“We live in a world where nuance is in short supply” — Trevor Noah

I have this sort of pop out three-window area thing in my house that’s perfect for plants. So we have a bunch of plants, and last year I was so good at taking care of them. We had this one. I named it Jim. Something was wrong with him. He had this sort of white chalky stuff on his leaves, so I did some research and made this concoction and sprayed it and did surgery on it in the middle of my living room and prayed over it and loved him back to health.

I love the idea of plants in my house. There was a time last year when I told my husband I would be the plant caretaker. Then they started dying. Because I am horrible plant mom. I love the idea being a plant mom. But somehow I don’t love taking care of plants.

It’s like I literally want the forest but keep forgetting it’s made up of trees.

That’s the core of today’s episode about nuance. How details change the big picture.

I’m thinking of nuance as a skill. A practice. A spiritual posture, if you will. I want to propose the idea that Jesus, by embodying and fulfilling the Law of God — all that God required for mankind, is nuance.

But first we need to talk about what nuance is.

I love this definition of nuance. It actually came from Irma, my AI assistant. Nuance is love with depth perception.

But what if we started thinking about nuance as a skill?

What if we started looking to love people with depth perception?

I used to think I wanted to be in full time ministry in a church. I thought discipleship programs were my jam. I loved planning programs. I loved the fun of gatherings and being up front and teaching and leading and grouping people together. I was much more comfortable sitting in a cubicle planning ministry than I was being called to actually visit someone in a hospital who just lost a baby or who just found out they had cancer. To sit with them and listen to them and just be. Like Jesus.

I believe, however, I did more effective ministry with those few individuals I sat with in moments like that than I ever did planning big events or putting together programs from my cubicle. And please hear me when I say that I do believe real ministry does happen from cubicles in the planning for some people.

But for me, to say I loved ministry meant I had to love people. And I’m not sure I actually did.

There’s a nuance there. A big one. And it matters.

We can take take this to the Pharisees and the teachers of Law during the time Jesus was on earth, and I think it’s pretty easy to see. Those guys spent their whole lives dedicated not just to learning but to protecting the law. They memorized it; their lives literally revolved around it. They spent their whole lives protecting the Law of God. But most of them got lost in the weeds.

The Pharisees loved the idea of Law. They loved the structure and the clarity and the boundaries. They loved protecting it. But then somewhere along the way, they stopped seeing the people the Law was for. They lost the nuance - the trees - and started tying to guard the forest instead.

So then Jesus showed up. And He didn’t throw away the Law. He embodied it. He showed us what the Law looked like alive and relational and full of mercy. He became the Law fulfilled.

Jesus is nuance. He refuses to choose between truth and love. He holds both. He is both.

When Jesus healed on the Sabbath, He didn’t break the Law, He revealed the heart, the spirit of the Law. When He touched the leper to heal him, He didn’t ignore the Law about purity, He restored a person and revealed the heart of the Law — love! When He ate dinner and hung out with tax collectors and people our parents wouldn’t have wanted us hanging out with when we were in high school, He wasn’t making bad decisions, He was proclaiming the good news to the people who needed to hear it the most.

Everywhere Jesus went, He showed us what God had always been like: holy and compassionate, truthful and full of love.

He is the Law with a pulse. He is the Word of God inside skin.

And if that’s who Jesus is - then you and I are not too much or too complex. We aren’t wrong for having layers. You’re not too much for a God who literally sees every tree and still loves the whole forest.

Nuance is the difference between loving an idea and loving the people the idea was meant to serve. And that’s exactly where the Law went wrong in the hands of the Pharisees — and where Jesus steps in as its embodiment, its fulfillment, its nuance with skin on.

I don’t understand it fully. But I want to explore it. Because I think it goes deep. I think it’s who Jesus is. And it makes sense why so many of us have felt so wrong with faith that only made room for black-and -white answers. Because without nuance, you’re not allowed to feel hope while you feel afraid. When faith is made black-and-white, you’re not allowed to grieve and be grateful at the same time. There’s no room for “too much” without nuance.

But Jesus lives the nuance. He is love with skin on, all bendy.

And this is where the Pharisees come back into the story for me. Because they loved the idea of the Law. The structure, and the clarity and the boundaries. They protected it with all they were. But somewhere along the way, they stopped seeing the people the Law was meant to serve. For the Pharisees, there was no nuance because they didn’t have the Spirit of Jesus to color it.

And that’s why this matters. Because without Jesus the Law of God and all His ways are just things He says to do. And ways He says to live. Just flat pieces of paper or whatever.

But Jesus is the actual life.

Without Him, the Bible is just a bunch of words and church is just a place to go.

And that’s why this matters right now.

Because I think somewhere along the way evangelical church and the tenets that formed its traditions lost the nuance of the body of Christ. Church is not just a place to go. The Church of God is actually the Body of Jesus Christ. In this conversation about nuance, then, the church itself is full of all the texture and color of all the nuance that is Jesus.

