What leaps of faith have you taken in life? Have there been any that you avoided in order to play it safe? Sometimes the most miraculous things God has in store for us are the ones that require a little bit of faith and courage to take that leap--whether it is in our personal lives or the life of our church!

A cocoon or chrysalis is pretty similar to Mary's womb and Jesus' tomb. Because both places were vessels for the holy, and were places of preparation for a great miracle to happen. Some of the most important expressions of divinity in scripture happened in hidden ways, or from darkness--and yet we frequently paint darkness with a negative brush!

I want to invite you to honor the struggle in our shared faith story by not skipping the days where we tell the less pleasant part of our story this week. Join us on Maundy Thursday where we will come together over a meal to reflect on the love Jesus showed during the last supper he had with his friends. And then join us on Good Friday, ironically named, to behold again the story of Christ's passion as it is told in the gospel of John.

Please join me in prayer this week for those who are terrorized, traumatized, and victimized by gun violence in our country.

I wonder how stuck we are in what we believe is possible? In our own lives, in our neighborhoods, in our communities, in our country? These days, we seem to be stuck in a whole lot of things: rage, apathy, addictions, fear, violence. All of those things feel impossible to change.

We have a tendency as humans to box one another into what we can expect of them. The Pharisees put their willful ignorance of Jesus' power on full display, and the disciples limited the blind man's experience of life down to whether or not he or his parents sinned.

I think it is really healthy to take stock of who we are and ask why. Friends, for those of you who profess it--why are you a Christian?

It can be very easy to associate shame with temptation. When we are "tempted" we can come to believe that we are somehow weak, and then feel shame as we believe a false narrative that we tell ourselves about who we are.

But the fact of the matter is this: everyone gets tempted.

The transfiguration happened in the middle of a journey--all of us are on a journey too. Let's not let fear cause us to halt our forward progress.

It's easy to dismiss the weird stuff in Leviticus about shellfish and fabrics, but Leviticus also can very directly offer guidance on how we can be good neighbors to one another. And that makes a lot of it still worth reading.

I think we should be taking more walks in our neighborhood--not only for our mental health, but also for our spiritual awareness to the life God is calling us to live and the work God is calling us to do!

A sacred space doesn't need to be fancy, but it does need to be intentional. What is yours?

Sometimes we need to be the recipient of kindness, and sometimes we need to be the one sharing kindness. In either case, our mental and spiritual health benefits from it.

Jesus anger was holy and good because it was anger on behalf of the vulnerable: children.

There is so much that can be done with God's abundance when we bring it together.

May we never forget that hope is closest to us when times are bleakest. Because hope comes from God. We have been made in the image of a God of hope. We are hardwired for hoping!

No matter how you might pray, my hope is that it is always accompanied by love, and that your intention is always directed to God.

The deepest question for me about what worship is requires us to think about two things: space and presence.

I want to live in a society where we don't get caught up by gender when we decide who does the work that needs to be done.

I want to live in a society where work and "labor" isn't just about making money, but is about something deeper.

Art by Seamire aka Pauline Williamson

FB: /seamireart IG: @seamaire

Love yourself. Love one another. Love God's creation. It isn't easy, but Jesus never said this life of faith was, did he?

Art by Seamire aka Pauline Williamson

FB: /seamireart IG: @seamaire