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The Elephant in the Room
by Cassie Westrate | Nov 15, 2016 | Placeless
But the elephant is still there. Always there. And on day four, my co-worker and I decide that we just need to talk about it.
Bon Iver’s “22, A Million,” A Review
by Will Montei | Nov 14, 2016 | Placeless
Maybe it’s the state of my own fractured life that allows me to listen past the fractures in the composition of Bon Iver’s latest offering, 22, A Million, to see the transcendence hidden inside.
A Letter to InterVarsity
by Catherine Kramer | Nov 13, 2016 | Placeless
The most concerning aspect of this new policy is that it does not leave any room for thoughtful, spirit-led discussion and potential disagreement.
Day Four
by Abby Zwart | Nov 12, 2016 | Placeless
Day four and I wonder if it’s okay not to write about this.
For What Was Done and Not Done Well
by Elaine Schnabel | Nov 11, 2016 | Placeless
Tell me: am I using the wrong words? Wearing the wrong clothes? When I say “black lives matter,” why does it translate into “yours doesn’t”?
Let America Be America
by Katie Van Zanen | Nov 10, 2016 | Placeless
Let America be America again.
To Any Survivors:
by Bart Tocci | Nov 9, 2016 | Placeless
It’s November ninth. I’m broadcasting to you from a bunker deep underground near the Earth’s core where it’s still warm. The election was yesterday, and we all know what happened.
Election Day
by Paul Menn | Nov 8, 2016 | Placeless
Russians, emails, and lies (oh my!)
Trust Me
by Caroline (Higgins) Nyczak | Nov 7, 2016 | Placeless
We made a Pop-Tart assembly line. You know, to save time. An assembly line of two people. I toasted the Pop-Tarts and my brother Andrew buttered them.
A Song Sadder Than It Used To Be
by Josh deLacy | Nov 6, 2016 | Washington
What could have been? What would have been, always debated. Again and again, the future and now, and tears, but only hers.
Happy (Belated) Half-Birthday to Me
by Alissa Anderson | Nov 5, 2016 | Placeless
I will be at church at midnight on Christmas, because that’s my job now. I’ve surrounded myself with tradition and ritual, and I feel right at home.
The Limitations of Flowers
by Ben Rietema | Nov 4, 2016 | Australia
The woman looked at me like I’d asked to give her a dead fish, which, considering I looked like I had come out of the forest, wasn’t wholly misplaced.
An Alarmist Essay about Meteors
by Meg Schmidt | Nov 3, 2016 | Placeless
You may not have realized this, but the world came very close to ending last Sunday night.
Blogging Boundaries and Not Trying to Play Coy
by Jacob Schepers | Nov 2, 2016 | Placeless
This post, though it may not seem like it at all, is much more personal than anything I’ve written thus far.
Let’s Get a Little House
by Katerina Parsons | Nov 1, 2016 | Placeless
Let’s buy our sofas at a rummage sale and/Cover the spots with afghans someone knitted./Let’s learn to knit.
Frequently Asked Questions
by Hannah Brenton | Oct 31, 2016 | Grand Rapids
I’ll walk past those significant spaces on campus that graciously held my tear-filled conversations, all-nighters, hilarious pranks, Calvin walks, and breakups. I see new students carrying on life; these are their spaces now.
My Adventure in Your Home
by Erin Smith | Oct 30, 2016 | Hungary
However, when I found my predecessor’s clipboard, book of short stories, and spatula scattered around my room, I was tempted to see my move as a predictable step on an already well-worn path.
The Spain Diaries
by Neil GIlbert | Oct 29, 2016 | Spain
Do you understand?
I cock my head; wait, again?
Elusive fluency.
I Believe in Aslan
by Bekah (Williamson) Medendorp | Oct 28, 2016 | Placeless
I am as control-hungry, wealth-lusting, and greed-seeking as every antagonist in Narnia. I am worse because I am not fictional. I fear Aslan because he loves me regardless.
Borrowed Words
by Brad Zwiers | Oct 27, 2016 | Egypt
I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. These were borrowed words and they were not mine.
On Conviction
by Nick Meekhof | Oct 26, 2016 | Michigan
I believe that God sees enough glimmers of faith and goodwill in our everyday conduct to keep Him convicted of our worth.
Why I Believe We Need Better Religious Education
by Jack VA | Oct 25, 2016 | Placeless
Only 10 percent of American teenagers could name the world’s 5 major religions.
Humanity
by Lauren (Boersma) Harris | Oct 24, 2016 | Placeless
A definition. A rationalization. An attribute. An un-plumbable well of existence.
Why I Don’t Believe in Myself
by Julia LaPlaca | Oct 23, 2016 | Placeless
The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
The Wildness of God
by Matt Medendorp | Oct 22, 2016 | Placeless
God’s wildness is a multiplied version of the boot-quaking awe we experience when we gaze upon the Grand Canyon.
Principles of Something
by Gabe Gunnink | Oct 20, 2016 | Placeless
For this reason, merely believing in “something” is not half-hearted or vague, but both mind-blowing and earth-shattering.
Behold, I Have Invented God
by Mary Margaret Healy | Oct 19, 2016 | Placeless
In a word: I am so hopelessly imperfect it frequently causes me to crawl into a blanket fort and wish the world away.
Fly the W
by Ben DeVries | Oct 18, 2016 | Chicago
If anyone in contemporary America can sympathize with the frustration of first-century Christians awaiting the imminent return of Christ, it’s we Cubs fans.
Stereogram
by Geneva Langeland | Oct 17, 2016 | Placeless
Where moments before had been only a slew of green speckles, I could suddenly see a crouching frog. It had been there all along; I just hadn’t had the skill, the “sight,” to notice it before.
Why Tax Day Should be in October
by Andrew Knot | Oct 16, 2016 | Placeless
Because of my extension, my tax deadline fell in a period of the liturgical year called Ordinary Time, which seems more apt than the traditional timing of Tax Day, so close to Passion Week.
