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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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Don’t Beat Yourself Up
Yesterday was proof “adulting” never ends. Absentmindedly, I backed out of my driveway and hit the gas meter. My attention jerked back to the present as I heard the crunch of my fender, followed by a loud hiss of gas spewing into the neighborhood. Opening the car door, I choked on the fumes in the air. What a dope. Now the neighborhood’s going to explode! I rushed into the house, my heart pounding. Who do I call? Where’s the number for the gas company? Help me, Jesus! I texted my husband. Roamed the house. Left a voice message. No response. He was in a meeting so could offer no assistance.…
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Cultivating Friendships & Female Allies
Listen to the nightly news, read just-released statistics, talk to a few friends––and you’ll hear over and over again the hard realities of mandated isolation, increased challenges in daily life, and mounting obstacles as working women navigate the lingering effects of this pandemic. Now more than ever we need to forge bonds of sisterhood with the women in our circles.
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Daring to Hope in 2021
No one misses 2020: the ultimate year of loss for our generation. But as the chapter page turned to 2021, I wondered how I could muster up hope. So I decided to go back to the basics of spiritual renewal: creating and committing to a healthy rhythm of life. We all have different passions and interests, but the need for healthy rhythms remains universal.
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Above All Else––A Message for Weary Souls
As this over-the-top-difficult year wears on and hopes for a summer reprieve or a maskless fall fade, my mind can struggle to muster up positivity. I’ve heard I’m not alone. Apparently many of us wrestle with the lack of normalcy, inability to plan a way forward, and uncertainty of how long “this” will last.
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Confronting Change with Courage
“ I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage --I have conquered the world..” John 16:33 (NET)
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Sheroes of the Bible
The last two months unfolded like an archeological dig. Week after week, I joined a group of women to unlock stories of the past, dust off musty translations, and peer into golden lives of unlikely sheroes. Who are these sheroes? Women easily overlooked, discounted, and even scorned.
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The Mother of All Virtues
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point…A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful until it became risky,” C.S. Lewis What will you undertake this coming year that will require courage? God’s people have always been called to bravery. Obeying God, especially when it’s to our own disadvantage, is the crux of the Christian life. Scripture tells multiple stories of those who demonstrated true bravery in the context of their times. In Joshua 1:1-9, God instructed Joshua to lead His people into the Promised…
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Go, Total Stranger, Go!!
Sometimes encouragement comes from entirely unexpected sources. A few years ago, four friends and I embarked on a mini-adventure, each running a 5ish-mile leg of the White Rock Marathon relay. Mind you, my visions of the day and the reality of the morning were quite different. While training, I enjoyed either sunny skies or the comforts of a temperature-controlled workout room. I didn’t anticipate shivering outside for two hours in less-than-ideal weather conditions. Standing in the pouring rain waiting for that baton, out of my blue lips came these words (said with emphasis): “This is STUPID. Why did I sign up for this??” I had distant hope that I would…
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Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
He could have kept a distance, withholding his immanence from the shepherd tending a flock. But, there he was: appearing in a fire that burned, yet did not consume its bushy host. God himself had come. And the shepherd, unable to behold such glory, hid his face while God continued, “’I’ve seen the afflictions and heard the groaning of my people. I know their suffering andI have come down to deliver them out of Egyptian oppression and lead them into a broad land flowing with milk and honey.’” He could have delivered the once-enslaved Israelites from afar. But, there he was: appearing each evening as a flaming fire and each…
