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Christmas—A God Who Didn’t Look Away
I spend significant time with refugees in my neighborhood. In fact, most of the people we serve are refugees. Often, they come to this country with few possessions but heavy hearts. Most days it feels impossible to hold their stories—to shoulder their burdens, to...
Platforms and Kingdoms and The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill
I’ve been listening to The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast in almost every spare moment recently. If you’ve never heard of this podcast, it’s a beautifully crafted podcast from the Christianity Today team about the story of Mars Hill Church, Pastor Mark Driscoll,...
That One Thing that Will make All the Difference
Most of the time, I am a fish out of water in this neighborhood. I am the minority in a city and country where I am the majority. I speak one language in a place where most of my neighbors have at least two or three or six on their list. Often, I step into people’s...
Stories and other things from Chicago: An Intro
I never wanted to live in a big city—not really at least. I used to visit Chicago on the weekends and imagine calling this place home, but in those days, I didn’t understand the cost—the rent and gas money, the struggle of traffic, the strange isolation even when...
That Sacred Space around the Table
In 2015, I left Taylor University armed with a diploma and a desire to change the world. In early spring of that year, the European migrant crisis shook the seas. Thousands of people crowded into boats not built to hold the volume of their needs. Many vessels would...
What’s going on in Myanmar?
Maybe you saw that bizarre video of a middle school PE instructor in Myanmar doing her exercise routine as a pack of black SUVs and military vehicles fill the frame behind her. As she dances, they make hard, fast turns and pull up to a barricade. All of this happens...
Carrying Resilient, Anchored Hope
These days I’ve been thinking about hope. Considering our current reality as a country and world, I feel like it’s pretty obvious why. We are a people driven by fear and shame and power. We elbow our way into rooms and conversations, seeming to be unafraid of who or...
Breathing the Beauty of Emmanuel—God with us
This time of year is probably my favorite. Of course I’m a sucker for summer—those endless warm days, fresh fruit, sun tans and swimsuits, the joy of being outside. But these days are wonderful in their own special way. Last week I went downtown Chicago with a dear...
Eyes up
The seasons are changing here in Chicago. The trees are nearly bare—the ground covered in browning leaves. Last week, the sun warmed our city to nearly 75 degrees, and the next day, gusts brought in a cold front. Today on my run, the wind chill dipped to 19 degrees,...
The Beauty of Walking with a Limp
I took inspiration for this blog post from Albert Tate’s message at the Global Leadership Summit 2020 about walking with a limp. You can find notes from his session here. Our world is engaged in a lot of tough conversations. We stumble through highly...