Dear friends, This month, The Redbud Post tackles a scary topic: vulnerability. Think about a country building a defense against invaders. It wants to make itself invulnerable, doesn’t it? Don’t let anyone in who might hurt us. Where are we vulnerable? Shore it up. Well, with a country, that’s a good idea, but with relationships,…
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” I John 4:18 NIV In 2014 my husband went missing in the wilderness. Throughout those first few days of shock and disorientation, and then for the next year-and-a-half, as we searched for him, I needed all the help in the world. When You…
After my husband, Christopher, and I teach together, people often approach us and say, “You two are so vulnerable!” Their feedback is infused with equal parts awe and trepidation. Their responses are correct. We do share vulnerably. In fact, we do more than teach out loud. For whatever reason, God seems to have called both…
It was the most intimidating question I’ve ever been asked. My husband and I were visiting a new church we’d read about. On our first Sunday the pastor, Gordon Cosby, announced that he’d be teaching a class on “Christian Growth,” and interested folks should sign up. We did. On the first day of class, as…
My fingers shook and my insides turned as I typed the blog post. I was casting aside fear. I was about to share in a way that would allow all of the world to read about the greatest darkness I had experienced: my journey with bipolar disorder. With trembling hands, I opened up my heart…
Now do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord; and enter His sanctuary, which He has sanctified forever, and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you. 2 Chronicles 30:8 (NKJV) I dislike few things more than being vulnerable. Vulnerability requires…
It was the second week of March 2020, when our local government issued an order for lockdown amidst ominous news being reported from China, and serious statements issued by the World Health Organization. Both Canadian and international networks broadcast daunting images of Italian cities that looked like ghost towns, alongside interviews with exhausted doctors and…
“You have to come and see Dad,” my sister, Peggy, said. “He’s dying.” My words were also to the point. “No. I ca…an’t.” Stuttering was something new for me. But I found I did it whenever I thought about my father. My words would just get as nervous as I had been the day he…
There were two fears I carried early in life, two circumstances I begged God to never allow happen: losing a child and divorce. I’m not quite sure why those two particular issues scared me as they did—maybe because I’ve seen the devastation loss like that creates in life, the aftermath of the destruction, and the…
My personal library is full of books on how to deal with difficult people. Pages in these books are dog-eared so that I can easily find sections in times of crisis. Sentences are underlined multiple times for emphasis, and exclamation marks and notes fill the margins. The humbling part of reading these books is recognizing…
We unthinkingly live the narratives that we are raised with or we rail against them. When you are the parent, you craft the stories. As our children move toward adulthood, we often miss the necessary shift in order to have robust and respectful relationships with these adults we have raised. What does it mean to…
I remember the first day of kindergarten and meeting my best friend at that time. The friendship came easily; our paths intertwined due to our classroom seating chart, which was organized based upon students’ last names. This organization carried over into the lunch line as we were organized alphabetically. We were always near each other….
Dear Friends— I’m sending this email to you to ask you to pray for our family. We have recently discovered that my mom has Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. At the moment she is in New York with my younger brother. On Tuesday I will join them in New York. Then on Saturday I will take my mom…
“Hi Erika. We missed you last week. How are you?” I greeted my friend as she arrived at the Toastmasters meeting. “I’m fine.” Erika’s words tried to communicate health and happiness, but the locked mouth and downcast eyes spoke louder than the sounds that came out of her lips. Erika definitely was not fine. Through…