Want to Shake Up 2023? Invite Someone Over. If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that our connections have become brittle, and we’re lonelier than we’d like to admit. We’re constantly faced with reasons to be wary. Our culture is factious. We are divided. These “times” have been unprecedented for so long,…
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. (Col. 3:2 ESV) There’s a common admonition among Christians, to “be in the world but not of the world,” but you may wonder what, exactly, this means. Does it mean we don’t engage the world, that we avoid anyone and…
“Let your conversations be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Col. 4:6 NIV) Opportunities abound in this month of Thanksgiving for us to have big conversations with family and friends. I don’t consider myself a very quick thinker or very witty, so this freaks me…
Cozy. It’s become so much more than a word for me, so much more than a way to decorate and design. It is now a way of life, of approaching the world and the choices we make within it. These days, especially, I find that coziness is less about paint colors, linens, and lighting—though I…
It’s not always natural to invite others into our homes. For many of us, our homes serve as retreats from the world, our safe places in which we can relax. But while we can use our homes to rest and be rejuvenated, sometimes our homes can end up isolating us from community if we don’t…
Blinking several times as we emerged into the bright noonday sun, Samantha and I were contemplative as we processed the meeting we’d just had with a printer and the myriad details we’d learned about printing the international cookbook Sam had been dreaming about for months. My friend Sam is first and foremost a bridge-builder. She…