finding God in the wasteland (Isaiah 35:1)
Everywhere I hear the quiet desperation of faithful church-goers: why don't many people want to come to church? People are so busy with sports and family events and work that church isn't a priority. Church is where you go if there's nothing better to do. I'm sad about this, but not devastated. This is why: …
Continue reading Bringing the Gospel to the Marketplace (part 1 of 3)
Sometimes my head hurts with the clamor of the world around me. Social media is full of arguing--people are angry and opinionated and sure that everyone else is wrong. Families divide over differences, refusing to see how each generation has unique gifts to offer. Churches debate the Bible and get ugly over what should be …
I sat in the second row from the front at the Leaders Alive conference, my heart crying out to God for answers. "Talk to me, God!" I prayed. "I need to hear from You!" I was struggling with acute loneliness where God had placed our family. Even though I loved our small town, I had …
While I was teaching history to my second and fourth grade boys last year, I ran into the story of Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153 AD). Bernard was a Cistercian monk who lived in France, and his life is a mix of complicated and interesting history and theology. Perhaps the best effort of his life was …
Last weekend I came home from a long shift at the hospital to find Will bent over the toilet with a cleaning brush. My heart jumped. "I don't deserve a husband like him," I thought. Will has always been a willing participant of household chores, and while I am home more than he is thus …
Continue reading Fourteen Years, and Three Things I Am Learning
In Joel Osteen's popular book Your Best Life Now, he details how to go about securing the best life possible for yourself, mostly through positive thinking and believing that God will give you everything you want. I thought about this "best life" while struggling through wondering if our family was truly living the life that God …
Sometimes when I have heard a certain part of a Bible verse emphasized my whole life, I fail to notice the rest of the verse until it pops out and surprises me. I felt that jolt this week while reading 1 Corinthians 14. I had stumbled across an online article that deeply disturbed me. The …
WordPress dutifully screens the comments that come to my blog, and deposits spam into the trash folder. Sometimes I read over them for a good giggle before I hit the "Delete Permanently" button. How can I not laugh when I get instructions about how to build big muscles, or how to improve my English while …
Often when I make a mistake, I feel foolish and sick at heart, and apologize all over myself. I'm so sorry I did that! It was so dumb of me. I'm so stupid sometimes. I've done this repeatedly in awkward situations or difficult relationships. When tension arises, I often take the blame and retreat. But …
I did not think I was going to write another post on church rules, but as I read the comments and emails following my simple story, one piece of the whole subject kept peskily scratching at the door of my mind. My story left out important parts of the church rules discussion because I cannot …
