Blog

Facing Ourselves During Mental Health Awareness Month
I have journaled, made notes, read, listened to podcasts, talked with my therapist, gone to CoDA (Codependents Anonymous) meetings, and thought endlessly about how to

Unvarnished Storytelling at the National Parks
A handful of national park rangers moved between various sites. They were knowledgeable, accessible, patient, and passionate about their work. From these rangers I realized

Loving and Leaving American Evangelicalism
The more deeply rooted one is in the evangelical world – in its congregations, conferences, family and friend networks, schools, publishers, book clubs, social media

Practicing the Presence of God: Spiritual Discipline in the Yosemite Public Restrooms
That summer, perhaps more than any other time in my life, I was reminded of God’s presence in a way I still can’t entirely explain.

The Spiritual Practice of Nagging
The bittersweet end of the academic year means waving a fond goodbye to our graduates and wishing them well. It also means a sigh of

Kuyper the Mensch
For me the book’s most intriguing contributions lie in Kuyper’s largely private, lives: as world traveler and mountaineer.

Mom, Are Aliens Real?
Would the presence of intelligent extraterrestrial creatures diminish human dignity or force us to reconsider what it means for us to be created in the

The Mothers We Celebrate and The Ones We Don’t See
For every mother who is being celebrated, there’s another who is deep in grief. For every mother at a family brunch, there’s another who sits

Like Holding a Cup Beneath a Waterfall
We have all the content that we could ever need. It’s not content but context that matters.

“Love of Suffering” — a retreat, a migraine, and a saint
A few weeks ago, I made the drive from Charlottesville to Richmond to spend a couple days at a retreat center in downtown Richmond. This

The Joys & Challenges of Being Childfree
We live in a culture where we are, as women, are told not to trust our choices and our instincts unless it’s our maternal instinct.

Trump Is Not the Antichrist, But He May Be Preparing People to Welcome One
The dramatic line lets people dismiss the whole concern as fanaticism. The harder line asks what sort of soul our politics is producing.