The latest from my blog
I write on all sorts of topics such as Celebration & Wonder, Community & Discipleship, Intimacy with Christ, and Redemption & Grace. I share my random thoughts in Miscellaneous Musings.
I’m glad you’ve joined me!
Don’t Get Buried in the Cemetery of Sameness
Michael Yaconelli once said (before he went to go hang out with Jesus), "Sameness is the cemetery where our distinctiveness is buried." (Messy Spirituality; pg. 79). Recently, I got to hang out with a friend who I hadn't seen in a couple months (which felt like an...
Praise From the Pit
I raced home to tell you about my friend, Elizabeth Yasdani. Perhaps you know her by her exuberant smile. Perhaps you know about her because of her battle with "Stage 12" cancer (I believe that's what she's called it). Usually when I am visiting someone with...
Poison to Pearl: The Memories that Shape Me.
I have some hellacious memories buried in my brain. I could tell you things to make your toes curl, stomach churn, and the blood drain out of your face. I could give you nightmares. Most of my memories are pretty sweet over the 43 years I've been alive, but every...
A Poem For the Igniting And Ignited
I have known too many people, afraid to trust the goodness of God because of suffering. They have never tasted the goodness of God IN their suffering! I have known too many, who doubt and deny the supremacy of Scripture. They have never creased the Spine and felt the...
The Mind-Numbing and the Soul-Satisfying
I've been feeling convicted lately that my coping mechanisms for overwhelm are not actually helping me. They are mind-numbing rather than restful. Oftentimes, after a long work day, or a mentally exhausting day, my body is worn out, my mind is worn out, but I'm not...
The Sight of Ramsina
The day I gave birth to our second son, I met a blind lady named Ramsina. She came to our church for the first and last time that day, and spent the entire afternoon, from the close of service until around 8 pm (when he breathed oxygen for the first time) praying...
The God Who Disciplines and Delights in Us.
I have been thinking a lot about parenting. And about God. Because God is in everything, and my mind loves to fly to Him. I have been contemplating how good parenting is a symbiotic relationship between discipline and delight. Because God is a God who disciplines...
Solomon’s Wisdom
One of the deep tap-roots of Solomon’s wisdom is that he was keenly aware of how finite he was, and how eternal and omnipotent God is.
Suicide Prevention
Suicide struck close to home last week. It's not only my story to tell, and I'm not even sure I am ready to tell it even if it was, but if you are a pray-er, please lift us up, along with a host of our loved ones. This agonizing death has caused me to ponder my own...
The Grace of Knowing Our Poverty
The older I get, the more keenly aware I become of my own weakness, need, and inability to be faithful to Jesus even for one day. Yet the more I also become aware that He is keeping me, cherishing me (despite all my moment-by-moment failures), and tethering me to...
On the Eve of Thanksgiving
I plunked my elbows on the counter with a thud and leaned into my hands, covering the better part of my face, fighting to maintain the joy that has been so graciously given and required such fervor to maintain. I could hear that still, small voice. “Fight for your...
God’s Money and Stuff
I think most young Christians struggle with the idea of the tithe. We feel a little like God is prying our clutched fingers off our stuff, or like the church is bleeding us for money. Eventually, we may decide that tithing is a matter of trusting, and ultimately God...