Tag: Love
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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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Karma, Unbelonging, and the Consequences of Freedom
Did you know that I have a podcast with two of my fellow poets, Katerina Jeng and Mercedez Davis and that is one of the freest spiritual conversation spaces I’ve ever been a part of? We all went into job transitions at the same time two plus years ago. We started talking with each other…
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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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Do the INR (Individual Narrative Responsibility) Work
How often do you reflect on how much the stories you tell yourself impact your life? Personally, I think about it everyday. Because since I was a child, I have always been keenly aware of narrative dynamics. Consciously or unconsciously we all perceive ourselves as characters in a narrative. And how we locate ourselves in…
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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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Does Jesus’ Skin Color Matter?
So, I watched this YouTube video where this Conservative Christian Black dude was trying to call out the hosts of the View for bringing up to the star of The Chosen—a series about the ministries of Jesus and the Disciples—that they were appreciative that in the show Jesus Christ was not blonde haired and blue…
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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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In the Shadow of Bullies and Hypocrites
Grief Will Make You Take Stock and Clean House Over the past few weeks, I have been doing a lot of reflection on my personal history in the Church and my relationship to my fellow human beings. A lot of it is in light of how the church treated Carlton Pearson. Ever since I went…
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Is Jesus Made Up?
Yes. Jesus is made up. Haha made you look. 😂 I’m talking about the name “Jesus” (Jeezuss) In response to a Facebook post I did someone said they wondered why some cultures (aka Latin influenced) feel comfortable naming their sons Jesus and others don’t. Here is my long answer. It is worth reading if you’re…
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Message From a Frustrated Former Pastor (Concerning Pauline Interpretations and Other Stuff)
Since I don’t go to a particular church right now, I sometimes visit different churches or listen to messages from different folks online. Today I came across a guy online giving a message out of 1 Corinthians. Sadly he was using it to “put women in their place” and talk about “weak men” who support…
