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What to do when you’re tired of online church
It’s Sunday morning, I’m washing the dishes and my mind is racing. There are literally thousands of church services to stream. I can sample a sermon from here, and listen in on worship from there all at the touch of a button. I should be thriving in an atmosphere flushed with Biblical teaching but my experience has been quite the opposite. I know that life-changing content is out there but the problem is, I don’t really want to see any of it. In fact, I think I may burst if I have to look at another live stream or hold yet another prayer meeting over zoom. I am just over…
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Josiah Revival
The story of King Josiah is nestled in the overlooked chronicles of Israel’s rulers. In the 18th year of Josiah’s reign the King decreed a simple rehabilitation project of the temple grounds that turned into a sweeping overhaul of Israel’s religious practices and worldview. During the construction, they happened upon a forgotten scroll. The law of the Lord. 2 Kings 22:8 tells us that the Israelites, “found the scroll of the law in the Lord’s temple.” The Law was the foundational word of God that connected the people to the God of the Covenant. It was held in such high esteem. Children would be instructed in the law, memorizing it…
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God What in the World Are You Up To?
Like many of you, my family had church yesterday in our pajamas. The kids got a kick out of worshiping barefoot, however it was a bit unsettling to think this may be our new normal as we “shelter in place” due to Covid-19. I’ve got about one thousand questions about this new normal: Can I survive my children for 4 weeks in our house? When did I run out of topics to discuss with my husband? How do I keep from eating all of my quarantine supplies in one day? But among the surface-level questions, there is a deeper one brewing. I can’t be alone in asking, “God what in…
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How I Almost Ruined My Marriage
It was 1:00 am. With blood shot eyes I sat wringing my hands on our faux leather couch. The seams are busted on the edges so the puff is spilling out. I’ve contemplated putting tape over these eruptions but really…who wants to be THAT person. I sat contemplating whether or not I should mend the seams in the couch or just own the mess and cover it, maybe a pillow will do or that really cool washi tape that’s all the rage. That fateful night our couch became the backdrop for one of the realest fights we’ve had to date. Past arguments about leaving the milk out, or even what…
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Blessed Be the Name of the Lord
I am writing this past midnight and I really shouldn't be up. My body is weary yet my thoughts rest solely on my Mom's second procedure in a week to remove her breast cancer.
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A Calamity of Air-or: The Worst Flight of My Life
What you are about to read is a true depiction of the absurd events that transpired on my flight. These reflections do not highlight my best self. This was the reality of being pushed to the brink at 31,000 feet. To the left of me sat an older gentleman. He was courteous; however, there was an odor wafting up from his oversized coat. His puffy coat, harboring an unidentified smell, somehow began to expand, swallowing him up along with half of my arm. To the right of me sat a larger fellow, talkative, with a terrible case of sleep apnea. While I am fully sympathetic to those who need to…
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Who is Tasting Your Stew?
Dr. Mark Bailey, former president of Dallas Theological Seminary, spoke of the need for accountability in the Christian life. "It's like making a stew…" he began to illustrate. “Each of us has our own recipe. We add a little here. We add a little there. We season the stew to our liking. We get ahead of ourselves and think our stew is good. The problem is we haven’t exposed it to the opinions of others.” He closed his illustration by claiming you have to have someone close enough to smell and taste your stew—even more so, someone who won’t lie about it! Life, like cooking, has never been an exact…
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Christianity is a Team Sport
“I have a relationship with the Lord, I’m still a Christian I just don’t do CHURCH anymore.” This is the frequent cry of the wandering diaspora of detached believers. There are typically two things that contribute to the lone soldier syndrome in the Christian faith: intense cultural individuality, and what many people call “church hurt.” While both are genuinely felt by many yet neither are biblical excuses to neglect “meeting together.” (Hebrew 10:24-25) I used to quote the scripture above as the only biblical reference that points to the “togetherness” of the expression of our Christian faith. But it turns out that scripture is full of references that underline the…
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My Sin is Not Sexy
I have come to the fundamental understanding that I am LAZY! I even googled it! I WikiHow’d the title “How to stop being a slob.” While we all joke about being lazy now and then it goes far beyond that. After much denial I am ashamed to say I struggle with the sin of slothfulness or laziness. We're past procrastination. I dream about accomplishing things that I never start. I miss deadlines. I am often late. I have a problem. Waking up is the beginning of my troubles; I am the type of person that sets the alarm 30 minutes early so I can hit the snooze button a dozen…
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The Art of Remembrance
A toaster was all it took to throw me into a crisis of faith yesterday. I love toast as much as the next person, but it wasn't the actual toaster that triggered my downward spiral, but what the toaster represented. About a year ago, we as a family took a leap of faith and quit our jobs to move across the country with very little knowledge of what we would do for the Kingdom of God. In the process, we gave away all of our stuff… yep even our toaster. There is something freeing about unencumbering oneself of earthly possessions, that is until you need said earthly possessions. Fast forward…
