This post blew me away, in the best possible way: “The Gay Community, and That One Time Jesus Called Me the N-Word.”

“There is someone that I love even though I don’t approve of what he does. There is someone I accept though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is……me.”

This post made me cheer–not the beginning, but the end: “The Future of Evangelical Leadership Doesn’t Belong to the Chosen Few.”

“That’s really at the heart of the kind of “leadership” I think she represents. It’s not about amassing power for oneself, it’s about sharing it to empower others. It’s a walking-with rather than a standing-above kind of leadership. It’s a kind of power that people who seek power don’t even recognize as power.”

This post inspired me: “Why This Matters”

“If you don’t recognize the men, they are Louie Giglio and Andy Stanley, megachurch pastors and Passion-Movement-starters extrordinaire… The woman they are standing with is their youth worker from when they were kids. They brought her up on that stage, in front of 60,000 college students, to show the impact that one person can make in the lives of, well, 2 + 60,000 + …??… people… It made my heart so happy. Not because I want to stand on my soapbox and declare the fact that God can use women in the lives of women and men (though He can!!). Not because I myself am a woman in ministry and found it encouraging and affirming (though I did!!). It made my heart happy because in that moment, who knows how many young women in the audience had their God-imaginations expanded? Who knows how many young women felt the freedom, for the first time, to think that God might use them? Who knows whether the Called saw as never before that others before them who are like them have also said yes, and that God blessed their willingness to serve?” 

 This post made me cry: “Where is the Light? Chicago Murders, 2012”

“It was a Tuesday when my husband and I drove down to Englewood, a poor neighborhood that has experienced more crime than any other in the city. We had dropped off our three-year-old foster daughter at day-care, and were driving through rush hour traffic, blaming each other for not leaving earlier. We were late to a funeral. The funeral was for an 18-year-old, barely a man, who had been shot in the head by alleged gang members who had jumped out of an alley. This man – I’ll call him Michael – was the father of my foster daughter.”

This post made me heave a heavy sigh: Crucified by Christians?

“You’re in a swirl of darkness, experiencing soul-searing pain. Open wounds. Not only from your own pain, but from the countless injustices and atrocities around you. Numb. Your soul is numb with a fragile faith. One wrong move and you’ll fall to pieces. You can’t see God through the fog of his people. Jesus said that people would spot Christians by their love. If that’s the case, then you couldn’t be surrounded by Christians because these people are selfish, stubborn, mean and angry. Vicious. Evil. Creative in their cruelty. And they’ve come to crucify you… There are plenty of Christians who are like Jesus. If you know any, plant yourself in their presence, maybe let them know what you’re going through.”

What about you? What have you been reading this week?