Reading Reflections

Just Mercy is heavy. Really heavy. It’s a compelling read—a real page turner—but it’s filled with injustice and brokenness. And that fills my soul with grief. Bryan Stephenson tells the story of how he founded the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama in 1989. It’s a story of fighting injustice. As a Harvard Law student…

Jasmine is married to Phil and they have two boys: Wynn and Langston. They’re members at Redeemer. Wynn, now 4, is named after Wynn Kenyon, who was an Elder at Redeemer in the early days and Phil’s professor at Belhaven. Langston, just 18 months, gets his name from Langston Hughes, an American poet and novelist.…

This book is for preachers. Some of you just stopped reading—but may I suggest that we’re all preachers? Martin Luther said we are to preach the gospel to ourselves every day. In this little 1977 book, Frederick Buechner says the preacher’s task is to tell the truth (1) about the world around him, (2) about…

Jim Collins’ book Good to Great is a study of what distinguishes successful companies from the rest. For this study, a great company had to beat the market and comparison companies for a duration of 15 years. They didn’t start with a hypothesis, but they took the 11 qualifying companies and determined what those companies…

I was first exposed to Jesmyn Ward while sitting under the teaching of Dr. Patrick Alexander and Dr. Otis Pickett (one of our elders). Lecturing in one of the only air conditioned buildings of Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchmen) as part of the Prison to College Pipeline, Dr. Alexander masterfully unpacked Ward’s memoir Men We Reaped.…

“It’s day 45 of quarantine, and I’ve finished Nexflix,” the joke goes. In these days of physical distancing to protect life and flatten the curve, our working, studying, exercising, shopping—and even connecting—are now done behind a computer more than ever before. We’ve moved online. Of course, with the advent of the iPhone in 2007, we…

I believe the gospel; sometimes it just doesn’t show in my parenting. You know what I mean, don’t you? Some days, in my sorority house of 6 girls ages 11-18, I can get a little cranky and controlling. I just want knickknacks picked up, general obedience, a little peace and quiet, and some manners. Those…

“I wish I had read this earlier.” It’s the sentiment of many who read this book. Imagine living with an aging mother who manipulates with guilt, a 9-year-old son who throws tantrums when disciplined, a husband who doesn’t text when he’s late, and a boss who gives you more work than you can do. You…

Abuse is prevalent in our culture. [1] Perhaps you’ve seen pictures of bruised bodies and broken bones from domestic violence. Maybe you’ve read of deaths. But abuse is more than that. Psychological, verbal, and emotional abuse may not show up in a picture, but an abuser slowly dismantles your identity in a way that can…