deb lives in New
“A Famine of Words” by Steven Peterson
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviewed Steven Peterson about his poem “A Famine of Words.” Steven is
“After Denise Levertov’s Essays” by Caroline J. Simon
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Caroline J. Simon, PhD, about her poem “After Denise Levertov’s Essays.”
“On Absolution” by Lila Tindall
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Lila Robinett Tindall about her poem “On Absolution.” Lila is
“Grafting Apple Shoots” by Betsy Howard
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Betsy Howard about her poem “Grafting Apple Shoots.” Betsy serves