I really needed today to be a good day. Trash and recycling pickup in my neighborhood is done on Fridays. They’re two separate pickups, trash in the very early morning and recycling “whenever,” which lately has been in the evenings. For practical purposes this means we all put our bins out by the curb on…
The Funeral
A couple of years ago, I received word via roundabout means that someone I used to know had died. This was a person who had hurt me very much, with deliberate choices that had left me homeless and even more suicidally depressed than I already was during one of the worst times of my life….
Other People’s Suffering
I’ve had an “interesting” life.
The Pharisee and the Publican
I keep coming back to this topic, because it keeps coming back to me. Perusing my old journals and listening to new preachers and spending way more time reading stuff on the Internet than is probably healthy, I keep seeing it. I keep being reminded of all the things non-Christians are hearing Christians say to…
Jesus Never Said Anything About That!
When I was a kid, I loved to read my mom’s books. It’s important to note that my mom was OLD when she had me, so her books were also old. My favorites were the classic murder mysteries from the 1930s and 40s. She had hundreds of them. Among the paperbacks and Reader’s Digests and…
Outside the Mold
Having a strong belief in the fundamental truth of God’s Word means I have an equally strong desire to be accepted by other believers. Due to my “interesting” life, I’m very, very sensitive to rejection (big surprise there) and so I’ve spent years trying to fit in. At the same time, I’m not willing to…
Every Morning
For a long, long time now, every morning when I start to wake up (I don’t set an alarm), I keep my eyes closed. I clench them shut and silently, frantically plead with God:
Us Versus Them
I confess: I haven’t been to church in a while as of this writing. I don’t make excuses; I don’t pretend that I “don’t have time.” In fact, I almost never use that excuse anymore for anything, since “I don’t have time” is almost always code for “It’s not a priority.” This is true of…
The Freak on the Street
It was a pleasant day in the mid-1990s. I’d spent some time dating a Goth guy and had assumed some of the trappings of the Goth culture, even after the guy and I had broken up. I was never one for the white pancake makeup and black nail polish and hair dye, but my wardrobe…