Tag: Faith
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Become a We: The Quickest Path to Healing Relational Wounds
“Become a ‘We’ as fast as you can.” Of all the advice that my father gave me in the 32 years that he was physically in my life, this was the most important. When he was dying from Multiple Myeloma, something awakened in him that transformed the way he saw reality. All of the time…
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Self Betrayal Does Not Lead to Love
Generally speaking, I am not nice. But, I am kind. Nice is performative and at its core is a subtle form of manipulation. You present yourself in a certain way in order to manage another person’s perception of you, whether its to convince them that you’re a better person than you actually are for your…
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A Confession of Sin
As I confessed in the past blog post tagged here, The Sin of Overprotection, my biggest sin is overprotection. I know that this might sound benign. But, in my experience, it does me as much harm as other people’s professed sins, It has cost me relationships, it has caused me needless suffering, and in many…
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Trusting What Can’t Be Trusted
Humans are designed to radically Trust. From our first cry, we call out to be held and comforted and above all, we call out to be loved. It is as if love is our breath. It is our Life. Can we truly live without it? It is almost maddening and definitely saddening in the moments…
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Using Words to Listen to Silence
I’m currently reading this book, Ki-Asana Zen, written by my uncle, Vernon Kitabu Turner. Reading it, I am reminded how blessed I am for having mentors and that God is always looking out for me on my journey—mind, body, and soul. On my spiritual journey, I have never pursued anyone or anything apart from the…
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Don’t Lose the Vision When You’re in the Valley
Many times in my life, I’ve come to the top of a mountain, metaphorically speaking, only to realize that my journey is leading me to yet another mountain. For years, I’ve tried to articulate this path in a way that is both descriptive and prescriptive for those who may also find themselves on a precipice…
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A Box as Big as the Universe
My uncle, Vernon Kitabu Turner, can’t be put in a box. And it is time that I thank God for him. He just loves God and has ceaselessly sought to understand the Spirit that he has witnessed as active his entire life by any means necessary. When I was younger, people told me that I…
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Ending Racism: How to Change the World in One Generation
The other morning I was feeling the weight of trying to articulate possibilities in the face of polarities. I prayed for some guidance on how to reimagine some of the conversations we’re having on race. Next thing you know, I get this email from my new friend Justin Michael Williams inviting me to preview an…
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Christ Is of Faith
One of the tensions of the Christian tradition is the “already, but not yet” element of the Gospel. How I understand this is that people who are seeking to follow Christ, are living in the faith that the work that he set out to do among us is already accomplished. And yet, in our daily…
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Being With God
God is the ground of being, being-itself; who concerns us ultimately. Thus, God is our ultimate concern. — Paul Tillich I’ll be honest with you and say that on a weekly if not daily basis, I find myself wondering what good I am doing as a pastor. It’s not that I don’t appreciate what I do or the people with…
The Roofless Church 