Kayla Craig

1 week ago | kaylacraig.substack.com | Kayla Craig

Sun warmed my shoulders. Sea mist tickled my nose. As I sat along the Pacific Ocean listening to the waves roar like thunder, I felt myself actually…exhale. The only prayer I could muster was thank you. Thank you for the beauty of creation. Thank you for letting me marvel at it. Thank you. I had nowhere to be and nothing to do except sit with God and breathe. I didn’t realize I had been holding my breath for so long.

3 weeks ago | kaylacraig.substack.com | Kayla Craig

When Jesus was crucified, all who loved Him wept in anguish. It's hard for us now, knowing the glorious Resurrection that was to come, to truly wrap our minds around how devastated His friends and family must have felt at His death. “Resurrection is another word for change, but particularly positive change—which we tend to see only in the long run. In the short run, it often just looks like death,” says Richard Rohr. As humans created by a Maker God, we are created to be transformed, too.

1 month ago | kaylacraig.substack.com | Kayla Craig

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedAs much as we want to race toward resurrection, Holy Week is not a week to rush through. Instead, we're asking: What would it look like to enter the story and let Love do its slow, sacred work as we follow Jesus toward the cross? Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedWe’re arriving at the edge of the story. Palm branches scatter. Echoes of Hosanna! linger.

1 month ago | kaylacraig.substack.com | Kayla Craig

As we continue our slow journey toward the darkest night, I can’t help but marvel at how Christ, betrayed and beaten, embodies forgiveness. In a world that so often chooses retaliation, he chooses redemption. In the face of cruelty, Jesus opens his arms. This is the invitation of Lent: To loosen our grip, to release what cannot redeem us, and to prepare our hearts not only for death, but for the kind of love that rises again.

1 month ago | kaylacraig.substack.com | Kayla Craig

What if the thing pulling you away from God…looks like something good? Something noble? Responsible? Even spiritual? I have an outsized view of myself. Maybe you do, too. I want to stretch my arms over the world and protect it from harm. Every time another breaking news alert pops up, my heart drops—and I immediately feel pressure to fix it. Fix what, exactly? Centuries of injustice? Millennia of the human condition? If I’m honest, yes. I read the headlines. I see the pain in my community.