Sheila K. Campbell

I’m a writer and the author of My Journey With Justin. It has taken me a long time to see that God’s beautiful, redemptive work is most often seen in brokenness, so I’m learning to live more than mended. I write for the grieving, the broken, the outcast (LBGT Christian parents and adult children), the lonely, and the abused, and I share how I have found joy and peace in all of these hard places.

The Family Table

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This morning I am thinking about those everyday family moments that we rarely treasure when they are common, daily occurrences, like gathering around the dinner table. Maybe your family eats together at the table every evening or maybe you don’t remember the last time your family sat down to a meal together. Every family has different habits and traditions. But time passes quickly for all of us, and family traditions often change or disappear as children grow up. Sometimes parents and often young adults think there will be plenty of time for circumstances to change; that there will be ample opportunities and an endless number of holidays to gather… later. But the truth is, we never know when the last time will be our last time together or the last missed opportunity the last opportunity.

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Let’s Learn the Lingo!

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Earlier this year, my son, Jerrod, helped me design and rebuild my website. This may seem to be a reasonably simple job for anyone born after 1990, but for those of us born in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s, it’s a real challenge. Part of the challenge is the terminology. I think the same can be true of the Christian community and the LGBTQ community. We often don’t get past introductions before the terminology barrier can obstruct any meaningful dialogue. Often Christians may think they know what the terms lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning mean, but the English language is fluid and words have different meanings to different people, so join me and let’s learn the lingo!

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Go Ahead – Be Angry but Sin Not

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Grief. It can be a bizarre journey on an emotional roller coaster. And grief can come in all seasons of life and stem from many different causes. In their book, On Grief and Grieving, anger is the second stage of grief mentioned by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler. I once read that anger and frustration almost always stem from a sense of injustice or entitlement. But you know, friend, death is unjust because we were not created for death.

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Coming Out Gay

2 Comments / A Space for Grace /

When my youngest son, Jerrod, was sixteen, he went on a Fine Arts Youth Trip to Orlando with several other youth from our church. Two days later he disappeared in Orlando, Florida. In the back of our minds was the unspoken fear that foul play was the cause of his disappearance – what else could have happened? Although the police suggested he might be a runaway, the thought seemed unlikely to everyone who knew him. Jerrod was a well-mannered and obedient kid; he had been homeschooled and sheltered from negative influences his whole life; and he was smart and talented. But Jerrod had a secret struggle…

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Faithful Tears

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The most common stage of grief usually experienced first is denial. Denial lasted a long time as I walked through that first really hard loss in my life. My brain and my heart just could not accept that brain damage would permanently alter the child I once had and that I would never again have the little boy that I took to the hospital on that spring day in May 1992. I felt I could not hold to my faith and still grieve and acknowledge the reality of Justin’s brain damage.

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A Space for Grace

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In almost any congregation, some feel as though they don’t belong. Maybe they feel marked by sin and judged by others – whether they are or not. Maybe they carry some secret about themselves or their family that they feel would shame them if others knew. Maybe this is you. I’ve been here too. I carried a secret about my family which made it difficult to make connections at church. My youngest son was gay, and I had an unlaying sense of guilt that somehow, I had failed as a Christian parent. This was almost a decade ago and at the time, I did not know of any resources for Christian parents of LGBTQ kids or young adults. I have not done this well, and I am still learning, but I want to see others as Jesus saw them and love as He loved. Won’t you join me on this journey? Can we make space for grace here?

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More Than Mended

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I’m Sheila, and this is where I hope to talk about those hard things that often catch us by surprise and leave us breathless, bewildered, and broken. Things we don’t often talk about beyond brief regards or awkward condolences, like death, rejection, broken relationships, abuse, and all the terrible consequences of our sin and/or the sin of others against us.
Whether we acknowledge it our not, those are some of the very things that shape who we are and how we see the world around us. They impact our relationships and our loves.

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