love, mercy joy

The mind holds the most incredible power. I love how many resources there are right now about how to train your mind. Mental discipline can shape your entire destiny. Many of the most impactful people of all time were masters of this practice. My favorite cognitive neuroscientist, Dr. Caroline Leaf, explains in the simplest terms how you can rewire your brain to (my words) essentially heal yourself, and to become anything and anyone that you want to be. But if you don’t know your spiritual identity, then you’ll become engaged in a vicious and never-ending mental cycle. Anyone who’s done any personal development knows exactly what I’m talking about. You can be unbeatable for a day, a week, or a season, but a crash always comes. I’ve seen it over and over. In fact, I've never not seen it in anyone who didn't know their spiritual identity. What am I even talking about with the spiritual identity thing? It's pretty simple. If you can unequivocally know who you are on a spiritua...

subjective truths are not trustworthy. that's why every healthy person, as they grow, is forced to question everything they were ever "taught." we have to determine what the truth is for ourselves. i did not say, 'we have to determine our  truth.' that is one of the most unstable concepts that was ever created. there is an absolute truth about every question in life and our souls will find no rest until they discover it. the proof is in the restless searching in the core of any person who subscribes to any subjective worldview. so here is something to consider. "blood is thicker than water" is a super common quote that is used to emphasize family loyalty over everything. that is a theme for life in a lot of families and communities and cultures. i actually love it. my family are some of the coolest people i know (and isn't my little sister adorable 😍), but we never emphasized loyalty to each other over anything else. my parents simply taught us to t...

my life has consisted of intense pressure and insane goals for as long as I can remember. in january, for the first time in over 10 years, I gave myself permission to rest. I mean really rest. my body, my spirit, and my mind. I hate the culture of "self care," I think it's mostly wildly selfish and an excuse to disregard others and cancel anything you don't agree with. but I wholly support the premise...you can't pour from an empty cup and all that. so I set out to optimize me, so that I can do what I do best, better -- help others become fully themselves. it was cool for a while, beautiful in fact. one of the most incredible seasons of my entire life. staying in the most peaceful location, surrounded and smothered by a community that loves and accepts me completely. feeding my mind and spirit with books and podcasts, working out, eating clean, enjoying nature. until I started to feel nagging feelings and doubts about my lack of "accomplishing." my perso...

I keep reading this over and over because it's one of those verses nobody talks about, that you wonder if it's really in the Bible... Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness (Rom 4:4-5) This one is for all the people who think that once someone receives Jesus into their heart, they then begin the Christian journey of trying to be perfect, which they will never achieve until they die and go to heaven. "Congratulations, you made it to heaven (well, you'll get there...someday). Now all you have to do is quit smoking, drinking, having sex unmarried, and anything else that you currently find pleasure in, start going to church, Sundays and Wednesdays minimum, give away 10% of your already short paycheck, spend your Saturdays when you finally have time to breathe doing community service, join the choir or teach Sunday ...

I went to Art Basel in Wynwood by myself today. I learned a lot about me.   I learned that I still care a LOT about what other people think of me.   One way that comes out is that I still have insecurities about my fashion. I was feelin myself in my outfit but as I started walking down the street alone, I began imagining that I looked frumpy and dumb. I started wondering why did you wear that? Why did you put those pieces together? Why are you wearing such a dark lipstick?   I have always loved fashion, and when I was very small whatever I thought was beautiful, I wanted to wear. Which was almost everything. My mama loved to dress me up when I was a baby, because I would get so excited. Then she would go to yearly rummage sales at the nearby churches, and bring home bags and bags of clothes for all of us, and I loved everything she got. I was fascinated by it all, no matter the color, the style…although I did love me some shine and some ...

So...there are some things I have been thinking about a lot over these past few months. There are some truths that it seems like I know or at least understand in my mind, but they do not materialize in my life. Does that mean they haven't reached my heart? How do I get there? How does that kind of thing happen to you guys? You know the things that you're like "I'm gonna do better with this, this isn't going to happen again"...and then the next day the same thing happens again...and you think, 'I KNOW I know what to do, why am I not doing it?' Those are the things I want to talk about. Not teach, because I think teaching is for the masters. I just want to talk, and you are so welcome to share your thoughts, too. So here is a thing. Do you know that Jesus came to prove that we can actually live inside of a human body sinless? Yeah...I don't think that we are actually "sinners saved by grace." If you read Romans 1:4, it talks ab...