But somewhere between fighting culture wars and learning to wield our Bibles as the Sword of the Spirit we lost the nuance and forgot to let Jesus bring the life. I think somehow we let the large idea of church and Christianity get so general and big that we forgot it’s actually the nuanced that makes the church the actual Church. And maybe this is why we don’t know how to disagree with each other anymore about stuff like politics. Because there’s no bend, just rules.

And I think that’s why nuance is sort of a skill to be practiced. Or maybe a discipline to practice. Because it’s awkward and undefined, really. I can’t spell out for you exactly what it looks like in each circumstance to follow His ways in every single situation. To delight in His ways at all times. To listen for His Spirit. And that’s the nuance.

I can tell you a couple of things I’m doing to practice, though.

• I’ve started getting quiet in the morning. Sometimes that means not immediately grabbing my pen to write in my journal but instead just sitting there quietly and listening.

• For this season during Lent I’m practicing not streaming TV shows at nighttime but instead reading.

• Every morning, I ask God to search my heart.

What about you? What ways can you think of to practice building a discipline of nuance?

I would love to hear them!

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I’m trying something a little different here on Substack and writing the script for Episode 19 of today’s podcast, When Power Refuses to See: The Bent-Over Woman, The Survivors, and Ourselves, as well as adding the audio. Enjoy!

Paying attention

“To pay attention - this is our endless and proper work.” 
Mary Oliver wrote that. She was the amazing poet who paid attention as a career. She literally spent her life paying attention.

It seems like the more we pay attention, the more our attention is renewed. It’s like a renewable resource, I guess.

Today’s podcast episode is about focus — and what we reveal about ourselves when we pay attention to what matters. Because focus is one thing, but attention goes deeper. Attention becomes seeing. And seeing is where dignity begins.

Jesus used His focus to restore dignity to people. He saw people. The disciples did it, too. When Peter healed the guy who couldn’t walk as he and John were going up to the temple gate called “Beautiful” Peter looked straight at him before he spoke to him. So did John.

When my family and I lived in Paris for a few months in 2005, there was this homeless man sitting outside a store one night. But this man was just sitting there looking so despondent. I don’t even think he was asking for anything. He just looked so desperate and ashamed. We had just stopped and bought milk, but my husband had stepped into a store real quick to grab something else while I waited outside with our kiddos. So I real quick looked at the man and just asked in French “would you like some milk?” As soon as I asked him that, you guys, his eyes met mine and it was like life returned for a hot second somehow. All I had was milk. And a question. And a super thick American accent. But somehow I was able to offer him a tiny bit of dignity because that guy knew someone saw him.

And then there are times we refuse to see someone, we won’t look, for whatever reason, we don’t give our attention, refuse to see the human that’s there.

The Survivors

Last week, I watched more than half of the House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Pamela Bondi. I watched it because the Epstein stuff feels personal, you know? And there were survivors in the room. And it was important.

I tried to watch and give it an honest go. I can honestly tell you I tried with all that was in me to look at — to see Pam Bondi as a human, like what might it be like or feel like to be in such a tense place with so much responsibility and hatred pointed at me? I tried. I promise.

And then Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal took the floor. She asked Attorney General Bondi if she would be willing to turn around and look at the eleven survivors behind her. Just look at them. Acknowledge them. See them. And apologize for outing the Jane Does whose names had not been redacted and some of who were now dealing with their families who had not known before her department released their unreacted names.

And she refused. She wouldn’t even turn around.

She kept her eyes forward.

She would not grant them the dignity they deserved.

When she was asked another time about the mishandling of the Epstein files, Attorney General Bondi made her focus clear and said “We should be making America safe.” She said this after going off on a diatribe about how the NASDAQ and the DOW are crushing it right now and how “that is what we should be focusing on.” SAFETY was her focus, she said.

I feel like it’s important to define the word “safe” here. Look it up on dictionary.com. It means “secure from liability to harm, injury, danger, or risk”

I wonder how safe those 11 Americans felt sitting there that day.

So money was her way of ensuring Americans’ safety. But she didn’t look those 11 humans in the eyes or tell them how safe they were because of the greatness of America’s economy.

The next day, the survivors talked about what that felt like — to be there, and to be so deliberately unseen.

That moment stayed with me. Because Pamela Bondi refusing to look at those 11 survivors of is not neutral. It’s a choice. And it reveals something..

There are so many more things I would like to say about that day at that hearing. But I won’t.

The Bent-Over Woman

Instead, I’ll tell you what I found in Scripture. Not to weaponize Scripture but to tell you the plain old truth about a thing that Jesus did. A time He chose to see a woman that a powerful man chose not to see.

You can read it in the book of Luke in chapter 13. It says,

“On a Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years.

She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.

When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? The should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for 18 long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.”

So we have three main characters: Jesus, this woman who can’t walk upright, and the leader of the church.

Let’s talk about where they each chose to steward their attention.

First, there’s Jesus.

