So…the surgery that I prepared for and processed for two years didn’t work. It took several weeks, but I’ve made my peace with it. Now, I wait on the Lord again. Waiting for my next step. Meeting with new doctors. Traveling. Listening. Processing. I recently spent some time with a cousin full of life and …
I think that somewhere in the course of my necessary processing and shedding of misaligned beliefs that I stopped hoping for the best. I didn’t start life that way. I used to be a perpetual optimist. I used to be a dreamer. I used to think that everything I prayed came to pass. But the …
Parenting is hard no matter how you do it, but to parent with Jesus first takes everything. There is a difference in raising a child in a Christian home and raising a child in a Christ-centered home (Antoinette, thank you for the words I’ve tried to find). Chris and I have been the youth pastor …
We, earthbound people, like new days. We like fresh starts. We like the excitement of them and the promise in them. We like to feel happy and easy feelings. But I’ve been thinking for a while, and am believing even more lately, that we put so much focus on breakthroughs and signs that we fail …
My favorite professor in Bible college once reminded us that sometimes Jesus walked on water and sometimes He took a boat. So profound. Sometimes Jesus defied the laws of this world and did things instantly, and then sometimes He got His people from one side to the other in a more traditional way. There are …
Last Monday found me yet again at Mayo, fourth floor surgery. I had Thyroplasty on my paralyzed vocal cord. This is my seventh procedure in less than two years. Seventh time in preop rooms with gowns, IVs, and wires. Seventh time meeting everyone responsible for something important in my operating room, repeating my name, birthdate, …
God’s ways are always good, but sometimes life throws us so many curve balls that our default is to duck or run at everything that comes around the corner. We brace for impact and just hope the catch doesn’t leave a mark. Instead of becoming more resilient and agile, life can make us more rigid …
Several Sundays ago in worship I heard an unmistakable voice. It was louder than a whisper, but only I could hear it. The message was short and sweet: “It’s time.” And I knew deep in my heart what it meant. It’s time to place my voice on the altar. Not to just lay it nicely …
Our church has been mobile for 11 years. We never meant to be a mobile church. It just happened out of necessity. We never meant to stay mobile so long either, we just couldn’t find anywhere else to go. We live in a continuously thriving city. It is wonderful in many ways, but it also …
My prayer for my children isn’t fame or fortune but that they’d know Jesus. All the wonderful things in this world and all the not so wonderful things will one day fail. Jesus is the only one that won’t. When Chris and I met, we were both fractured and burdened. It took years of breaking …