Where Hannah Writes

On this day 246 years ago, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. Fighting continued for five more years, and eventually a treaty was signed to officially recognize the independence of the United States of America. Many folks barbecue and shoot off fireworks today because our nation was born 246 years ago. While I do want to honor the sacrifices of the Americans who, for the past 246 years, have died on battlefields, believing in the good of the nation that they fight for, the 246th birthday of America doesn't make me feel like celebrating. Those who have fought for the United States and those who have died defending the independence and democracy of this country have stories that should be told and lives that should be remembered. I affirm that, and I also grieve that the independence that they defend is not equally distributed. I cannot think of that document, the Declaration of Independence, without the sobering reminder that the same document that boa...

Friendship is one of my favorite things in the world, but I rarely find posts or articles or podcasts or sermons or books or songs about it. Advice and discourse about marriage and parenting and family relationships are abundant, but sometimes friendship seems to be missing from conversations. Songs about romantic love can be easily found on any radio station in any genre at any time of day, but songs that celebrate friendship are harder to find. A quick Amazon search for books about marriage immediately lists multiple best sellers, devotionals, and popular authors. Searching Amazon for books about friendship, on the other hand, results in a smattering of books, unfamiliar names, and a few guides for making friendship bracelets. There is a notable lack of best sellers and devotionals. Why is this?  Perhaps, in the rush to find a romantic partner, we overlook and undervalue friendship.  Perhaps we don't do a good job of making time in adult life to cultivate and prioritize frie...

With Christmas quickly approaching, the familiar tunes of a baby sleeping away in a manger on a silent night while angels we have heard on high proclaim joy to the world in the little town of Bethlehem echo all around us. I like many of these songs. Many of them capture a part of the story of the Creator of the universe becoming an infant and coming to be with us. But the very first Christmas song was quite different from the ones that resound in our churches and department stores this year. The first Christmas song ever recorded in history was a revolutionary and subversive song sung by a pregnant, unwed teenager named Mary not long after she received a message that the Son of God was in her womb. Mary's song has made people in power so uncomfortable that it has been banned in multiple countries over the past 100 years because of its message of revolutionary reversals. Our Christmas songs about a cute baby often fail to capture what Mary expresses in the first Christmas song ev...

August 2021 marked the beginning of my ninth school year as a high school teacher, but this August felt different than previous Augusts. Usually, by the time August rolls around, I start to feel ready for school to start. I have new ideas that I want to try out. I get excited to meet my students. I plan the first few weeks of class and include new lessons that I think will be relevant and engaging. But not this year. This year, August hit, but the inspiration did not. I looked forward to the first week of school like I look forward to getting a root canal. I stepped into my classroom a few days before the first day of school, and I still felt drained from the Zoom classes that defined the school year that ended a few short months earlier. I wasn't done recovering yet. There were some beautiful moments during the 2020-2021 school year, and I am very grateful for the way our district leadership navigated, but the exhaustion of teaching through 2020 and 2021 was unlike any other exhau...

Zacchaeus was a tax collector, he was very wealthy, and he was short. In  Luke 19:1-10 , we read about his encounter with Jesus Christ and his decision to make amends for the wrong that he had done. He promises to pay back the people that he had cheated and to give away half of his possessions in order to fix the harm that he had caus ed to his community by amassing wealth at their expense. Essentially, Zacchaeus chose to pay reparations. He chose to repair the wrong that he had done by paying money to the wronged parties. That is reparations. Though repentance, transformation, and love for our neighbor are all important aspects of the Christian faith and one could argue that reparations are closely tied to all three of those, reparations remain a controversial - and highly avoided - topic in many churches. But I think we need to talk about it, and I think that as white Christians, we should consider paying reparations. A (very) brief review of history and an invitation Human being...

Today is Monday. I wake up and take a mere 14 minutes to get out of bed. After a quick shower, I put on my work pants (they're actually pajama pants with alpacas on them, but I wear them for work) with a nice sweater that does not in any way match with my work pants. But no one else knows that. After making coffee and breakfast, I carefully balance my water bottle and coffee mug in one hand while I hold my breakfast sandwich in the other hand and try not to spill as I climb the stairs to my office, located directly above my bedroom. My first task of the day involves responding to emails from students. Some have questions about grades and others want to know about an assignment that is due this week. A few students have turned in an assignment late, so I grade them and enter them into the grade book. Another student has sent me an email containing an apology that they had missed part of Friday's lesson because they were helping their little sister adjust the microphone on her la...