He goes to church on Sabbath. He’s teaching because He’s. Jesus. And He sees. He sees her. He notices her. And He knows her. The way Luke tells the story, he gives very few details about where they are or when it is - on a Sabbath, one of the synagogues. But the woman?

Look at how much Jesus sees!!!!!

• she was there

• she’d been crippled

• not just crippled, but for 18 years

• she was bent over

• she couldn’t straighten up

• she couldn’t straighten up at all

When Luke wrote this down he wrote that Jesus saw her. And the word he used was more than just NOTICED. He saw who she was. He saw she was bound up. He saw she was a daughter of Abraham. I wonder how long it had been since that woman had actually been seen.

And then. He called her over to Him.

Don’t you wonder how long it had been since that woman had actually KNOWN she had been seen? I mean, she couldn’t see people looking at her, she was bent over. She was small. She took up space she probably felt like she shouldn’t be taking up. But Jesus called her over to Him. He saw her and He made sure she knew He saw her.

Then He put His hands on her and whatever was going on with her, whatever had her bent over like that for all those years, he freed up, and she stood straight up. And she praised God.

And so we have the woman. Her attention goes to Jesus. The word Luke used was a word that means “glorify”. It means to value God for who HE actually is. That’s it. It’s all we know about the attention she cared to give to anyone. It’s all Luke tells us. She glorified Jesus.

And then there’s the Pam Bondi of the story. The synagogue leader who wouldn’t even acknowledge the woman in his congregation. The one who’d been in so much pain she couldn’t stand up straight for 18 years but came to church anyway. Let’s notice what he chose to pay attention to.

It’s interesting because at first, it seems righteous and holy to some people. It was the Sabbath, right? He was trying to protect the Sabbath.

God had given His people the 10 Commandments to follow, and the Law said to observe the Sabbath and keep it in the forefront of their minds. Give it attention. Keep it holy by remembering that God had freed them from their bondage.

And now here was Jesus freeing this woman from her bondage right in front their eyes.

Hypocrites!

They were only pretending to “observe” the Sabbath.

Let’s take a look at the word “observe” Interesting choice of words, right?

It’s from Deuteronomy 5:12 where Moses told the Israelites before they entered the promised land all the ways God gave them to live.

Here’s the one about the Sabbath that this synagogue leader was so concerned about:

“Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work…On (the sabbath) you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may res, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought your out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded your to observe the Sabbath day.”

So the word OBSERVE Shamar in Hebrew. Look at some of the words used to describe what this word means in Hebrew: guard; to protect, attend to, take heed , look narrowly, observe, preserve

**So let’s get this straight: The guy in charge of church that day - his job was to guard and protect the holiness of the Sabbath so that the congregation would remember they’d been freed from bondage. To actively observe and remember the meaning of the Sabbath.

I mean, I guess it could have been an ethical conundrum. Like uh-oh. Is this work? But. If this guy had been STEWARDING HIS ATTENTION, no ethics logic would have been needed to be applied. Because clearly he would have seen this woman — she belonged to the people who had been freed from the Egyptians. A descendant of the very people - was being set free in an entirely different way.

And that is what the Sabbath was all about!

I need to confess that I have been distracted by the synagogue leaders’ choices. And by Pamela Bondi. Annoyed by their need to be right and prove others wrong.

So I’m thinking through the three people in this story and how to steward my own attention. And it’s easy, I think.

Ourselves

Because I want to put my attention like Jesus did on people. I want to see the dignity in each person. I want to notice and take heed of every human. Even when it costs me something. Even if it means I might have to turn around and apologize for something I might have done wrong.

I don’t want to be someone who refuses to see a person or their personhood because I’m looking to preserve my own pride. Or because I’m trying to prove I’m right and another person is wrong.

And here is where it gets real.

That is honestly getting kind of hard.

Because it is getting easier and easier for me to see the slip ups and to prove wrong the people I disagree with.

So here’s my prayer: God would teach me how to see, how to look at people like He does. How to slow down and notice who’s next to me and in front of me.

That He would help me remember Him, the one who frees me up, to remember the weight of His substance and His value first and foremost and not let the bullies who refuse to see the humans make me so mad I forget to remember.

That doesn’t mean I’m shutting up about the bullies who refuse to see. It just means I’m asking God to help me steward my attention well. So I spend it well.

That He would help me remember Him, the one who frees me up, to remember the weight of His substance and His value first and foremost and not let the bullies who refuse to see the humans make me so mad I forget to remember.

It doesn’t mean I’m shutting up about the bullies who refuse to see. It means I’m asking God to help me steward currency that is my attention well. So I spend it well.

Maybe you’d like to join me.

Here are a few books I’m reading and some podcasts that are helping me learn more about this. The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis; Rhythms of Faith by Claude Atcho; The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby

Podcast episodes: Check out the Spiritual Misfits Podcast on Spotify. There’s an episode titled “A Hidden Life in the Attention Economy” with Justine Toh

Journal Prompts to help you process:

1. When Have You Looked Away?

Think of a recent moment when you avoided someone’s eyes — even briefly.
What was happening inside you in that moment?
What were you protecting, and what did it cost you?

