Many of you out there have to go against the grain, transgress gendered boundaries, and in doing so, you've disappointed your parents, partner, or faith community.

What I want you to know is you have not disappointed Jesus.

It has been a year. A loooong year. More like two years. We might need to step away from all the madness and get a word from God. Just a word. Something God might want to say to you personally.

So on today's podcast, I've asked my daughter to read to you, and through that reading, I pray the Spirit speaks.

A word.

A word for you.

I have to be honest with you my faith looks different for me now. Some of the things I used to believe I don’t any longer, and I’m trying to figure out the complexities of how to love a mentally ill family member or hold on to hope when sexism continues to rain, not only in the culture but in our churches. Issues have gotten more complex and more nuanced, so what we’re gonna do is we’re going to look back on these issues faith hope & love with a whole lot of wrinkles.

I’m older, and I’m looking back in my rearview mirror, where I see a more wrinkled faith. What I thought in my younger years, you know this escalator theology that would always go onward and upward, well we’re throwing stinking thinking out the window. 

Let’s revisit this topic, it’s that important.

I've sat with many married women who have this ache to be desired by their husbands, not just sexually but in all kinds of ways. And I've heard it from my single friends and my aging friends, who worry that they will become invisible and in my kid'’ lives and my own life and marriage. And we've all experienced it in our friendships, this wanting to be wanted. The longing to be chosen, to belong.

PLUS

I have some thoughts about ableism. If you don't know what that is, welcome to the club. I didn't either until my friend, Renee, said, hey, if you're going to be doing some stuff on the body, then I highly recommended you read, Sitting Pretty. The View from my ordinary resilient disabled body by Rebekah Taussig, which I did. Now let me share some thoughts.

I’m not against thin, sexy, young, or having babies. But that story isn’t big enough, complex enough to capture what it means to walk around in our bodies. I by no means have all the answers. What I do have are more important questions. Questions that go beyond, “Are my legs long, thin, or tan enough?”

Trust me; your body needs to hear this.

Today is June 29th. Three years ago today, Steve and I were on the road, somewhere near Nashville, Tenn, when I received a call from Hampton. I will never forget the sound of my son's voice. He wailed, "Mom, Cameron killed himself." I was in shock, and suddenly it felt like I couldn't breathe. I don't even remember what I said; there are no mothering books for this one, but I know we turned around, went straight to the Nashville airport, and back to Texas. 

Think about it for a second your physical body identifies who you come from?

Now hold onto that because it sets us up for what God said in our creation story, “Let us make humans in our image, to be like ourselves, male and female.” So basically, God is saying the triune God put a splash of God within her, something that when she sees her reflection, she’ll know who she is, Who God is, where she comes from, and why she’s here.

I reached out to a bunch of guys, white male Christians between the ages of 35- 65, men who have been raised and served in the conservative evangelical church, pastors, preachers, worship leaders, lay leaders in our churches.

I hope that this conversation will lead you to have a conversation with the men you know, and together maybe we Christians, through the power of the spirit and name of Jesus Christ, might - reshape the church's view – of men and women.

I've talked to many women about their bodies, but I've never spoken with men. So today, we are changing that in our conversation with Todd Phillips. Let's see what the culture and the church are teaching about the male body image.