three purple hearts

It seems like a lot longer ago than it has been since I was sitting in a quiet boat floating down the canals in Amsterdam. The return to real life certainly did not come gently. And yet, my mind keeps going back to the gentle sharing of facts and history that the skipper of that boat kept up throughout the tour.  I learned things I hadn't known before about the city built on a swamp that shouldn't be able to exist, and how it has maintained a seemingly precarious balance beautifully for 750 years. I saw beauty in the quirks and slightly off-kilter places, and the reality that people are free to be themselves there was palpable. It is a place whose welcome and encouragement connected and still connects the world. I felt more at peace there than I have in very many places I've ever been.  I felt like me there. Returning to the country of my birth was a more foreign experience than I knew it could be, but I have gotten reaclimated and life has marched on. Finding common ground...

I laughed. I cried. I learned. I rolled my eyes. This one article has all the makings of a decent made for tv movie… but it’s real life and oh, so timely. At a time in history when what is reported by those grasping at control like it’s the only straw left in the dispenser is so boldly different than what’s real, these kinds of discrepancies seem to stand out more than ever. What the church of the Nazarene and its “leaders” say in this article… just isn’t true. The writer even calls it out, at one point. And it feels like a breath of fresh air. Here’s the thing, folks, you can point and blame all you want… but the curtain is falling. The ivory tower is crumbling. The glass house has more empty frames than in tact panes. I’m so deeply saddened for all of you who thought you did something by reaching the pinnacle… All it really seems to have done is put you at the head of the church of the Nazarene at a point in history when it is very much on the wrong side. And the silence from the ...