Wow, it’s May. Normally, the rain gods have visited us by now, but this year, they’re taking their sweet time, so our city is suffering a drought. Starting May 2 and 3 we are going on water rationing, which means I won’t be able to wash my hair, and the amount of anxiety this whole not washing my hair thing is placing on me is disproportionate to the actual problem it presents. I can’t explain it to you. If you can’t feel my pain, you just don’t get me.

This will also explain things if you begin to see metaphors cropping up in my faith writing, such as “how my faith runs dry,” or “the sun is killing my soul,” or “the parched land of my spirituality.” Context is everything.

Anyway, the world keeps turning even in a drought, and I am still here to bring you thirst-quenching (ugh. metaphor) reads for the week:

4 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me in My Twenties by Jeff Goins. Jeff’s advice is always wise and practical at the same time. These are things I wish someone had told me as well.

14 suggestions of how to treat people with disabilities. The premise of my book, Outside In: Ten Christian Voices We Can’t Ignore, is to perk up our ears to stories from the margins, such as people with disabilities. So in continuing the conversation from one of my chapters, this is a great piece to listen to what people with disabilities have to say about how to be treated.

Happily Single by Melissa Van Dyke. Another chapter from my book is hearing from the perspective of single people. I loved learning from Melissa about her struggles and how she would like to be treated as a happily single woman.

The Beauty of Being Average by Tanya Marlow. I love conversations about being extraordinarily ordinary. I have always said that I am not excellent at anything, but I am mediocre at a lot of things, so I am thankful Tanya validates me in this post. Being average is indeed, beautiful.

In April, I joined the Red Couch Book Club in reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. It has been a long time since I have been so moved by a book. The depth of suffering by the victims of an unjust incarceration system bowled me over several times and I sobbed and sobbed at their lived realities. At the same time, Bryan Stevenson’s moving language, masterful storytelling, and whispers of hope threaded throughout the book was worth entering into the stories of pain. I can’t recommend it enough. Life Changer, for sure.

Last week, an unspeakable tragedy occurred in the beautiful country of Nepal. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the city of Kathmandu and surrounding regions, destroying thousands of lives, homes, impacting millions of people, one million of them include defenseless, vulnerable children in desperate need of help. I serve on the board of One Day’s Wages, and the board has released $5,000 to jumpstart the Nepal Earthquake Relief Fund– please consider partnering with us. Let’s carry each other’s burdens, share in the grief of our friends in Nepal, and offer help generously.

 

What changed your life this week?