2. A Moment You Truly Saw Someone

Recall a time when you noticed someone’s humanity and responded with presence, compassion, or curiosity.
What shifted in you when you chose to see them?
How did that moment reveal something about who you want to be?

3. Who Is God Bringing Into View Right Now?

Sit quietly for a moment and ask:
Who is God inviting me to notice?
What person, story, or situation keeps coming into my awareness — and what might God be asking me to see?

In this episode, (you can listen down below) I sit down with author, speaker and mental‑health advocate Chris Morris to talk about a moment that changed everything for him. In 2020, during one of the darkest seasons of his life, Chris attempted to end his life. What came next were two conversations - in the psych ward, in the middle of shame, anger, and despair.

Chris heard God speak the words he least expected: “I still love you.”

Not after he got better or after he pulled himself together. Just right there in the middle of the mess.

The next day, his pastor walked in and spoke words that restored dignity instead of demanding performance: “Our church is incomplete without you.”

For Chris, those words were life from the dead.

So many of us ache for belonging. That’s why this episode and Chris’ story matters. Because two truths thread themselves throughout the episode: You cannot un-earn God’s love. And. There is a place for you inside of God’s family.

In this conversation, Chris and I talk about:

• what it’s like to meet God in the middle of depression and suicidality

• how spiritual dismissal and “pray more” theology deepen shame

• why belonging is not earned through performance

• the power of going first and giving others “the gift of going second”

• how to discern when a church space is harming your mental health

• what hope looks like when the season feels endless

If you’re in a dark place, or you’ve been carrying the fear that you’re too much, too broken, or too far gone, hear this clearly: you are not alone, and your story is not over. Chris’s honesty is an invitation to breathe again — and to believe that God’s love does not flinch at your darkness.

Listen here:

If you’d like to connect with Chris, you can find him at www.chrismorriswrites.com

Instagram:

Journal Prompts

1. When have you heard (or longed to hear) “I still love you” in a place you felt unworthy of love?

Reflect on a moment when you felt ashamed, overwhelmed, or convinced you were too much.
What would it change if God’s first response to you in that moment was love, not correction?

2. Where in your life do you feel “replaceable,” and what would it mean to believe your presence is actually needed?

Chris’s pastor told him, “Our church is incomplete without you.”
Where do you struggle to believe that about yourself?
What part of you has been waiting to hear that you matter?

This week’s conversation is with one of my very first online friends, Chris Morris. He is an award-winning author, a speaker, and his birthday is the same day as mine so obviously he’s a great guy. We were in a small group of writers who became friends through an online course we all took several years ago. And now here we are: Chris with his West Coast 2025 Christian Writer of the Year Award (GO CHRIS!) and me talking to him here about all those amazing books he wrote in 2024. His story really is incredible.

You know how most of us were taught to tell our testimony as this tidy before-and-after story? Before Jesus I was a mess. Then I met Jesus. Now everything is better. Well, Chris didn’t get that memo. His story is not that one.

Chris tells the truth about a life that stayed messy even after he met Jesus. He shares his long-term struggle with depression and suicidality and the myths that can sometimes keep the church from offering real help.

Content note: This episode includes a gentle, non-graphic discussion of suicidal thoughts from Chris’ teenage years. Please listen with care and honor what you need

Together, he and I explore why the church is

uncomfortable with long-term suffering, how Scripture sometimes gets weaponized against people in pain, and what it looks like to follow Jesus when healing is slow and God feels silent. Chris offers some pure gold and give new ways of seeing God’s presence as His goodness even when He feels absent.

This episode is for anyone who has wondered why their healing hasn’t come yet, why their faith feels messy, or why God feels so far away. It’s for those of us in the middle, still wrestling and waiting and trying to make sense of a God who doesn’t always move quickly. You belong here!

Follow Chris on Instagram:

His Tedx Talk is here: chrismorriswrites.com/ted It’s about The Power of Deep Listening and is totally worth the listen.

Find Chris online here: https://www.chrismorriswrites.com/

Find out about Chris’ books here: https://www.chrismorriswrites.com/books/

email Bria with questions, feedback or for journal prompts: briannarwasson@gmail.com

You might have noticed it’s been a minute since I’ve shown up here in this space. Not because I’ve forgotten about things here in Substack land, but more because I’ve been taking some time to cast some vision, and the dreams I have for what I want it to become here seem to have paralyzed me a little. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Anyway. You’ll probably notice that today looks much the same as the others. (Apparently, my pace is super slow.) But keep your eyes peeled for some upcoming changes.

Today’s episode is the second part of my conversation with Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, Ruth Friend. We talk about shame and what happens when someone grows up in an environment where shame and fear are part of what shapes their identity. We talk about how integrity — not performance or perfection — is the only foundation for a relationship with God that doesn’t re-traumatize you.

