MSI Press Blog

  Excerpt from excerpt from  From Deep Within  (Lewis)  Ben and Bella   My office was on the seventh floor. Practitioners who rented office space in the large brick building nicknamed it ‘therapy row’ since it was occupied by so many therapists.   My square office was to the right of the elevator. I had two black leather chairs that reclined, with a tinted brown glass table between them. In the corner was a plain pine desk with file drawers, a clock and a phone. Healthy green plants were placed around the office, and pictures of nameless Caribbean islands lined the four walls.   Bella, who described herself as transgendered, walked into my office. She was a mixed race black woman dressed to the T. The paisley dress she wore was a mix of red, blue and green. She wore striking red pumps. I noticed her feet were large and out of proportion to her small frame. She was transitioning from a man to a woman, and some of her feminine qualities were still muted....

  From Morning Prayer: “Gilead is mine, and Manasseh. Ephraim I take for my helmet, Judah for my commander’s staff. Moab I will use for my washbowl; on Edom I will plant my shoe; over the Philistines I will shout in triumph.” (Psalm 60:7-9) These verses appear in a psalm of national distress, spoken in the voice of God. They are not triumphalist; they are a theological declaration that all lands, all peoples, all conflicts ultimately lie within God’s sovereignty, even when Israel feels defeated or abandoned. The individual components are buried in history and likely need explication if they are not to be mere reading without meaning. “Gilead is mine, and Manasseh.” These are territories east of the Jordan, associated with the tribes of Gad and Manasseh. They represent the vulnerable borderlands, the places most exposed to invasion. God’s claim— “is mine” —is reassurance: the places that feel least secure are not outside God’s care. “Ephraim I take for my helmet.” Ephraim was t...