Over the weekend I was at an event I’ve been going to four times a year for about five years. I have friends there, and a space where I belong. I am free to be who I am, and be accepted and loved for who I am. It has been another home for me, especially…
There is something special about water. It’s used as an image throughout scripture for life, for new starts, for spirit of God. On a hot day, cold water can lift the spirits and renew the heart. The love of God, and the life that God is giving to us, is frequently described in the Bible…
The Serenity pray is one of the most well known prayers in the world. It is said every day by Christians and non-Christians alike thanks to its adoption by recovery groups and self-help books. But it is, at its heart, a prayer. Not simply a prayer of petition, asking God to give us something, but…
There is a difference between Neurodivergent Theology and a theology of Neurodivergence. In this article, I’m going to explain the difference, why the church needs both types of Theology, and finish with some suggestions for creating safe churches for Neurodivergence. In the newsletter linked to this article, I will be sending out a PDF on…
To be who God wants me to be means I have had to learn to keep putting myself to death so that I can find new life. Which feels absolutely rubbish! Because the process of being made new means confronting all the things we wish we could forget or try and justify. Part of the…
Over time, the initial pain of grief gives way to the dull ache of absence. People think this is because grief shrinks over time. I think it is more that we grow used to it, and the sharpness of its edges is changed into something else. I think that grief over times ends up being…
I’m not ok today. My particular brand of neurospicyness means that I occasionally go through periods of depression. Sometimes these last for a day, sometimes for a few weeks. Sometimes it’s just a general feeling of melancholy and anxiety; other times it feels like a big pit of icy darkness waiting to swallow everything good…
We make a mistake when we think of discipleship as something which develops in a straight line from A to B. Instead, when working with survivors of, or people experiencing, trauma, we need to recognise the fragmental nature of human reality and so also avoid faith-tropes such as holism, wholeness, and flourishing. We need to…
If we take seriously the claim that God experienced the fullness of human experience, particularly in the crucifixion of Jesus, then we can speak about God having traumatic experiences. This changes not only how we see God, but how we can relate to God in our suffering. A God who experiences trauma is a God…
The grass is not always greener on the other side. The grass is greener where we water it. The Spiritual Danger of Looking Sideways It is easy when we look at colleagues and friends, at other people’s situations, at celebrities or neighbours, to think how much better things are for them than for me. Maybe…