Our relationship with our parents doesn’t end when we become adults. It just changes form. And when that relationship is strained, it doesn’t stay contained in the past. It seeps into identity, into marriage, into how we see ourselves in the mirror. For better or worse, our parents are our first reference point for what […]
The Long Shadow of Our Parents Read More »
It came to me somewhere between waking and sleep. Not the kind of dream that feels strange or distant, but one of those that feels almost remembered, like it had already happened and I had just forgotten it for a while. I was lying there, not quite asleep, not fully awake, and the images started
The Revival in my Dreams Read More »
This week, I watched James Talarico’s speech after his recent political win in Texas. Something about the way he spoke landed with me. Judging by the reactions online and in conversations with friends, it landed with a lot of other people too, especially Christians who still care deeply about their faith but feel increasingly homeless
When the Church Leaves Before the People Do Read More »
These were the last words of Renée Good before an ICE agent shot her in the face. A few weeks later, Alex Pretti, a dedicated ICU nurse who was helping others at a protest, was also killed by a federal agent in Minneapolis. These deaths have cut deeply into families, communities, and our national conscience.
I’m Not Mad at You Read More »
CACREP’s recent memorandum, temporarily suspending the 2024 standards on “underrepresented populations,” attempts to sound procedural and neutral. But behind the careful phrasing is a larger truth our field keeps avoiding: we talk endlessly about diversity, yet we have no coherent definition of who is actually underrepresented. CACREP never tells us. The memo doesn’t either. And
When Diversity Becomes a Box-Checking Game: A Response to CACREP’s New DEI Suspension Read More »
Every November, I’m reminded of how strange it is that gratitude and resentment can live so close to each other. We gather to eat, laugh, and remember where we come from, and in the background, someone is already bracing for political landmines. I hear people say they’re skipping Thanksgiving this year because a family member
A Thanksgiving Worth Keeping Read More »
I was sitting at Bahama Breeze with a group of faculty and students after a long day at residency last month. Across the table sat another faculty member, and I tried to describe him to a new colleague next to me. But I couldn’t see his face, or anyone’s, on that side of the table.
The Limits of Sight and the Depth of Vision Read More »
Last night I had another one of those dreams. You know the kind… not a nightmare, not exactly a message from the heavens, just that familiar cocktail of insecurity, self-doubt, and some half-finished problem my brain decides to work on while I’m sleeping. I woke up feeling the way I often do: a little exposed,
When Insecurity Speaks Read More »
I don’t wake up thinking about my skin color. It isn’t part of my self-understanding, it doesn’t guide how I move through the world, and it certainly isn’t the foundation of my identity. My family came from the hills of Kentucky. That means something to me… the stubbornness, the loyalty, the humor, the small-town grit,
“Just an Old White Guy” Read More »
There’s a saying that goes, “The best sermons are lived, not preached.” It means that actions speak louder than words, that integrity is found not in what we say, but in how we live. In my family, there’s no better example of this than my grandfather, Cortez Wesley. He never wrote a book or led