Call me Mara, for the Almighty has made life very bitter for me. (Ruth 1:20, NLT) First, a famine sent her small family into exile in a foreign land. Then her husband died. Then her two sons married unbelieving women. Then her two sons died. Naomi knew something about...
Be Anxious for Nothing: A Waiting Room Story
Anxiety likes to hang out in waiting rooms. If you’ve ever waited in a doctor’s office to hear the diagnosis, or in a surgical area to learn the results, or in a hospital room to get your pain meds, you know what I mean. Anxiety rumbles in the waiting room like...
Stuck in Cynicism & Stoicism
The Bible instructs us to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:16-18) and to trade worry for thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6), but the question is how?! In order to appropriately address this question, we need to consider the source of gratitude. Gratitude is the...
From Twisted to True: How the Gospel Transforms Sisterhood
Sammie, a regular attendee at the women’s Bible study I led, invited me to lunch. I had wanted to get to know her better, and I was looking forward to our time. When the waitress arrived, Sammie didn’t order anything, which seemed a little odd, since she had issued...
Help for Spiritual Depression
Do you ever have those days — weeks — years, when your spiritual blood runs cold, when your deer-panting thirst has seemingly dried up? Or when you’re parched, dying for a drink from God, but his springed-up well seems to be saturating other cracked hearts but not...
Another Leader Confessing Moral Failure
As I prayed this morning, so saddened by the news of another leader confessing "moral failure," I remembered a story that renewed my hope. Here's the story re-told: Once upon a time, a man a young man, a small shepherd, was chosen by God to be king… a son, a friend, a...
5 Thoughts for Ambivalent Parents
Ah, finally, a moment to write what I’m living right now — We’ve talked about the feeling of disorientation and ambivalence that strikes hard and fast, sometimes so dizzying we don’t even know what hit us! Today — five thoughts on living in God’s story of grace...
No One Cares about Your Bible Study
I love ministry; I hate the temptations that accompany it. The temptation to believe our work is meaningless. Ugly thoughts intrude at times, even though I'd rather pretend I don't have them. But from what my coaching clients and others tell me, we all struggle at...
5 Things Parents Don’t Need to Feel Guilty About and Why
First of all, I don’t know why the new issue of Parenting Magazine seems to show up in my mailbox once a month. I suspect there is a mom out there who has judged me the worst mother in the state of Florida and has taken me on as a mercy ministry. She probably...
6 Questions Graduates Are Asking: how life transitions raise questions about our identity
Tis the season - graduation invites are dropping in my mailbox like flies on watermelon juice, so I am re-visiting some of my previous thoughts on the season. (This year, our third child, second daughter is graduating from college -- and getting married 3 weeks later,...