Author: Jocelyn
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Quotidian Romance
(Before I begin: A sincere apology to all of my readers who happen to be single at the moment and who hate reading about people being married. I try really hard not to write to one narrow audience, but I need to say something to my married self and my married friends; you’ll forgive me…
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It’s been a weighty week…
…and so I find myself reading and re-reading a portion of Paul and Timothy’s circulating letter to the early church that centers on comfort. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort…
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What if Death is really dead?
It’s the refrain that has been reverberating in my head all week as we’ve approached Good Friday: “Death is dead.” Jesus defeated Death, conquering it, triumphing over it. This week I’ve been thinking a lot about Death and taking a fisheye lens to it, seeing if I can mature and broaden its meaning in my heart…
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Code for “Mom, I’m more important than your phone.”
I have an iPhone. It is mostly a very good and useful thing. Overall, our family has good boundaries with screens of all kinds. But sometimes, my phone will latch itself onto my eyes and brain and unsuspectingly absorb them entirely into its magical screen to the detriment of the actual humans around me who…
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Conversion Obsession. Spiritual Formation Series, Part 2.
For most of my life I’ve been obsessed with conversion: my own and other people’s. As I’ve studied the life of Jesus lately, I’ve noticed something: Jesus wasn’t. I spent my elementary years worried about if I’d prayed the [conversion] prayer properly. I spent my middle and high school years embarrassed about not having done…
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A word for my artist friends.
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. John Adams I…
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What is church?
My boys were in the car with my sister when it happened. They drove past our church building – a huge, gorgeous brick building located conspicuously downtown, right on the main drag. “There’s your church!” my sister said, innocuously. “Well, that’s the place we go to church,” my 4-year-old corrected her, just as innocuously. “Our church…
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The Passions of Christ’s Death: A 12-Day Lenten Devotional
It’s Ash Wednesday – the beginning of Lent. And I am so pleased to introduce to you – in its debut release – The Passions of Christ’s Death: A 12-Day Lenten Devotional. You may have read The Passions of Christ’s Advent: A 12-Days of Christmas Devotional. This is her Lenten partner, with a similar premise: to observe the very human…
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Spiritual Formation Series, Part 1.
I don’t know about you, but everywhere I turn in Christendom, I’m hearing more and more about “spiritual formation.” Church employees with the title “Director of Spiritual Formation;” websites and books instructing us in the practices of “spiritual formation;” speakers and conferences dedicated to helping people along the journey of “spiritual formation.” And, to be…
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No more inspiring devotions, please.
I just got a pop-up window that said, “Click here to get inspiring email devotions in your inbox.” Call me a cynic, but my first thought was, ‘That’s the last thing I need – to be inspired. I need far more help than fuzzy, feel-good devotionals.’ I looked up the definition of inspire: to fill…