When I was in the 6th grade, a friend told me I had the ugliest smile she had ever seen. She suggested that I not smile so hard. I don’t have the best memory, but when certain hurtful words from my past are used, I can vividly tell you when, where, and how I felt […]
Worthy of Relationship
She was six years old when her mother abandoned her and took off for Florida. She was 22 the Valentine’s Day when her drug dealer boyfriend dumped her and their newborn son on the couch while he left to play basketball with friends. She was 26 when she moved into Room 4 at the local […]
CONFRONTING DR. JEKYLL
I squandered the life I cherished by courting Mrs. Hyde. But what I had to gain was my life. “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit […]
PRIMED FOR A PURPOSE
One night in 2008, I happened upon a website called Christian pen pals. Out of curiosity I made a pen pal ad. I wanted to be friends with other Christian women who held my values and beliefs. As soon as I saw the picture of Sarah, I knew she was different. We began emailing back […]
NO COOKIE-CUTTER CHRISTIAN
I have this awesome friend. His name is Tyler. He’s one of the smartest, funniest, and overall best people I’ve ever met. And when we did meet, back in college, we got along instantly. We just meshed. So when he told me he hadn’t grown up in church—like I had—I remember being surprised. And when […]
Unsteady Steps
His name is Darryl. He was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and is the child of two parents who divorced when he was two years of age. His father had a serious drug problem and his mother left him to be raised by his grandmother. Though he was raised at an early age without parents, his […]
A TESTIMONY OF LOVE
Esther’s testimony actually begins with the work of her great-great-grandfather. He was a servant to English missionaries in India at the beginning of the movement for Indian self-rule. The missionaries soon decided to relocate to South Africa and they took Esther’s great-great-grandfather with them. When the missionaries finally returned to England, he stayed in South […]
A NEW SONG
Hardship was a familiar song for Gert Kumi. The rasping, discordant tune spilled daily from the lips of his people. From 1944 to 1991 Albanians bowed under the weight of oppression. Communism muted the peaceful, spirited refrains of liberty and justice. When religion was declared unconstitutional in 1967, Albania became the first and only Atheist […]
A 30-DAY SEARCH PARTY
Before I even started writing this assignment, I knew that in the last couple of years, I felt like a part of me faded away. Like I had been “off” for half a decade and had become a lesser version of what I once was. It’s difficult to explain since most of you reading this […]
FROM THE LAND OF THE DEAD TO THE LAND OF THE LIVING
I don’t know if my father was the first in our family tree to commit suicide, but what I do know is that when it’s my time to leave this earth, it will not be by my own hand. At one point though, I felt differently. I wanted to take my own life. It was […]