It is 10th grade. I am sitting in the architecture classroom beside the cafeteria of my high school, thoughtfully ruling out straight lines on graphing paper while talking to my friend Bruce. As we chat, we decide that we would both make great hermits when we grow up. As we talk a vision arises of…
The greatest gift I gave myself this past summer was a weekly “to-do” notebook. Each week is nicely planned out on a single page—appointments I have, things I want to accomplish, even the weekly exercise and dinner calendar and grocery list. As a person who is embarrassingly satisfied by a good list, flipping through the…
A few months back, my fourteen-year-old and I were driving somewhere when some “political topic” entered our conversation. After a short pause, he said something to me that has been playing in my head ever since: “Mom, your political views have changed a lot over the years, haven’t they?” He wasn’t wrong. My political views…
It’s been over a month since I last posted here. A lot has happened in our nation. A lot has happened in my heart. I currently have a seven-page document filled with notes, thoughts, stories, quotes, and emotional purging entitled “The Unexpected Sadness” open on my desktop. I have tried time and again to take…
How do we come together after this election? This is the question I have probably been wrestling with more than any other these last few weeks. How can we do it as a nation? How can we do it as a Church? My answer? I don’t know. I have to be honest; platitudes just aren’t…
“The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.” (Proverbs 12:6 NIV) There are many posts here that I have fought writing. But no fight has been longer and harder, than the battle to write this one. I have wanted to tell the stories of everyone…
We are a nation painfully divided. That was the thesis of my last blog post. The chasm between us has grown ever wider. The discourse has become uglier. The willingness to come together in compromise has nearly evaporated. And it is not just in our politics. It is in our friendships. It is within our…
Would I be going too far if I started this blog post by admitting that our nation is a mess? I know that people from other countries look at what is happening here and just shake their heads in disbelief. I honestly wonder if God does the same. I have only walked this earth for…
The other day I received a text from a friend: “Hey how’s your day going? Interested in being an editor today? If you have time, I would love any advice you would give me on this short piece I wrote…” How’s my day going? My day is going horribly. Virtual learning is not working today;…
About this last year I was beyond thrilled to hop on a plane by myself to head up to Philadelphia for a few days. I was going at the invitation of a pastor friend who had asked me to speak at his staff retreat. But knowing that such chances to be away with focused time…
