He Fights for You
Have you ever learned something about God for the first time and then suddenly, that same lesson is everywhere? It’s like God is saying, “You’re going to really learn this.” Lately, the scripture “The Lord will fight for you” is everywhere for me. It’s all over the Old Testament (like Ex. 14:14 and Deut. 1:30)…
Read MoreDo You Worship Your Worship Experience?
I sat in a church I’d never been to on Sunday. It was different from the churches I typically attend for a few reasons. It was much smaller. It didn’t start on time. It was a different denomination. And the big one, the demographic, as far as social class and age, varied greatly, and I…
Read MorePastors, You’re Doing a Great Job
I’m the only member of my immediate who has never worked in full-time ministry. My little sister, her husband, my dad and my older sister’s husband have all been in or are in full-time ministry. By default, my older sister and mom have also practically been on the church staff full time, as ministers’…
Read More10 Things I've Learned, 10 Years After High School
This weekend, I attended my ten-year high school reunion. I didn’t think we would ever make it to our ten-year reunion. In high school, it seemed a million years away. But it turns out, ten years flies by like ten minutes in the real world. As we sat around in a circle reminiscing about crazy…
Read MoreFour Little Promises
Somewhere near the end of Tennessee and just before Arkansas I started to ask God to be with me, and he told me he always has been. It’s a prayer I pray almost by default: “Lord, give me this, this and this and please be with me. Amen.” But this time, I heard a response.…
Read MoreWhen It's Time to Go Home Again
Years ago, in 2008, I quoted Donald Miller in a blog post about leaving home. It’s still one of my favorite pieces of writing on life and finding its meaning and finding its adventure. It ends with this: “It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.…
Read MoreKicking Your Critics Out of the Arena
Brene Brown, much like Taylor Swift, really speaks to my soul. I talk about her here a lot, and a friend recently introduced me to a fabulous talk Brown gave at a conference for creatives. You can watch it here. In it, she uses the metaphor of a coliseum-type arena as the place where we…
Read MoreWhy Men Don't Tell You You're Beautiful
I read this post by Matt Walsh a while back. It was a letter to his daughter, who is still very young, about her beauty and how he hopes that the magazine rack and social media will never convince her she isn’t beautiful. He’s knows it’s wishful thinking but it was a very well-written and…
Read MorePity Parties on an Airplane
Do you know what it’s like to be on that last leg of a long journey? When you’ve forgotten how many flights and layovers you’ve had? All you know is that wherever you’re going, it is taking a really long time to get there? It’s always the very last, brief flight the gets me. Not…
Read MoreThe Parts of Us That We've Forgotten
I continue my time of rest from a place my family has returned to almost every summer since I was 15 years old. This place, oh this place. I got to thinking as I was walking on the familiar beach path a few days ago that I’ve walked that path as many different girls: a…
Read More