Posts Tagged ‘shame’

Your Wonderful, Powerful, Imperfect Story

We live in a success-oriented society. On the whole, we highly value ease, comfort, perfection, excellence, progress and achievement. We’re encouraged to plan and organize our lives at every juncture and in every respect to best place ourselves for the ease, comfort and success we value so highly,...

January 24th, 2013 | God Knows | Read More

Just Love ‘Em.

Your much-loved, much-lauded, beautiful son finally marries the love of his life, but despite your pride and delight, you can’t brag on him or his new partner to any of your friends at church. Because the love of his life is actually a man. What do you do? You hide. Your daughter moves out into her...

December 27th, 2012 | Social Justice | Read More

There must be more

Alessandro Tiarini, The Repentance of Saint Joseph c.1619 The first Advent was rather private, rural, shameful. Nine months in the womb of a young girl. Angelic appearances. Hard to believe. Could it be true that this child is something more than a delusion or a miracle? Though a professed virgin, Mary’s...

December 2nd, 2012 | Meditations | Read More

Stained Glass

There is a sort of real, deep spirituality you feel by walking into an old church. A genuinely old church, with stained glass, pews, statues, old crosses and, of course, an organ. A felt sort of holiness is in the place. A sense of God that is different from other places. The amazing part is...

July 23rd, 2012 | Essays, Featured | Read More

From Burial To Banqueting Table

A while ago, a man I considered to be quite wise at the time said to me “People change, but not that much.” I didn’t know quite what to make of that, probably because the person who said it was actually our pastor. Maybe he was a bit jaded. Maybe it was time for a new job. In any case, I didn’t...

March 27th, 2012 | Family | Read More

Resolving To Be Shameless

Sometime in the quiet week between December 25 and January 1, our brains get back inside our heads again. Our eyes begin to turn from end-of-year craziness and at some point they fall on the cool, delicious, blank canvas of a whole new year. Anything seems possible – and in fact, anything is. It’s...

January 3rd, 2012 | Essays, Featured | Read More

Thoughts on Shame

Shame is my least favorite emotion. It’s different than guilt. Guilt I can deal with. Guilt compels me to action. I can confess my sin, ask forgiveness and strive to do better next time. Shame is the stranger who leads me down a dark road where more shameful things await, things that will surely cause...

April 1st, 2010 | Essays, Featured | Read More