If you’re reading this second post, thank you. My intentions here are to act upon a many-year prompting in my spirit to write. I purchased this WordPress site several years ago, but never put it to good use. During Seminary, I posted a few of my papers, but never really engaged the process. My goal is to honor the Holy Spirit; the Wind, and the Breath of God that fuels the flame within — that keeps getting stronger.

A lot has happened over the last decade in our world. The pandemic was not exactly the beginning of the craziness but it surely catapulted humanity into the present boiling pot of vitriol and fear of all things other than ourselves. It is has become the norm to “influence” the masses as lone wolves, tucked safely behind our screens in free-flowing certainty, insulated from the physical reactions of others as they experience our words. We have forgotten love.The solitary practices of our online rhetoric have transformed our social brains, and our world is suffering, crying out from lack of care and kindness, from scarcity of companionship.

It feels as though there are conversational landmines lurking around every corner. Depending on the person, the same subject matter can be either highly offensive or highly valued. While many of my friends and family have found strength and meaning to get through these times via their Christian conservatism, other dear friends and family have found their ultimate hope and meaning in progressive theology and ideologies … and rarely do the two meet! I am deeply in love with all of these people that I stand between, and I often feel their disappointment when I don’t fully align with their views. But I also understand how they came to have them, and why. I deeply value, dare say even, love their perspectives.

My Nazarene tradition calls this middle space the Via Media (the way of the middle) where Christ (and the Angel of Jericho) stands. This is where I hope my writing will sprout from. “Tolerance” is often frowned upon in Christian circles as an easy, “everything goes,” kind of word. Yet, “tolerance” in it’s fullest Greek definition, means “to bear,” as in Paul’s “Love Chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13. It is not an easy place to land. Love bears all things, hopes all things, and trusts all things. Love never fails. I sense Jesus standing in the middle of all of us, holding us and heavily bearing us, inviting us to keep our eyes fixed upon his; to look through his eyes as we relate to others; to revere the light of the world that shines inside each one of us, even as we vehemently disagree with one another. His ways are higher than our ways.

A brief background: I had a graphic design studio (and taught University level graphic design classes off and on) for 30 years; I worked with Point Loma Nazarene University’s Center for Justice and Reconciliation for 10 years, helping to establish their Anti-Trafficking advocacy and awareness programs and curriculum for San Diego Schools; I then attended Fuller Theological Seminary and received an M.Div. in December of ’24; simultaneously, I finished a year-long Clinical Pastoral Education residency at a large Metropolitan Hospital in San Diego; and am now a full-time Clinical Hospital Chaplain within that same hospital network. I am 59, married to my husband of 36 years, have three grown children, and reside in Southern California. My husband and I both come from a long line, multi-generations of denominational pastors and people of faith. I am Wesleyan in my theology. Psalm 118.5 is a life verse: “I called to God from my narrow place, and he lifted me up, into the divine expanse” (direct Hebrew translation).