Elijah Walker recently pondered about Jesus, wondering if he bit his nails or hummed as he worked. Wondering what he smelled like. I wrote this poem some years ago as I considered God's work of rescuing sheep and me, and so I share it now. (Oh, and if you don't yet follow Elijah, you should.) Scent of a Shepherd by Suzanne DeWitt Hall From the nightmare I wake in pain and motion. The world passes by upside down an undulating sea of blue sky. My contorted body screams unused t

A woman on Facebook blasted me recently when I added adulterers below a graphic of the various kinds of people Jesus expects us to love. She asked me who I was to try to tell the world what the gospel says, given that I'm not a pastor who committed their life to the teachings of Jesus. She also demanded that if my wife was having an affair with a neighbor, I'd tell another story. Adultery is unfortunately widespread, even within Christian communities, and so I figured I'd sha

!mpact Magazine originally featured this piece in August, 2014. At that time I didn't use inclusive terms for God, and I wasn't yet married to my beloved Dolce. Now I refer to God as "they," and call my beloved my wife, but the truth of this essay still stands. I met my fiancé Diane at a Charismatic Episcopal Church about seven years ago. In case you aren’t familiar with the CEC (most people aren’t), imagine smooshing together an Assembly of God congregation with a Catholic c