Photo Credit: Flickr creative commons My pride tells me that when I’m in the middle of a fight with God because I refuse to let go of something, that I’m going to lose. I don’t want to give up on whatever it is that I’m holding on to, because I’m afraid of being on the losing end of the game. The truth is, that God never wants us to lose. If we’re in a fight with God, it’s because God wants something better for us and something else is trying to destroy that plan. We become o

Photo credit Flickr creative commons I’ve read a lot lately that talks about priorities. Many discussions about where are your priorities. Most of the posts that I read say that the priorities list looks something like this: 1. God 2. Self 3. Husband/Wife 4. Kids 5. Friends 6. Career 7. Etc. I struggle with these lists. Mostly, because I don’t have a husband or kids, so my priorities list naturally differs from this one.  But no matter how many times I begin thinking about wh

Photo credit creative commons I spent nearly all last week offline, cheating occasionally by checking email through my phone. I didn’t do this for any deep psychological reason, I simply ran out of time. I spent every possible minute spending time with people and building relationships, while volunteering with youth groups attending the Mennonite Convention. I feel great. I worked hard last week, leading high schoolers and their group leaders to work with The Pittsburgh Proje

Many times over the last year, two of my friends consistently pestered me about attending the Wild Goose Festival. “This makes me think of you”, “I’ll take care of the details”, they’d say. In response, I told them that I was “out of vacation days” and “couldn’t afford it”. Oh, how easily I forget that God doesn’t need my money or my vacation days. I cannot recount to you how it happened, because I don’t really remember, other than that any obstacle I saw for attending

The spirit of fear comes to destroy us, if we let it. Learning how to choose peace instead of fear takes practice. Where do you start? Today I’m writing about my most recent fearful experience, and how I dealt with it. It’s a 2 – for – 1 Wednesday! This spirit slowly built inside of me until I was unable to think of anything else. My heart and emotions used to live in a guarded stone castle with a moat and hungry alligators. To hear the story, follow the rabbit to my friend A

Photo Credit We spend a lot of time thinking about our personal safety. It’s not safe to play with matches. It’s not safe to drive over the speed limit. It’s not safe to get on an airplane without screening passengers through a metal detector. It’s not safe to ride a bus alone at night. It’s not safe to park drive in that part of town. It’s not safe to hitchhike or pick up hitchhikers. I wonder if we are confusing safety with wisdom. It’s sometimes less dangerous for me to fl

Thanks for all of the comments and feedback in last week’s post about the J.O.Y. rule. It seems that really resonated with a lot of you. I like the conversations that it generated outside of the post as well. It’s really fun having someone come up to me and talk about something they read that I wrote. It also encourages me to keep going. I’ve been writing Wednesday posts for a couple of months now. I really enjoyed the weekly posts and will keep it up as long as I can. Until

-Celebrated a dear friend’s birthday -Ran 3 miles with a running group, when I was so tired that I thought I couldn’t make my feet move. But I did it. And at a pace two minutes faster than I normally run. -Slept. Rested. Then watched a “B” movie with some of my favorite people, in my favorite, restful place. -Supported a friend’s art. Enjoyed great conversation. Beautiful art. -Middle-of-the-night reflective, tear-filled, gracious, hopeful conversation. -Rested. More friends.

I’ve been blogging for a few years now, and I think I’ve gotten better at it. I re-read some of my old posts recently, and they’re rather entertaining (a.k.a really bad). One benefit to blogging for years is that you learn what works and what doesn’t, what is bad content v. good content, and what it is that you really are willing to share in a semi-permanent, public space. Does anyone else ever fear that what you write will come back to haunt you should you, for example, deci

1 Corinthians 13 1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy,

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted about my involvement in the Underground Justice & Aftercare Movement (UJAM). Thanks to all of you who have asked about it. For you newcomers, UJAM was founded by me and a Nashville Immigration Attorney in March 2010, to provide direct services to victims of human trafficking (more details in the link). Over the course of the last year, we developed a mission for the organization with the help of an extraordinary visionary team. The vi

I didn’t grow up practicing Lent, or any other practice of the Christian Calendar. Over the last five years as an adult, I’ve come to appreciate the value of these sacred practices. This year, I wanted to give up something for Lent but really struggled in my decision. I eat fairly healthy, so giving up some sort of food didn’t really make sense. I gave up Facebook last year, and thought it was weird to give up the same thing two years in a row. As I prayed about what to fast

Author Donald Miller works hard to encourage individuals to live their life stories well. He even hosts conferences on “How to write a better story”. He’s not the first to do this. I remember working through a book in college called, What’s your story. We all know that what each person wants, more than anything, is to truly be known. We are in a constant search to be known, to share our story. The woman downtown who asked you for a dollar? What she really wants is to be known

My family is great at hosting people, and we loved it when we had visitors. We often hosted bible studies, football-watching parties, or out-of-town guests. One summer, a large family came to visit. All of the kids were playing in the kiddie pool and having a good old time. One of the visitors came out to watch us, and join in the water fight. As an adult male, he had the upper hand, and the water fight quickly escalated to a lot of splashing and a garden hose. At some point

I know. You are waiting for the results of the Macaroni & Cheese Cookoff with bated breath. Wait no longer. It turns out that this was a brilliant idea. With 9 different recipes (and none from a box!), including a Gluten-free dish from the lovely Flo Paris, everyone got their fill of cheesy goodness. Votes were cast and prizes were awarded. The party was an absolute success. While I don’t have any recipes to offer you, I do have pictures. And I can tell you, that if you ever

Just going to paint a picture today. Hope you don’t mind the change of pace. Keep your eyes open for a new post on Wednesday! When you’re wading in waist-high water, it’s not really deep enough to swim, but deep enough that running is not an option. You push through the water as it pushes back. Waves might slow you down, and your feet sink into the sand. The beach ball you’re trying to rescue keeps floating further away. You keep walking, keep pushing, to reach the goal. As y

I love growing older. Life really is like wine, it gets better with age. I don’t know who first said that, but I’m sure it was someone brilliant and amazing. One of my goals is to never complain about my age, but to see it as a gift. The chance to live another year, make more mistakes, love the people I’m around, and have too much fun. As my birthday gift to myself, I bought a window box for my apartment balcony. I can’t wait to plant flowers and have some color there. If I e

Alright, it’s clear that I am terrible at posting regularly. I often have thoughts and ideas that I want to post, but they never make it to publishing. One reason for this is that I fear vulnerability. I really do not want to make myself vulnerable to anybody with access to a search engine. I’ve probably mentioned this here before. A second reason for the slow posting, is that many of my thoughts end up in a journal, and not on my blog. Once it’s in the journal, I don’t feel

During my commute to work this morning, I thought about why I enjoyed being around certain people. My immediate response to that question was “because that person/these people force me to be nothing other than completely myself.” Not that I should ever be anything else, but I notice that I easily try to be what others need from me, instead of just myself. I’ll see approval from people with my decisions, instead of just owning my decision. I’ll stand back and watch life happen

“This split between the ideal and the real is one of the major reasons Christians struggle. The church often stresses such high ideals that many people feel they can’t be human and still be Christian — an incredible belief when one thinks of why they came to Christ in the first place. They came because they were sinners in need of forgiveness and acceptance.” – Dr. Henry Cloud, Changes that Heal Are you torn between trying to live the ideal life, and the reality/truth of your