Writing Is Like Riding A Bike

Last updated on: March 31, 2015 at 7:47 am By Michelle Van Loon

If I wrote a job description for myself as a writer, it would include the following requirements: Must appreciate wearing pajamas to work. Must relish the battery-acid flavor of twice-reheated room temperature coffee. Room temperature Diet Coke is an acceptable alternative. Must know how to source and study each week’s most popular cat videos as a deadline approaches. Must remember. Many writers affirm some variation of numbers one through three on this list. And number four seems obvious, right? Every job... Read more

Faithful Compassion Over Gut Reaction

Last updated on: March 30, 2015 at 2:39 pm By Michelle Van Loon

In the last few weeks, I’ve read reports of swastikasspray-painted inside the walls of a Jewish frat house at Vanderbilt University and residents of a Madison, Wisconsin neighborhood housing many Jewish residents awakening one Saturday morning to find racist and anti-Semitic graffiti plastered across their properties. Are these reports of hate-speech the acts of alcohol-fueled vandals? Or are they harbingers of something more ominous? In light of a well-documented rising tide of violent anti-Semitism in Europe, it’s impossible for me to see incidents like... Read more

Christian Seders?

Last updated on: March 29, 2015 at 7:28 pm By Michelle Van Loon

Should Christians participate in church-run Seders? After all, this command to retell and relive via ritual meal celebrating God’s deliverance of his people from slavery in Egypt was given to the Jewish people (click here, here, and here). Yet it has become popular in both liturgical and low-church circles to incorporate a Christian version of the Seder meal into Holy Week observance. Many other congregations will invite ministries involved in doing Jewish outreach to come and do a “seder demo” at... Read more

Spiritual Stage Parents

Last updated on: March 24, 2015 at 2:10 pm By Michelle Van Loon

“I would never behave like those crazed mothers on shows like Toddlers & Tiaras and Dance Moms,” we parents tell ourselves. “Spray tans on a four year old? Competition that takes all the joy out of childhood play? I would never live my ambitions through my kid!” Parental ambition come in plenty of shapes and sizes. Most of them aren’t featured on basic cable, but are everywhere we turn during our active parenting years: The dad who goes a little ballistic... Read more

Old Man, I Really, Really Am A Lot Like You

Last updated on: March 19, 2015 at 7:12 pm By Michelle Van Loon

Last week the Tonight Show was in reruns, and one of the shows they replayed featured Jimmy Fallon and Neil Young singing Young’s “Old Man”. I saw it the first time it aired, and have watched the clip below probably a couple of dozen times since then. Maybe the shows producers saw the bit as a way to showcase Fallon’s eerie imitation of Young’s windblown, aching tenor, but it was so much more than that, whether it was intended to... Read more

The Upside Of Nepotism?

Last updated on: March 16, 2015 at 9:04 am By Michelle Van Loon

So much of my Christian journey has been marked by the way those in power have used their social privilege to either protect themselves or promote those in their families or their inner circles. I’ve written about nepotism in this space before. Others (click here and here) have raised lots of important questions about nepotism and related forms of cronyism in the church. These practices live directly at the intersection of a leaders’ joy in seeing his or her children/pals following the... Read more

#1, #2, Me, You

Last updated on: March 9, 2015 at 3:43 pm By Michelle Van Loon

When my husband came to faith in Jesus, he got the idea that really good Christians didn’t poop. Or pee. You have to know he was 18 at the time. He was a member in good standing of his high school’s audio-visual team, student council and chess club. I say this to highlight the fact that he was (and is) a very bright guy. He attended a Unitarian church for a while during his childhood, but had no first-hand experience... Read more

Radio Silence, Breaking Bad, And The (Premature) Question Of ‘Where Next?’

Last updated on: March 5, 2015 at 8:46 am By Michelle Van Loon

After a couple of false starts thanks to early February blizzards, my husband and I finally got to use those frequent flyer tickets for a trip to Florida. We’ve had a couple of overnight trips in the last year, but haven’t been away just to get away in a very long time. We’ve had lots of fun visiting with friends who live here or just so happened to be “in the neighborhood” while we were here. A definite highlight for... Read more

Who Are Our Esthers?

Last updated on: February 23, 2015 at 12:19 pm By Michelle Van Loon

Who doesn’t love the story of Esther, the young Jewish girl who put her life on the line in order to save thousands of other Jewish lives? Who isn’t inspired by people like Corrie ten Boom who used their positions of social privilege during World War II to act in the spirit of Esther to save the lives of Jewish people? Next Wednesday evening is Purim, the holiday celebrating God’s deliverance of the Jewish people via the courage of one... Read more

When The Heart Waits: Chapter 3

Last updated on: February 20, 2015 at 10:31 am By Michelle Van Loon

Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote that “the ultimate thing” is whether you yourself are conscious of that most intimate relation to yourself as an individual. This “ultimate” recognition is a necessary part of growing up. – Sue Monk Kidd I’ve been blogging through Sue Monk Kidd’s 1990 classic about midlife spiritual transformation, When The Heart Waits. Click here to read earlier posts in the series. Chapter 3 opens with a crash course in Carl Jung’s developmental theories, as interpreted through a... Read more