You can screw a glass Coca-Cola bottle into a light socket. The threads match. It fits perfectly. But it will never produce light. Just because something fits does not mean it belongs. Many people spend years fitting into places where they were never meant to live. The environment works, the relationships feel manageable, and life …
Continue reading The Danger of Fitting In Where You Don’t Belong: A Lesson from David in Gath
In Japan, wildlife observers noticed something unusual about a young macaque nicknamed Punch. After being mistreated by his mother and pushed aside by his clan, he often sat a few feet away while the others groomed each other in tight circles of belonging. Just beyond arm’s reach. Watching. Caretakers eventually gave him a small stuffed …
Continue reading Punch the Monkey and the Pain of Rejection: Finding Belonging in Christ
Every culture carries its music in its mouth. Bostonians drop their r’s. New Yorkers turn conversations into percussion. Canadians lift their sentences into gentle questions. Southerners stretch their vowels like warm taffy. Where I was raised, we joked that our vowels never quite left the back roads. Before you knew our story, you could hear …
Continue reading Shibboleth and the Church: How Small Differences Create Big Divides
This morning in Costa Rica, I stood on a mountainside with red coffee cherries staining my fingers and the scent of roasting beans drifting through cool air. The rows ran along a sharp incline. You do not stroll through fields like that. You lean into them. You steady your footing. You work. Our guide shared …
Continue reading High Elevation Faith: Why Slow Growth Produces Spiritual Depth
A Good Word 