🧵Christian, sometimes it feels like your prayers go nowhere. But that very real feeling is not, in fact, reality.

By water & the Spirit, you have been submerged in God’s Triune Life. There is never a moment when God is not present to you (& you to God). 1/4 Our Father hears every prayer—every cry, groan, sob, & shout.

In Christ by the Spirit, your feeblest murmurs & most desperate whispers are heard & understood. 2/4

🧵I’m a prof & theologian. I’m used to strong disagreement & debate. But nothing rivals the sheer nastiness that emerges when I share something about women in ministry.

Maybe one day it’ll stop surprising me but today is not that day.

Meanwhile, PTL for the block option. 1/5 Please don’t feel sorry for me. I’m not asking for sympathy. Many others on this website endure much much worse.

I’m just baffled. Of all the things I say online, what draws the most vitriol is the topic of women preaching & pastoring? It’s bizarre. 2/5

🧵Essential wisdom on prayer from Archbishop Michael Ramsey:

"[Prayer] means putting yourself near God, with God, in a time of quietness every day. You put yourself with God, just as you are, in the feebleness of your concentration, in your lack of warmth and desire... 1/5 "...not trying to manufacture pious thoughts or phrases. You put yourself with God, empty perhaps, but hungry and thirsty for him; and if in sincerity you cannot say that you want God you can perhaps tell him that you want to want him... 2/5

🧵 Humbly offered advice for when you're having trouble praying

1. Be encouraged that you notice you're having trouble & maybe want that to change. Holy Spirit is present & at work!

2. When you're ready, find a posture that's best for you. Sit or stand or whatever. 1/7 3. Then, in your mind or out loud, begin as honestly as possible exactly where you are. Maybe like this:

"God, I'm not praying right now. I don't know what to do." 2/7

From where does spiritual authority arise in the church?

Bonhoeffer’s wise answer: “Jesus made authority in the fellowship dependent upon brotherly service. Genuine spiritual authority is to be found only where the ministry of hearing, bearing, & proclaiming is carried out… 1/3 “Every cult of personality that emphasizes the distinguished qualities, virtues, & talents of another person, even though these be of an altogether spiritual nature, is worldly & has no place in the Christian community... 2/3

As the season of Advent draws to a close, I return to the salient & stirring words of Rev. @flemingrut:

"We all stand on the threshold of God's kingdom. The Lord is still out in front of us. His future still approaches, his future in which all will be made new. 1/4🧵 "His promise is sure; he will come. We make ready for him, this Advent season and every season, by lighting whatever little lights the Lord has put in front of us, no light too small to be used by him, action in waiting, pointing ahead, looking to Christ and for Christ. 2/4

🧵Here are some of my general guiding principles for Twitter. Not everyone has the same approach but this is mine:

1. It’s more important to be Christlike than to be “right” or “the winner.” God cares more about my formation than my reputation. It’s the same for others too. 1/7 2. I don’t have to correct every misconception about me & my views; indeed I cannot. So it’s ok for people to be mistaken or say false things. And it’s ok for others to have the last word. Being seen as right is not the most important thing anyway (see #1). 2/7

🧵When my middle child was an infant, she was highly sensitive & needy.

No one but me could hold her or soothe her. She slept only in 20-minute increments (not exaggerating). She had to be on my body 24 hrs a day. When she wasn't, she screamed.

This lasted for ~9 months. 1/ I was in year two of my PhD program & my very first semester teaching undergrad theology. The physical & mental exhaustion were acute.

Looking back, I truly can't believe I didn't end up hospitalized. (Maybe I should have been.) 2/

The executed man had a checkered past and a history of run-ins with authority. Neighbors say he had assembled a gang of loafers and thugs that exploited the charity of the poor, routinely disrespected community leaders, and promoted class warfare. 1/3 In a recent incident, he became publicly belligerent and disrupted a religious service in the capitol. Neighbors feared his increasingly erratic behavior would intensify political tension and ethnic hostility in the region. 2/3

🧵50 yrs ago Dorothy Day wrote:

“Christianity is only 2,000 yrs old, & a thousand years are as one day in the sight of God. We are only beginning, each of us, to practice the folly of the Cross, of trying to live as tho we were brothers, & according to Christ’s teachings.” 1/5 She speaks in response to those who would despair at the state of the world, & especially the state of the Church in the world.

She speaks of rampant war, poverty, & injustice—much of which Christians are complicit in.