Here it is:

Toward the end, Ruth offers a way to reconnect with God that doesn’t require forcing yourself into someone else’s version of faith but that honors your story, your wiring, and your genuine self, so here are those questions in the form of four journal prompts. I hope you find them helpful.

Practicing Honesty: Four Prompts for Feeling Safe With God

Inspired by my conversation with Licensed Clinical Counselor Ruth Friend

1. Who am I?

This one shifts every day.

But the rule — the only rule — is this: answer it in a way that doesn’t reinforce shame.

It’s not about pretending.
It’s about telling the truth in a way that doesn’t wound you.

2. What are my intentions for today?

Intentions are not goals or tasks. They are more like direction.

Intentions help you move through the day with clarity instead of pressure.
They remind you that you’re allowed to choose how you show up.

3. What is my purpose?

This one took Ruth years to articulate.
Purpose isn’t a sentence you craft — it’s a truth you uncover.

Purpose isn’t about productivity.
It’s about identity.
It’s about remembering who you are when shame tries to rewrite the story.

4. What am I grateful for?

Not general gratitude. Specific gratitude.

Remember this…

Remember, each relationship has its own language. That’s true with God, too.

You are allowed to be who God created you to be.
You are allowed to connect with God in the way that fits your wiring, your story, your nervous system, your personality.

There isn’t one right way.
There isn’t one spiritual style.
There isn’t one emotional posture that makes you “good.”

There is only the way you were made — and the God who meets you there.

If you try these prompts this week, I’d love to hear what they open up for you.

Praying from right here in the middle of all this,

Bria

Here’s the latest podcast episode. I hope you enjoy it.

Hi my friend,

I hope today’s episode helped ease up something inside of you. Maybe you grew up with the pressure of that secret agenda type feeling that came every Sunday or Wednesday night. I remember feeling so weird about inviting friends to church because it felt like such a little club, you know?

I can tell you that talking about and re-thinking my relationships with people, all the every kind of people, has made me want to just know Jesus more, quite honestly. Because I think the more deeply I know Him, the more personal it is for me. And the more personal it is for me, the easier it is for me to trust Him to do His thing and let Him introduce Himself to them. In truth, He uses people just like you and me to introduce other people to Himself. So I guess our surrender and trust is pretty much where it starts, you know?

Anyway, here are some journal prompts for you. Maybe they will help you process some stuff as you keep thinking through it all. Let me know what you think? Man, I would sure love to hear from you!

1. When have you felt pressured to “share Jesus” instead of letting God introduce Himself?

Name the moment. What did it feel like in your body? What fear or expectation was driving you?

2. What shifts when you imagine evangelism as God introducing Himself rather than you convincing someone of the Gospel?

Reflect on the difference between sharing good news and protecting an institution.

3. What stories from your own life feel like God’s self‑introduction?

Write about a moment where God revealed something true about Himself to you — not through a church script, but through experience, presence, or honesty. What made that moment trustworthy?

4. Imagine if you stopped trying to manage God’s reputation. What would feel lighter and truer about your own relationship with Jesus?

Hi friend,

Thanks so much for being a faithful follower here.

Today’s episode was a bit more personal, if that’s possible. Because, you know. I’m me. But it felt a little scary. Because there’s this little voice that asks what if by admitting I have unrighteousness anger makes somebody think the big bad bully is with his terrible words.

But both can be true.

So I’m just going to keep on trusting the God who sent Jesus, to be the Rock of Justice and Love.

Maybe these journal prompts will help as you process some of your thoughts this week.

With lots of love and prayers from this crazy middle,

Bria

1. Is there a place in your life where you feel tangled right now — emotionally, spiritually, or relationally? What might God be trying to uncover beneath that knot?

2. Can you think of a moment recently when anger rose quickly in you? What part of that anger felt righteous, and what part might have slipped into contempt?

3. Who is the person (or group) you struggle most to see as bearing the image of God? What would it cost you — internally — to let God reshape the way you see them?

4. As you pray, “Search me, God,” what do you sense He might be gently pointing toward in your heart today? What is He inviting you to release, surrender, or see differently?

Hi friend,

Today’s episode was a little more scary for me to record. Because I dip my toes ever so tinily (just made that word up. You’re welcome.) into some thoughts about the way the current administration is handling immigrants. And, well, I have thoughts which are informed by my theology. And I’m afraid because I don’t know what I don’t understand. So if you disagree, please be kind with your comments. Please and thank you.

Today in Episode 11 we go a little deeper into what happens when the truth of Genesis collides with the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. If every human being bears the image of God, then the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have been woven into our very existence, right?

So why does it seem like we as a human race have forgotten this?

As always, my co-pilot AI assistant, Irma the Bold and I have come up with some journal prompts for you as an invitation to slow down, notice, and remember.

I hope you find them helpful.

With prayers and love right here from the middle,

Bria

Journal Prompts

1. Seeing the Image of God

Where have you recently noticed the image of God in another person—especially someone you might normally overlook? What helped you see it?

