Less Certain, More Free: Faith After Spiritual Crisis
My spirituality and faith have shifted significantly the last few years. Faith after spiritual crisis looks different.
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Spiritual Abuse: My Healing Journey
My journey of healing from spiritual abuse is still ongoing. It has been long, slow, and winding. Understanding what happened in my mind has only been part of the journey.
Read MoreSpiritual Abuse: Truth, Lies, and Manipulation
In spiritually abusive environments, some form of truth is present. And some good things might be happening. This makes it harder to identify what is off. The Bible is quoted. God might be moving in some powerful ways. So what exactly is wrong? As I have tried to mentally untangle my own experience of spiritual […]
Read MoreSpiritual Abuse: When Church Becomes a Damaging, Dangerous Place
Four years ago, the co-lead pastors of my church at the time were asked to resign because of spiritual abuse. That church had become my family, my community, my home. The news was shocking, but I was also deeply grateful the dysfunction was finally being named. While I am still unpacking the realities and consequences […]
Read MoreMore than My Trauma
The past year and a half, it has been hard for me not to define myself by my trauma. I’m sure others have experienced trauma much worse than mine, but my story is this: I got hurt in a place I thought was safe. A church. A particular church that I loved with all my heart and to which I gave all of myself.
Read MoreWhen It Costs Everything You Have: Faith, Sacrifice, and New Beginnings
Tonight is the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Tomorrow also happens to be the day I start seminary. It’s a new season for me, a very significant one. And tonight, I realized this season needs to start with surrender. Everything is shifting around me. I just moved across the country to a […]
Read MoreWeightlessness & Restoration: The Risk, Hope, and Loss of Big Life Transitions
At the beginning of the year, I left the home I had built in Korea. I left my closest friends, my job, my routines, and all the futures I had envisioned for myself on that peninsula, and I returned to the States. I was excited, but I was also heartbroken. In one hand, I held hopeful excitement about my new beginning; but in the other, my whole world seemed to be slipping away like sand through my fingers […]
Read More2019: Moving Back to the US
I have now been living in South Korea for over SEVEN years. That seems crazy-long, but also far shorter than I expected. Part of me thought I would stay here forever. But for now, I’m departing. In a few short weeks, I will be moving back to the States! Despite the fact that I grew […]
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