Meredith Sell

words of wisdom

  • Not Abandoned

    I will not leave you comfortless, Jesus says in John 14:18, in his last words to his disciples before his crucifixion. I will come to you.  Another translation says orphaned, instead of comfortless. I think you could also read it as abandoned. Over the last seven months, I’ve wrestled hard with isolation and loneliness. There’s

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  • Quotes from books I’ve read so far this year

    “One friend with whom you have a lot in common is better than three with whom you struggle to find things to talk about.” ~ Mindy Kaling, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? “It is one of the tragedies of life that one cannot have all the wisdom one is ever to possess in the beginning.”

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  • The burden of knowledge

    I remember reading The Diary of Anne Frank in school. I remember reading Corrie Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place and fictional stories set during the Holocaust like Number the Stars. I remember reading those things with the not-quite-fully-realized idea that the Holocaust was a real thing that happened to real people. I distinctly remember Number the Stars and the Jewish

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  • What I don’t know

    The biggest thing I’ve learned in the two-plus years since I graduated college is how little I know about, really, anything. And this isn’t meant to be self-deprecating. The world is just so big and old and complicated that what little bits I know are pinpricks of light on a canvas the size of the universe.

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  • Journal entries of a white girl

    Grappling with privilege and the mess made by people who look like me. JULY 7, 2016. EVENING. I’m not sure what to make of today. The country is again drawing lines in the sand because two more black men were gunned down this week for no reason. Fathers. Involved in their kids’ lives. Not drug

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  • Book Review: To the Letter by Simon Garfield

      A book recommendation, straight from the non-air conditioned apartment where I carry my fan around like a security blanket: To the Letter: A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing by Simon Garfield “They expose a grand truth, and often the same truth we may feel when we read Shakespeare and Austen: no matter how

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  • Run hard after Him.

    Uncovering lies, leaving untrustworthy excuses, and chasing God’s calling. I was on the mat, 40 pushups behind me and gearing up for the next part of my workout, when I saw an athlete bite it on the treadmill. He, along with three other incoming freshmen, was trying out for the men’s soccer team. The assistant

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  • Five ways journaling has improved my life

    When I’m writing, I’m actively engaged with life. When I’m not writing, I’m just going through the motions. Since the 29-day writing challenge I did in February (successfully writing from every daily prompt), I’ve felt more myself more at peace with life more excited about life, and more interested in the world around me. Those

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  • Eric Metaxas on cynicism and the human need for heroes

    We’ve been in this terrible cycle of, we know everything that’s wrong with America, we know everything that’s wrong with the church, we know everything that’s wrong with every hero from George Washington on. Well, that’s not right, because what you do is you denigrate things to the point of being unable to appreciate what’s…

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  • Write a letter for posterity

    Letters keep a record. Not just of dates and events, but also of thoughts and ideas. Most Facebook and Instagram posts contain the makings of a boring letter.

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