Who here has been hurt by the church? I have, and I feel confident that if you’ve been in church for any length of time, you’ve probably been hurt too. In my thirty years of church involvement, I’ve witnessed enough hurt to call it quits—plenty of it. I’ll share one experience. Throughout my childhood, my…
For several years now, my family has received a box of caterpillars in the mail every summer. Through clear cup containers, we watch them turn into butterflies. The instructions include transferring the chrysalides so the butterflies emerge in a spacious, netted container. This year I ordered and promptly forgot about the caterpillars. Weeks later they…
When I was fourteen years old, just discovering the “mall bang” and a love for sweater dresses, I stumbled upon another discovery. This one was life-changing, and it happened on what I believed to be an ordinary Sunday. My family and I loaded our too-large clan into our too-small vehicle and headed off to church….
On this blog back in May, I shared about how the opening of our local pool club on Memorial Day weekend signaled the beginning of summer to me. I also shared how I was going to be intentional about the pool club being my mission field. (Click here for that post). Unfortunately, unseasonably cold weather kept…
Last year an image of a teenage boy standing at a flagpole alone made its way around the globe, the story garnering the attention of our nation. A high school junior had chosen to pray in front of his school all alone, in plain view of onlookers and passersby. One of those onlookers posted about…
Throughout childhood, my answer to, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was always, “A cheerleader.” Long before the Dallas Cowboys hired cheerleaders, that was all I ever wanted to be. I was convinced no one wanted to be a cheerleader more than I did. In my sophomore year of high school…