I didn’t think about that
People wonder why I have such an unhealthy obsession with human suffering and frailty, as if there were some other mystery, some other unfathomable principle in the universe more puzzling, infuriating,...
View ArticleA Shift In Perspective
I was getting frustrated, watching his attention zip away from the homework sheet in front of him. “Yah, yah?!” he said, imitating some stupid character from some stupid movie I didn’t have time to...
View ArticleReasons [Reprise]
Note: Originally written several years ago. My mom looks for Reasons the way some people look for spare change on the ground. She always has an eye out for them, an ear cocked to hear the faintest...
View ArticleHumbler Yet
We were sitting around the peeled and cracking table, chatting late into the night. It has become a common occurrence in our small dining room to see an eclectic mix of people perched on different...
View ArticleEntitlement
One of the most difficult things I’ve struggled with since moving here has been a sense of entitlement. That word is not one I ever hear from those living here, mainly because it’s never used in a...
View ArticleDisplacement: An Introduction
True to form, there was a new group of people sitting around the dining room table, which had only gotten more chipped and rickety in the past few months. Again we came from very different...
View ArticleBad People and Thanksgiving
As per my count, there have been at least three shootings within my three block radius in the past three months. One resulted in a death. The first one happened at an intersection I had driven...
View Article“Is it safe?”
This author is DM, a nurse practitioner living in North Philadelphia, and one of the sources of living inspiration for what I am doing now. This is part of our Displacement series. If you would like to...
View ArticlePart 2: On Hope
After a brutal series of Christmas shifts in the ER, I had finally come home for the holidays. My mother and I were in the kitchen, talking like we used to. We had seen and loved the new Les...
View ArticleThe Dunkachino Deception
“A-dunk-a-dunk-a-dunk-achino!” The kid did some 70’s move as he sang and swiveled his knees. I was a little stunned. “Have you ever seen Jack and Jill?” he asked. Still stunned. “Uh, no?” “You know...
View ArticleTo Save Much People Alive
“Who are you going to jump?” I asked sharply. “Look me in the eye and tell me.” He couldn’t do it. We kept talking in circles, getting more and more frustrated. There was big talk earlier about it,...
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Never Normal
Shootings/homicide in the past year. I got up before the alarm yesterday even though my sleep was fitful and restless. Though it was hard for me to know for sure, I was fairly certain that a series of...
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Snowflakes, Shootings, and Sex Offenders
Last year, Parenting Magazine gave our small city of Wilmington, Delaware a rating as the Number 1 worst place to raise your children: A short drive from South Philly and Camden and midway between New...
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Valentines and the Valley of Dry Bones
Sunday, February 10th “Wait, you live there?” he asked, a little incredulous. “Yes…” “Do you know what kind of area that is?” “Yes,” I repeated myself, trying to suppress a smile. “It is… dangerous.” I...
View ArticleAs If They Were Jesus
“Let me love them with Your love, let me reflect Jesus to them…” I catch myself praying such prayers quite often – about my friends, family, church, patients, neighbors – I want to love with the love...
View ArticleSelection Bias: Statistical Integrity in Christian Community
A preview of a guest post for the Emerging Scholars Network (a ministry of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship): One day a number of concerned mothers met with the minister to express their...
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Can You Drink the Cup?
She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I...
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On Christian Radicalism
[Originally written for the Emerging Scholars Network blog, but you can see it earlier here. You should really check it out some day!] Christianity Today’s criticism of Platt, Chan, and Claiborne et...
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Guns, Children, and Suits: that which does not belong
I would rather talk about guns and children than wear a suit. I do not like suits. Whenever I have to dress in anything fancier than casual, I become nervous because I know I am dressing for someone...
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Cheap Justice, Cheap Grace
[Originally written for the ESN blog.] Photo from the Boston Bombing In watching people die, I have come to better appreciate how much meaning people attach to a body and how death has a way of...
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