All the Exclamation Marks, you guys!
Remember when I started This Thing (you know, ONE HUNDRED WEEKENDS AGO!!!) and I wasn't so sure if was going to turn into a thing at all! Because consistency was tricky back then and I wasn't so convinced I wanted to commit to doing this post every. single. weekend. - but, here we are... 100 Saturdays in, and it has become one of my favorite things! I am all about cheerleading and encouraging and there are so many spaces online that amazing writing and vulnerable pieces are being published and while many of my favorites are probably your favorites too, it's been my hope that every once in awhile, I get to introduce you to someone new!
So - (as is so often said here - although, honestly - never in real life...) without further ado... Here is:
Featured today are posts by Colleen Mitchell, Sarah Bessey, Glennon Doyle Melton, Amy Breitmann, Jennifer Dukes Lee, Jennifer Frisbie, Kris Camealy, and a post from right here... and - of course - a video to wrap it all up!
Remember when I started This Thing (you know, ONE HUNDRED WEEKENDS AGO!!!) and I wasn't so sure if was going to turn into a thing at all! Because consistency was tricky back then and I wasn't so convinced I wanted to commit to doing this post every. single. weekend. - but, here we are... 100 Saturdays in, and it has become one of my favorite things! I am all about cheerleading and encouraging and there are so many spaces online that amazing writing and vulnerable pieces are being published and while many of my favorites are probably your favorites too, it's been my hope that every once in awhile, I get to introduce you to someone new!
So - (as is so often said here - although, honestly - never in real life...) without further ado... Here is:
A Weekend Recap...
A Gathering of Awesome
from around the Interwebs!
Happy Reading! (Ya'll know to click on the authors' names below to read the entire post, yes?)
* This one - because this week started out HARD, y'all... by Colleen Mitchell with What I Learned from the Teens in the McKinney Video...
"...I learned something from the teens in the now widely viewed McKinney video. And what they taught me is what makes it impossible for me to take the “let’s just sit back and wait for all the facts” road in this discussion.
Because no matter what those kids had been doing beforehand, no matter how chaotic and crazy the environment was, right, wrong or indifferent, when they saw that girl, wearing only a bikini, hauled face first to the ground by her arm and then her hair, they stopped. They woke up. They were suddenly sober and alert.
And when she began to cry out for her mother, for the person she belongs to, desperately looking for someone to come protect her in her fear, for someone to see her there under his weight, struggling for power and dignity and humanity, they could not get her mother there quickly enough.
But they did what they could.
They claimed her.
They stepped up and said she was their cousin, their friend, their class mate.
She belonged to them.
And they were there. And there were watching what was happening to her. And they would not be silent."
* This post by Sarah Bessey with Say Her Name...
"Say her name.
Say it out loud: DaJerria Becton. A beautiful name, let your voice say it out loud.
Scripture tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God – Jesus gives us ears to hear and then faith comes. I think there’s something powerful about our own voices speaking the truth out ahead of ourselves. Our words matter. Our voices matter. What we speak aloud often sinks its way into our soul and our memory and then into our actions.
So here is what we could say today: DaJerria Becton.
I believe that today the crucified and resurrected Christ is saying her name with us: DaJerria Becton.
You are made in the image of God, DaJerria, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are valuable. You are beloved.
She is not “Bikini Girl.”
Not “that black girl in the bikini in that video.”
Not “the McKinney girl.”
Not whatever terrible name she was called that day or in the days since as people cast judgment on her and her friends for the way the day ended: a white man’s knees pressed into her young back, forcing her face into the grass while she cried out for someone to call her mama.
“Someone call my mama!”
Her name is DaJerria Becton. "
* And to switch gears a bit and not be so heavy, there is this post from Glennon Doyle Melton over at Momastery with Go Forth and Be a Little Jacked Up...
"Our imperfections are our SERVICE!!! A messy house, a few extra pounds, a complete and total inability to prepare food—IT’S OUR CHARITY WORK! You are WELCOME, world!!!!! We should rest after all this sacrificial and valorous public imperfection. Jeez. We are basically SAINTS."
* This post by Amy Breitmann over at Sharing ViBella with His Table...
"I know the tears will come much later because right now I want her to tell me what time it is and what’s her favorite color. I want to know how she learned English. I want to understand why she is so happy in her chair that has become a table.
I want to show her pictures of my daughter.
I don’t ask her any of these things. She knows English but it’s me who is clumsy.
I sit. I hold her hand and I sit.
I don’t know if she’s praying but I hope she can sense I am.
Our brown eyes meet and I wish I could tell her that grass is green at home. I wish she could pet my dog. I wish I could fix her broken bones and make her chicken marsala with the special gravy that my kids like. I wish I could say I’m sorry in Creole
Instead I ask: “How do you say beautiful again?
I keep forgetting.
My heart is too full of pain to remember.
I want to smile tonight but I can’t. I stare blankly ahead at the ocean. Tears pool.
Juxtaposition is everywhere."
* This post by Jennifer Dukes Lee with The First Step To Authentic Friendship...
“The girl walked back into the room, with her blanket tucked under her arm. But just then, one of the girls saw what she retrieved from the bag.
