EP 17: SOMETIMES WOMEN LIE ABOUT BEING OKAY
Christine chats with writer Rachel Joy Welcher about the purpose of poetry and how it serves as an invitation to notice beauty and interact with the sorrows, joys, and tensions of life. Rachel shares more about the loves and losses that have inspired her work, and Christine asks her to read some of her favorite poems aloud. Rachel then offers helpful writing tips plus 3 poetry prompts, inviting listeners to share online with #theholyshiftpoetry.
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Our Guest
RACHEL JOY WELCHER
Rachel is a poet and author living in South Dakota with her husband, Pastor Evan Welcher, and their longed-for daughter, Hildegaard. Rachel works as an editor at Fathom Magazine and Lexham Press and received her Master of Letters in theology from The University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She is the author of four books: “Blue Tarp” (Finishing Line Press, 2016), “Two Funerals, Then Easter” (Dustlings Press, 2018), “Talking Back to Purity Culture: Rediscovering Faithful Christian Sexuality” (InterVarsity Press, 2020), and “Sometimes Women Lie About Being Okay” (Dustlings Press, 2022).
NOTE: Featuring a guest, resource, or organization on The Holy Shift does not necessarily constitute a blanket endorsement of their entire body of work.
We’ve highlighted some key points from this episode below. Feel free to share these on your blogs/feeds with proper attribution to the writer/speaker/podcast. Or stay tuned—we will be posting several of these verses and quotes, along with clips from this episode, on our IG page and you can save/share from there.
Scripture
PSALM 77 (link to Full passage)
Verses 7-12: Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will he never again be kind to me? Is his unfailing love gone forever? Have his promises permanently failed? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he slammed the door on his compassion? And I said, “This is my fate; the Most High has turned his hand against me.” But then I recall all you have done, O LORD; I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. They are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.
PSALM 27 (link to Full passage)
Verses 7-10, 13-14: Hear me as I pray, O LORD. Be merciful and answer me! My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “LORD, I am coming.” Do not turn your back on me. Do not reject your servant in anger. You have always been my helper. Don’t leave me now; don’t abandon me, O God of my salvation! Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD will hold me close. Yet I am confident I will see the LORD’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living.
PSALM 19 (link to Full passage)
Verses 1-6: The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun. It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding. It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race. The sun rises at one end of the heavens and follows its course to the other end. Nothing can hide from its heat.
Quotes
- It is interesting to look at history and to see that so often what directed movements were words. Words and how we say them—whether it should be this way or not—really are what determines history. RJW
- Writing poetry has been a way to name things that I can’t name in any other context and that’s been a really important part of my healing. But then it gives me the ability to name something for someone else too, and then maybe gives them the words they didn’t have OR gives them the bravery to write the words that they didn’t think they could. RJW
- What art does is allow us to tell the truth and receive the truth in ways that we normally would not be open to. It helps us notice, whether that be beauty or pain. Art is a form of prophecy in that it is a way of truth-telling. CCP
- There’s poetry happening all around you. RJW
- One of the reasons I try to interact with creativity is because God tells us the truth through beauty all the time. CCP
- How do you put words to joy? Well, we can’t. But we do the best we can with music and with poetry and art. CCP
- I think that is one of the hardest things in life is that joy and pain are always holding hands. RJW
- Sometimes I think with Christian art, we feel compelled to put the happy ending and tidy bow on things. And we feel like every song or poem we write—at the end—has to have this clean little ending. And I actually want to free somebody up out there. Go read the Psalms. They don’t all end happy. We are always going to be postured toward God as Christians, but we do not have to—in every circumstance —write poetry that moves in a linear fashion or is doctrinally sound. We are allowed to be angry. We are allowed to ask questions. CCP
- Anyone who’s thinking that Christian poetry has to always preach a specific message at the end should go read the Bible and they will see poetry in the Bible that lets humans be humans and God be God. RJW
Poetry Prompts
Poems from the Podcast
by the Rivers of Babylon, by rachel joy welcher
An imaginative reading of Psalm 137 : By the rivers of Babylon we sit and weep…
Rachel’s Collections
The world doesn’t need any more pretentious or self-absorbed words. We need words of beauty and grace, grit and hope. We need poetry that sounds like the language of our own heart, verse that tells the stories we long to hear when we’re alone, cold, in the dead of night. We need words that make us more human, that rouse our faith. And here, we have it.”
Winn Collier
(all descriptions Are written by/linked to Amazon.com or the author.)
Inspiration
MUSIC
Other Resources
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Special thanks to my production team!
- Podcast Editor: Tammy Munson
- Video Editor: Alyssa Bruce
How does art invite YOU to notice beauty and interact with the joys, sorrows and tensions of life? (Share your thoughts on that here and your poems on the poetry prompts page.)
