Lingering Letters [holy longing]
Perhaps it's Advent early. But I am finding longing everywhere I look. I am finding longing deep within myself. This week's lingering letters are overwhelmingly focused on this. They are about lack, they are about what is left undone, they are about what is done in error.
It is my hope that these letters linger with you, through the week, and beyond. May they be a balm to your soul, a hope in your darkness, a reminder to ask of God (who gives to everyone generously and without reproach). May they be a challenge.
A Quote from Karen Keen from a personal correspondence with Wesley Hill.
This is a challenging, beautiful, short string of words about the family of God, bonds of kinship and singleness. This is for the church.
This Is For All the Lonely Writers by Jennifer Trafton on Rabbit Room.
This piece is haunting in its beauty. It is about being lonely, being an artist, being a child. I found it to be incredibly relatable, strangely encouraging and deeply sweet.
When Your Mother Says She's Fat by Kasey Edwards with The Daily Life.
A convicting piece about words, and the power they hold over us.
Nashville Doesn't Love Me by Leigh Kramer at Hopeful Leigh.
A post about expectations of community and friendship. This is a heart cry, a beautiful, sad thing that I think of often.
There is a book that sits right by my bedside, always there. It is Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist, and I read little bits of it often, but I think about it even more often. It's about expectations and hard things and things that make you want to cry, and times where you cry so hard that you can't stop, and you gasp for air. It's about love, and sorrow and life. If you haven't read it. I recommend it to you unequivocally.
My own most read post this week was One of These Things is Not Like the Others. A return to Single Minded Mondays after a short hiatus. This one just happens to be my mom's favorite of the series so far.
I also wrote about Incomparable Suffering [in which I realize that God does not practice triage] and The Good Part [where I found myself crying over Martha].
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I am so enjoying compiling Lingering Letters. It feels like a sacred thing, in some ways, and I am trying to tread on tiptoe as I enter into it. You may notice that this week is a little lighter, thank you for your notes and words, I think I'll keep this space smaller, so that you have time to linger. With letters like these, you don't need a lot. If you have thoughts about this, or anything else on the blog, please don't hesitate to contact me. I love my connections with each of you, I pray for many of you daily by name and I delight in this place that God has built. Thank you for being here.