How Come Some Catch the Spark of Faith and Others Do Not?
Some people get knocked sideways by hardship and walk away from faith. Others get hit harder and lean in. Their trust deepens. They hold fast. It’s always made me wonder — why them? Why does the spark catch for one person and not another? Maybe grace has a mind of its own. Maybe some just catch a glimpse of God so real, they never forget what they saw.
Reinhold Niebuhr: The Serenity Prayer and Its Backstory
You’ve seen it on mugs and magnets: God grant me the serenity… But Reinhold Niebuhr’s original version was grittier — not just serenity, but grace. Not just change what can be changed, but what should. And it wasn’t “grant me” — it was “grant us.” Theologian, activist, realist — Niebuhr gave us a prayer for courage and community, rooted not in certainty, but in grace.
Violence & Grace: The Enduring Voice of Flannery O’Connor
Flannery O’Connor’s fiction doesn’t flinch. Her stories — stark, unsettling and laced with dark humor — press into the tension between human depravity and divine grace. A master of the short story, O’Connor crafted worlds where redemption rarely arrives gently. Instead, it crashes in, disruptive and undeniable. For readers willing to wrestle with faith and fiction in its rawest form, her work remains as urgent and convicting as ever.