Too Long; Didn't Read

Breaking up a mega essay into more digestible pieces

Hello, dear readers! I know you haven’t heard from me in a while, but it’s not because I haven’t been writing. It’s because it’s taking me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to write what I’m writing. My original intent back in May was to tell you about the beginning and end of a private, small-scale mercy/reparation ministry that my husband and I took on nearly six years ago when we began providing shelter for a couple of people whose lives were plagued by chronic housing insecurity. But as I began writing, I realized that although what Peter and I did was highly uncommon, I didn’t want to tell the story in a way that made us seem exceptional. Instead, I wanted the narrative to answer the question, “What would motivate two ordinary, upper-middle-class professionals who were attached to the American Dream, their creature comforts and privileges, and the needs of their nuclear family to take on so much personal risk, cost, and inconvenience for people who were so different from them and who came with so many circumstances that practically guaranteed poor outcomes?”

But the only way to answer this question adequately is to describe in detail the journey that took us from an exceedingly limited and muddled but nevertheless mainstream version of evangelical Christianity to an understanding of the gospel and its Messiah, Jesus, that is more expansive than we could ever have imagined. Ultimately, this story is not about us but about the transformative power of a gospel whose scope is at once cosmic and tethered to the earth, futuristic and present. And that’s not an easy story to tell in 10,000 words or less.

I’m realistic about the fact that people’s attention spans are limited these days and about the reality that very lengthy pieces aren’t easy to read in digital format, especially when they arrive when people are in check-my-email mode rather than in I’m-sitting-in-my-favorite-chair-with-my-favorite-beverage-and-e-reader mode. So here’s what I’ve decided to do. I’m going to release this lengthy narrative in a series of installments. The first one will arrive in a separate email from this one. If you’re in the mood to read it when it arrives in your inbox, great! If not, click on the title to go to the URL and bookmark it in your browser to read later. The installments will all be in one place on my Substack site eventually for easy access. I’m hoping this will make it a much more manageable reading experience for you all and and a less pressured writing experience for me.

Peace and grace,
Judy