I almost feel apologetic for the pensive nature of my last few posts; I say almost, because the reality is that life is not always easy, and sometimes the most powerful thing we can do for each other is to say "I identify with you." Still, last night as I was drifting off to sleep, …
Category: Hearing God
Let us run with patience
Laughter regularly splashes over my life, such as when my three-year-old mischievously puts his clean clothes in the fridge, and when my six-year-old exclaims, "Mama look in the mirror! Your eyebrows are bushy." I find joy in new friendships and new opportunities. I am forever grateful for a good family and a cozy nest to …
My eternal home
When Will and I got married, we bought a dear little three-acre patch of overgrown property in the country. A crumbling-down house stood in one corner of the lot, and most of the rest of the area was covered with trees--a luxury for Kansas. We cleared out a space in the trees and moved in …
Working Toward Meaningful Change
As a child, I carefully kept my precious nickels and dimes in a ceramic pig. Sometimes after thinking about it for a few days, I went upstairs to my room and pulled out my piggy bank. I sat on my bed, turned the pig upside down, and pried the rubber plug loose. Shaking a nickel …
Navigating Adaptive Challenges
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 …
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
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 …
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 