Joshua Harris, the hugely successful author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, shook the evangelical world a few weeks ago when he announced he was deconstructing and leaving the Christian faith. Listening to the conversations regarding Harris (and others), I've realized that many people have misconceptions of what deconstruction actually is and how it fits into a …
Your turn
Dear friends, My mind is full of things to write about, but the words are stuck, not wanting to be released just yet. For something different today, I thought I would offer something to you: if you drop me a comment about something on your heart (or send an email if you don't want it …
A Short Post for Young Mothers
"Parenting is overwhelming," many young mothers have told me, uncertainty in their eyes and fatigue lining their faces. I get it. Our world has changed from the gentle parenting passed down from generations, where grandmothers and mothers worked together in the big job of raising little people. Now with the advent of social media and …
Why I don’t teach my children unquestioning obedience, Part 2 of 2
Mostly I avoid getting involved in discussions about parenting, because opinions are a dime a dozen although dearly held and too often used to hurt people. Parenting is the hardest job I've ever done, and one that unfortunately receives more judgment than grace from many. However, recently a friend emailed me about a child-training boot-camp …
Continue reading Why I don’t teach my children unquestioning obedience, Part 2 of 2
Why I don’t teach my children unquestioning obedience, Part 1 of 2
As a teenager, I worked in an upscale nursing home. The facilities were modern, the work-load reasonable, and the patient care was excellent. I felt lucky to work in such a clean and well-run place. Yet my time there was marked by a very dark spot. One of my residents was a sweet elderly lady …
Continue reading Why I don’t teach my children unquestioning obedience, Part 1 of 2
Stop talking about “moral failure.”
Some years ago, I was sitting in my car waiting to pull out of an icy parking lot, when I witnessed a scene I never forgot. A business man dressed in suit and tie and carrying a briefcase was importantly striding down the parking lot. At the wrong moment, his polished shoe thwacked on a …
Two Men
During my teenage years, my family often went across the mountain from where we lived to a place called Penn Valley Christian Retreat. Penn Valley hosted lots of seminars with topics ranging from finances to missions to Christians in healthcare. Being an inquisitive bunch, my siblings and I would take in seminars just because we …
My struggle with cynicism
Others have nicer names for it, names such as "compassion fatigue" or "burn out" or "emotional exhaustion." I suppose all of those terms are accurate, but in myself I see it as plain, unvarnished cynicism. Sometimes the needs of the world close in on me until I cannot breathe, then I crash under the weight. …
With His Wounds We Are Healed
Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we …
Not to Condemn
My stomach growled with hunger and my feet hurt from a busy twelve-hour shift, but I resisted the urge to go home and collapse. Instead I crept into the soft glow of the sanctuary at the Methodist church a few blocks from work. It was Ash Wednesday, and I remembered how the service last year …
