Erika’s Reviews > Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage > Status Update

"My father got the elephant in India when his missionary parents traveled there to save Hindus from their misguided belief in gods of pure love, forgiveness, joy, and new beginnings."

I wrote it down and later taped it to my bathroom mirror, where all truth resides at least briefly.

...because I do know that the movement of grace in our lives so often begins with desperation and blurt.

Whenever you let your tummy out, [Dread] reacts. She's a kind of corset, to hold the body of you into an acceptable shape and keep you from deep breaths.

[Dread] appeared, quiet as the grave, as is her wont and her domain, pretending her job is to keep me from dying, when actually it is to keep me from living, at least outside her control. We share the worry that I am secretly a loser, a latent embarrassment

...trying to get just one more thing done before I have to be somewhere... racing around with [the dog]'s pills in my hand, I took my eyes off the ball and flung the pills down my throat.

The second I swallowed them, I said out loud to God, "Please don't let me have just taken the dog's pills."

God sighed.

My parents did not hire [Dread] to keep me small and obedient, to keep me separate from all of you and all of life and most of me. I hired her.

She kept me in line, helped me to be someone everyone would like. She got me to where I am today.

Essay: Light Breezes

Dread was my governess growing up.

Most of these prophets were introverts. Jesus definitely was...He's in a world of great fear, there's evil, violence, and need all around him, so He often finds He needs time alone - in silence, in the desert, on the mountain, on the beach, beneath the stars - to get strong and patient enough to go back and face Peter's lame and endless questions for the tenth time: "Is now when we get to be in charge?"

Sometimes we have to get cancer or have a heart attack to stop the train of wired meaninglessness, to stop faking or stuffing it all back down.