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A Baptist, A Methodist and a Catholic sit down at the Thanksgiving table
While it feels like there should be a punch line to the title, in truth I’m not that clever. The reality is that Thanksgiving is fast approaching and the ability to offer a space for everyone in our home is no joke! While Thanksgiving itself doesn’t discriminate, we have the unique opportunity to choose just how “open” our homes will be. The guest list is likely just as colorful as the decorations and dishes themselves. Politics and religion are our favorite divisive topics, but in reality the possibilities for bias, exclusion and disagreements are endless. If we will take the time to examine our hearts the Lord will reveal the…
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A Theology of Sleep
It’s no secret that Americans are chronically sleep-deprived. The problem isn’t relegated to just the United States; it seems our neighbors across the pond also suffer from a “global problem of insufficient sleep.” Researchers contributing to a 2014 BBC article named the significant consequences of getting less than 7-hours of shut-eye on a regular basis: depression, heart disease, cancer, and obesity, to name a few. No surprise there. But I was startled by the reason the authors gave for our propensity to deny our body clocks: arrogance. In Reset: Living a Grace-Paced Life in a Burnout Culture, David Murray boldly states, “Show me your sleep pattern and I’ll show you…
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Supporting My Spouse by Focusing on Me
“I’m feeling very anxious,” my husband told me. As a young bride this revelation shook me. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to take it away, to make it better so I wouldn’t have to watch him suffer. Since I didn’t experience anxiety in the same way, I could not understand what he described. I’m a student and teacher of the Bible. Studying a verse, explaining the principle, identifying the lies, and believing the truths help me. As such, I’m tempted to quote verses to him, to give information as a way to help. But over the course of our thirty-four year marriage, I learned that my methods…
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Making Summer Strategic
Making a successful transition is all about managing our emotions as well as our beliefs. How can we best use our summers to prepare them for transitions in the fall?
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Salt and Light Online
Salt and Light Online During the pandemic, I was honored to be asked to address a student leadership conference for a Christian school in the Philippines via Zoom. Looking over my notes, there isn’t much here that doesn’t apply to ALL of us with any kind of online connection. In order to follow Jesus’ call to be salt and light, and applying it to online life, I’d like to take a look at dangers of the dark side of online life, as well as suggest ways to be wise in the use of this technology. The Comparison Trap I don’t think anything has fueled the temptation to compare ourselves to…
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Set Aside Your Mourning Clothes––A Prayer Exercise
The last two years have been a time of prolonged loss, anxiety, and uncertainty for many of us. And whether or not we remember when we put on our mourning clothes, many of us struggle with when we should take them off. How do we know?
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Planet versus People, a path towards peace.
Some of the most magnificent moments of my life have included nature. When I think about my travels around the United States and abroad, my mind rests at “Inspiration Point” in Yosemite National Park in California. I was a college student spending the summer in California, surrounded by the majesty of Lake Tahoe, but Yosemite left me breathless. I had never seen anything like the view overlooking the Yosemite Valley, aptly named, “Inspiration Point.” The mountains, the heights, the expanse, the streams; truly hard to take in all at once. When I feel overwhelmed and I long for rest, God’s gift to me is His creation. Sometimes I feel like…
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When Life Gets Hard, Take a Step
I think most of us would agree. The past two years haven’t been our best ones. Death and disease flood our newsfeeds. Disaster and destruction shock us far too frequently. Chaos and questions keep us unsettled. Just when we think life is returning to a normal pace, another unwelcomed surprise forces us to change course, adjust, delay. For someone who thrives on consistently, I often wonder where the routine has gone. But as I reflect over the past year, I see one main theme emerge in my life—take a step. For the first part of 2021 a black cloud seemed to hover over my existence. Fear kept me wondering what…
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Surprised by Christmas
Wide-eyed wonder. Snow-covered trees. Bow-draped packages. It’s the quintessential picture of Christmas portrayed in commercials and on cards. But as adults we know the season is seldom so simplistic. The first Christmas certainly wasn’t. It was marked by surprises—but not necessarily the kind most of us would choose on our own. Mary’s life was interrupted by an angelic visitor, proclaiming news that would forever change the course of her life and her position in history. Joseph found out his fiancé was expecting a child that wasn’t his own, only to be visited by an angel in a dream who explained everything and told him to move forward with their marriage.…
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The Thanks Giving Key
A few years ago I was invited to go on an overseas mission trip. This journey was to a country on the other side of the world with a foreign culture and language, and would take almost 24 hours to get there. No doubt many of you readers have done the same, and know the planning, anticipation and excitement of such a trip. Still, it’s not unusual to have a little nagging insecurity regarding the unknowns, and that was how I was feeling. I would be traveling alone on a long leg of the trip, navigating an unfamiliar airport with a tight connection and felt a little uneasy about it.…
