If you want to know where the Army of the Walking Dead is formed, it’s public school. I had a session this week with a girl who was harassed by another student who told her that she should end her life; her actual words would get me banned from this space. These girls are 11. I’ve said it, and others have said it: The abuses that we expect kids to tolerate at school would never, ever be acceptable in the adult world. Imagine your co-worker harassing you everyday by calling you profane names and telling you to take your life. It would not stand!

If the patriarchy is real—as in, it’s an inescapable concept that exists because Creation is hierarchical, then it really is a man’s world, and women are always existing within a man’s frame…a man’s system. And if women are perpetually existing within the man’s frame, then her agency is only that which can exist within the parameters that have been drawn for her by men or approved of by men. And women, just as men, are trying to self actualize, but one is self actualizing in a world that he built and the other in a world that she didn’t build.

Once upon a time, there were some evil people who loved money more than anything, and they decided they wanted to get as much money as they could, so they could be powerful. They hated God and families, so they built big, ugly factories and made daddies have to leave their families at home to go work in horrible conditions, rather than working alongside his wife and children in the home or at their family shop. Daddies got really tired, and sad, and fractured from their families. Some daddies started to drink. Then, the mommies and children got

I finally watched the movie “About Time”; it was incredibly profound. I love the idea of living intentionally & allowing yourself to absorb the beauty, mystery, & profundity of ordinary life. It has a Christian tone in the sense, that in the end, power is laid down for love. In the last few weeks I’ve been somewhat outspoken about people and ideas with which I take issue. Maybe it seems like a waste of time to do so; maybe some would consider it a moral failing on my part—that I’m out of line with my remarks.

I think we fail to realize how much of Twitter is propaganda. So many accounts exist to sway your thinking or to activate nostalgia. Lots of agendas here. Lots of astroturfed people and movements. Makes me leery of who’s real and who isn’t. I tweet whatever’s on my mind, and I welcome thoughtful engagement regardless of your political or religious leanings. I enjoy accounts across a spectrum of values and beliefs because I’ve learned to consider plenty of ideas without being captured by them.

I couldn’t sleep, so I started watching Shiny Happy People. I’ve made it to episode 3. There’s a lot to process. I do appreciate that they accurately represent Michael & Debi Pearl as sadistic. I’ll share more thoughts later. For now, I’ll say I think it’s an important story. I want to say this also: I resent that it’s obvious they’re trying to lump a bunch of things together and paint them all in a bad light. I’m pro-homeschooling and I’m for Christians being elected to Congress. I’m just against cultish extremes and legalism.

I think I have followed my last trad account on Insta. I can’t stomach it anymore. I just read a post by a woman dressed like Laura Ingalls telling you that you can make friends by inviting other women over to keep you company while you milk the cow. Other suggestions included having lady friends come pick apples and make applesauce, butcher chickens, and make bagels with your “free range children.”

I met Noah in 6th grade. His mom put him in my gymnastics class, which he turned into parkour. He was one of the most energetic and compassionate people I’ve ever known. A friend to the “least of these.” He died in Iraq on June 5, 2005. My little town was never the same. Noah and I grew up together, and the last time I saw him, was when we danced at prom a couple of weeks before he graduated. He went off to UGA and then enlisted after he graduated college in 2004. He lived a year after joining the Army.

Dietrich von Hildebrand’s book “The Art of Living” made me think about reverence more than I ever have. I started to see how irreverent we are as a culture. It occurred to me that the inability to show reverence comes from a shallow understanding of God and eternal things. If you can’t look at everything with an eternal lens - if you can’t see something’s value or lack of value in & throughout the eternal ages - if every word you speak & scribe, every seed you sow, every dish you wash, every lawn you mow can’t be cast in the light of eternity

I’m going to try to keep my tweets to a minimum about the ridiculous gender war that has now made its way into Christian circles, by way of some very loud men (and women) on social media obsessing about standards for women, because it seems they enjoy the attention it brings. I say it’s for attention because so much of the discourse is condescending and seeks behavior modification, not heart change. Seldom, if ever, do I hear any of those weighing in on the topic telling women about a Jesus who loves them to death and is making them new.

