We like to say, "Can you imagine if we had Paul Vallas?" And, 100%, we should be glad he isn't the mayor of Chicago right now.
On the flip side, can you imagine if we hadn't harassed Kim Foxx out of office? Instead we're left with O'Neill Burke and she is absolutely failing to meet the moment.
Honestly, just imagining and trusting that the church could grow and flourish opened the door for the Holy Spirit to do some pretty amazing things in our churches (spoiler alert: they're all growing and flourishing)
I'll never forget telling a new colleague about our co-op model and how the goal was for each church to sustainably have a 3/4 pastor and survive.
He gently told me how boring that was and said, "what if we grew and flourished?" That invitation to imagination was like scales falling from my eyes.
I had a baby in 2020 and, when we were able to interact with other people again, I remember breaking down in tears with how kindly people treated us. I tell my kids that it's pretty special that they bring joy to the world just by existing.
some things about becoming a parent are radicalizing in ways I expected - e.g being reminded viscerally how screwed we'd all be if childcare and other care work disappeared. but other things are radicalizing in ways I didn't - like experiencing constant spontaneous solidarity in ways big and small
Staring longingly from Chicago
My favorite drum to beat: One way to help save protestant denominations that are crumbling under the cost of healthcare for clergy is to support and fight for universal healthcare.
This is great news for the city! Emmanuel Andre is a gift.
i'm sorry for what I said when the leafblowers were outside
Rahm Emanuel is the candidate for the three people who find Gavin Newsom too likable.
I let my 8 year old “temporarily” dye a strand of her hair with red kool-aid. It’s still there a year later. 🤦♀️
I love the idea that the petitioners were reacting to "what they saw on television," and not "getting shot regularly with tear gas and rubber bullets by ICE" Can't wait for 2028, lol, she's cooked.
*and Jesus, lol
What a perverted understanding of Methodist soteriology. This limp, soggy understanding of God's grace is what nearly made me lose my faith before liberation theology (and socialism...the Jesus) saved it, lol.
I'm grateful Huerta is still alive for this reckoning. I'm wrecked that she had to carry this for so many years to protect so many people.
I’d love to get in on the “what types of girls do gym bros actually like” discourse, but my gym is in Andersonville.
Great work by @minabloom.bsky.social
Watching my peaceful colleagues bloodied, brutalized and violently arrested by the Illinois State Police left me so traumatized I had an acute trauma response in early January. The psychological distress is real. Pritzker and Burke have failed us.
My youngest dislocated her elbow and then apparently relocated it by excitedly throwing her arms in the air when she saw the ambulance at the ER. 100s of dollars to be told she was fine and to give her some tylenol. (I don't blame the docs/nurses)
“Brought to you by Bank of America” is taking me out.
Since the announcement of “Operation Midway Blitz” in September, thousands of people living in Chicago have been arrested by federal immigration agents. Community leaders joined “Chicago Tonight” to discuss the operation’s impact on local life.
https://to.wttw.com/44wjGmp
It’s decades day at my kids school. My daughter picked 90s grunge (rude). I played her some Nirvana and she told me she understood why people liked this music in the olden times.
5 y/o daughter requested the Chicks’, “not ready to make nice” for her bed time song.
*I know they've never been on our side, don't come for me
We've started doing "truths to be told" during our joys/ concerns time at church because it is so disorienting to live in a moment where you/your neighbors are being gassed, shot and disappeared only to have the people who are supposed to be on our side* giving flowers to the fascist responsible.
But so many will remember. We say that, sometimes, when it's our children killed: Remember. And it may seem now like it's someone else's children, but there's no such thing as someone else's children. The problem with fixating on the abyss into which one's opponent has descended while simultaneously digging ones own is that, eventually, it gets too dark to tell the difference.
but there’s no such thing as someone else’s children.
(From One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, by Omar El Akkad)
"Our rage means that, for as hard as President Donald Trump and his administration are trying, they have failed in intimidating us or convincing us that what’s happening is normal. And there is Holy Spirit power in that." —@lajoyce.bsky.social on clergy protests at Broadview.
Thanks for sharing!
My hot take is that bad Christmas movies were so much better before “bad Christmas movies” became a thing. Now they’re too self aware and it’s REALLY hard to do that well.
I literally make all of my leadership boards read that as one of our first activities.
No hell like an "inability to make decisions or move anything forward" hell.
