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Bigger Table Theologian. Aspiring Writer. Recovering Self-Doubter.

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Colette Eaton

Colette Eaton

Colette Eaton

Hey friend! I'm excited to meet you! I live in Portland, OR and completely love city life. My hubby and I have been married for over 10 years and still completely adore each other. I am a Jesus follower who is passionate about building up the local church and developing healthy communities. It's so nice of you to stop by! So grab a coffee or a glass of wine, and hang out a bit.

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What’s on my mind

What’s on my mind.

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I begrudgingly sat down at yet another table of female strangers. I couldn’t help but feel exhausted from an already packed day of conferencing my brains out and now I had to chit-chat with more women! Even as an extrovert, I wanted to crawl under the table with my tacos and wine, and have a few moments where nothing was expected from me. Then I met Stephanie. She handled all my negative angst coming at her in full force like an Enneagram 8 pro. She absorbed it all and dished back grace ten fold. God never ceases to surprise me! He shows up in the midst of our turbulent, taco-eating, adult tantrums and gives us what we need the most: connection. Thank you to my new friend @stephmpage ! You were the connection I needed and a vessel of God’s love for me! Give a shout out to your sisters and brothers who handle your angsty moments like a pro! 🙌🏻#sistersinchrist #enneagrameightshoutout #makingfriends #spiritualfriendship . . . . . . #shetheroar #inspiredwomen #handandhustle #dreambig #sheislight #thatsdarling #thehappynow #gritandvirtue #propelwomen #purposefulliving #faith #womenoffaith #bravingforward #finditliveit #dreamchaser #deeplyrooted #creativeminds #lovewhatyoudo #livelifefully
I can barely get through this sentence without crying… . “We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves.” . Taken from the book of Common Prayer, this daily confession gets me everytime. It’s a gut reaction that leads to misty eyes and broken speech especially when I read this in community. Our collective confession in our lack of love towards God, neighbor and self feels like the very root of our divisions, discriminations, and distortions being completely exposed in that moment. Our sins are no longer hidden but openly and aloud confessed. You can’t read this without asking yourself: How have I not loved God? How have I not loved my neighbor as myself? No one gets a pass on this. . “If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves…” (1 John 1:8) . But there is a difference between confession and concession. We often see confession as a precursor to aligning our behavior to something more acceptable. The should not’s and the need to’s often follow the guilt we feel in confession. “I should really forgive this person” or “I really should stop doing this”. But Confession is about drawing near to God. This uncomfortable exposure is only and always to bring us closer to The Good for our good. It is the nearness of God that is the precursor to everything else. . “But for me, God’s presence is my good.” (Psalm 73:28) . #drawnear #practicinghispresence #spiritualpractices #spiritualpracticesincommunity
Time and quiet is what my soul needed after my last blog. Sometimes it’s nice to sit in the emptiness for awhile after the chaos of a purge. I don’t want to be in a rush to fill it but allow time for the Spirit to dwell. “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Genesis 1:2 Why should I be afraid to be without form awhile? I am often too quick to fill the voids in my life instead of letting the Spirit do its work of hovering and filling and forming. So I have been quiet and will remain quiet this week. New blog series on Bigger Table Theology coming soon but this week, I’m going to rest in what has yet to be formed. #comelordjesuscome . . . . . . #theologymatters #lampandlight #gritandvirtue #bedeeplyrooted #shereadstruth #flashesofdelight #devotional #graceupongrace #quiettime #jesus #givemejesus #shelaughs #christianinspiration #wellwateredwoman #propelwomen #knowtheword #thecaptivatingwoman #pursuewhatislovely #inspiredwoman
ON THE BLOG: Unpacking the truth about 2019 . Writing has always been the primary way I process the world but even more now, it is what makes me feel more myself. This blog is just that. Before I dive deep into some theological ideas that have been rolling around my brain, I need to start where I am at right now. It’s easy for me to simply stuff my own pain and move onto the next thing but I can only do that so long until my cluttered heart of unprocessed junk begins to spill out! So I’m making 2020 the year of clearing out the junk in my emotional trunk! #2020goals #cleartheclutter #linkinbio #mendingthesoul . . . . . #shetheroar #inspiredwomen #handandhustle #dreambig #sheislight #thatsdarling #thehappynow #gritandvirtue #propelwomen #purposefulliving #faith #womenoffaith #bravingforward #finditliveit #dreamchaser #deeplyrooted #creativeminds #lovewhatyoudo #livelifefully #hopewriterlife
