The Journal
A magazine on current events and culture from a Christian perspective.
The Journal is one essay or work on culture, drawing from disparate areas and unified by a single theme, and that theme is always broadly the goodness of God.
our posture:
For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Psalm 84:11
The Journal:
Who are you, really? the spring 2025 issue.
vol. 2 | by Logan Nakyanzi Pollard | March 2025
A note from the editor:
Welcome. This is our second issue which arrives during the Lenten season as Christians prepare to celebrate Easter. It’s a reflection on the renewal of life, and the cycles we all go through. I mostly chose poetry for this one because it’s a kind of mental shorthand that I find useful at certain times and also because some things can only be said this way.
contents:
on MEDIA . . . | It’s theater time! Welcome to the orchestrated theater of opposites.
JESUS. . . | To run (again).
CAREER . . . | That feeling that you want to be on a beach right now. But what you need to do is work— now.
ART TALKS . . . | My cousin the professional dancer.
STYLE & BEAUTY . . . | Time to come back to life.
And more about our new book . . .
Join the conversation.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
John 7:38
on MEDIA | it’s theater time!
Welcome to the orchestrated theater of opposites:
Imagine now two people . . . Let’s call them:
Person (A):
‘I’m angry, and I’m right!
I’m mad at the messenger.
I stand up for _______. But I am afraid beneath all this that maybe I have lost my way.
Maybe I was wrong.
It was easier when we were all boxes.
… and numbers.
But now: some black people are not black.
They don’t care about it anymore.
Which doesn’t make sense.
Because I need them to feel victimized for me to make sense.
And I have fears of a God I have left . . .
But it’s too many rules.
Person (B):
“the unsophisticated person“
You wasted in my name.
I know you make fun of God. The One who made you. I am no fool.
I made runways.
… with my bare hands.
Fought in wars no one named.
Cried tears you have not seen.
You laugh.
And I do too:
You cannot tell right from left.
And you’re in traffic.
~
Reflections:
Which one are you, or neither?
What can be repaired between them?
How did YOU get to your point of view?
Who taught you to vilify people you disagree with politically, culturally, socially, etc.?
And how?
What can you do to be a bridge-builder?
find more content on this topic at our media page.
JESUS | to run (again).
The burden of a lie is obligation
and performance.
The burden of truth is joy
and more and more life.
which you and I deserve
which we’ve earned
from our suffering
pressed down and running over
(I know it’s weird, but I always imagine
Jesus as part bartender
and not because I’m half Irish-American.)
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Luke 6:38
Although maybe—
I usually don’t say Happy Saint Patrick’s Day
except to my sister
because only she understands what we mean by that.
I love Saint Patrick because he stood up and
drove out the snakes as the legend goes
and we know, ain’t no snakes in Ireland!
People love to worship the object
Not God.
To run is to “run with the angels” (a song, an idea, an imagination of Paul’s race)
I hold a spear
like my Father taught me:
You walk
You run
You walk
This is the real marathon
How you cover distance in Africa
(or anywhere)
for real.
The sand between your toes
The calluses on your feet
The sun shining
On your back
The wind
In your face
The sea
By your side
The destination ahead
Jesus smiling
Just two steps ahead.
(That dude can run.)
People always fear labor
But this is so often when you see God.
find more content on this topic, at our page called: Jesus.
CAREER | That feeling that you want to be on a beach right now. But what you need to do is work— now.
That feeling of wanting summer to be here.
But you’re not ready yet.
Keep working.
It will be here soon enough.
find more content on this topic at our career page.
ART TALKS | my cousin the professional dancer.
And he took me to a class once
And I think he thought maybe I’d join the students
I almost did
But I was scared
This is New York City, people
These are serious dancers
They are so strong!
Like runners, but—
They make it pretty
And I could never remember all those steps
I asked him— But, how do you know?
How can you remember them?
And he said— I just do.
We all have these, I just dos
For me it’s this
I just do
But still you can learn to run
You can learn to dance
to paint
to sing
to play a violin
to cook
to drive a truck
to cross a valley
whatever . . .
All there is, is you stopping yourself because
You said you can’t or you’ll look silly
But who cares.
You must move.
