Blog Archive

Contemplating the messiness of Christian life

The Messy Jesus Business Blog is an ecumenical Christian gathering of musings about what it means to live the Gospel today. A variety of contributors offer prayer, poetry, book reviews, creative nonfiction and prose about what it means to live a life of faith in our complex, modern times.

  • A minimalist black and white image featuring a tree silhouette against a bright sky background.

    God-centered mundane matters

    God is the center of my life. Really, I mean it. God is my life.  God consumes my life. Most of my time, thoughts, and tasks have to do with God. I wish I could tell you it’s completely great. Many mornings, as I hit the snooze button on my alarm, I think ‘God! Already!?” Then I

    Read More

  • Downward Mobility

    by Guest Blogger Emily Dawson I am writing this in a laundromat. I used to have my own wash machine and dryer, house and garage and lots and lots of counter space too–used to. Basically, life happened. And I will say that while washing, drying and folding your intimates in the privacy of your own home is

    Read More

  • lent: divorcing our bad habits

    I’m going to flip a song over on its head. I want to offer a spiritualization of something that probably was supposed to be completely secular. Lent, by British indie-pop band Autoheart, is totally onto something. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wUKGHPbn_k] I got absorbed into the song’s catchiness the other day, and I naturally found myself thinking about the love

    Read More

  • Refresh and restart

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3L3c23MfC0] It’s been nearly a week since we started all this. With ashes smeared upon our foreheads, we committed ourselves to new disciplines. Our motives are good: we have dreams and desires to refresh our relationship with Jesus. We’re in the desert to detoxify and prepare for the joy of that great Sunday, the holy day of Easter. We’re

    Read More

  • love at the life lines

    I am Pro-Life. I tweeted this to the world a couple of weeks ago: I am #prolife! I want abortion, war, executions, gun violence, discrimination, poverty, hunger and euthanasia to end–honor all dignity! Also a couple of weeks ago a few of my students participated in the March for Life in Washington, D.C., a peaceful march protesting

    Read More

  • We are the Body

    Guest blogger: Sarah Hennessey, FSPA Photo by Chandra Sherin:  http://chandrasherin.wordpress.com/ “She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.” – Mark 5:29b I’ve never noticed this phrase before. But a few days ago during Mass these words shouted at me. The woman with the hemorrhage reached out bravely to touch just the hem of

    Read More

  • closets of conversion and compassion

    Last summer I was invited to join a group of Christian bloggers who occasionally review Christian media.  After I agreed, opportunities came!  The first book that intrigued me is a story of radical solidarity, compassion and good ol’ fashioned Christian conversion, The Cross in the Closet by Timothy Kurek. The following video nicely introduces you to the

    Read More

  • Portrait of Adnan Farhan Latif

    Pentagon reflection: black hoods, white faces and the enemy within

    by Guest Blogger Amy Nee Walker (with Witness Against Torture this week) I am in D.C. again, continuing the tradition of gathering each January with men and women of the community called Witness Against Torture. The group gathers each year, and works throughout the year, toward the closure of Guantanamo, appropriate legal trials for those

    Read More

  • Four demonstrators hold signs protesting at the NATO Summit in Chicago.

    Two worker houses: where ‘stranger becomes neighbor’

    Guest blogger, Amy Nee One evening in May I sat on windowsill in the room I’d recently moved into at New York’s Maryhouse Catholic Worker. With legs folded into the frame, I watched a little window of sky that subtly made the dramatic shift from pale yellow to blazing pink without comment.  I was sitting with

    Read More

  • alive in the studio

    Trying to be a faithful Christian sometimes feels like living in God’s limitless art studio. God is the Great Artist who is always at work creating us anew.  We get to co-create and this communion brings us closer to God. Since ending my ministry at the high school my creativity has been slightly out of

    Read More

  • an Easter economy

    It is time for a new economy. It is time for Christ to be our Cornerstone of all creation, even our economic exchange. It’s Easter, the season of new days and resurrected, restored creations.  The time is now for God’s Way to revive all that makes us broken and weak, especially the structures that create

    Read More

  • adventures in the Spirit, part 4

    Living by the Spirit that is Truth is not comfortable.  We can feel crammed into corners, we have to give up control, we have to trust others.  Sometimes we are exhausted but still have to keep pushing ourselves.  Our bodies can hurt, but we still have to carry heavy loads and keep moving onward.  When

    Read More

Let’s Connect 

Subscribe and get thoughtful email messages from us