She had been “found out.”
“What’s that?” asked the friend, pointing a finger at the lovie.
I was so proud of that little girl. Because here’s what she did next:
She lifted her chin, lifted her voice, and took the first step toward authentic friendship. She sat cross-legged on the couch and told her room of friends the truth. She told them how her mom’s friend made that blanket for her when she was a newborn, and how it had traveled with her on a hundred car rides, and how she once lost it at the park, and how it fell apart a few years ago, so Grandma had to sew it. She showed everyone the long stitch mark, and it looked like a scar.
Everyone listened. No one laughed at her. No one judged. And then, the most beautiful thing happened. One by one, each of the girls pushed back the covers, walked into the bedroom, and unzipped their duffel bags. Out came the ragged tie-blankets, a bear with a missing eye, a Taggie blankie, a plush doll. EVERY GIRL IN THE ROOM WAS HIDING A SECRET IN HER BAG.
That was the Night of the Great Unzipping.
Each girl dragged her own lovie into the living room, and then they took turns telling their stories — about lovies loved, and lovies lost, and lovies found again.
And everyone slept better that night. Because someone had the guts to “go first.”
* This post from Jennifer Frisbie with The Journey Must Continue…
"Putting my life on display is a choice I’ve made for myself. Not everyone will agree with how much (or little) should be shared via a blog or social media. And that’s okay. I’ve learned to live with that.
But I’m finding that putting my faith on display is a much scarier thing. Essentially, what I’m doing is publicly sharing with you the way I process through truth. You get to journey with me as I work through what He’s teaching me. Every idea must be expounded on and sometimes I might land on the wrong conclusion.
And sometimes…so will you. Our thoughts may not always align.
But I don’t want to walk this road to Emmaus alone. When we walk and talk together those are the places Jesus meets us. These are the times where He speaks truth into our hearts and helps us understand who He is."
* This post by Kris Camealy with FOR ALL THE GIRLS WHO DON’T FEEL LIKE THEY MEASURE UP...
"I have looked into glass and felt utter contempt for this tent, this skin that houses these bones, this heart. I have flipped through magazines and felt nothing other than the weight of obvious inadequacy, as I stared empty into airbrushed beauty. I remember the difficult years of middle school, of being small and late to bloom, I remember the dreaded feeling of changing in the locker room in High School, of hiding in stalls to change clothes.
Hiding.
I remember countless hours spent reading ‘girl’ magazines only to set them aside and feel completely disgusted for all of the ways I failed to measure up.
I remember friends sucking down diet pills and trying to survive on just an apple all day. And while I never did these things, I abused my body in other ways. I told myself horrible lies about who I was. And I believed every single word. In the past, I have let all sorts of other things define who I am.
That was a long time ago. And despite being all grown up now, the struggle continues to wreak havoc on my heart. Everything has changed yet this issue continues to haunt me. "
* This one from right HERE with Launching into Act Two...
"It feels like we are entering
in to our Second Act
and He whispered clear to me the other day
that this is our Launching Season.
Now there was a time not too long ago
that that would have given way to fear,
but instead it gave way to Hope and Adventure
and still-unseen Open Doors
and all kinds of Possibility!
It seems this past year or two
has been a bit of an Intermission
and this call to Sabbath, to Rest, to Quiet
- it's all in preparation for what lies ahead."
Because no matter what those kids had been doing beforehand, no matter how chaotic and crazy the environment was, right, wrong or indifferent, when they saw that girl, wearing only a bikini, hauled face first to the ground by her arm and then her hair, they stopped. They woke up. They were suddenly sober and alert.
And when she began to cry out for her mother, for the person she belongs to, desperately looking for someone to come protect her in her fear, for someone to see her there under his weight, struggling for power and dignity and humanity, they could not get her mother there quickly enough.
But they did what they could.
They claimed her.
They stepped up and said she was their cousin, their friend, their class mate.
She belonged to them.
And they were there. And there were watching what was happening to her. And they would not be silent."
* This post by Sarah Bessey with Say Her Name...
"Say her name.
Say it out loud: DaJerria Becton. A beautiful name, let your voice say it out loud.
Scripture tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God – Jesus gives us ears to hear and then faith comes. I think there’s something powerful about our own voices speaking the truth out ahead of ourselves. Our words matter. Our voices matter. What we speak aloud often sinks its way into our soul and our memory and then into our actions.
So here is what we could say today: DaJerria Becton.
I believe that today the crucified and resurrected Christ is saying her name with us: DaJerria Becton.
You are made in the image of God, DaJerria, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are valuable. You are beloved.
She is not “Bikini Girl.”
Not “that black girl in the bikini in that video.”
Not “the McKinney girl.”
Not whatever terrible name she was called that day or in the days since as people cast judgment on her and her friends for the way the day ended: a white man’s knees pressed into her young back, forcing her face into the grass while she cried out for someone to call her mama.
“Someone call my mama!”
Her name is DaJerria Becton. "
* And to switch gears a bit and not be so heavy, there is this post from Glennon Doyle Melton over at Momastery with Go Forth and Be a Little Jacked Up...
