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My inheritance is a mixed bag. I am one woman’s biological daughter and another woman’s adopted child. I am a descendant of the Mexican families who populated California and also the Irish who suffered a great potato famine once. My age reveals that I am more Latina than I thought given my penchant for icons and lighting vigil candles when I pray. I even have a statue of Mother Mary in my living room. I am also more Catholic than…

Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like sourdough starter that a woman took and hid in 40-60 pounds of flour. The Greek word means encrypted. The woman hid a small batch of starter in copious amounts of flour, knowing full well the leaven would be revealed when the dough rose, as it was baked off and the loaves ready for distribution. This story hints at an intentional hiding and an equally intended revealing. Read the full post over at…

“It’s Friday – but Sunday’s coming!” I’ve already heard this several times today across my Twitter feed and in various Facebook posts. We know this to be true. We know Sunday, chock full of resurrection newness, is coming. But what if we didn’t know? Can you imagine a cross-heavy Friday without the knowledge of Sunday? ~~~ Today I find myself pondering the friends of Jesus, the men and women who followed him for three years. I think of his mother…

Imagine the entire history of the universe, all 13.8 billion years of it, as one cosmic year. At the stroke of midnight on January 1st the Big Bang happens. The galaxy begins to unfold, to stretch across the vast expanse with forces unknown to us still. Waves and particles in motion weave in and out of the folds of the young cosmos. Galactic material whirls and whizzes, even spins around stars (or were stars twinkling yet?) in a series of…

[caption id="attachment_1485" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Great August read...[/caption] So 2014 hasn't been the year I dreamed it would be, if I'm honest. But this isn't a post about that. This is about the books read that will have a lasting impact on me beyond the last word, the last day of the year, or the words "the end." The best Brueggemann book read in 2014 is Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now. In this small volume Brueggemann dips into…

[caption id="attachment_1538" align="aligncenter" width="700"] PHOTO CREDIT: Tina Francis // taken in Burundi one summer afternoon[/caption] Reading through Proverbs lately I noticed, as if for the first time, the preponderance of women. They are everywhere among the words of wisdom. There is Lady Wisdom, the great personification, and the lesser Folly. We meet wives, mothers, an adulteress and the woman of valor among many other women offering instruction to all who would listen. I could imagine a reader nearly missing the…

This morning I'm sharing some reflections on my reading of Desmond Tutu's God Has A Dream, my most re-read book penned by this beloved African elder. The SheLoves Magazine book club, The Red Couch, embraced this book for the month of February. How wonderful to read with friends - I've enjoyed Twitter exchanges, Voxer conversations and more around the themes of transformation, hope, suffering, neighbor love and more. Here is a bit: In God Has A Dream the beloved South…

This past November I was invited to share at The Simply Jesus Gathering in Denver, CO. The mandate was simple - share something you are currently discovering about Jesus. I knew instantly what I'd share since these past fourteen months I've been seeing Jesus through a new lens. Here is my offering to the Jesus conversation...   https://vimeo.com/81340536 Afterwards I was approached my birth moms, adoptive parents, adopted adults and soon-to-be adoptive parents to share stories about living adopted. I…

Our small oak table, weathered by other generations, creaked as we crowded around for family dinner. The squared space could scarcely hold all the tiny plastic bowls and colorful demitasse spoons, the sippy cups and our two grown-up plates.  But like every night for months we sat close enough to reach their full lips with food for soon-to-be full bellies. I spooned tender jasmine rice and squared carrots into his tiny mouth. He scooped glistening peas with mint and lemon…

He had me at incarnation. “…as Christ is both God and human, so is the Bible.” The incarnational analogy Peter Enns debuts in Inspiration & Incarnation captivated my imagination immediately. I’d never thought of the text in those terms, but the moment I read his words, the concept resonated with me. The Bible is both genuinely human and genuinely divine, embracing both humanity and divinity in ways that challenge us to see the text amid various cultures, languages and time…