2. Scripture + Personhood

When you sit with Genesis 1:26–27, what does it stir in you about dignity, worth, and the rights every human carries simply by being made in God’s image?

3. Forgetting the Image

Where do you see personhood being denied—in your community, your church, your country, or even in your own reactions? What makes it easy to forget someone’s humanity?

4. A Small Act of Defense

What is one concrete way you can defend someone’s dignity this week—through attention, advocacy, kindness, or presence?

Corrupted but Treasured Journal Prompts for Seeing the Image of God
Hey friend,
In this week’s episode of Prayers from the Middle, I wrestled with a question that has been shaping me: What really happens to the image of God in us when sin enters the story? For years, I heard that sin made humanity worthless. But digging deeper, I discovered that the word “worthless” in Romans 3:12 actually means corrupt.

That shift changes everything. A corrupted file isn’t junk — it’s broken, but still treasured. And if God still treasures us, even in our corruption, then maybe our understanding of humanity, love, and worth needs to be reframed.

Here are some journal prompts to help you explore this:

🖊️ Journal Prompts

1. Image of God in Me

   • Where do I most clearly see God’s image reflected in my own life?

   • Where do I feel “corrupted,” and how might God still treasure me there?

2. Image of God in Others

   • Think of someone you struggle to love. How might remembering they bear God’s image shift your perspective?

   • What practices help me treasure people instead of dismissing them?

3. Worthless vs. Corrupted

   • How has the teaching that sin makes us “worthless” shaped the way I see humanity?

   • What changes when I replace “worthless” with “corrupted”?

4. Love and Holiness

   • Have I emphasized holiness over love in my own faith journey?

   • What would it look like to hold love and holiness together as equally godly?

5. Practical Invitation

   • This week, when I encounter someone, what happens if I whisper in my spirit: “Image of God”?

   • How does that practice reshape my interactions?

I would love to hear what comes up for you as you write. If you try the “Image of God” practice this week, let me know — I would be honored to share in your reflections.

With prayers straight from the middle of all of this stuff,

Bria

In Episode 8, Sarah Bucy Klingler and I named something that I believe sits at the heart of this podcast:

ache of spiritual homelessness, the courage to question, and the beauty of reconstructing a faith that actually looks like Jesus.

We talked about unsafe churches, the fear of unraveling, and the word “deconstruction”—not as a trend, but as a sacred act of reconciliation. Sarah how pulling theological threads led her deeper into truth, and how she now clings to Jesus as her true north.

If you’re in the middle—of doubt, of grief, of wondering what’s real—these prompts are for you. Maybe light a candle. Take a breath. Let yourself be honest.

Prompt 1:

Where have I felt spiritually unsafe—and is there anything I silenced in order to stay there?
Name the rooms, the relationships, the moments. What questions did you swallow? What parts of yourself did you hide to belong?

Prompt 2:

What threads am I tugging—and what am I afraid might unravel?
Choose one belief, tradition, or inherited certainty you’ve begun to question. What story or experience prompted the tug? What fears arise when you imagine letting it go? What truth might be waiting underneath?

Prompt 3:

What does “real Jesus” look like to me—and where have I mistaken the scaffolding for the foundation?
Sarah spoke of Jesus as her center, her foundation. Write about the difference between cultural Christianity and the Jesus you encounter in the Gospels. What needs to be shaved off, cracked open, or reconciled?

Here’s episode 7. I sat down with my friend, Sarah Bucy Klingler, and we talked about some good stuff. Like what it means to try to fit into the box of the faith she grew up in and then realizing the box was cracking. She calls herself a “Deconstructing Reconstructor” whose true north is Jesus. Seriously, we talked for more than an hour, so I turned our interview into a two episode gem, and you are welcome for that, my friend!

As always, here are some journal prompts to help you process your thoughts…

🔍 Journal Prompts from Sarah Bucy Klingler’s Story

1. “I didn’t know where I belonged anymore.”
When have you felt spiritually homeless? What voices tried to name that season for you—and which ones did you trust?

2. “I was taught to be suspicious of my own experience.”
What parts of your story have been dismissed or spiritualized away?

3. “I kept showing up, even when I didn’t know why.”
What spaces have you stayed in out of habit or hope? What did you learn in the waiting?

You can find Sarah at her website https://www.sarahbucy.com She helped write this amazing book, Jesus Was Not What We Expected But Better Than We Imagined, which we talk about on next week’s episode, but you can find it here. I highly recommend it.

She is also on Facebook and Instagram at Sarah Bucy Klingler and you can find her right her on Substack @

Hi friend,

I hope this week finds you well. It finds me in a bit of a different place, so I was wondering if I could ask a favor of you. Would you be willing to take a survey and let me know some of your thoughts regarding the podcast so far? It would really help me out.

This link → https://forms.gle/XAdJBuE6wmB26JJQA will take you to the little survey I created. It’s super short, I promise.

