Today, I’m raising my voice for black lives—here is why I haven’t before and why I do now. Let’s start with personality. Some students think I’m an enneagram 8, the Challenger. I’m not. I’m a 1, the Reformer (I prefer “Reformer” to “Perfectionist” because I like to deny my ugly truth). Since I’m a strong, bold, teacher, my students think…
Piper’s comments that women shouldn’t teach at seminary have been everywhere, it seems. As a seminary adjunct and co-coordinator of seminary chapels, I’ve felt no real urge to respond, surprisingly. I’m used to ideas like his and perhaps I’ve become numb. I find my time is often better spent just doing my job and being faithful. A simple, yet powerful response…
I did it again. I compared myself to her, and I lost. I lost big, and now I feel crappy. I innocently opened up a copy of the academic journal and saw that she just published another article. Rather than “Wow—I should read that,” my response was “She just had a baby, too—how did she have time to do another…
Proverbs 31:15 has become a conundrum to me. The wife of noble character “. . . provides food for her family. . .” Wait. My Christian upbringing told me I needed a husband to be a provider—that’s not what a wife is supposed to do! Maybe the NIV is just getting it wrong, so I search other versions. . .…
Today, I’m hosting Chelsea Geyer, Nyack and Woman Rite of Passage alumna, passionate nonprofit founder, and all-around interesting person. Not too long ago I was sitting with some of my closest friends eating dinner and drinking good beer – we were in Colorado, after all. At the table, two of us were single, the other four married, and one of…
When Wanda Velez, Wanda Walborn, and I met in the fall of 2010 to plan a rite of passage for spring, 2011, I didn’t even dream that Woman would grow to be a year-long process, produce a two journal articles and The Book of Womanhood, and form a strong community of 20 mentors, 83 alumnae, and 15 current participants. We started small! Women…
Do you ever miss things because of the distractions of life? Have you found yourself washing the dishes rather than watching the moonrise, zoning out to the TV rather than being fully in the presence of your roommate or spouse, texting rather than discovering new bugs with a child? I do. I miss things that are important because I’m on…
I’ve often wondered why “thou shalt not covet” is on that list of ten commandments. It seems so much less important than actions like killing, lying, and the like. Why is coveting, wanting what someone else has, being jealous, even on that list? I mean, if we were to make a list of ten things we really, really didn’t want people…
A sheepish smile used to accompany the answer, “We met online,” since there was confusion as to whether it was a good way to meet people. No longer. In fact, it seems to be an incredibly common way for adults to meet one another and date. Online dating’s been around for a while. I think it started with EHarmony’s promise…
When I was a child, my mother taught me never to “let the sun go down” on my anger (Eph 4:26). That meant asking for forgiveness before I turned the lights off and reconciling with my siblings before we slept. And then I got married. And my husband and I were sometimes unable to work it out, even in the…