In this devotional, as we challenge the line of sacred and profane, I offer up poetry and narratives about finding sacredness in pornography. This topic will shut out some people as they enter with past trauma. I want to acknowledge the profanity in pornography. It can cause harm because of the warped views of gender, sexuality, and race, as well as economic, social, mental, and physical issues that derive from its consumption. I define sacredness as unveiling wholeness, and hold space for those whose wholeness is not unveiled through pornography.

There are few words to exude the deep sorrow and lament that come out of seeing a continuous barrage of gun-violence related news across the news headlines and our daily lives.

Is it tainted worshipif my earthly mouthoffers praises in thecolonizer’s tongue?

Recently, I have come to realize that breathing is not easy. When I scurry to catch the train, I move quickly and breathe shortly. During tense and difficult conversations, my breathing is neither steady nor relaxed. When I think about my to-do list, the steady rhythm of my breathing quickens. When I watch a movie or read a book, I often hold my breath in anticipation. When I climb up many flights of stairs to get to my apartment, I am out of breath. For me, breathing properly in my daily routine has been difficult.

Many of us grew up in environments that we have come to disagree with. We attended churches with people who ate the same food as us, may have looked like us (not this mixed race Asian-American though), and experienced the world as we did. But none of this was enough to conjure a sense of “home.”

"Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness..." --Genesis 1:26

I was wondering-wandering through the spaces of lesser pains and worse pains of the lent, that makes it more than a linear moving-across from the ‘God’ to the ‘Godless’ and/or from “Godless” to “God”. I/i continue to see and unsee Godless in the Godly and vice-versa as beauty must always be preceded by ugliness, which makes ugliness a prerequisite of beauty. Beauty is ugly in another key.