Before the age of 40, life seems endless & full of possibilities. After 40, you start to develop this acute sense of awareness that you’re running out of time here. You realize you’re probably not going to get to do all you wanted to do. You learn life is a lot of little deaths. Life will prepare you for the last death if you’ll let it. It will teach you to hold onto everything here with a loose grip. Eternity will become more real. At 40, you’ve lived long enough to experience real loss & suffering, & you long for perfection that only heaven can bring.

We all have ways we compensate for our insecurities. Some are more subtle; some are embarrassingly obvious. (I’m sure I’ve been in this camp.) And what I’m trying to say is there are men on here who tweet like they are short. Look, I am 5’2”, and I’m not a height snob. I don’t care how tall you are as a man. But I know this is a sore spot for some, and it’s just obvious when you’re insecure about it.

The discourse on women by a lot of Christian men on this site makes me want to stab my eyes out. Y’all cannot get it through your head that shaming women will never work to achieve whatever behavior modification you’re hoping for. “Imagine being a woman and thinking _____ is good or feminine.” Please stop. Like, just stop. It’s obvious you don’t understand women and you don’t want heart changes, you want behavior mod. The only way women become who they ought to be is when men are who they ought to be.

I had to watch a documentary for an ethics class about medically assisted suicide. It was so disturbing. One case stood out. It was an older man who was terminally ill and also terminally cruel and hateful. He was so angry. I remember his family gathering around while he drank the elixir of death, mixed up by a nurse. 20 people in a room watching a man murder himself. A medical professional concocting a potion with full knowledge it would be used to end his life.

I spent most of my 20s and early 30s studying theology. I loved it. I loved learning Reformed Protestant doctrine. I’d stay awake into the night reading Calvin and the Puritans. In my mid 30s, I started having more existential questions. How could I rightly respond to my heart’s questions about hopelessness, abandonment, rejection, and confusion about why God seemed silent in my suffering? I knew all the confessional answers. I catechized myself at age 30.

Maybe they don’t mean to, but some people talk about women in a way that equates ‘weaker’ with dumber. Scripture says women are the weaker sex, but it’s not because we’re unable to reason or ascertain the truth. It’s that we have a natural disposition that’s more exploitable. Part of the feminine nature is agreeableness. We actually do aim to please. This means we’ll suppress feelings of disgust to protect someone’s ego, and we’ll go along with things we don’t really want to do. We mostly hate confrontation.

Sometimes therapy with teenage girls involves coping with heartbreak. Such was the case today. I asked her what made the relationship so special/important, and she said, “He took me seriously. And, he acted like he liked being around me.” This is actually really profound. So many girls and women become frustrated and even act out when they aren’t taken seriously - when they’re concerns, hopes, wishes, and interests are treated as silly or trite. And feeling like someone genuinely enjoys us is so important.

“You have to change yourself when you live with crazy people.” This was an astute observation from one of my students who was wrongfully placed in inpatient treatment. It’s a long story. There’s a level of craziness, of madness, that permeates homes where abuse is present. And if you’re going to keep your wits about you at all, you have to change yourself.

I can trace just about anything good in my life, and any ability I have to do anything well, back to my parents and grandparents. My childhood was so rich, and I felt loved and cherished everyday. I am confident that foundation prepared me to face dark times and suffering. A lot of people believe experiencing hardship makes you stronger. And that’s true in many adult instances. But children need secure relationships with parents, and they need to know they are deeply loved.

Aquinas and Chesteron were both rotund and also contributed more to Christianity and the West than all y’all. And, I just want to know if they ate seed oils and what their T levels might have been…for the Kingdom, of course. I think we should steward our bodies to the glory of God - of course we should. This is part of being an integrated person. And I understand the desperation to mend broken men (and women). I just don’t think you can build a whole social movement (for Jesus) on T levels.

There are some people in this world who speak or teach in a way that pierces your heart. God uses them as 'arrows of grace' in your life. I'd like to recommend two podcast episodes that I've been playing and replaying because they're just so good. So healing. So relevant. First up, Sr. Miriam James. She is absolutely precious. If her wisdom and gentleness don't make you love Jesus more, check your heart. Such a beautiful, honest conversation.