“In the book of Isaiah the word of God is envisioned as the rain God sends to earth, and the prophet declares that it will return not empty, but bearing good fruit. If we are made in God’s image, perhaps we are also words of God in this sense, and our life’s pilgrimage is to determine what our particular word…
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Remembering Who We Were Before We Became Parents
I sat on the sofa wide-eyed as a former version of my husband emerged. He moved fluidly through his old aikido motions, using the momentum of his body rather than force to drive his sparring partner to the floor. His sparring partner happened to be twelve years old and giggling the entire time, but nonetheless, a shadow of his former…
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Walking Through Difficulties When We’d Rather Go Around Them
*This is an updated version of a post from the archives. “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” ~Isaiah 43:2 The first time I heard the story We’re Going on…
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Showing Up as Your Full Self: On Nuance and Living Faithfully
I scribbled down the speaker’s words in my notebook as she spoke them from the stage, “The Christian community, historically, is not great at nuance.” She went on to say that we are complex people, full of multi-layered versions of our selves encompassing different roles, different loves, different ministries, different passions. Often, we’re discouraged from bringing our full selves to…
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Child-Like Faith: A Baptism Story
In case you missed it, I guest posted at (in)courage recently. Thanks for joining me there this week. …. A set of stairs wrapped around the wings of the stage, where we stood in single file obscured from view. We’d each slipped a thin white shift of fabric over our heads, and stood shivering in the space between the congregation…
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