Back Then
His anger was channeled; his joy resplendent.
Brad Zwiers (’12) graduated from Calvin College in 2012 and Western Theological Seminary in 2015. He will not be graduating from any more schools. He often stares at books he wishes he could read but knows he will not finish and goes for long walks with his wife, Gwyn. Sometimes he plays basketball and always he follows the greatest sporting club in the world, Liverpool F.C.
The Last One
Then, at some point in our spin last night, we caught our collective breath.
Liverpool, Champions of England
I didn’t expect to experience the amount of joy I felt.
A Third Way
I see a man exhausted by the emotional toll his commitment to winning at all costs has had on his life.
Devs and Our Determined (?) End
Throughout the show, many of the actors deliver their lines with an intentional flatness, and I initially misinterpreted this flatness as both bad acting and a way of communicating a thesis.
Mailbag from Myself
No one has any idea what to do, and we’re all trying to use what we’ve got to make things work.
Blue Is the Color I Know the Most
“His name is Blue,” we answered.
RIP Kobe
Kobe Bryant was more than a basketball player; that much has never been in doubt.
Bringing Vince Carter to Church pt. 2
But what still grabs my attention and gains my respect is the way Vince Carter has subverted the expectations of aging basketball stars.
Decade-end Wonder
While I can’t stop reading these lists or listening to decade-end podcasts, I’m not so sure music should be categorized or ranked this way.
Go Forth
No one actually protests my ordination or calling; no one says I do not belong. This isn’t the case for some women in certain denominational spaces.
Y is for YNWA
If a soccer club can sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and then, for the most part, follow those words with action, Christians (read: I) can say “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,” and then live that out. Right?
House Hunt
The house listed around 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, we walked through it at 3:30, and we wrote on it by 11:00 a.m. Friday. We weren’t the first offer.
Charitable Critique
Critique matters because it sharpens our sense of beauty.
The Open Mic
My poems in The Open Mic served an analogous purpose: they underscored the prowess of other poets in the group.
Why We Lose It When “Mr. Brightside” Plays
Coming out of my cage and I’ve been doing just fine.
Enough of This
Racist behavior has ramped up around the continent in the form of chants, banana skins thrown on the pitch, and racist banners.
Cry Out
“This is not the way things are supposed to be!” is a very faithful response. Cry out.
Gentle As They Go
My hands, people tell me, are soft.
Power Through Writer’s Block in 7 Easy Steps
Sometimes it feels like that’s all you’ve written about, only variations on a theme, the same thing spun a thousand different ways. Let the mystery…
Unraveled and Well
[Untitled] is cathartic—not because it offers any clear-cut wisdom but because it tells personal stories honestly, which might actually be real wisdom.
Coffee With a Shot of Anonymity
One morning, after she filled my mug with coffee, and I had paid for the privilege of drinking it, she started a conversation.
Fear in a Russ’ Restaurant
Random man: MY REAL NAME IS DONALD J. TRUMP AND YOU’RE FIRED!
A Moment of Silence
There are moments when silence is not the absence of sound. Instead, in those moments, silence is the space, the stillness, where the sound is heard.
In Life and in Death
A hot and electric pulse coursed through my body, like the shock you receive from an exposed wire, only longer-lasting, and warmer.
A Thin Place
I sank my water bottle into nature’s LaCroix, took a sip, offered some to Gwyn.
Hole Intimacy
We’re made to want things, to feel a deep burning ache, to pine. It’s innate to being human. We long for intimacy and connection, for a place and a people where we find peace.
Mining the Abyss
When it came time for “Floating in the Forth,” the sold-out crowd sang along with Scott: “I think I’ll save suicide for another year!” I fought back tears.
A Toast to “Things”
Here’s to people and their things. Here’s to not liking sports and to nose piercings, to back tattoos and bro tanks, to longboards, to reading the newspaper each morning with a cup of coffee.
Newer Normal
The new tyranny of everything-at-once feels like a distant dystopia, and the sky looks a different color, and there’s another new, another normal.
