Grace Vs. Law
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Girl, Quit Washing Your Face
When I was a teen and in my early 20’s, I struggled a lot with acne break-outs. I felt ugly and embarrassed. I’d cover up with make-up, but those pesky pimples would always poke through. I tried different products: chemical ones I had to order specially in the mail, natural ones that smelled like hippies Continue reading
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When I am Feeling Lost
Sometimes I feel lost. Lost in my head. Lost in worry. I forget I am not doing life alone. I tend to try to go at it by myself, and I know that isn’t healthy. Sometimes I forget simple child-like faith is all I really need. I’ve done a pretty good job rejecting religion, but Continue reading
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I Won’t Sing Those Songs Anymore
Come Lord Jesus, Come. Let us invite him into this place. God, we want more of you. I am afraid our lyrics proclaim a distance that doesn’t exist like God is far away just waiting for us to say the right phrase then He’ll stop what He’s busy doing and descend from heaven walk through Continue reading
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I Love Jesus, But Sometimes I am an Atheist
The most terrible acts in the world happen when human beings treat each other as less than human. A Chinese orphanage where special needs children had their limbs tied to hard kitchen chairs and left alone all day to stare at the walls. A dirty room on the top of a brothel in India, where Continue reading
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An Open Letter of Apology (To Anyone I Gave Religion Instead of Love)
Hi, It’s me, Brooke. I am a gorgeous mess, an abstract soul, a work of art some people can’t decipher. In the past I was full of fear and insecurity. I hated myself. I remember making a mental list of all the things that would have to change to become “normal.” Some things were in my Continue reading
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A Textbook Can’t Hold You at Night
Sometimes you have to swing to both sides of extreme before coming back to the middle, Back to the heart, the beating and bleeding, the real life. Many of my beliefs I held fast on to about God, About who I am, Have been too slippery to hold on to. They weren’t solid enough to Continue reading
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We Only Need Two Wings
I am sorry if my posts seem sermon-ish lately. I think I go through phases in my thinking, and it reflects in some kind of pattern here on this site. Today I was thinking about how I used to really judge people’s mistakes and spend a lot of time trying to avoid sin. I would Continue reading
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Becoming Human (A Short Story)
Something happens when you come alive and are set free from fear. You realize existence is messy and you wouldn’t have it any other way. Control is an illusion, a grasping at the air only to fall over. This reality: It’s bloody, gritty, reality. Broken hearts and broken bones are just a way of life. So you Continue reading
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A Handful of Crumbs- Thoughts on Grace & Identity
I picked up this memoir by Kim Sunee, “Trail of Crumbs” partially because the cover was pretty, partially because it was on clearance for $5, but mostly because of the subtitle, “Hunger, Love and the Search for Home.” That subtitle could just as well describe the book I am currently working on, “The Wizard of Continue reading
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From Starvation to Drunken Joy
It’s hard to swallow sometimes the sweet liquid that You are enough it burns my pride as it cures it but when I get pills stuck in my throat (self-made medicine from a factory in my heart in that smoggy part that doesn’t fully believe) I can see no other alternative and I wouldn’t want Continue reading
Brooke Gale LouvieR 