Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

Sunday, November 22, marked the end of the church year. It's called Christ the King Sunday according to the church calendar. The pastor our family watched online that Sunday quipped that anything that meant an ending to this year sounded good to her. I agreed with a hearty laugh from my comfortable seat at home. Our presence at home was an indicator of what we'd like to have come to an end--a year of separation, online events, and extra-precaution for in-person gatherings.   We were online that morning, and weren't able to connect to our own church's streaming service at the moment, yet another indicator of things-not-right. And so began the last week of the church year. Thanksgiving, perched almost at the end, a confluence of church and civic calendars, usually offers a chance to gather around a big table. In my family, that means lots of stories and reminiscences. I wonder what we'll say in years to come about this Thanksgiving. We attempted to eat together--yet ...

The Windhover,  a publication of Mary Hardin-Baylor, has recently published an essay of mine entitled "Sometimes in Church." You can order a copy of The Windhover here and also see excerpts from the issue,  including my essay, in Volume 24.2. I wrote this essay before COVID-19 kept us from regularly meeting together in church, and rereading it has brought me back to a former time--before extra spaces between seats, before masks, before church-on-the-living room couch. I miss singing in church and singing with fervor. Not just any song, although I do love singing Les Miserables and LaLa Land songs while Elisabeth plays them on the piano, and you'd be surprised at how many Stevenses can start belting songs from Frozen 2  all together.  I miss congregational singing. Yes, we sing along with the online church service, and that is very good. But it is not the same. I look forward, and with hope, to the time when we can all join in congregational singing again, witho...

I first heard Bryan Stevenson, defense attorney and founder of Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) on a podcast with Oprah Winfrey .   I felt like I was sitting in a living room talking with a friend. I was immediately grateful for the stories Bryan told and for the honesty with which he told them. I was humbled. Growing up, I had put people in boxes--in categories in my head--if you're in jail it's because you're a bad person. If you do drugs, you must be a bad person. But when I learned about my older brother's drug and alcohol addiction and how that changed his life, the boxes I put people in began to shift and crumble, and that shifting has changed my life. Listening to Bryan Stevenson continued to shift the boxes--why are some people on death row, why are so many of them black and brown. Why are so many of them from impoverished backgrounds. Just Mercy tells the story of how Bryan Stevenson founded Equal Justice Initiative to provide legal representation for those w...

Jemar Tisby brings us on a tour through the decades, starting in 1667 when the Virginia General Assembly encouraged masters t o evangelize their slaves, without fear of having to grant them their freedom, given that "the conferring of baptism does not alter the c ondition of the person as to his bondage or freedom." (pg. 25).  Year piling on year, Tisby shows us how the church in America has not simply overlooked racism, but has participated in, encouraged and upheld racist practices, both explicit and entrenched.  "What do you think," I once heard a teacher ask a group of high school students in a Christian School, "What was the better way, Martin L uther King or the Black Panthers?" Students eagerly explained that MLK definitely was better "because he was peaceful. The Black Panthers were violent, and you can't do that."  I hoped the teacher would ask some clarifying ques tions, or press her students to dig a little deeper. I hoped s...

I am sharing this week and in posts to follow a few influences--videos, books, people, places, stories--that have helped me notice my blindspots with regard to racial justice. The story is ever growing. In fact, sometimes the more I learn, the harder it is to write. So I'll just start here, hoping that if I tell one or two stories it could be a way forward to you reading or telling one or two more stories, and that could be a way forward for all of us. In 2017, our family visited Washington D.C. My priority stop was the National Museum of African American History and Culture which had opened less than one year before, but I had not planned far enough ahead to get tickets before we arrived. So every morning of our five-day visit I logged on to the website at 6 AM to try to get five tickets (we had an exchange student with us). One morning I was able to get three. I wasn't sure how that would work out, but we figured we would go get in line for the other two and see what would...

