Echols: Music as a metaphor for God
“The person that invites me to a posture of praise is likely not the same person that brings other people to that place, which is why writers and musicians and artists and creators need to keep doing their thing.”
Candace Echols
Candace Echols writes whatever she notices as she goes about her daily life. Living that way has landed her bylines in National Geographic, Garden and Gun, The Gospel Coalition, Southern Living, golf.com, Cowboys and Indians, Common Good, Risen Motherhood, and others. Someday, she hopes to have a writing cottage in Oxford, England or Oxford, Mississippi; either will be just fine. Candace and her husband live with their children in Midtown Memphis.
There are 145 articles by Candace Echols :
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May 2026
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Opinion Echols: Will we recognize each other in Heaven?
“The musicians among us will be familiar with the concept of ‘tonic chord.’ It’s that set of notes in a musical score that leaves the ear — and therefore the mind and even the body — feeling settled, complete, finished, at rest.”
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April 2026
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Opinion Echols: ‘We have dulled our own human-ness’
“Our culture has some good things going for it, but at the moment, we have dulled our own human-ness in ways that makes the God behind icy winds and spiraling leaves harder and harder to notice.”
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Opinion Echols: How all the broken pieces reveal the essence of Easter
“Disorder does not only lead to crime. Disorder can also be the kingdom of light. It’s about hope. Light emerges from the hammer blows.” Is this not the essence of Easter?
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March 2026
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OpinionEchols: Heaven is a long and delightful and forever hello
“I am keenly aware of the sting of goodbyes. Right now, even insignificant moments seem to carry weight; every parting hints at some grander departure that’s waiting just around the bend.”
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Opinion Echols: ‘Not understanding each other’ is hardly limited to different languages
“The cacophony of languages rising from the upstairs coziness of this one tiny coffee shop in a small foreign village brings back wonderful memories for me as well as excitement for my children.”
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Opinion Echols: ‘What wrestling with God has looked like for me’
“When the story of who God is and what he has done for humanity comes to light, the risk of offense is high, granted, but the potential for bellyaching laughter is even higher. And one outweighs the other every time.”
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January 2026
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Guest Columnists Echols: ‘This has not been my best week’
“Their blood runs through my veins, and many of them walked in the light of grace the same way I am doing this week, just earlier on the timeline. God loved them, and he loves me, too.”
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Guest Columnists Echols: Team sports make space for light to gain victory over dark
“Team sports push back on our natural inclination toward selfishness, and I celebrate and support anything that makes space for light to gain victory over dark, especially if that light involves a goal, a ball and a reversible polyester jersey.”
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Guest Columnists Echols: A friendship 84 years in the making
“In a world where loneliness is an epidemic, I wondered what could possibly go into cultivating a friendship like this one.”
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Opinion Echols: ‘Much like a middle child, Gen X can feel overlooked or unseen’
“We are referred to as ‘The Forgotten Generation.’ Which could sound depressing, unless you have learned to live out of the clever quiet of a middle-child identity.”
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December 2025
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Guest ColumnistsEchols: Love languages, grace and gift cards
“Being filled to the measure of the fullness of God is better than any gift card out there. It exceeds what our carefully curated lists can bring. And it beats the biggest surprise that could ever be wrapped in a box.”
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Guest Columnists Echols: ‘It’s weird when your kids know things you don’t’
“We can take ten thousand steps, but that last one — the moment when the wick claims the flame as its own — is always something of a tiny mystery.”
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Guest Columnists Echols: Thinking about what’s behind our thinking
“Once you take a thought captive and lock it up tight, you must replace it with another thought. Very few of us are able to sit quietly with nothing at all going on up top.”
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November 2025
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Guest Columnists Echols: ‘Discovering what we are called to be’
“How can I do this life well? What is it that you can pass on to me so that I will not have to relearn the same lessons at the expense of my own heart, mind, body and relationships?”
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Opinion Echols: The things that never touch your conscious mind
“Once you start to see his handiwork in the details, you notice it everyday. And if you’re like me, you find yourself wondering how many other things you see everyday ... that never touch the conscious mind.”
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Guest Columnists Echols: How well do you know Memphis? Here’s a photo quiz to test your knowledge.
Can you name the neighborhood in which these places are found? The street? How many of these spots make you think of some other memory?
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October 2025
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Guest Columnists Echols: What word does God use for you and me?
“What we name each other, both on legal documents and in earned fellowship, is enough to determine some amount of lifelong meaning. But the grace-filled name God gives to us, both in secret and in stone, will be who we are for the rest of eternity.”
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Guest ColumnistsEchols: ‘Walking in Memphis’ isn’t what it once was
Candace Echols says she walks the line between “a willingness to satisfy my human craving for a good run” and “a consent to be on high alert.”
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September 2025
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Guest ColumnistsEchols: Fall is hard to beat
Autumn officially started Sept. 22, but one day soon, we will all wake up to air that is so crisp and so clear that it blows all the way through our souls.
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Guest Columnists Echols: ‘We need the wisdom of trees’
“We need the wisdom that shows us how to turn our faces toward the light and bend without breaking.”
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Guest Columnists Echols: Staying quiet — despite the good things we’ve found
“Let me say, ain’t nobody going to like this comparison – not the shot people, not the Christian people, and not the other people, either — but it’s real. There are things about Tirzepatide that remind me of the Holy Spirit.”
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August 2025
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Guest Columnists Echols: Words that aren’t the uninhabited talk of AI
“While AI can talk about God, it cannot speak about experiencing him. It can offer no first-person perspective on what God is like in the euphoria of love or in the depths of grief.”
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May 2025
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Guest Columnists Echols: ‘Now I’ve been taught to see’
“Living this way has flung the doors wide for me to write about things like the Grammys and National Parks and PGA golf and missionaries. ... And it’s all largely because I’ve now been taught to see.”
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Memphis GrizzliesMama Bears: Jay Huff’s mom Kathy is ‘Huff Stuff,’ too
The years Kathy Huff and her husband spent cultivating an atmosphere of reading, relationships and recreation have come to fruition now that their children, including Memphis Grizzlies player Jay Huff, are grown.
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