In Search of Stronger SpellsIS THERE STILL SPACE for joy in a disenchanted world? This is one of the questions that sent me back to seminary.
At a 2 but Rolling Like an 8AS AN ASIAN AMERICAN, I often feel selfconscious or distrustful of my feelings of happiness. I never wanted to come across as happier than others because that could make me seem insensitive or noncommunal.
Church as a Transcendent Collective“COMMUNITAS AND COLLECTIVE effervescence describe aspects or moments of communal excitement; there is no word for the love — or force or need — that leads individuals to seek ecstatic merger with the group.” - Barbara Ehrenreich
Joy I Cannot ShareMY PARENTS are a power couple in the Chinese Christian community in the United States and abroad. I liken them to the Clintons; they have an equal and equitable partnership and are both seen as leaders.
Finding and Feasting in MongoliaMY HUSBAND AND I never intended on living overseas, much less being overseas missionaries. But in 2014, we took a two-week trip to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and something inside us was awakened.
Joy to the LordAS A CHILD I was taught that God was a caring God. He cared about what I felt and what I was going through. However, when my husband, Ben, was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in 2013, that belief of God was challenged and questioned.
Guilt, Pain, and ShameWHEN I WAS 4 years old, my very first memory of my father was how he used guilt to discipline me. “Don’t do that, Andrew, you don’t know how long I have to live.”
