30 More Days of Grace

“If God closes a door” and Other Cliches that should be Retired: I grew up on Christian cliches. They were plastered on posters in my Sunday School rooms, tossed around freely at church camp, and generally spouted every time the church doors were open. “God will never give you more than you can handle.” “If he leads you to it, he’ll lead you through it.” “When God closes a door, he opens a window.” “Let go and let God.” “God helps those who helps themselves.” “If it’s God’s will…” “Jesus, take the wheel.” Okay, that last one might be a country song and not a Christian cliche, but it fits, right?! I’d love to take apart each one of these cliches, and maybe someday I’ll do a series on them, but today, today I just want to think about one of them. The first one. The biggest offender. “God will never give you more than you can handle.” False. Not true. Bold-faced lie. “God will never give you more than you can handle,” but... I’m not entirely sure where this cliche originat...

Monday Morning Confessional: I have a confession: Sometimes I go to random churches by myself to worship anonymously. Hear me out here: I love my church (and, no, I don’t have that tshirt). My church is amazing. I’m not sure where else you could go and find such a grace-filled group of broken misfits who are allowing God to work through them in absolutely incredible ways. But sometimes, sometimes I just need to be in a place where I can worship alone and anonymously, where no one knows me, where no one is looking at me, and where I can just blend in. If you’ve ever worked or served front and center in a church, I think you know what I mean. Grandma’s Wisdom: I was fortunate enough to grow up right up the road from my grandparents. During the summer, my brother and I would ride our bikes down the road and sit on their porch with them, drinking coke out of glass bottles (no, I’m not throwing him under the bus today. You’re welcome, Jeremy). We spent our holidays there, mornings ...

I’ve done my time in the darkness.   Actually, I’ve done several stints in the darkness, and the thing that always gets me about the darkness is that I don’t actually realize I’m wandering around in it until the light begins to break through again.  I’ve been caving once, and, to be perfectly honest with you, I hated it. I’m not entirely sure what it is about crawling into the center of the earth, being cold, feeling constantly damp, and worrying about taking a wrong turn and getting lost forever in the bowels of the earth that actually appeals to people.  For some reason, though, there is this whole population of individuals who seem to think this is an enjoyable pastime. I found myself on an adventure with some of these people once.  They assured me caving would be exhilarating and enjoyable. They were wrong. They assured me I wouldn’t feel like I was going to get swallowed up by the bowels of the earth. They were wrong. They assured me I...