Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth…
Reaching your New Year’s goals
My husband and I sat down a few days before Thanksgiving to catch up with each other after putting the kids to bed. We had flown from August to December and sat looking back at the busy season of school…
Why am I so tired?
I’ve spent the last three months moving at what feels like a break-necking pace. From the demands of being a bi-vocational pastor to juggling calendars, spending four weekends attending weddings, buying my first home, moving, preaching, leading two weekend retreats,…
Hope is my friend
I was cruising through the list of notification on the GoodReads web site when one caught my eye. “Hope is your friend.” Of course, it was a notification that someone named Hope and I had made a social media connection,…
“. . . as you love yourself.”
If Jesus were pastoring in a mainline, Protestant church today, and were asked the same question scribes and scholars ask in Mark 12.28-31 (What is the greatest commandment?), I think he’d omit the “. . . as you love yourself”…
Worlds colliding
As a pioneer in the field of grief, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross used to hold workshops all over the world. In these workshops people didn’t just learn about grief; they had a chance to do deep grieving of their own. A friend…
How spaces become places
Have you ever thought about the difference between places and spaces? A place (as I would define it) is a location with determined boundaries. A space is the opposite; it is a location with undetermined boundaries. Examples may help here….
Praying with the cat
No, that’s not a typo. Let me explain. I am the head of a not-so-blended family. I have two dogs, Oakley (my first dog ever) and Ralphie (adopted as a companion and best buddy for Oakley.) Although my older cats…
Asking for Help
I still remember the look I got from a fellow church member when I mentioned in conversation that I had been seeing a pastoral counselor. The expression was a strange mixture of disbelief and pity. I don’t regret saying it,…