by Diana Gruver | May 1, 2021 | Spiritual Growth
I hadn’t realized just how much I longed for the reawakening of spring until it came. With each deep draw of damp-earth scent into my lungs, something in me came alive again, something I didn’t know had gone dormant. Over these last few weeks, I’ve walked around our...
by Leah Everson | May 1, 2021 | Spiritual Growth
“Why are you crying? Don’t cry. Shake it off. You’ll feel better tomorrow. Smile. Shouldn’t you be over it by now?” These are a few of the messages I heard surrounding my tears growing up. I heard them on the softball field, in the classroom, from family, from...
by Carolyn Miller Parr | Nov 1, 2020 | Spiritual Growth
Getting ready to go to work one morning at the court where I was a judge, I was finishing my makeup. When I closed my right eye to put eyeliner on it, my face disappeared from the mirror. I opened my right eye and my face came back. It took a few seconds for the...
by Kim Findlay | Nov 1, 2020 | Spiritual Growth
Sucker-punched. I sat in bed, staring at the cell phone still in my hand, my mind adjusting to what my husband had said. The words I spoke out loud continued to spin in my mind as I tried to make sense of it all. What just happened? I couldn’t believe it. Reality...
by Nicole T. Walters | Nov 1, 2020 | Spiritual Growth
I focused on the end of my fingertip, where it met circuitous lines on the crackled pink paper. I tried not to look ahead and how much of the journey remained but centered my attention on where I was on the path in that moment. The pastor played gentle background...
by Michelle Henrichs | Nov 1, 2020 | Spiritual Growth
A Thanksgiving communion liturgy and communion itself are wonderful examples of how God acts unexpectedly. All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes...
