Instead of shrinking back, we should be flowing forward, confident in who we are because of whose we are and what He has already tasked us to do! Instead of trampling on and criticizing culture, we can add God’s flavor and preserve it for great use.
We want to live in an important story. We just don’t know what our important story is.
Grace might be hidden in disappointment. Love might be tucked beside loss. Goodness might be embedded in trials.
I think of Jesus and the lesson of the widow’s mite. What she thought was so little could be mightily used by God.
I wake to two of my favorite things: a cup of coffee on my nightstand and a sky warming for the sunrise. Gratitude should be first on my mind, but in the split second between sleep and awake, my mind rests on an unsettling word: depersonalized. Indicators of burnout have been popping up for months—waking…
Thomas stayed. The other disciples saw Jesus. Experienced him. He was before them, in the flesh. But Thomas missed it. And as his friends recounted the story of seeing their Lord, Thomas couldn’t believe that Jesus had risen. He had been with Jesus, watching the miraculous. But this was too much. Whether his grief from…
“Where are you God?” is often the cry of a wounded heart. If we learn to be aware of the presence of God on a continual basis, these doubts are less overwhelming when crisis hits. Recognizing the nearness of God means we see his hand of mercy everywhere. Pondering, wondering, and linking our moments to…
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 yard, hungrily searching for new evidence of…
“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 friends. As a Highly Sensitive Person who…
God can and does use all things, even deadly pandemics like COVID-19, to bring about good things; beautiful things that give us renewed hope. Romans 8:28 states this truth clearly: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose…
The meeting was said to be scandalous, forbidden by the community. It was also a meeting divinely orchestrated by God so that his good news would be preached and that the brokenhearted would find healing. True to himself, the Almighty would prove that he indeed is sovereign and “delights in impossibilities,” as Andrew Murray says….
I was six time zones away from the tragedy, yet I felt the concentric circles of its pain. It was Friday the 13th. Gunmen and bombers had taken to the streets of Paris, attacking citizens at a soccer stadium, a concert hall, and restaurants along the streets. The iconic city known for its quaint cafes…
A few weeks ago, my husband, Rick, and I were on our way to New Hampshire to be with a sweet friend of ours who was graduating from a discipleship program. I wasn’t in the best of moods because I was in a bit of pain due to my recently diagnosed spinal stenosis (spinal column…
Despite the chaos and uncertainties 2020 has brought with her, we’re still in a hopeful and notable era when women are increasingly valued, heard, and esteemed. There’s movement both in our country and in the Church, and even if more tortoise-like than hare, progress is reason to celebrate. But, as opposed to a “Girl Power”…