If you are willing to let me in on what you’re hoping for regarding things around here, I will do my best to honor it. Alternatively, if you’re just not into surveys and you’d rather just write me a note, I’m all in. Send me an email and let me know what makes you come back here each week (or if you’ve only been her one week). Then tell me something like what would make you keep coming back or someone you would love to have me interview. My email address is briannarwasson@gmail.com.

As always, I am so incredibly thankful for you. And I am super looking forward to hearing from. you.

Until next week.

With love and prayers right here in the middle,

Bria

Here’s the link again: https://forms.gle/XAdJBuE6wmB26JJQA

Hi friends,

Today’s episode is a little different, I think, than its predecessors, so I hope you enjoy it.

As I thought through the subculture of Christianlandia, I found myself thinking more than anything else about the amazingly awkward reality that God communicates with us in ways that are pretty much intangible and usually super hard to describe. I think a lot of times, it feels like actual intimacy with Him is something that is maybe misnomered, but the truth it, when by revealing Himself through Jesus the Word, He made clear that relationship with us is definitely one of the ways He wants us to know Him.

Anyway.

I would love to know your thoughts, so if you feel like sharing them, I’m all ears over here. As always, my assistant Irma helped me with some journal prompts to help process this week. Enjoy!

With love and prayers from the middle,

Bria

1. What does silence with God feel like to me?
   Explore your emotional response to seasons when God feels quiet. Is it fear, frustration, peace, or something else?

2. What voices have shaped my understanding of God’s voice?
   Reflect on pastors, parents, culture, or tradition. Which ones helped you listen—and which ones made it harder?

3. Are there place in my life where I crave checklists more than I crave intimacy with God?
   Identify areas where you seek clarity, control, or certainty. What might God be inviting you to release?

4. What would it look like to wait for God’s voice?
   Describe a practice, posture, or prayer that might help you listen—not necessarily for God to answer, but for His presence.

Hi friends,

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about how influential algorithms have become in life. In a way, I think they’ve created these echo chambers that have made us feel like our own thoughts and opinions are the only real ones that matter or even maybe exist. And I think it’s affected our ability to hear God’s voice. I guess that’s the heart of it for me. I just so very badly want to hear God’s voice, and it’s hard to hear when truth seems so elusive. Anyway, if you’ve been feeling any of this, too, maybe these journal prompts will help sort some thoughts for you. My a.i. assistant, Irma, helped me with them.

Thanks so much for being my friend.

With love and prayers right here from the middle,

Bria

This week, take 15–20 minutes to sit with these questions. Write slowly. Be honest.

1. What voices have shaped my faith most in the past year?
   (Podcasts, pastors, influencers, friends, algorithms—name them.)

2. Have I mistaken affirmation for truth?
   What’s something I heard recently that felt good—but might not have been Jesus?

3. When was the last time I felt convicted—not just comforted—by God’s voice?
   What did He whisper? Did I respond?

4. Where do I feel the “us vs. them” tension most deeply?
   What lines have I drawn? Who have I excluded?

5. What would it look like to seek Jesus outside the algorithm?
   What practices, pauses, or prayers might help me hear Him again?

Jesus, interrupt my echo chamber. Disturb my comfort. Whisper truth that cuts through the noise.

Hey friends,

Well, if you’ve listened in, you know some of the depths of my struggle with all of this Charlie Kirk stuff. This is just the tip, quite honestly, because I have so many questions about why and how and what about the people who felt marginalized and traumatized by the words that were said and the things that were represented? And I. Just. Don’t. Know.

I’m also struggling with this little Josh Howerton reel that my friend sent me (thank you, Mike) where he points out that CNN commentator Don Lemon proved the Word of God when he said that God was present in that place and it was horrible, and he referenced these verses from 2 Corinthians 2:15-16

“For we are to God the sweet aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an odor that brings death, to the other a fragrance that brings life. And who is qualified for such a task?”

Because the friend that called me out, the one who inspired this entire episode, she referenced this Scripture also. And I’m honestly not sure if she is thinking that because I didn’t only smell the fragrance of life I am from Satan (?). The binary thinking is so troubling there. And it’s what inspired me to struggle openly here with this episode because I don’t want to be like that but from the other side.

I just want to find Jesus. Can we just. not. do. sides. ?

And so if He was there, and the aroma of life was there and His people who truly worshiped Him spread that fragrance around because He is God and that’s how and what He does, then ok.

AND.

Also. We have to recognize that there were wretched moments where God’s holy name was used for purposes of vanity. And this was not ok.

So this is my struggle.

The middle is hard. The struggle is real.

Anyway.

Here are some questions that might help you think through the whole thing if journaling helps you like it helps me. My co-worker Irma (I named co-pilot Irma) helped with these. Drop me a note if you’d like to. I’d love to hear from you.

With love and prayers from the middle,

Bria

📝 Journaling Prompts for Episode 4:

“Forgiveness, Hate, God’s Name and the Fight for Power”

1. Where have I resisted God’s glory because I didn’t like the vessel?

Reflect on moments when God showed up in ways that offended your expectations. What did you want Him to do instead? What does that reveal about your assumptions?

