FAITH. Last week when my husband and I took a trip to a small lake to rock climb, I found a walking stick. I’d been looking for one for over a year–a tall, slender, sleek stick that I could hold in my hand as we hike. It was laying there in the woods, right off the path. I saw the smooth skin beneath the brown bark and I grabbed it right away. It was the perfect height, the perfect thickness,... Read more
When we got home from an afternoon at the pool, my oldest son took a nap. While he was sleeping I crept in to lay down beside him for a few minutes. I looked at his fresh haircut and his eyelashes, listening as he quietly breathed in and out. For a minute, I synced my breathing with his– in, out, in, out, in— and watched as he slept, dreaming of brighter and brighter tomorrows. I am often asked how I... Read more
When I married my husband, he’d just cut off his dreads and was an avid rock climber. He married me– a girl from a small town, comfortable in everything that I knew, in everything that I’d been and was going to be. As Johnny Cash says, we got married in a fever, and before we knew exactly what we’d done, we were home from our honeymoon, beginning the long journey toward figuring out who we were–together. When he married me,... Read more
O God, make us rich by the richness of a Kingdom– created by you, sustained by you, untangled time and again from the mess we make of it. That Kingdom– a place where prosperity gospel is turned upside down– is a wild culture that is so “other” we could not seek to explain it. It is the firefly in flight, dashes of lightning that we try to catch and hold for as long as possible. It is the ripple of... Read more
When I first came to my current church, I noticed that in many worship songs, a line would be changed here or there for a very particular reason. Instead of referring to God as a “he,” it would become more inclusive, reflecting an idea that God is without gender, opening up the possibility of God as a woman, even. One of the most amazing things about God is this way the boundaries that we create for God are transcended, yet... Read more
This is beyond that glass bottle that wasn’t recycled last week. It is beyond the car that we sometimes use for carpooling, beyond riding a bicycle instead. When, as a whole, an entire nation has been created and sustained on the basis of lack of care for the earth, there is a problem. One of our greatest needs as humans and Christians is to be humble before the earth, and in order to get there, repentance is involved. So today,... Read more
Growing up in the Southern Baptist church, the only holidays on the liturgical calendar in my world were Christmas and Easter. I’d never heard of Lent or Advent, I wasn’t even aware that there were days and seasons throughout the year to commemorate different parts of the church’s life. As an adult, I lead worship at a Cooperative Baptist Church that practices more liturgically than any of the churches I grew up in, and it’s become a part of my... Read more
Last night when I couldn’t sleep, I got up to walk around the house for a few minutes before getting back into bed. I could hear the breathing rhythms of all four men in my house– my two boys, my husband, and our old husky who sleeps at the foot of the bed. It’s been weighing heavily on me, news time and again that toddlers drown in a giant ocean, alone and afraid. They’ve left their homes with nothing but... Read more
{Every now and then I join with my friend Leanna to name 7 things I’m grateful for. Join us?} It is difficult to be settled into everyday gratefulness when, out in the world, there are people dying from gunshot wounds, refugee children and families drowning in the ocean, villages in which there are not enough diapers for babies, and people fighting over who they think Jesus might be in today’s context. While I am so thankful for my morning cup... Read more
O God, Gentle and Strong Mystery, We rest our weary eyes on your horizon. In the here-but-not-yet, we wait every day for your voice to pierce through our darkness. And yet, our darkness teaches us how to use our senses to feel for you, to listen for your footsteps before us and behind. O God, Gentle and Strong Mystery, In the quiet of our homes we hope for new beginnings as the morning dawn illuminates our steaming coffee cups, as... Read more
Stories - with Kaitlin B. Curtice
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