"Our imperfections are our SERVICE!!! A messy house, a few extra pounds, a complete and total inability to prepare food—IT’S OUR CHARITY WORK! You are WELCOME, world!!!!! We should rest after all this sacrificial and valorous public imperfection. Jeez. We are basically SAINTS."
"I know the tears will come much later because right now I want her to tell me what time it is and what’s her favorite color. I want to know how she learned English. I want to understand why she is so happy in her chair that has become a table.
I want to show her pictures of my daughter.
I don’t ask her any of these things. She knows English but it’s me who is clumsy.
I sit. I hold her hand and I sit.
I don’t know if she’s praying but I hope she can sense I am.
Our brown eyes meet and I wish I could tell her that grass is green at home. I wish she could pet my dog. I wish I could fix her broken bones and make her chicken marsala with the special gravy that my kids like. I wish I could say I’m sorry in Creole
Instead I ask: “How do you say beautiful again?
I keep forgetting.
My heart is too full of pain to remember.
I want to smile tonight but I can’t. I stare blankly ahead at the ocean. Tears pool.
Juxtaposition is everywhere."
* This post by Jennifer Dukes Lee with The First Step To Authentic Friendship...
“The girl walked back into the room, with her blanket tucked under her arm. But just then, one of the girls saw what she retrieved from the bag.
She had been “found out.”
“What’s that?” asked the friend, pointing a finger at the lovie.
I was so proud of that little girl. Because here’s what she did next:
She lifted her chin, lifted her voice, and took the first step toward authentic friendship. She sat cross-legged on the couch and told her room of friends the truth. She told them how her mom’s friend made that blanket for her when she was a newborn, and how it had traveled with her on a hundred car rides, and how she once lost it at the park, and how it fell apart a few years ago, so Grandma had to sew it. She showed everyone the long stitch mark, and it looked like a scar.
Everyone listened. No one laughed at her. No one judged. And then, the most beautiful thing happened. One by one, each of the girls pushed back the covers, walked into the bedroom, and unzipped their duffel bags. Out came the ragged tie-blankets, a bear with a missing eye, a Taggie blankie, a plush doll. EVERY GIRL IN THE ROOM WAS HIDING A SECRET IN HER BAG.
That was the Night of the Great Unzipping.
Each girl dragged her own lovie into the living room, and then they took turns telling their stories — about lovies loved, and lovies lost, and lovies found again.
And everyone slept better that night. Because someone had the guts to “go first.”
* This post from Jennifer Frisbie with The Journey Must Continue…
"Putting my life on display is a choice I’ve made for myself. Not everyone will agree with how much (or little) should be shared via a blog or social media. And that’s okay. I’ve learned to live with that.
But I’m finding that putting my faith on display is a much scarier thing. Essentially, what I’m doing is publicly sharing with you the way I process through truth. You get to journey with me as I work through what He’s teaching me. Every idea must be expounded on and sometimes I might land on the wrong conclusion.
And sometimes…so will you. Our thoughts may not always align.
But I don’t want to walk this road to Emmaus alone. When we walk and talk together those are the places Jesus meets us. These are the times where He speaks truth into our hearts and helps us understand who He is."
* This post by Kris Camealy with FOR ALL THE GIRLS WHO DON’T FEEL LIKE THEY MEASURE UP...
"I have looked into glass and felt utter contempt for this tent, this skin that houses these bones, this heart. I have flipped through magazines and felt nothing other than the weight of obvious inadequacy, as I stared empty into airbrushed beauty. I remember the difficult years of middle school, of being small and late to bloom, I remember the dreaded feeling of changing in the locker room in High School, of hiding in stalls to change clothes.
Hiding.
I remember countless hours spent reading ‘girl’ magazines only to set them aside and feel completely disgusted for all of the ways I failed to measure up.
I remember friends sucking down diet pills and trying to survive on just an apple all day. And while I never did these things, I abused my body in other ways. I told myself horrible lies about who I was. And I believed every single word. In the past, I have let all sorts of other things define who I am.
That was a long time ago. And despite being all grown up now, the struggle continues to wreak havoc on my heart. Everything has changed yet this issue continues to haunt me. "
* This one from right HERE with Launching into Act Two...
"It feels like we are entering
in to our Second Act
and He whispered clear to me the other day
that this is our Launching Season.
Now there was a time not too long ago
that that would have given way to fear,
but instead it gave way to Hope and Adventure
and still-unseen Open Doors
and all kinds of Possibility!
It seems this past year or two
has been a bit of an Intermission
and this call to Sabbath, to Rest, to Quiet
- it's all in preparation for what lies ahead."
Lastly, we close This Thing up with a video each week and sometimes it is funny and sometimes it is worship... this time it's Steffany Gretzinger and a little spontaneous worship! Yeah, I know. You're welcome! Enjoy!
Happy Weekend!
100!!!! Congrats friend! That post from Jennifer Dukes Lee is one of my faves this week! "And a little child shall lead them." I will have to for sure read Jen Frisbie's post and Sarah Bessey's post! Oh so much goodness again!
ReplyDeleteAmen!!! Thanks, friend!
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