Sound familiar? 2/5

🧵Today is the feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Here's one of my fav passages from her The Story of a Soul:

"I had wondered for a long time why God had preferences & why all souls did not receive an equal amount of grace… Jesus saw fit to enlighten me about this mystery... 1/5 “He set the book of nature before me and I saw that all the flowers He has created are lovely. The splendor of the rose and whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of its scent nor the daisy of its simple charm… 2/5

🧵The most common theological misunderstandings I encounter in my teaching:

Jesus died to make God the Father love you.

A: Salvation is the work of the Triune God. Jesus died b/c God loves you. Love is the reason for, not the consequence of, Christ’s death. 1/ The Trinity was broken on the Cross, the Son eternally, ontologically separated from the Father.

A: The Father gave up the Son to death on our behalf & the Son suffered really & truly. But broken Trinity is a theological impossibility. 2/

Hungering & thirsting for justice is part of the blessed life. Jesus says those who do so will be satisfied.

As difficult as it is, I hope always to expect justice from our institutions.

Yes, fullness awaits the eschaton, but in the meantime I seek, pray for, & expect justice. ☝🏼Thoughts as we await the Chauvin trial verdict.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.

It's been 5 years today since I successfully defended my dissertation at U of Dayton. I was still nursing our youngest & we had 3 kids under 5.

I get asked a lot: How did you do it? Lest you think it's just about personal responsibility & grit, here's a thread: 1/ 1. My spouse is a true partner. He put his career on hold to be the full-time caregiver & household manager. The babies came with me to school for the 1st few months, then they stayed home with him. It was very hard, but we were always on the same team. 2/

On this day in 1963 four KKK members set off a bomb at 16th St Baptist Church in Birmingham. 4 young girls were killed & 14 others injured. The 4 victims: Addie Mae Collins (14), Denise McNair (11), Carole Robertson (14), & Cynthia Wesley (14). In his Eulogy, Dr. King said... 1/3 "They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom & human dignity. And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death... 2/3

If discipleship to Christ never leads you to satisfy your desires & do what gives you joy, you’ve probably fashioned Christ in the image of your enemy. If discipleship to Christ never leads you to deny yourself & your desires, you’ve probably fashioned Christ in your own image. I imagine many of us tend to one side or the other: always trusting our desires/joys (if it feels good, it must be God's will) or always being skeptical of them (if it feels good, it's probably sin). It seems to me living by the Spirit requires rejecting both extremes.

Today is the 65th anniversary of the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955. The 14 yr old Chicago-born boy was murdered by 3 white men in MS, supposedly b/c he flirted w/ a white woman. That white woman later admitted she made the whole thing up. His killers were acquitted. Today is also the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington in 1963, where MLK delivered his famous “I Have a Dream Speech”. There is another march happening in DC today protesting ongoing police violence against Black Americans. The theme is “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks.”

THREAD. Ten years ago, I was also preparing to teach.

Our oldest daughter, Emmelia, was born in late July during year two of my doctoral program. I had to be back in the classroom within three weeks. (No maternity leave for grad students.)
1/4 It was my first year teaching undergrads. I was very sleep deprived, clinically depressed, deeply anxious, & physically exhausted. I showed up to teach with a nursing, very fussy infant in tow, still in pain & limping from childbirth. I was also taking two doctoral seminars.
2/4

Remarkably applicable:

"'State Theology' is simply the theological justification of the status quo with its racism, capitalism, and totalitarianism. It blesses injustice, canonizes the will of the powerful and reduces the poor to passivity, obedience, and apathy... 1/4 "How does 'State Theology' do this? It does it by misusing theological concepts and biblical texts for its own political purposes. ... The first would be the use of Romans 13:1-7 to give an absolute and 'divine' authority to the State... 2/4

PSA: Complementarianism is NOT the traditional teaching of the church on gender. Complementarianism, like egalitarianism, is a 20th C theological innovation. The modern realization that women are not naturally inferior changed everything.

More here: rightingamerica.net/a-response-to-… Unfortunately, the links in my piece to Will Witt's articles no longer work because he's publishing a book on the subject. You can pre-order his important book here: baylorpress.com/9781481313186/…

I’m entering my 3rd yr at Wheaton College & my 1st yr on the tenure track.

The 3 most important things for my overall well-being in an evangelical institution have been:

1) Choosing to view women colleagues as my allies rather than my competitors.

1/5 2) Choosing to make time for weekly (entirely confidential) coffee w/ a couple other women in my first-year faculty cohort.

3) Choosing to cultivate friendships, discuss problems, & organize collective action w/ colleagues across disciplines in my faculty cohort.

2/5