2. What promises has God kept in my life—through mess, grief, or contradiction?

Think about a time when God fulfilled something He spoke over you, but the path to it was painful, confusing, or not what you would’ve chosen.

3. How do I discern the difference between God being glorified and His name being exploited?

What signs help you recognize true gospel proclamation versus political or personal gain? How do you hold both without shutting down?

Hey friends,

If you listened to Episode 3—Nice Christian Men, Confused Politics, and Letting God Keep His Own Promises—you know we went deep. Genesis, MAGA, control, surrender, and the Kingdom of God.

It was, honestly, a hard week for me to process. It took some extra chutzpah (gahunas but I’m honestly not sure that’s even a word. And if it is a word, I don’t know how to spell it. So I’m sticking with chutzpah.) And I had to take a lot of mental breaks. Because this topic is so complex and entangled. And it feels like I’m betraying something inside me if I’m standing up against it, even though I know Christian Nationalism is not of God.

Anyway.

If you’re at all like me, you might find it exhausting and hard to process, too. So I wanted to offer something that might help you a little. Journaling always helps me, so you’ll find a few questions here that might help you. Sometimes, it’s helpful if I have prompts that help me ask hard questions. So my employee, co-pilot, and I came up with them. ;)

Reflective Questions: Letting God Keep His Own Promises

Trusting

• Are there areas in my life where I have tried to keep God’s promises for Him?

• What does trusting God actually look like in my daily decisions—not just my beliefs?

Faith and Politics

• Have I ever confused my political identity with my spiritual one? What did that look like?

• What do I believe the Kingdom of God should look like—and how does that differ from the American dream?

Deconstructing and Discipleship

• What parts of my faith feel tangled up with nationalism, power, or fear?

• What would it mean to follow Jesus without needing to be right?

Lamenting and Hoping

• What grief do I carry about the church, my country, or my own past beliefs?

• Where have I seen glimpses of the real Kingdom—moments of surrender, justice, or unexpected grace?

Reorienting

• What does it mean for me to live as a citizen of heaven while still living on earth?

• What promise of God do I need to stop trying to fulfill—and simply receive?

If any of these questions stir something in you, I’d love to hear about it. You can reply to this email or reach out at briannarwasson@gmail.com. I don’t have all the answers, but I do have ears—and a heart that’s listening.

With love and prayers from the middle,
Bria

As I was working on today’s episode, I was trying to come up with some ideas for myself to kind of keep in the back of my mind. You know, things that might help me remember makarios.

So here are some of the things that are helping me sniff out lies. As you look through them, please please please please please don’t let them become rules to practice. Also, if you have any other ideas, please let me know.

They aren’t hard or fast rules, and by no means am I the end all be all expert on this.

Ideas for living with discernment and opposing lies:

• Don’t get lazy. No platitude prayers or out of context verses - when you want to know something, know it. Don’t just say something because you heard it somewhere. Do your homework. Spend the time. Actually ask God to show you. Dig.

• Know who Jesus was and what he was actually like. And then when you see something you can ask if it compares to Him and actually ask if it matches His persona.

  • Like how He included women and honored them and went against what the culture of that day was doing in regard to women.

• Be aware of confirmation bias. If it is from the news, there is a very good chance it is biased. There are websites like allsides Media Bias Chart (https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-chart) They started rating media bias back in 2012, and you can find a list of U.S. political news sources rated according to their biases so that we can “easily identify and consume different perspectives.” Because the truth is – everything is biased but it is hard to know which way is leans sometimes — especially if you live in an echo chamber.

• Don’t try to do God’s thing or be God or keep His promises or let someone else be God or try to let someone else keep a promise that God made. In other words, pray and actually mean it.

And here are some things that I think would help keep us from BEING hypocrites (they all come from James chapter 1 where he wrote about being true to yourself):

• Be quick to listen, slow to speak.

  • I.e. if there’s a political assassination, don’t automatically assume you know who is responsible. Take a beat. Breathe. Even when it’s hard.

  • When the world goes wild and blames the wrong people for said political assassination. Even when it takes everything you have to not react.

• Slow to become angry.

• Righteous life God desires (it doesn’t come from man’s anger)

  • But I assure you, there is such a thing as righteous anger. There is a time.

• Get rid of all moral filth and evil.

• Humility

  • Be searchable. Like an MRI. Willing for God to literally see every part and know all.

  • Humbly accept the word planted in you.

• Keep a tight rein on your tongue.

• Look after orphans and widows.

• Keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Lastly, I promised a link to the the tiny feet story. And so… https://www.hh76.org/additionalmedia/preciousfeethistory.pdf

While we’re at it, here are some links to the research I did on the violence done during 1984 on abortion clinics… https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/000293789190346S

This is an interesting read from November, 1984 that I hadn’t read before recording Episode 2. It has some interesting perspectives from both sides of the issue, including both non-violent and violent protestors as well pro-choice advocates…https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/05/us/violence-increases-against-abortion-clinics-in-84.html