If You Didn't Have a Mom...
Some time ago I was chatting with a friend who does ministry with college students. He said to me, “I was surprised to find that the deepest issues these students have are not that they’re fatherless – it’s that they’re motherless.”
How Do I Know My Calling?
The space you are in right now – the job, the classes, the life you’re living – your current season is not an obstacle to your real calling. It is where you are called right now.
We Said It Enough
There are those families that reserve their I love you’s like expensive candy in a jar, bought overseas, limited and finite. When it’s gone, it’s gone. There’s not enough for us to eat it anytime we want. There are those parents who have a hard time saying it to their kids or to each other.
What You Wear to Your Mom's Funeral
I had made so many decisions over the previous days. How was I going to sum up the life of my incredible, larger-than-life mother?
Learning to Live a Small Life
I used to think I was called to live a big life. Do big things. Be on some kind of platform telling people stuff they'd never heard before.
Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)
There was a piece of my mother that remained absolutely her own. When I hear this song, I see her that way - not as a mom or a wife or a woman doing ministry.
If She'd Been Healed...
If she'd been healed, we would have had a great story. A great testimony. But the thing is, sometimes the testimony isn't that God gave you what you wanted - it's that He made you into the person you couldn't become without the tragedy.
In Praise of Fat Little Preachers' Wives
How many women in my life have been so ordinary that the light inside of them was like a sweet, secret treasure - morsels of grace to be shared simply and quietly? Sitting across from coffee or pancakes much later than I planned has proven to me to be more healing, more life-giving than people living on a larger scene.
When Hosannas Turn Silent
I walked through the train station on Wednesday like I was in a fog. Everything seemed muted and fuzzy and I noticed an acute absence of that joy, that wild praise that had driven my steps earlier in the week. That bursting-with-love heart I had carried had been replaced with the sad bruised one. Even breathing hurt.
On Grief.
Some days she is there to remind me of favor and blessing. She sometimes slips in where I least expected her to remind me how very - lucky is not a strong enough word - lucky I am to have had something so wonderful, and it must have been quite wonderful to grieve it so strongly. Sometimes she holds my hand and won't let me forget beautiful things.
Sustenance in the Storm
But I believe this story tells us something about the character of God. We can't always understand why we must face difficult circumstances, but we can be sure that He will sustain us. He will nourish us.
I Don't Have a Patchwork Heart.
I don't have a patchwork heart. Because the constructs of my heart are not dependent on man, or men, or circumstances of my life. The beating of my heart and the strength of its muscles are because I find myself in Christ.
To Women in Ministry
And people will argue with you, confrontationally or passive-aggressively. And it will hurt your feelings. And people will use gender-exclusive language and they will refer to pastors as "men" and you will be invited to pastor's wives events even if you are single, but not to the pastor's events. And you may not see yourself represented on the platform or around the conference table.