I fantasize about living in a tiny house. Last night I stayed up way too late looking at photo galleries and floor plans, nightdreaming about how easy it would be to keep a small space spring-cleaned all year round, about …
A Holy Kiss
“I’m not going to stop kissing Matt when you two get married.” I looked up to see Rose, one of the “senior saints” at my soon-to-be-husband’s little church. Unless the roads were icy and wet, Rose was in her place, …
My Addiction
God is teaching me not to worry by taking the stuff I get angsty about and making it happen. Seriously. Last year before our trip to India I worried that because none of the participants had connected beforehand, all of us …
The Gift of Honesty
It’s Christmas, the time when humblebrags move from Facebook into the double-sided, full-color Christmas letter. (Bonus points if it’s in Comic Sans.) Full of news about graduations and babies and promotions and trips to Nepal, these letters carefully glide past …
Welcome to Johnsonia
I have long thought that I would be a wonderful benevolent dictator of a small country, and the more dysfunction and stupid-choice-making I see around me, the more I think my wise leadership is needed. So as soon as I …
My Name Is Jen, And …
Recently I read Lit, Mary Karr’s memoir about her relationship with her husband, her addiction and her God. Every page was a poem—no wonder the book appeared on dozens of “best of” lists. But what struck me most was her experience …
Growing Pain
Recently I posted this quote from Alice Walker on Facebook: Some periods of our growth are so confusing that we don’t even recognize that growth is happening. We may feel hostile or angry or weepy and hysterical, or we may feel …
Jen-in-the-Box
In his book Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare, Jeremy Butterfield lists ten of the most irritating phrases in English, including “it’s not rocket science,” “with all due respect,” “fairly certain,” “I personally,” and “shouldn’t of.” (It’s shouldn’t have, …
Old Girls Network
Dear older ladies, First off, do not be offended—by “older” I mean older than me and my friends—not old. Trust me, I’ve been well-trained by my mother that old is at least 10 years older than your current age. “I just …
The Gift of a Mac
I have always resonated with Charles Schultz’s comment: “I love mankind—it’s people I can’t stand.” I know this is not very Jesus-like of me, but this weekend when the eye-rolling, gum-smacking teenager sitting behind me at the movies insisted on pushing the …