Life is kinetic.
Yes, there is a darkness.
Even I feel it: it surprises me sometimes, but mostly it makes me laugh
I use it to bring out the light.
The light is illuminated by this
backdrop
(the darkness will never understand, so stop looking back.)
MOVE.
MOVE FORWARD.
But even more essential:
So when I went to Italy
I got in, as they say: “great shape”
From eating pasta and drinking red wine
And sitting on the beach and walking and eating something like lemon ice cream
That’s all I did.
(and shopping, and sleeping, and visiting churches)
For 10 days.
Except on the 7th, 8th or 9th day
I went running
To the top of a mountainous hill in Capri
And I was flying
Faster than I’ve ever run
And it was because I had dropped all my burdens in the sea
I had finally rested
I had stopped making myself
And just was
We are always drawing out of ourselves
And never putting back in
And we wonder why we
Are empty
But on those days — I ran because of joy
Because it feels good
This is why to run
Remember.
Remember.
Remember!
I’ve run to put coins in a parking meter.
By two old men walking
One said: GET THERE.
(This was L.A.) I love the way black people
Talk sometimes
humor pathos so to the point no waste
in one knot
tied by a seaman
Sometimes in life it’s just that:
GET THERE
GET IT DONE.
Ain’t gotta be pretty.
The trip to Italy was a gift
This was more than 10 years ago— before all the tourism went nuts
My parents had meant to go
With two of my siblings
But Dad had a stroke
So they sent me instead
It’s a long story
He lived another decade
So even when they thought his race was over
It wasn’t
I wasn’t planning on a vacation
I bought a summer dress at the hospital gift store
(Which, by the way, always have nice stuff
As do weirdly off-beat pharmacies
But I digress.)
The point is—
I was not planning on a holiday
I’d wanted to get back home to L.A.
to my neat and orderly life
And I’d already been away for weeks
from my husband
Helping out my parents
And then—
I went because it was God saying:
I have a present for you.
As He always has.
In a very full church on Sunday:
An old man’s phone was going off, with a zippy techno tune, no less
And he couldn’t hear it
During the service
It was funny
The woman next to me smiled, and said:
bella vacanza
a benediction and
no one hassled the man.
visit our gallery for more art related topics.
STYLE & BEAUTY | Time to come back to life.
Life or it or they
May have bent you
But you did not break
Not because it’s spring
But because this is the promise of the Resurrection
Paul says he dies every day
Because in truth
Our lives are micro-cycles of The Cross.
The Holy Spirit gives the ability to
Come back to life
Again
And again.
But how?
How to run if you’ve been walking:
Fall forward.
How to run:
Arms in
Feet straight
One foot in front of the other
Lean forward.
My friend in high school
(We had these crazy
coaches) and we’d
Do these sprint workouts
Run to a hill a few miles away
Big hill
Run up hill
A bunch of times
Run back to school
And we’d pair up because
You can’t do this alone.
How many times in life do we try to though?
And my friend
Was saying, you know—
It’s easier if you claw the hill
And I said— what?
And she said—
You know, imagine
Your hands
And she curled them downwards
And she said— yes, like you’re clawing
Up the hill
We pretended we were little animals
(Because we were strange kids)
But we got it done.
I think of her
Almost every time I run.
You see running
Isn’t pretty
It’s wrestling, it’s labor, it’s pulling out something
from your guts.
It’s coming back to life
after a deep rest
Like a flower out of the brambles
To sunlight.
visit our style and beauty page for more.
Have thoughts? Subscribe and you may like, share and post comments via our ‘hello again’ newsletter and the comments section– dated: MARCH 21, 2025.
copyright © 2025 by Logan Nakyanzi Pollard.
This publication is one essay or work on culture, drawing from disparate areas and unified by a single theme. The Journal is a quarterly magazine, released in 2025 in January, March, September, and December and discusses Christianity’s intersections with media, wellness, and style.
All photographs copyright Logan Nakyanzi Pollard, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be used or reproduced without written permission from the author. All images were captured by a human and inspired by God.
The Journal
Who are you, really? The spring 2025 issue. Vol. 2, March 2025
Published March 20, 2025. updated with links, etc.
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