Aaron
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aaronjsmith.net
Aaron
@aaronjsmith.net
590 followers 410 following 2.5K posts
Nerd. Poet. Spiritual director. Writer. Theologian. Podcast host. I contain multitudes. There will be typos. He/Him

https://aaronjsmith.net
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aaronjsmith.net
I miss playing guitar.
A twenty something me playing a Tacoma road king guitar on a stage.
September 23, 2025 at 9:53 PM
aaronjsmith.net
Taking a break from sermon writing to stuff food in my face. Then back to the cross and power dynamics.
September 11, 2025 at 7:10 PM
aaronjsmith.net
September 4, 2025 at 8:35 PM
aaronjsmith.net
This is my essay for the week. It's about the gospel passage from the lectionary. Luke 13.10-17. It's the story of the woman healed on the Sabbath, and how the synagogue leader wanted respectability. There's something in there for us. I tried to dig it out.

open.substack.com/pub/aaronjsm...
Dark, blurred background with words on top that read, "We receive the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation in our community. And then we go to the world, becoming what we have received: a means of God’s grace to make itself manifest in the world that desperately needs the bread and wine. We go out, not to struggle to remain whole in a world that wants to tear us apart but to be freely broken, s..." In the lower left-hand corner it says, "Aaron J. Smith" with "sacred time" under it, and then the link "aaronjsmith.substack.net" under that.
August 22, 2025 at 1:24 AM
aaronjsmith.net
Three of my favorite books. These books aren't easy reads. They demand from you. They stretch you. They read you. This is my kind of literature. I hope I can someday write that reads others. What are some of your favorite books, ones you return to, ones that read you?
August 20, 2025 at 2:13 AM
aaronjsmith.net
Here's a poem for you. I hope you like it.

open.substack.com/pub/theclutt...
Dark background of old books with the words, "5:30 Lateness" on the top of the image.
July 31, 2025 at 3:33 AM
aaronjsmith.net
I still like this poem.

open.substack.com/pub/aaronjsm...
An old grandmothers hands clasped together with the words, "I am older Than My Mother" on top of the picture.
July 31, 2025 at 12:39 AM
aaronjsmith.net
The Cluttered Mouth:
For everything that's stuck in my throat

theclutteredmouth.substack.com/about#%C2%A7...
July 23, 2025 at 10:33 PM
aaronjsmith.net
Witness can be a powerful thing.

open.substack.com/pub/aaronjsm...
Dictionary entry for witness with the words "bear the witness break out of the church-industrial complex" over it.
July 18, 2025 at 5:05 PM
aaronjsmith.net
Something's happening...

@tablewerebuilding.bsky.social
July 15, 2025 at 2:20 AM
aaronjsmith.net
New essay is up. I Desire Mercy, Not Mission Trips.

aaronjsmith.substack.com/p/i-desire-m...
Text imposed on a blurred image that reads, "Colonialism is the systemic assertion of control by one group over another—geographically, culturally, economically, spiritually—often under the disguise of benevolence or moral superiority. That disguise of goodness and care is nothing short of deceit and bearing false witness about our motives and intentions. We long to save people, and the way we save people is by turning them into us. This isn’t loving our neighbor. This is colonizing them so that we can feel better."
July 10, 2025 at 2:06 AM
aaronjsmith.net
Up at the Book of Common Words: I'm Just A Christian Dirtbag Baby.

open.substack.com/pub/aaronjsm...
Rocker jumping while playing hisbguitar. Overlaid are the words, "Im just a Christian dirtbag baby"
July 8, 2025 at 5:27 AM
aaronjsmith.net
I think about this a lot.
May 21, 2025 at 2:35 AM
aaronjsmith.net
A classic painting of Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss with the text over top reading, "It started out with a kiss how did it end up like this."
April 16, 2025 at 3:15 AM
aaronjsmith.net
Front New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton.
Snapshot from New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton. It reads "A REVOLUTION is supposed to be a change that turns everything completely around. But the ideology of political revolution will never change anything except appearances. There will be violence and power will pass from one party to another, but when the smoke clears and the bodies of all the dead men are underground, the situ- ation will be essentially the same as it was before: there will be a minority of strong men in power exploiting all the others for their own ends. There will be the same greed and cruelty and lust and ambition and avarice and hypocrisy as before."
February 25, 2025 at 8:17 PM
aaronjsmith.net
Become ungovernable.
Picture from Tiananmen square where a lonely Chinese man stands blocking a row of tanks from moving forward.
February 5, 2025 at 3:50 AM
aaronjsmith.net
Without downloading any new pics, where are you mentally?
Hand holding a sign that reads, "Jesus would slap the shit out of you."
January 24, 2025 at 10:47 PM
aaronjsmith.net
Good trouble.
January 24, 2025 at 5:40 PM
aaronjsmith.net
Resist
January 21, 2025 at 7:25 PM
aaronjsmith.net
Mood
Captain Von Trapp from The Sound of Music ripping a Nazi flag in two. It's my mood right now.
January 21, 2025 at 2:24 AM
aaronjsmith.net
A post urging people to believe that a person hurt you, not the church. My response reads, "The only people that want you to know the difference are people that want to pretend modern Christianity isn't a drawer full of knives."
January 17, 2025 at 11:56 PM
aaronjsmith.net
I got crabs.
January 15, 2025 at 9:22 PM
aaronjsmith.net
I am too.
December 28, 2024 at 3:52 AM
aaronjsmith.net
Without downloading any pictures, what energy are you bringing into 2025?
December 27, 2024 at 11:26 PM
aaronjsmith.net
Call me Noraa.
Photo of a theblower half of a man's face with a substantial goatee of brown with some gray in it. He's wearing a gray shirt with some black letters on ot
December 16, 2024 at 3:56 AM