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    Abortion. A response to Culture; combatting fear with community

    Recently on social media, I have observed a variety of statements, carefully and well meaningfully crafted, to support the concept of abortion. In particular, former supreme court Justice, and women’s rights champion, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s quote, stood out to me. Interestingly, I agree with her sentiment, just for different reasons.  “The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. When government controls that decision for her, she is being treated less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices.”  “The decision whether or not to bear a child…

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    Confidence Rightly Placed

    Recently, I came to the end of my backpacking skills. As I faced terrain that was new and difficult, I found myself desperately depending on the Lord for everything. My fear of slipping, tripping, falling, and even collapsing hurled me at the feet of Jesus. Praying to, singing about, and reflecting on Him enabled me to endure the physical, emotional, and mental challenges. “And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places” (Hab 3:19) pounded through my mind and heart multiple times. I wasn’t hiking Mount Everest, but this trail was my high place! Fear is common to humans. Fear can come…

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    An Ordinary Woman’s Response to Global Crisis

    Horror. Sadness. Anxiety. Anger. Guilt. With these emotions, I watched religious fanatics take over the ravaged land of Afghanistan leaving women, girls, Christians, and the marginalized desperately scrambling for their lives. This crisis is just the most recent example of pain, injustice, and all that is wrong in our world. The latest that eclipses many others: an earthquake in the already devastated nation of Haiti; Chinese Christians in re-education camps; Indonesian citizens dying outside hospitals for lack of beds, oxygen, and vaccines; flames destroying entire towns in California; Lebanon in economic, social, and political downfall. And all this exacerbated by a continuing global pandemic. What does an ordinary western woman…

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    Summer Trouble and Soul Anchoring

    You are in the thick of it, not quite the needed summer respite you anticipated. This is NOT the picture you had in mind of yourself this summer -swinging in a hammock breathing in the fresh mountain air.                         Instead you feel like you are in what this picture represents: chaos…a big, fat traffic jam –uncertainty of moving forward or anywhere, confusion, impasse, no apparent way out, delay, craziness, burdens, stress -TROUBLE. Scarily this picture can also mirror the state of our souls revealing the necessity of soul anchoring in a speed saturated, no margins-crammed to the gills society. Soul anchoring becomes critical especially when the circuits are jammed, the…