Not all men are fathers. Men can long for children and not have them or lost a child in their family. Families can have their fathers taken from them too soon. Father’s Day is tough day for many. Let’s not forget! The anticipation of what will be said (or not said) in church, especially on …
grief
When Life is Really Hard and You Can’t Talk About It
Life is really hard and we have to learn to talk about it. In so many Christian communities I know, there’s such a “How are you?” “I am fine” sweetness in the air. We look pretty. We talk pretty. And we go home from being together as hurt as we walked in the doors. For, …
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Need a Inclusive Prayer for Mother’s Day?
This weekend, Mother’s Day, while joy-filled for many is full of anxiety for others. If you’re in the anxiety producing camp, know I am with you. It’s so hard to have complicated feelings about the mothers in your life. It’s so hard to have longings for children (or relationships) unfulfilled. Or to be grieving when …
What Are You Afraid to Say?
What are you afraid to say? I’ve been thinking a lot about the silence spaces that fill so many of our day-to-day conversations and relationships. We converse with a loved one about something overflowing with authenticity. But then for a multitude of reasons, we don’t speak of it again for years. An in between space. …
How Do Grieve During the Holidays?
Someone around you is grieving right now. Even if you don’t know his or her name. Even if you don’t know why. Even if you’ll never know why. So many people grieve on overdrive at this time of year. Recently, I was teaching at “Attending to the Grief We Don’t See” workshop at a congregation …
Gifts I’ll Take From Infertility: A Guest Post by Lauren Bennett
Hey friends- thanks for hanging with me this week during National Infertility Week hearing these stories. I hope you’ve had your eyes opened to how common infertility is– touching people in all walks of life. I’m so glad to meet Lauren, a friend of a friend and blog reader this week. I was so excited to …
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Un-silencing Infertility: A Guest Post by Sarah Gillespie
Friends, it’s National Infertility Awareness week. Welcome to several new readers of Preacher on the Plaza! And I’m happy to use this blog over the next couple of days to give others a platform to share their stories of grief, loss and deferred longing. Even if “infertility” is not your thing and you read my …
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What Chronic Pain Birthed: A Guest Post by Dena Dyer
Can anything good come from chronic pain? Today, I’m glad to introduce to you my friend and fellow writer, Dena who shares her testimony about her years of chronic pain and how she met God in the midst of it all. In 1992, I had a head-on collision with a car whose driver crossed a …
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What a Divorce Birthed: Guest Post by Alice Stanton
Can anything good come from divorce? Today my dear friend, Alice joins the Birthed conversation that I’m picking up again this Lent. (If you missed the Advent series you can start reading here). I’m so glad to share Alice’s hard earned wisdom today. I know you’ll find it as moving as I did, no matter …
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Birthing Peace: Mary Wright Baylor
During these weeks of Advent, I’m thrilled to offer you the voices of some articulate storytellers— storytellers with wisdom to share about how their experiences of pain or loss is birthing in them something beautiful. Not in a Pollyanna sort of way of course, but in the spirit of what Leonard Cohen once wrote: “There …
How I Got Through Dark Times
These feel like dark times, don’t they? I feel like the world in which I called to minister changed dramatically post 11/8. No matter who you voted for President. No matter if you were happy with the results. No matter if you were deeply troubled. No matter what. The world felt different. The way we …
The Difficulty of Mother’s Day
As many of you know, I’ve written a book about my journey as both a pastor and a person who’s struggled with infertility due out with Chalice Press in October (so exciting!). And so with this true as you might imagine . . . Mother’s Day has been a difficult day. For it elevates a …