Sometimes in life we need to take a risk and just jump. Sometimes we need to stop our predictable schedules and routine plans and act with spontaneity. Sometimes it would do our heart well to abandon our safe and stable places, find an adventure, and just jump. That’s what boys do! Boys seize moments. They look […]
To Speak is to Jump
I spoke to a group of women last night. Women who were lovely and warm and welcoming. And yet, no matter their warmth, I won’t lie, I was nervous. Not because I was afraid to share, but because of my longing for God to meet those who were there in a way they otherwise wouldn’t […]
Mended :: May We Surrender in Our Grief {Week 9}
Surrender is hardest when we don’t understand. Sarah’s with Jesus tonight. Her battle is over now. She was only five years old, just one month younger than my youngest daughter. My heart is broken for her mama and all who loved her. Leukemia stole her future and ripped apart her hope–the hope of tooth fairy […]
Won’t You Join Us for Community, In Real Life?
It all started with Angie Smith and her blog Bring the Rain. My friend Kathy had been reading her words for a long time, and one day was introduced to Ann Voskamp through Angie’s blog. Kathy and I had become friends in real life while attending a small couple’s home bible study through our church. […]
When You Doubt God is Here {Letters from God}
I am here. And I see. I see the discouragement that seeps in through the cracks of your doubt. The times you question whether you’re able to be used by Me at all. I see how your tired head bends in the dark and longs for more hours in each day. How you stay up in […]
Mended :: When All We Have to Do is Surrender {Week 8}
There was a time in my life when I was unwilling to surrender. The noise of my desires and the chaos of the details left me spinning like a top. Disoriented and alone, I grew more and more discouraged each day. It was as if I was in my own rowboat, saying goodbye to the […]
When You Need to Believe There Can Be Beauty After Pain
It is only in the after, that we might see any beauty at all. After the snow melts. After the rain has come. After the bulb spends months in the dark cold of the ground. After the leukemia, and the chemo, and the central lines … the hospitalizations, and the procedures that swirl life right […]
Mended :: When You Need to Remember God Loves You {Week 7}
Sometimes we’re mended little by little as we stop and choose to see all the ways He loves. I awake to kids arguing and yelling … punching actually. And as I investigate why this is happening, it becomes no surprise why punches were thrown. At seven and eight years old, April Fool’s Day is a […]
Mended :: Providential Purpose {Week 6}
Angie Smith continues to bless, as we make our way through her book Mended: Pieces of a Life Made Whole. This week we’re discussing chapters 17-19 and continuing to wrestle through the steps of being mended. We are made complete amidst tragedy, redeemed through failure, and comforted by a Savior who understands every detail of our […]
In Case You’re Wondering What They Will Remember
We say goodbye to her just five months after her 90th birthday. And it is ever before me that life really is a vapor, a mist that is here for a time and then gone, vanishing like steam rising in the air. He plays his guitar and we lead the music and sing “It Will […]
