Gaining a heart of wisdom
Something inside me freezes when I hear the word discernment. Whether I'm making a major purchase, giving advice to a friend, or standing in a voting booth feeling as if I'm taking a test I haven't studied for, discernment is the quality that's lacking and the thing I long for. We want good things for… Continue reading Discernment: Pursuing the Good, the True, and the Beautiful
“I want to keep it handy in case I need it,” she said, matter-of-factly. She wasn’t talking about a flashlight. Not a package of tissues. Not a cell phone – they hadn’t been invented in 1978. She was talking about Isaiah 55. “I liked it,” she went on. “So I memorized it.” “Come, all you… Continue reading 6 Books for Friends-in-Training
When is the last time you walked into a room full of women and just fully enjoyed everyone? The talkative and the more reticent? The natural leader and the sweetheart with the gift of helps? The carefully coiffed and manicured and the all-natural girl without a speck of makeup? My natural tendency is to compare,… Continue reading You Can Shatter the Habit of Comparison
I came of age in an era when all the truly devout and discerning were in search of "the dot." Certain that there was one particular place, vocation, spouse, role, and educational path for me in the mind of God ("the dot"), I agonized, prayed, agonized some more, listened for a clear voice of direction,… Continue reading A Joyful Life of Listening for the Echo of a Voice
In every season, my garden speaks, reinforcing in leaf and humus Scripture's messages around patience and diligence, inviting me to rejoice with the arrival of every cucumber and blazing pumpkin and to lament with the erect skeletons of sunflowers, their heads bowed at season's end. Predictable and yet ever new, the cycling of beauty and… Continue reading Loving and Listening to God in Every Season
The recent biographical movie featuring the life of J.R.R. Tolkien captures him saying, "After all, what's language for? It's not just the naming of things, is it? It's the life blood of a culture, a people." Language and the way we use it reveals our thinking and our character. The structure of a language reveals… Continue reading The Gift of Language and the God Who Speaks
The philosophical underpinnings of Christianity point the way to a community where each one competes to show maximum honor and respect to the others. The Bible describes a rule of life that values individuals as carriers of the image of God and the church gathered as a place to be refueled for maximum impact when… Continue reading What if Christians Became the Best Advertisement for Jesus?
There's Abby, my resource, the friend I call on when I need advice--or a place to vent; There's Sandi, my ministry colleague and voice of reason; the friend I laugh with and work alongside; There's Lori who sets the example for me: hard-working, huge-hearted, and the friend with whom I have grown into mothering. There… Continue reading You Can Cultivate Lasting Friendship in a Lonely World
Twenty years ago, my husband and I made one of the most difficult decisions of our married life: we decided to leave a church and to worship elsewhere. Leaving behind dear people we loved (and likely offending more than one person in the process), we left that fellowship convinced that God was telling us it… Continue reading The Hard Work of Hanging On and the Brave Work of Letting Go
Among the assorted ranks of those who practice journaling, you can record me in the column labeled "intimidated." Observation, application, and interpretation of my reading primes the pump, but never are my entries particularly stirring or insightful. My pages are scattered with partial outlines, first and second drafts of biblically-inspired poetry, and lists of questions… Continue reading Practical Help for Journaling as a Spiritual Discipline
Living Our Days 