I am sharing this week and in posts to follow a few influences--videos, books, people, places, stories--that have helped me notice my blindspots with regard to racial justice . The story is ever growing. In fact, sometimes the more I learn, the harder it is to write. So I'll just start here, hoping that if I tell one or two stories it could be a way forward to you reading or telling one or two more stories, and that could be a way forward for all of us.   In the spring of 2016 a friend of mine, Liz Crusey, led a group of members from Grace Presbyterian Church on a vision trip to Lebanon to learn about a group of Lebanese Christian ministries there.  We were joined by Mike Higgins, an African American pastor from St. Louis and chaplain of Covenant Theological Seminary.  During the trip I noticed that Mike kept talking about someone named Michael Brown and I started thinking, Who's this guy, Michael Brown? Is this a friend? A guy from his church? I eventually realiz...

I am sharing this week and in posts to follow, a few influences--videos, books, people, places, stories--that have helped me notice my blindspots with regard to racial justice. The story is ever growing. In fact, sometimes the more I learn, the harder it is to write. So I'll just start here, hoping that if I tell one or two stories, it could be a way forward to you reading or telling one or two more stories, and that could be a way forward for all of us.  I remember sitting on the couch with my seven-year old daughter and reading to her The Story of Ruby Bridges . Ruby, a brave black girl whose parents were perhaps even braver, to agree to let her integrate the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960. My daughter studied the watercolor illustrations of the angry white parents yelling at Ruby as she walked into the school protected by federal marshals.  I remember uncomfortable shock at the teacher who criticized Ruby for talking back to the mob, when in fact Ru...

I wrote the following litany of repentance two weeks after George Floyd's death--during the maddening, unending isolation of COVID-19, watching online church services after hot Sunday morning walks with the family. I'm grateful for those who have spoken into my life and helped me see the need for lament and confession, for that is what this is. I believe the Holy Spirit uses diverse means to do this and for me it's primarily been through relationships and stories. We cannot lament and grieve until we have started to see the extent of our sin, both corporate and individual. We learn by taking a hard look at our history and listening to those whose lived experiences are different from ours.  Scripture is replete with examples of grief, lament and repentance surrounding an awareness of sin, both corporate and individual (to name a few: Psalm 51, Nehemiah 1:5-7, 9:2, Daniel 9, I John 1:8-10).    While God calls all to repentance, I believe that my position in the...

A meditation for Thursday of Holy Week. I wrote this as a part of our church's weekly encouragement during the time that we are apart. This is Holy Week. On Sunday we watched Jesus riding on a donkey into Jerusalem, welcomed like a king, a much anticipated hero. As the week continued we saw him healing many, making parables from fig trees, and clearing the temple of those who sought a profit there. Embarrassed followers and skeptics watched as a woman dropped in on a dinner party and poured oil over Jesus's head, "preparing me for my burial," he explained, perhaps bringing up more questions to the bewildered and disgusted guests.  The plot against Jesus had been coalescing day by day, and so we find ourselves at Thursday--often called Loving Thursday when Jesus, "having loved his own who were in the world, now showed them the full extent of his love." (John 13:1) There's one disciple that we can zoom in on, and in fact his antics and qu...

A foundation of our early homeschooling journey was reading on the couch and talking about books. The length of the books grew with the children's attention spans, but there was usually a good mix of picture books and chapter books. My kids are three and a half years apart, so if Henry at age 18 months wasn't sitting next to us on the couch and along for the ride, he was on the floor playing or up in his room napping. Lessons had to be in short snatches because we did have a little interrupter. Reading and writing are the gateway to the world! Use this time to establish or strengthen their reading and writing foundation with a few simple things that can apply to all subjects-- 1. Read! Read good books, books that have intriguing words and deep characters. Read aloud to your kids and when you finish the chapter, ask them to retell, or narrate, the story back to you.  2. Narration-- Write down the narration word for word that your child tells you then read it back to the...

I asked my children for some homeschool highlights to share with friends and family who are looking for ideas. Pretty much simultaneously a picture popped up on my computer of my kids doing cave paintings way back when. So here's a little bit about that--a quick post and a few ideas. This idea is from Susan Wise Bauer in her book and activity guide, Story of the World, volume 1. I loved these books--a great way to introduce history to first through fourth graders and beyond. You can find them on Amazon or at  https://welltrainedmind.com/ So if you can get a hold of those books, I recommend them.  I'll share in another post how you can use that book for a whole morning's worth of reading, writing, history, and maybe even science if you can get into it . . . For now, cave paintings. Humans have painted in caves over thousands of years and there are many different examples you can see online.  Google cave paintings, or check out this awesome link to learn ...