My Mother’s Fourth Year of Dementia

By |2023-07-20T20:14:24+00:00July 20th, 2023|Death, God, Grief, Healing, Kindness, Loss|

Being around Alzheimer’s/dementia feels like being around death. My mom is void of herself—a shell of a human still trying to be polite, hospitable—yet she is gone. She is no longer the woman who raised me. I have noticed this week, being around her, that I too feel gone. As [...]

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A Reflection on Father’s Day

By |2023-06-19T14:26:36+00:00June 19th, 2023|Death, Death, Fatherlessness, Forgiveness, Grief, Healing, Masculinity, Relationships|

Father's Day is such a strange day for me. A day full of hope for the future, contentment for the present, and grief for the past. I don't think my desire to be fathered will ever fully go away. I both hate that and have come to love it, as [...]

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The Art of Lament

By |2022-12-09T13:47:19+00:00December 9th, 2022|Death, Death, Grief, Healing, Loss|

“Churches should be the most honest place in town,  not the happiest place in town.”  - Walter Brueggemann The 11-year anniversary of the death of my courageous boy, Brave (You can watch our film here), has me thinking of the art of lament. Why should we engage in our pain? [...]

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Watching My Mother Die

By |2022-08-29T14:00:02+00:00August 29th, 2022|Death, Glory, God, Grief, Relationships, Writings|

Watching my mom die in such a gruesome way has been agonizing. You see, it’s not your typical tragic ending. It’s not like the horrific cancer that stole my sister-in-law Julie so quickly, or the unknown reason my father passed away after routine outpatient surgery, or the haunting suicide which [...]

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Abuse is War: Understanding Our Wife in Her Recovery

By |2023-01-20T19:02:58+00:00November 17th, 2021|Addiction, Death, Domestic Violence, Domestic Violence, Glory, Grief, Marriage, Masculinity, patriarchy, Relationships, Sexism, Violence, women|

General William Sherman once said, “War is Hell” and I completely agree. I would also say abuse is war, just a different type. The hell that a woman bears by living with an insecure, defensive, and reactive husband can leave her with PTSD similar to that of a veteran returning [...]

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What Happens When My Abusive Husband Gets Healthy?

By |2021-01-29T15:04:04+00:00January 29th, 2021|Church, Death, Domestic Violence, Forgiveness, Grief, Healing, Kindness, Marriage, Masculinity, patriarchy, Relationships, Sexism, Sexual Abuse, Sexuality, Shame, Violence|

It’s rare, but it happens. Abusive men can heal. But by rare, I mean the data is abysmal. Becoming safe and doing the work of healing only happens among roughly 1 in 10 abusive men.  Your abusive husband can heal when, and only when, he fully faces the depth of [...]

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Welcome Home, Grief.

By |2020-10-05T16:12:18+00:00October 5th, 2020|Death, God, Grief, Healing, Shame|

Hello, Grief. Come into my house; make yourself comfortable. I trust you, as you are a relentless yet steady companion.  Come to the table. Yes, my friend, you are invited to eat. You may have the seat of honor, for though I do not love you, I respect you.  I [...]

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Seeing My Dad’s Body

By |2020-03-03T20:24:37+00:00March 3rd, 2020|Addiction, Death, Fatherlessness, Forgiveness, Glory, Grief, Healing, Shame, Uncategorized|

The hot Clearwater, Florida sun demanded that we turn up the AC in the rental car on our way to the funeral home. As Christy and I drove up to the faded yellowish-white brick building, I felt the familiar tension of grief deep in my body. I knew this feeling, [...]

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My Dad’s Eulogy

By |2020-03-02T18:37:51+00:00March 2nd, 2020|Death, Grief, Healing, Loss|

This was the eulogy that I read at my dad's funeral. I want to continue to honor him in telling the complexity of truth, living in such a way, that is full-bodied and full-hearted.   Dad, I don’t think I told you enough. But I love you. You hurt me so [...]

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Breaking Down Stigmas & Sexism

By |2020-01-30T23:26:03+00:00January 29th, 2020|Death, Domestic Violence, Healing, Marriage, patriarchy, Pornography, Relationships, Sexism, Sexual Abuse, Sexuality, Shame, Violence|

There are many stigmas that need to be broken in the Christian tradition. The stigma of divorce in the Christian community is a phenomenon where folks are, after much pain and heartache, retraumatized and relegated to a second-class-citizen type of Christian and branded as damaged goods, a failure, or both. [...]

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Grieving a Lost Self

By |2019-12-04T16:53:03+00:00December 4th, 2019|Death, Death, Fatherlessness, Glory, God, Grief, Healing, Kindness, Loss, Marriage, Masculinity, Relationships, Self-Contempt, Sexuality, Shame|

I knew what had to be done; now I had to convince my body to carry out what my mind was telling me. It was about 9:00 p.m. when I reluctantly began gathering my belongings. I opened my pack and began filling it with my sleeping bag, a lighter, a [...]

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Eulogy for Marriage: Honoring Life & Death

By |2019-08-21T16:21:58+00:00August 15th, 2019|Death, Domestic Violence, Forgiveness, Kindness, Loss, Marriage, Shame|

  Some of the most committed Christians I know have suffered the heartbreak of a divorce. Each story is different, each heartache unique. Some are the result of infidelity and betrayal or covert abuse. Other times, contempt extends so deeply over the years that the other begins to look more [...]

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Where I Come From: My Racist Roots

By |2024-01-15T17:32:19+00:00June 24th, 2019|Death, Grief, Poetry, Racism, Shame, Violence|

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” – James Baldwin   One of the privileges of being white in America is that I never had to look deeply [...]

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