Not the scripture you were expecting to kick off the Advent season? Maybe you were hoping for something from Luke? A verse about a star? A shepherd or two? This year when I began to think about the season of hope, my mind immediately went to Jeremiah. For those of you somewhat familiar with this book…

Confession: I started listening to Christmas music a couple days ago, clearly breaking the No Christmas Music Before Thanksgiving Rule that I set for myself. I also bought a Christmas tree – one of the first ten they sold, apparently – and have been diffusing Thieves and Peppermint essential oils for days. I love Christmas. …

Hi, my name is Amy, and I have a lot of buttons. (Hi, Amy…) This morning in the shower, which is where I do my best thinking, I began to think about the Advent season. Now that it’s November, I’m requiring every ounce of willpower to keep from transforming my home into a winter wonderland….

Sing it with me: “Thank you for being a friend…travel down the road and back again…” Last night as I was getting ready for bed, I started to think about the fact that Facebook friends tend to follow commenting patterns. There are certain people who always respond to every status in exactly the same way….

Last night as I was headed to bed, my Facebook feed filled with the news that the blogging community lost someone to depression. I didn’t know her. She was a friend of friends, someone who moved through some of the same circles as me and my people. But nevertheless, the news took my breath away….

1. They aren’t Christ, they’re Christ followers. Okay, so that’s the most obvious, simplest reason, which I needed to get out of the way before we could continue. For all of the tossing about of the term “Christ-like,” the design of Christianity is that there is one Christ, one Savior, sent to provide us with the grace…

*deep breath* I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus, a believer of grace through Jesus’s crucifixion on the cross. I believe that I am asked to love people and hate the sin in myself. I believe in the separation of church and state, a construct that protects my rights to worship and live as…