My guest this week is Bunmi Laditan, author of a new book called Dear God: Honest Prayers to a God Who Listens (affiliate link). I really loved talking with Bunmi. She has a sincerity and an authenticity that are impossible to miss. We explored her moments of darkness and doubt, the difficulty we might have in relating to the concept of “God” as a male figure, whether God appreciates our irreverence, and the nature of divine love, among other topics.

I don’t think Bunmi would mind my saying that she has a childlike exuberance when she talks about God’s love, which she clearly wants everyone to know for themselves. We also discussed her suicide attempt, and the near-death experience that followed. I think you’ll get a lot out of this conversation. Topics we discussed included:

• Feeling very little love in religious settings
• The stresses my guest experienced as a child
• Finding a refuge from religion rather than in religion
• The impression that church is more about songs and luncheons than people’s real lives
• The relation between the church and social justice
• The emphasis in the books of Jeremiah and Exodus on protecting the vulnerable
• Bunmi’s experience of God as “Abba” and with Jesus/Yeshua
• Trying to relate to the idea of God when “God” is associated with an angry male figure
• The healing nature of God’s love
• The inadequacy of words to capture spiritual truths
• How God revealed God’s self to Bunmi
• Feeling God’s love as both gentle and powerful
• The compelling urge to share God’s love with others
• My guest’s soft spot for homeless people
• Readings from the prayers in Dear God
• Irreverence toward God
• Bunmi’s moments of darkness and doubt
• How religious mystics tend to see our relationship with the divine
• Letting God change us from the inside
• Eugene Peterson, creator of The Message Bible translation (affiliate link)
• Being willing to be acted upon, and allowing our will to be captured by something higher than ourselves
• The adulterated nature of human love
• “Deep calling to deep”
• The pain that has taught Bunmi to love
• Bunmi’s suicide attempt and near-death experience
• The mindset of suicide

Bunmi Laditan is an award-winning, Webby-nominated writer from California who lives in Québec, Canada, with her family.

She has contributed to the New York Times, Parenting and the Huffington Post and is best known for the satirical Twitter account Honest Toddler and her debut novel, Confessions of a Domestic Failure (affiliate link).

See a clip of Bunmi on the Today Show.

Find Bunmi online on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and visit her website.