A life of forgiveness sounds like a brave life. Like the bravest of all lives. And it sounds unattainable to you. I must mention my life quote again, “The brokenhearted are indeed the bravest among us—they dared to love, and they dared to forgive.” as quoted Dr. Brene Brown in Rising Strong. This is a […]
Cruelty is easy, cheap, and rampant. You have a choice of what to do with those words. Do you believe them to be true—because your mom or someone you love in your life said so? Or do you choose to treat those words like trash that must be taken out? You have the power to […]
A beloved person in my life heard these words spoken over her: “Now that you’ve slimmed down, you can wear things like this…” “I deserve more than the gift you gave me for Christmas…” “You are hard to love…. No man will ever love you.” These words came from her mother. That person in one’s […]
This is a video story I happened upon from my brother’s church. (The same one doing this coincidentally.) It is a beautifully gripping testimony of the pain of cancer and the pain of fatherlessness and the beauty that comes from both. So moving. Can you feel the holy tension in the questions raised? But most […]
Control! Finally a fruit of the Spirit that is all about control!! All of the other ones—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and faithfulness–have challenged us to stop trying to control our lives and push our faith into vulnerable areas. Which then become memorable, faith-shaping times. But still so hard. Finally control. But it’s […]
Why are You listening so quietly, Jesus? Faithfulness is brave. Because faith is taking the first step even when you cannot see the whole staircase. The whole staircase is hidden mostly because of those silences coming from God. Why?!!!! It is one thing to be faithful when you can see God’s active hand in your […]
“When I see people stand fully in their truth, or when I see someone fall down, get back up, and say, “Damn. That really hurt, but this is important to me and I’m going in again”—my gut reaction is, “What a badass.” ― Brené Brown, Rising Strong I begin gentleness with this quote about being […]
Leader: God is good all the time. Response: All the time God is good. We say this often. Sometimes with exuberance. Yet sometimes we don’t believe it. Some of us never believe it. Because how can God be good when my life hurts so much? How can there be any good in me because I […]
People are going to break your heart. Recently I wrote this in a letter to my son who is in prison, “There is that stupid saying, “You only hurt the ones you love.” It is overused and misused. But the truth of it is you get hurt by the ones you love because you keep […]
God, give me patience!!!!!! What we are really saying when we pray this is or scream this (let’s be honest) is, “God remove me from this tension that I am in. I don’t like it.” Tension is uncomfortable. Tension is vulnerable. Patience creates tension. This is part 4 of our series on the vulnerability that […]
