Worth a Read Too

Photo by Emma Rahmani from baseimage Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. It’s been about 5 months since my last blog post.  Yes, I know. That’s a long time! I’ll admit time’s gone by faster than expected, and I apologize to my #worthyreaders for the abruptness of my disappearance from the interwebs. I’m grateful for your patience. That being said, let me catch you up. Long story short, I’ve started seminary! There are two reasons why I decided to get my Certificate of Pastoral Studies. No, one of them is not becoming a pastor. First, I’ve felt spiritually stagnant for some time. Perhaps 1-3 years. The best way to describe it is the age-old marriage analogy. The whole Christ as the groom and church as the bride one? Yeah, let me adapt that. I never had the experience new Christians have when they first fall in love with Jesus because I was raised Christian my whole life. It was more like an arranged marriage. And while I can honestly say I’ve always loved God and followed Jesus t

Photo by Dan Whitfield from Pexels Church every Sunday is getting tedious. I don’t know if it’s because virtual church spoiled me or what. After all, there’s no commute. No pressure to get dolled up. Hardly any set-up/breakdown time. But of course, I missed going to church in person, just like we’ve all missed living our daily lives with others in person. In fact, only yesterday one of my introvert friends, who might consider herself a homebody, told me she couldn’t wait for everyone else to get their vaccinations so she could leave the house more. Like she said, there’s a difference between choosing to stay home and being forced to stay home. But if I’m being honest? There’s more to my exhaustion for church. It’s not getting in the car, driving, attending, and then going to the next activity. When we were solely online? I usually couldn’t wait to get church over with. Even if my schedule was clear after. Sure, during quarantine, some days I looked forward to the conversational intera

Photo by Tim Samuel from Pexels INTRODUCTION Growing up, I wasn’t a stranger to the deep-rooted homophobia in my faith. I’m still not. It’s why I’m only out to a handful of people at my church. (You can read my blog post about that here .) Throughout that time, I’ve heard several scripture verses used repeatedly as evidence that homosexuality is a sin. I’m sure you have too. I’ll name a few: Genesis 1-2 and 19:1-9, Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, and Romans 1:24-27. People constantly go, “The Bible says…” Then they spew one of these verses without referring to the historical or cultural context of the scripture. That’s problematic. But what bothers me the most is when people quote nothing.  Sometimes they make it up, saying things like, “The Bible says all homosexuals go to hell.” I’m sorry? Which part of scripture is that from? The Gospel of Nonexistence? Verse 0, chapter 0? (Forgive my sass). I have a family member who went to seminary. She had a professor who held up a Bible to his ear e

Photo from Canva Pre-Introduction Ah, February. The month with the one holiday that’s all about love: Valentine’s Day. As a kid, I’m sure you remember handing out valentines to every single other student in your elementary school class. But it was always such a thrill to give the one to your crush, right? Though you desperately hoped they wouldn’t know they were your crush, while also simultaneously hoping they would. Not only that, but many of us probably made special valentines for our parents too. That’s exactly what I experienced before the next stage, which was actually having a date for Valentine’s. That didn’t even happen until senior year of high school! After years of enjoying having a significant other for Valentine’s, though, I finally found myself single again. I really thought I'd be depressed. Now, don’t get me wrong. I was nostalgic for and saddened by the failed relationships I’ve had. In all honesty, though, it’s kind of funny how my view of this holiday has come

Photo by Olya Kobruseva from Pexels Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be happy. It’s a question I’m sure everyone’s asked themselves during their lives, right? Why am I thinking about happiness so much now, though? It’s because of my New Year's resolution. Let me back up. New Years is my favorite holiday. Most commercialized holidays spew gifts and involve too much shopping. But New Year’s is about hope, growth, and self-improvement. In general, people walk around with high expectations and optimistic views of the upcoming future. Take away the overindulging of alcohol. Remove expectations for a kiss. (Both of which I did without this year). What did the holiday become? A breath of fresh air to my wallet and psyche. Side note: For those reading this post in the years to come, I’m writing this with the 2020 to 2021 mindset. Anyway, now that I’ve put that in perspective, I’m sure you can see what I mean. People were looking forward to the end of 2020. All th