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By Debra Rienstra In cultural commentary

The Enemy Within

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By Debra Rienstra In nature

On Cicadas, Parasites, and Creepy, Slimy Things

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By Debra Rienstra In memoir

The Remnants of Their Lives: An Ancestry Adventure

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A Vote is Not a Valentine–Or a Virtue Test Uncategorized

A Vote is Not a Valentine–Or a Virtue Test

It seems to me people have all kinds of unhelpful notions about what a vote means. And that can lead to them choosing not to vote, usually for either (or both) of two reasons. 1. They don’t think their vote matters. 2. They want to…
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Debra RienstraMay 4, 2024
What Can the Church Offer to a World in Crisis? climate changespiritualitytheology

What Can the Church Offer to a World in Crisis?

What distinctive gifts does the church bring to the table? What can we offer, right now, in this moment in history? What gifts of the church are suited well for what we need?
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Debra RienstraApril 6, 2024
Messiah Complex cultural commentarypop culture

Messiah Complex

The cinematography is amazing! The production design incredible! The acting top-notch! The directing visionary! Eh. I was bored.
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Debra RienstraMarch 23, 2024
Unless a Seed Falls: John 12:20-36 liturgical year

Unless a Seed Falls: John 12:20-36

Even I have to admit, it looks terrible: broken, rotting stalks, bare dirt, no happy winged visitors. I tell myself there are over-wintering insects in there, that native roots are strong, that spring is coming. But right now: stillness, death.
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Debra RienstraFebruary 24, 2024
Pious Petunia Lifts Us Gently Over a Candy-Coated Lenten Threshold liturgical yearPious Petuniasilly

Pious Petunia Lifts Us Gently Over a Candy-Coated Lenten Threshold

Miss P recommends relaxed bemusement at the strained and unnecessary efforts of some Christians to claw back holy meaning for Ash Wednesday out of the lacey pink clutches of commercialized romance.
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Debra RienstraFebruary 10, 2024
Blessed Unrest artstheology

Blessed Unrest

We often wonder what God is calling us to do in a particular moment or passage of life. Could we ask ourselves, in such moments, “What is my blessed unrest here?”
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Debra RienstraJanuary 27, 2024
Religion, the Climate Crisis, and Faith Formation climate change

Religion, the Climate Crisis, and Faith Formation

As with the Pew study, PRRI found that religious leadership structures duly release well-meaning statements, and religious people talk a good game about “creation care” and “stewardship,” but many of the faithful are far more influenced in their climate views by their news sources and their…
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Debra RienstraOctober 28, 2023
Chronological Loneliness cultural commentarymemoir

Chronological Loneliness

Distant from my parents’ and their parents’ worlds, scrambling to understand my children’s world, I feel a kind of chronological loneliness. That’s the term I came up with to describe this feeling of floating between.
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Debra RienstraSeptember 16, 2023
A Passel of Idiolectical Delights cultural commentarymemoir

A Passel of Idiolectical Delights

We’re not talking about a language, or a dialect, or even current slang, but rather those little ways of speaking that are idiosyncratic to a particular person or family unit. In other words, the weird little turns of phrase that only you and maybe your…
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Debra RienstraSeptember 2, 2023
Goodbye to the Books Calvin eventscollege life

Goodbye to the Books

And I was surprised to find: I felt some grief. Why, for goodness sake? Was The Bit Between My Teeth: A Literary Chronicle of 1950-1965 (from 1965, not surprisingly) somehow personally important to me? It was not.
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Debra RienstraAugust 19, 2023
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Popular Posts

  • Communio Sanctorum November 1, 2014
  • On Trolleys and Flying Shrimp: Two Philosophers Weigh in on The Good Place February 16, 2019
  • Refugia May 11, 2019
  • The Weight of This Sad Time September 29, 2018
  • Saturday of the Harrowed Hearts April 3, 2015

Recent Posts

  • The Enemy Within November 16, 2024
  • Third Act/ Third Act Faith August 21, 2024
  • On Cicadas, Parasites, and Creepy, Slimy Things June 15, 2024
  • The Remnants of Their Lives: An Ancestry Adventure May 18, 2024
  • Volts Podcast May 15, 2024

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Contact

Debra Rienstra
debra.rienstra@gmail.com
616-526-8526

Calvin University
CFAC 270
3201 Burton St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546

© 2026 Debra Rienstra. Built on Public Platform

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