Beloveds.
Come on in.
Coffee is on. ☕️
There’s tea too.
I put out some snacks because apparently I believe every serious conversation should have refreshments. 😎
And there’s a chair waiting for you.
Yes, you.
Not the cleaned-up version of you.
Not the version who has figured everything out.
Not the version who believes everything I believe.
You.
I’ve been thinking a lot about home this morning.
Not necessarily the house where you grew up.
Not even necessarily a place.
I mean HOME. 🏡
That place where something inside you finally stops wandering.
Where you can exhale.
Where you don’t have to translate yourself before somebody decides you’re worth hearing.
Where your accent doesn’t need correcting.
Where your disability doesn’t become your entire identity.
Where your anger doesn’t automatically make you disposable.
Where your questions don’t get you thrown out.
Where your grief isn’t hurried.
Where you don’t have to leave pieces of yourself outside before somebody lets you through the door.
Home.
Maybe you’ve been looking for yours.
Maybe you already found it.
Maybe you lost it.
Maybe life changed so much that the place that once felt like home doesn’t anymore.
Maybe you’re trying to find your way back to yourself.
I understand that more than I wish I did.
And this morning my bestie and I stumbled into something while talking:
True North leads home.
👀
Wherever home is for you.
I need to say that again because I don’t want anybody misunderstanding Cassandra.
Wherever home is for YOU.
My True North is Jesus.
Unapologetically.
I love Him.
I talk to Him.
I argue with Him.
I ask Him questions.
Sometimes I probably get on His nerves.
He’ll be alright. 😎😉
My faith belongs in my writing because my faith belongs in me.
But hear this part carefully:
I HAVE NO HIDDEN AGENDA.
I am not secretly loving you so I can get you saved.
My chair is not bait.
My coffee is not bait.
My friendship is not bait.
#YourLifeMattersToMe is not bait.
I don’t need you to become a Christian for your life to matter to me.
I don’t need you to believe in God for me to care whether you make it home safely.
I don’t need you to agree with my theology before I can sit beside you.
And I don’t need to turn every act of love into an altar call.
My witness is my love.
Periodt.
Jesus said He would do the drawing.
I figure Jesus can handle Jesus’ business.
Whosoever will, let them come.
And Cassandra?
I’ll be over here hanging out with everybody else too. 😎😉
Coffee or tea?
😂
Because if you never believe what I believe—
your life still matters to me.
If you never walk into a church—
your life still matters to me.
If you hear me talking about Jesus for the next fifty-eleven years and still say, “That’s beautiful for you, Cassandra, but nah”—
pull up your chair.
You want cream in that coffee?
❤️
There is no conversion requirement attached to my love.
—
Maybe your True North is leading you toward God.
Maybe it isn’t.
Maybe it’s leading you back toward your family.
Maybe toward safety.
Maybe toward sobriety.
Maybe toward your culture.
Maybe toward community.
Maybe toward accepting the body you’re living in now.
Maybe toward the voice somebody taught you to be ashamed of.
Maybe toward forgiveness.
Maybe toward boundaries.
Maybe toward the person you were before somebody convinced you that person wasn’t worth loving.
Maybe you don’t have the slightest idea where you’re going.
That’s okay too.
Sit down awhile.
🏡
You don’t have to know the address yet to know you’re tired of wandering.
—
And there’s something else my bestie and I learned this morning.
Home isn’t necessarily where nobody ever hurts you.
Sometimes home is where you can say:
“You hurt me.”
And love doesn’t pack its bags.
Where correction doesn’t automatically mean rejection.
Where disagreement doesn’t require disappearance.
Where one person doesn’t have to surrender who they are so somebody else can remain comfortable.
Where somebody can say:
“Look again.”
And the other person actually looks.
Where failure can become instruction.
Where instruction can become understanding.
Where understanding can become trust.
Where trust can become friendship.
Where friendship can survive truth.
Maybe that’s part of finding home too.
⛓️
Some things bind us.
🔑
Some things help unlock us.
🏡
And sometimes, after walking around with those keys long enough, we finally recognize the place we’ve been trying to reach.
—
But before my bestie and I finish our coffee, I want to leave you with Paul and Silas.
Because they taught me something this morning.
They were beaten.
Put in prison.
Their feet were fastened in stocks.
And around midnight, they prayed and sang.
🎶
Not after everything got better.
While they were still IN it.
Then the earthquake came.
The prison doors opened.
And the chains came loose.
But here’s the part sitting heavy on my heart today:
Everybody’s chains came loose.
Not just theirs.
And then the jailer saw those open doors.
He believed everybody had escaped.
He was preparing to take his own life.
Paul saw him.
Paul was finally free.
The door was open.
He could have run.
Instead, he noticed the man standing in the darkness.
And he called out to him.
Don’t hurt yourself.
We’re all here.
😭❤️
Beloveds.
That’s it.
That’s the message.
Sometimes somebody doesn’t need your theology first.
Sometimes they need to know:
WE’RE ALL HERE.
Stay.
Please stay.
We’ll figure out tomorrow when tomorrow gets here.
If you’re angry, stay.
If you’re grieving, stay.
If you’re confused, stay.
If you’re questioning everything, stay.
If you believe, stay.
If you don’t believe, stay.
If you’ve been wandering so long that you wouldn’t recognize home if somebody handed you the keys—
stay.
🔑
You matter before we agree.
You matter before you change.
You matter before you heal.
You matter before you believe.
And if you never believe what Cassandra believes?
You still matter to Cassandra.
Jesus can draw whosoever will.
I’ll love whosoever is sitting in front of me.
That’s my witness.
❤️
Maybe somewhere along the way you’ll find your True North.
And maybe True North will lead you somewhere I never expected.
That’s between you and the compass.
I just hope that someday, somewhere, something inside you looks around and whispers:
I’m home.
🏡
Until then?
There’s a chair for you here.
Coffee’s still warm.
And I’m not going anywhere.
loving me some you,
Cassandra
Unapologetically His.
Unapologetically yours.
#YourLifeMattersToMe
Be encouraged, beloveds. You SHALL NOT BE ALONE. I gotchu and I gotcha and God has us all 💯🥰😉😎💃🏿
