You know the hero’s journey, yes? It’s a story structure made famous by a guy named Jospeh Campbell. It looks like this:

Is this the way all heroes become heroes? I don’t know. Maybe heroines become heroines differently. But I’m interested in it and interested in the ways The Happiest Saddest People overlaps with it. So far, we’ve certainly discovered the abyss. There will be multiple abysses in this story.

Transformation and atonement are still ahead.

This story isn’t about the making of a hero—not primarily. It’s actually much more about the One who makes the whole journey possible. Who cares about heroes when there’s a God out there making them? Can we skip the story and just meet Him? No—because it’s in the adventure, in the atonement, in the transformation, and in the challenges and temptations where He reveals Himself. You can’t skip humanity and expect to understand God.

This week’s episode is loaded with humanity. Here it is:

All the Things

A cappella Music in the Church of Christ

It’s really beautiful and very fun (even it sounds weird to new audiences).

As a teenager, one of my favorite events each year was the big state-wide singing night at a children’s home outside Orlando—400 voices all singing from 4 or 6 part sheet music. It was like being in high school chorus, but all the songs were about God. Later in life I’d discover the Diana Singing—an annual gathering of 3,000 Church of Christ singers. It’s held in a hay shed in June. You can get a great ham sandwich from the concessions booth. And it lasts for four glorious hours.

Here’s a recording from the 2024 gathering (it’s one of one of my dad’s favorite songs):

Positive Law and Prohibitive Silence

If you’re interested in a deep dive on the Church of Christ’s stance on positive law, this article is a good place to start. And this article is pretty standard fare in more conservative Churches of Christ on prohibitive silence.

At this point in my life I think the greatest concerns I have about prohibitive silence are these:

• The primacy of prohibitive silence as an interpretive strategy overemphasizes the Sunday gathering. Christian life is not primarily about the acts of worship on a Sunday morning, and a church that spends too much attention on getting Sunday mornings exactly right misses the opportunity to equip their people for normal daily life with God.

• It argues that the Bible is the only way Christians interact with the will of God. I disagree (even as I hold to the belief that whatever we feel like God’s saying to us today, He will never contradict what He’s told us in the Bible).

• It interprets silence as a stop or ending (or locked door) instead of recognizing silence as an invitation into deeper understanding through the practices of contemplation and meditation.

I guess it’s just important to me that you know, God is not silent. And in the places and at times when it seems like He is silent, it would be a mistake to assume He has nothing more to say.

The Bible

Can I just say, I adore the Bible. It’s a wonder. It’s holy and authoritative and necessary and good and inspired, and I read it every single day sometimes for hours.

And also, it’s not God.

The love letter isn’t the Beloved—even if it’s a very long letter.

But Jennifer, you say, the Bible isn’t a book—it’s alive! Of course it is. It carries the life and light of the Holy Spirit. But it is not the Holy Spirit. And that’s an important distinction.

You can get so caught up in Bible reading and interpretation and knowledge and facts and geographical and cultural and historical context that you miss the heart and voice of God. I know, because it happened to me.

These days I try to keep my Bible reading in the right place by beginning with a prayer like this, “God, meet me here in your Word. Speak to me. Show me Your heart and will.” That way I don’t forget—I’m here to be with God.

Confession

I heard someone say recently that confession doesn’t mean listing all your sins in performative shame; it means saying what’s true. Confession is looking at your life and sharing it with God exactly as is. That’s what this episode is really—a confession. And I know for a fact—confession is a lifesaver. That practice of telling God the truth, refusing to hide things, refusing to say them in a particular, veiled way—it freed me and, more importantly, it created real, meaningful intimacy in my relationship with Him.

If you’ve been holding something back from God or hesitating to take an honest look at what you’re feeling or thinking, I highly recommend facing it head-on in prayer. Tell the truth and the truth will set you free!

The St. Petersburg Times

Shout out to one of the best local newspapers in the golden age of newspaper reporting! Each week The St. Petersburg Times devoted a page to student work, and when I was in third grade they printed my essay on why I love to read. It’s the first publication to ever run my work. :)

Writing as Confession

I liked this bit about writing toward the end of the episode:

“And what was writing? I didn’t know exactly yet. But I knew it meant starting with nothing, a silent blank page. I knew it meant asking something, hurling my voice like a stick. I knew writing helped me find the truth, and I knew telling the truth felt like freedom. I’d also realized writing required listening–that to have something good to say, you needed first to hear it.”

You may not be a writer. You don’t have to be one. In some ways you’re better off if you’re not. BUT. You do have to find something—a practice, a way of being—that helps you see, sort, and tell the truth.

Writing is that for me.

Questions, Questions…

Okay, so the weekly “ask me a question” feature has turned into me sharing things like, “Why I promise I am not throwing the Church of Christ under the bus.” That was last week’s video (just in case you’re looking for a reason to upgrade to paid).

Obviously I am an open book. Ask me a question:

From London

I adore the lyrics to this song London picked. It’s just an honest confession from a sinner to His God about how he feels and where he is. The chorus though! It’s like an inverse prayer—a message from God to His son. Mmm. So good.

Lyrics:

You say that you love me
Don't say that you love me
'Cause I don't know how to be yours
You say that you want me
Don't say that you want me
'Cause I don't know how to be yours

Yeah, I still act like an orphan, I guess
And my hard heart breaks to confess
That even while you hold me as I cry on the floor
I still don't know how to be yours

…

How to be yours
How to be yours

So love me or hate me, I'm not going anywhere
Leave me or take me, you still bear my signature
Know me or not, seen or forgotten
I'm not walking out on you
Love me or hate me, I'm not going anywhere
Leave me or take me, you still bear my signature
Know me or not, seen or forgotten
I'm not walking out on you

Later this week I’ll drop in with a meditation on silence and a few words on my new-found love of worshiping God alongside cellos, pianos, fiddles, and banjos.

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To Be Continued,

JL

P.S.

The photo Justin promised you at the end of this episode:

These two boys were my whole heart.

P.P.S.

This episode contains some of my favorite lines. Here are few that surprised me when I found them on the page.