Goodness in the face of badness gets people's attention. It makes people stop and notice that your response wasn't measured in wrong, even though it would have been justified. I was a little wide-eyed when I first read Proverbs 25:21-22, where it says when we give good to our enemies, it's like we're pouring coals of fire on their heads.

God doesn’t speak to me. It’s easy to think this when we’re spinning. We feel alone + afraid. Maybe we’re trying to control our emotions, but past traumas have a way of dragging us under. And we’re trying to stop, but it’s hard. It’s hard to stop ourselves from going back to old patterns.

I used to think I was missing out on something by not being raised in a Christian home. The evangelical world taught me this — in their language, in their judgment, in the look on their faces. I felt unwhole, broken, kind of scrapped together, when I sat in a room with people who had grown up in the crowning family.

It all begins with an idea.