Every once in a while you hear a sermon that grips your heart and suddenly the words are hanging mid-air in technicolor, and you KNOW these words of life are for you. These are the words that don’t just engage your mind, they engage your spirit– and something is activated deep inside you. In the […]
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I just finished one of the most intense 10 week stretches that I have had in years. We had our annual retreat with an unusually high number of people who had experienced life-altering traumas, twins in their super intense exams, back to back visitors, my oldest experiencing re-entry home with three of her college friends […]
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- June 27, 2018
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- abide, body, chaos, emotional swings, fatigue, John 15, life stage, madeline l'engle, margins, ministry, perfectionism, sickness, soul, spirit, spiritual strength, staying centered, transition, weakness
My friend Dora got a picture for me in prayer this week for my birthday. “I see you on a long, straight, and plain road. Keep walking, you are going the right direction.” Yep, that image resonated immediately. Some years just hold a lot more of the faithfulness in the mundane than others, and this […]
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This month I’ve talked with several different young adults struggling to figure out what to do with their lives– some facing the decision of what to do after high school (i.e. university? gap year? ministry year?) and some facing life after college (i.e. more schooling? get a real job? move home? travel?). We love to […]
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For the first decade of our marriage, we had many, many conflicts in the car as we were driving somewhere. I had a knack for slamming on the fake breaks and dramatically grabbing the dashboard. But apparently what was most annoying was my running commentary (I viewed them as helpful insights) on how we might […]
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Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast…” Joel 2:15-16 I remember the first time our oldest daughter received the imposition of the ashes on Ash Wednesday. She was less than a […]
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A few years ago, I heard my kids imitating me to their cousins. Apparently, my most common ‘mom’ phrase is, “Girls, we are going to turn over a new leaf!” Which was then energetically followed with a newly revised plan of action for chores, homework, laundry, family devotions, or whatever else was running awry in […]
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- February 03, 2018
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- control, disempowering others, gifting, growth, maturity, out of control, overused, self-awareness, strength untamed, strengths, strengths finder, strongholds, task orientation, unbridled strength
I’m one of those people who gets fixated in conflict on who is “right.” I can hold to principles, truth, and my perspective way past a healthy point. During one of the most tumultuous times in my marriage, my husband and I were at odds for an extended period of time. One of the things I kept demanding […]
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- January 17, 2018
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- "who's at fault?", confession, conflict, forgiveness, healthy conflict, master weaver, matted yarn, messy conflict, organizational conflict, personality differences, redemption, redemptive weavings, relational change, responsibility, sin, strongholds, systemic issues, taking responsibility, tangled yarn, threads, weaknesses
As we face a new year, I wonder how many of us made new year’s resolutions that are in some way dependent on others. So many of the places we long to grow are often connected to community: A healthier marriage. More intimacy with friends. Spirit infused decisions in our teams and churches. Adaptation to […]
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- January 06, 2018
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- cast seed, change, churches, cultural change, develop a thicker skin, families, forerunner, forgiveness, hard ground, harvesting, institutional racism, John the Baptist, marriages, missions organizations, New Years goals, organizational change, plough, plowing, schools, soil, sowing, systemic change, systems, victimhood, women in leadership, workplace
Last summer when we were back in the States, my mom had the rare opportunity to have all 7 of her grandchildren, her 3 daughters and their husbands together for one meal. No small feat with the conflicting work schedules and thriving social calendars of these kids. The ‘kids’ ranged from 16 to 24 years […]
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