NOTE TO SELF: Slow down and taste your beer. Don’t speed past each moment in a hurry to get to the next. Pace yourself. Sit and sip and taste the goodness that is this life. Fast is tasteless and blurry. Slow is complex and layered with surprise. You won’t get it all done today, so don’t beat yourself up. God has given me a multiple of Monday’s to begin again. But now, it’s 6 pm on Friday and work is done. Someone give me a beer, please. #weekendvibes #ineedabeer 〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️ @hopewriters Instagram Challenge Day 5: SLOW #hopewriterlife . . . . . #finditliveit #dreamchaser #deeplyrooted #creativeminds #lovewhatyoudo #livelifefully #thehappynow #theeverygirl #creativelifehappylife #thatsdarling #flashesofdelight #shereadstruth #risingtidesociety
The dream we have of community only hurts us and leaves us disillusioned. The expectations of perfection is ludicrous and yet even now, after all these years of being in ministry, I am still surprised by brokenness. My own and those around me. My desire is for healing and wholeness and faithfulness for myself and those around me but find myself angry and resentful that the same shit just keeps happening. But community, genuine community happens in those broken places. There is no way around it. We worship a God who was broken for us, how can we not accept the reality of His still now broken Body? Yes, we must address sin and suffering head on with grace and compassion but our dream of community must also be addressed in order for us to engage community as it is now and not as we wish it would be. Dietrich Bonhoeffer profoundly states “He who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.”* May we let go of our dream of community and embrace the broken Bride of Christ. 〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️ *Life Together, pg 27 @hopewriters Instagram Challenge, Day 4: Dream #hopewriterlife . . . . . . . #theologymatters #lampandlight #gritandvirtue #bedeeplyrooted #shereadstruth #flashesofdelight #devotional #graceupongrace #quiettime #jesus #givemejesus #shelaughs #christianinspiration #wellwateredwoman #propelwomen #knowtheword #thecaptivatingwoman #pursuewhatislovely #inspiredwoman
May I remain open to the ideas God is blooming within me. May I not overthink, over examine or over analyze them while I understate, underemphasize and underestimate God. Even in the deadest of winters may I not be surprised by signs of life but embrace even the smallest of whispers, it may turn out to be the Roaring voice I’ve been waiting for. . 〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️ DAY 3 of the #hopewriterlife Instagram challenge: OPEN. P.S. I crammed Days 1 and 2 in my last post. NEW & LIGHT #catchingup #happywednesday . . . . . #shetheroar #inspiredwomen #handandhustle #dreambig #sheislight #thatsdarling #thehappynow #gritandvirtue #propelwomen #purposefulliving #faith #womenoffaith #bravingforward #finditliveit #dreamchaser #deeplyrooted #creativeminds #lovewhatyoudo #livelifefully
Anyone else feel like they were all-over the place this last decade? 🤦🏼‍♀️ Here’s a clue: How many times have you rewritten your “About Me” page?! I have at least five times! FIVE TIMES! Each time it highlighted something new I was doing. I started out as a life coach @bravingforwardcoaching then moved into my creative side with the Hidden Word Community (scroll to the bottom of my feed), then added my new venture in wedding planning @weddingswithcolette all the while staying silent on what I have always wanted to write about and yet never felt qualified to: theology. This isn’t something new for me, I have dabbled here and there on my blog while playing it safe under encouraging posts about braving forward and random lists posts. But I have never just flat out said it and that is new for me. I love the Bible and Theology, and I want to start writing about it. But more specifically I want to address a concept I thought of while sitting in one of my seminary classes: Bigger Table Theology. Bigger table theology simply means that we lean into the diversity of the Kingdom of God through learning from and engaging with those who think, look, participate, and experience the Christian faith differently. This idea has literally been floating around my brain for almost two years and it’s time to let this ratty, unprocessed, not fully formed thought out to give it some light, and water. (I have much more to say about this, so look forward to a new blog series on this topic.) Let me revisit my “all over the place” decade… If I was going to pick a word for 2020 (which I am not but IF I was going to) it would be: CLARITY because for the first time in a while I have clarity about where I am going and frankly, it terrifies me but also gives me a sense of relief. So here is to entering into a new decade with a little bit more clarity and a newly rewritten “About” page. #biggertabletheology #bravingforward . . . . . . #theologymatters #lampandlight #gritandvirtue #bedeeplyrooted #shereadstruth #flashesofdelight #devotional #graceupongrace #quiettime #jesus #givemejesus #shelaughs #christianinspiration #wellwateredwoman #propelwomen #knowthewordby❤️ #knowtheword
Farewell 2019! It was a bumpy adventure that entailed both massive heartbreak and exciting new beginnings. Glad to leave some things back in 2019 and even more glad to bring things like a happy marriage, the cutest puppy, and clearer writing goals into 2020! Here’s to a new year and a new decade! 🥂 #bestnine2019 #happynewyears2020 #braving2020 . . . . . #shetheroar #inspiredwomen #handandhustle #dreambig #sheislight #thatsdarling #thehappynow #gritandvirtue #propelwomen #purposefulliving #faith #womenoffaith #bravingforward #finditliveit #dreamchaser #deeplyrooted #creativeminds #lovewhatyoudo #livelifefully #hopewriters #hopewriterslife

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