I appreciate the “love” we give February. It’s such a hard month between the renewal of January and the hope of spring in March. If it weren’t for many of the important celebrations assigned, I fear it would be a dreary twenty-eight days to endure. Thankfully, Valentine’s Day does fall smack dab in the middle,…
All my life I’ve run the hamster wheel of achievement and acceptance; a headstrong, type-A control freak, looking for love. As a child I earned love by working hard to fit in. At church I earned love by memorizing verses. At school I earned love by pleasing teachers. Looking back, I see a girl in…
For years, I clung to the notion that bad decisions led to bad stories and good decisions led to good stories. I desperately and naïvely wanted to believe this was true—that we had some control over our stories. But we know it isn’t true, don’t we? We live in a broken world, and our stories…
“You gave him your debit card?” Incredulous, I stared at my soon-to-be-fiancé. Only now I wasn’t so sure our engagement would happen as soon as I hoped. After six years of dating, I knew it was coming. I’d helped pick out the ring. I knew he’d been saving and that all that money was in…
If you stay in church long enough, you’re going to experience conflict. You may be disillusioned by a particular denomination. A pastor might disappoint you. Decisions by church leaders will cause discord. Another church member will disturb you. It’s bound to happen, because the group of believers the Bible calls the “body of Christ” is…
Today I woke in pain again, after a fitful night of little sleep. This season of pain has been long. Beginning in sixth grade with a knee injury and then throughout my life, including at all major life events, I have dealt with this same nagging pain of severe osteoarthritis. Spending my first day of…