Blog

Awkwardness, it's okay.

Human beings in a room with other human beings are awkward for a while. You’d think we’d have figured out, as a species, how to speed past the painful bit and slide into acquaintance and friendship gracefully.

Liv Booth

August 3, 2021

Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt

Satan was playing his favorite game that night when Jesus came walking on the waves to his disciples. He had used Jesus’ absence to whip up a terrifying storm both outside and inside the disciples’ minds. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt - where was the man they called God now!?

Brandon Booth

July 27, 2021

Eyes of Love

What do you see when you look in the eyes of the Father? Are you avoiding His gaze? I’ve struggled most of my life with performance. My metric for success was often based on the praise and feedback of others, and a fear of failure could make me extremely avoidant in situations where I felt I’d failed.

Laura Sharp

July 20, 2021

God IS-es too much!

When the Christian mystics experience union with God as "silence" or "nothing," it is not because God is really no "thing," as if he was nonexistent, but because he is not a thing like all other things. God is not one being among many other beings. God IS. And He is-es so much that he overwhelms our perceptive abilities.

Brandon Booth

July 13, 2021

Hospitality: incarnate grace

Fourteen is a tough age. I remember the feeling. I didn’t quite deserve a spot at the adults’ table, but I wanted to be respected and included.

Liv Booth

July 6, 2021

What God wants out of me.

We’ve known since creation that God is triune. He said, “let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). So where does the notion of a needy, demanding, solitary God come from?

Brandon Booth

June 29, 2021

Share what you have, not what you wish you had

I’ve been a guest at some super fancy houses. Exhausted one summer, I visited a friend who lives by the sea. Smiling, she hugged me, settled me into a wicker chaise lounge on her wrap-around porch, put a chilled white wine in my hand, and treated me like royalty. I was accepted and cared for in these luxurious surroundings.

Liv Booth

June 22, 2021

Wonder is greater than interest. Interest is greater than curiosity

Curiosity is a child hungry for new ideas. Like a finch in Spring, he gathers little seeds of knowledge, but his attention flits here and there, directionless. “More!” he squawks. Without guidance, he becomes greedy and grasping. Curiosity is merely a collector.

Brandon Booth

June 14, 2021

One Space

Many of my fondest memories as a welcomed guest take place in one room, or even in one part of one room. Any semi-cleared spot can be a space for acceptance: a place to be heard. I don’t have to go crazy getting my entire house “company-ready” for my visiting friends to be loved.

Liv Booth

June 1, 2021