The vast majority of our small Southern town had turned out for the fair that day, the beauty pageant a main attraction. Wiggly five-year-old girls dressed to the nine’s stretched across the stage, which my mom says was probably a flat bed truck. I was among them in the pink floral seersucker dress she had hand-sewn for me. I probably didn’t entirely understand why…
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Refugee Life: The Earth Moving Under Your Feet
Being a refugee is to live on the run. Being a refugee is raw vulnerability to smugglers, unscrupulous employers and landlords, and even human traffickers—people who prowl around, eager to take advantage of the defenseless. It is to be exposed to unmitigated evil. Being a refugee is having no voice, no control over your life—or your children’s— and no respite from a raging storm. It’s wondering when,…
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Type A’s, Repeat After Me: “I have enough time to what I’m here to do.”
Recently God shed light on a subconscious, but nagging feeling that drove me—that I was running late, accomplishing too little, and that I might even run out of time before the music fell silent in the ultimate game of musical chairs: my own life. Do you live in a hurry? Is your to do list is longer than your day? Longer than your lifetime? Are you…
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Honor Diaries: A Powerful Film Every Woman Should Watch
The film, Honor Diaries, shines light on human rights abuses committed against women in shame-honor cultures. The concept of honor and the power of shame in such cultures is hard for Westerners to grasp. Because in them, the shame a woman’s “misbehavior” brings on the family is devastating, women’s movements and activities are tightly controlled. Having lived in Afghanistan and worked with Afghan…
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Club Brokenhearted: The Fellowship of Suffering
Yesterday, the moisturizer stung as I applied it around my eyes. The skin was raw from too many salty tears shed over the last few days. I applied foundation, powder, and blush, but didn’t bother with the rest. I wouldn’t get the eyeliner on before tears started blurring the lines, or the mascara before black streams started making their way down my face. Some days…
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Brokenness: A Channel for Living Water
“Why have we swallowed the lie that we can only help if we’re perfect?” —Ann Voskamp, The Broken Way What freedom is in that statement if we can believe it. My own brokenness was [is] in my identity. There are so many hooks we can hang identity on: accomplishments, position by birth, a relationship, a role, a job, socio-economic status, our…
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