For many of us, our light goes out when we leave a job, a relationship, a marriage, a season. We wonder, God where are you? Why are you quiet ? Distant? Uncaring? Unfatherly? Is He though? I’m experiencing Him in new ways. Ways I realize, now, I thought people would offer. Security. Provision. Unconditional love. Openness. Trust. I feel the …
Bloom
Peonies, ranunculus, and eucalyptus leaves. If I’m at farmer’s market or the store, these are the bouquets I intuitively reach for. But if we’re driving, and from the corner of my eye I spot a herd of wild sunshiny daffodils, you better bet your bottom dollar, we’re jumping out for some off-road picking. So often, in fact, that my boys …
Confessions of a Real Life Mom
Clothes hang on the oversized armchair, the trunk, spilling over the corner of our bed and pooling on the ground in a rainbow of sweaters and basketball shorts. It’s a mess. Our bedroom is a mess. And just the other day I was nagging my oldest about cleaning up his room. Not once. Not twice, but ten times. I was …
Hope is in the HOUSE + a personal message from my couch to yours!
22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more …
Shhhhh! Shame
There’s a smallness. Well, that’s because you’re 5’1″ Bek. True. Fair. I digress. A smallness not only in stature but in temptation to attach feeling small to worthiness small. There’s a difference. Like wow I feel humbled down to my core small or I am small and therefore, worthless. When people ask how we’re doing, our response remains: We’re still looking. Bry …
When God Answers Prayers; Spanish Style
** This post is dedicated to Valentinne Rudolphy (Val) ** You know what I’d really love? I’d love to offer this in Spanish too. I can get by but my bilingual days are a bit rusty and I don’t trust myself to translate this correctly. I typed these words to my publisher last fall after listening to their encouragement to …
Pave BOLDly
There’s a stirring welling up in some of us. A stirring to do life different, a stirring for deep space and contemplation and for real life and faith to intersect. A stirring for brazen boldness. I say this because just last week, while coaching two writers, we spoke of this very stirring. They mentioned not finding a group they fit …
Focusing on the Fringe
See that sweet birdy perched on the highest branch? That’s me years ago thinking that to have it all together meant that I had to have a place in church, community, life. That if I was going along with the status quo I’d arrived. Friends, I HAD IT ALL WRONG. I never felt at home there because, what I’m learning, …
Being a Safe Space
I just need a safe space to _______________. I hear this phrase on a weekly – if not daily- basis. I just need a safe space to talk. Listen. Cry. Find compassion. Be welcome Be unconditionally loved. Three days before my birthday my sweet hubby was laid off. Organizational restructuring. You’ve got two weeks. As it is, we are in …
Wow, God must REALLY Care
Last month my sweet friend Maria prayed that God would show up as Provider in tangible out-of-the-box ways. What’s your rent? she asked. I’m going to pray He brings that money in somehow. I smiled over the phone and stifled a laugh. We’re fine. Does God really care about paying our rent through random acts of kindness? We’re praying for …