I was out driving today on my way to work, and I saw a car that was completely wrapped in a giant ad. I immediately assumed that the driver worked for the company that was so colorfully displayed all over his vehicle. Then I remembered a few years ago seeing ads where big businesses were hiring people who were willing to wrap their vehicles like that. Basically, it turned their cars into mobile billboards in order to attract more customers. I don't know if they still do that. If they do, I suppose then it’s possible that he wasn’t actually an official representative of the company, even though he was advertising their business nonetheless.

You know how many news exposés and documentaries they’ve made now that graphically show the horrible conditions of animals in our food industry? I don't, but I assume there are several at this point. I hear they're appalling to watch because the animals are so terribly mistreated.

Sidenote: I put "pastor" in the search bar for an image for this blog post, and every single image that popped up except for three were all men. The three all featured this same woman. Feels kind of appropriate considering the nature of this blog.

"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph." - Haile Selassie I

The photos of the men in the prison in El Salvador have been tormenting me for weeks. Men, forcibly shaved, stripped down to nothing, put into cells with bunk beds four stories high, with barely any elbow room, sharing breathing space with other men... I see those pictures and I wonder, what could they possibly have done to deserve this?

I have mentioned previously that my word for the year is JOY. I knew when I picked this word back in November that it would be a hard word to focus on for 2025, considering all that was coming. I could not have predicted, however, all that has happened these past three months. It has been even more imaginably difficult than I initially thought.

In honor of the asylum-seekers who fled for their lives from the unthinkable, only to be forced to leave once more, as our own government revokes their status and turns them out.

This week in one of my classes, we are studying the enthronement psalms. The enthronement psalms make up only 7 of the 150 psalms contained in the Old Testament. Five of them, Psalms 95-99, are in order and seem to have a logical progression between them, starting with the beginning of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and ending with God sitting on the throne of the temple. They’re worth a read if you’re looking for a devotion to do today. They’re full of praises to God and declarations of His reign over all things.

I started this blog thinking I wanted to talk about how we can have joy even in the midst of hardship. Instead, I want to talk about trauma.

I’ve been spending a lot of time this past week thinking about something my dear friend and pastor said to me when we had lunch together on Monday. It resonated with me deeply.

When I was growing up in the 90s, Billy Graham was a very big deal. He was doing his evangelistic crusades across the country, trying to bring people to faith in Christ. He had written books and been on TV. My dad used to volunteer for the crusades when they came to town, praying with people who came forward to the altar call.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently.