By Tara Lake
During my time in Philadelphia, I’ve developed a love affair with the city at the same time that I’ve navigated a winding road back to Christianity and a love affair with God.
I’ve been thinking about this in recent months. I’m a creative, a solo performer, a scholar-artist, and a classical soprano, and all of the dramatic tendencies that you’d guess would come along with that…I’ve got them.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been writing and recording little pep talks — essays to encourage my friends, many of whom are not Christians, or believers of any sort. In the process, I’ve grown a little collection of these — a playlist on my Youtube documenting my own evolution in faith, and the lessons I’ve been fortunate enough to share with others.
Somewhere along the road, I picked up a habit of sharing Bible stories with strangers. I’d fall into a conversation with some friendly Philadelphia neighbor and before I knew it — especially if they had a biblical name (and why do I meet every biblically-named person in Philly?) — I’d ending up sharing a Bible story and we’d get all into the weeds about their implications for our daily lives. I love Philadelphians. Only here would this line of convos even be possible.
One such story wouldn’t leave me. God kept nudging me with it. And I finally sat down to write a pep talk, which became a story time, all about how I met an amazing Philly friend called Gabriel and ended up sharing a story about the Archangel with the same because — what a coincidence — I had just read Luke Chapter 1 the day before! (God misses no appointments.)
What resulted is a fun, lively story about my nerdy Sunday School teachers, my fantastic Philadelphia neighbors, and what one Bible story has to teach us about the power of our words.
Because…Words Become Jawns.
So I wrote that essay, sat down to record it, and officially rolled it out for the Fourth of July, 2026 — because the semiquincentennial seemed like the absolute perfect time to release a video both about the intentionality of a loving God and about Philadelphia, the Birthplace of America.
So friends, that’s how the video came along. I had a bit more fun than usual. I nerded out on sound design. I allowed myself to geek out a bit.
But after recording and editing, I somehow knew the project wasn’t done. A lot had been said in the video, but there was more that the video just couldn’t contain. So, I kicked a few new ideas around, and let God direct me.
The result was an ebook/paperback. And there, I got to actually pen that love note to Philly, say all the things. And more importantly, I got to tell a story about God’s love, and the lives of Zechariah, Elizabeth, John the Baptist, and Jesus Christ, and share — in my own hopelessly geeky way, why that matters to us today.
Well, Family, that’s the whole story.
The Fourth of July is coming to a close. My city’s party got rained out. But I’ve still got joy. We made it. We’re still standing. And we’ve got power that we should never forget: We’ve got our words.
And
Words
Become
Jawns.
