When I first read this paragraph from God's Country: Faith, Hope, and the Future of the Rural Church by Brad Roth, my mind leaped to a scenario exactly like Roth described: a community losing its missional bearings and directing its energy into constructing a recreational building. In the church, we so often favor the concrete …
Author: Rosina
Giving Advice: Common Sense or the Holy Spirit?
For some reason, this post I wrote two years ago has been on my mind, so I'm reblogging it here. Which do you value most: common sense or the guidance of the Holy Spirit?
A backward glance
I try not to engage in unhealthy introspection, especially when it comes to writing. A night when I read through most of the year's worth of posts at once cured me of that. I thought most everything I wrote was petty and silly. Okay, so this was very late at night when I was feeling …
He came into the mess
This year, the Advent season felt totally wrong. To start off, our family was sick for the first two weeks. Instead of being Mary in the Kid's Club Christmas program, my daughter laid listlessly on the couch, her little body burning up with fever. Mostly due to the sickness, Will and I didn't join an …
Denominational Superiority and Achieving Balance
Some years ago, I sat in a workshop at the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) convention in Kansas City. The workshop was about integrating both grace and truth in our communities and schools. At one point, the instructor used a Venn diagram to illustrate what she thought was a healthy balance. On one side …
Continue reading Denominational Superiority and Achieving Balance
The Cat’s Indignity
This story has no point, other than to say, watch out for the cat! And perhaps it will give you a chuckle on a dreary December day. Last week our family received the unsettling news that Will's dad was in the hospital with a pulmonary embolism. On a whim, we decided to pack up the …
I laid my burden down
I didn't know what to do with the mess of attempted reconciliation going horribly awry. This time, I had cared too much about the relationship to indulge in my usual self-protection. I will run into the roar, I had thought, instead of hiding under my bush and withering away. I might get mauled, but then …
A Banner For My Table
Picking up the small green notecard, my friend read her assigned question on the subject of hospitality. "Do you have an intentional banner for your table? For example, do you want it to be a place of laughter? Of compassion? Of rest?" The women around the table paused a bit to digest the question, then …
Choosing joy
At the beginning of October, I wrote that my goal for the next month was to practice blessing--to be thankful for the goodness God has given me and to spread the happiness to others. Exhaustion and heartbreak ran thickly through the month, and I am still struggling to emerge from a season that has tried …
How unrest leads to life
There's this thing called contentment, and I still have a series in the back of my mind that includes this subject, but sometimes "contentment" is taken too far. People cry from hearts bursting with emptiness, "What am I supposed to be doing?" and others say, "You can always pray!" "Do the best with what you …
arabah rejoice 