The Bonfire of my Vanity
As a young woman in my 20s, I romanticized my fashionable writing life. I wore little French hats like Louise Bryant did in the “Reds.” I carried around a journal to jot down my poems and had a small cachet of exquisite writing instruments. Down to the lake I would cycle to write “on location” or play French chanteuse music in my apartment> There, I typed out diatribe after diatribe of my problems and psychological wounds. In my naiveté, I imagined that if I had the proper costume, the requisite props and an appropriate soundtrack, fame and a coveted job in Manhattan at a prominent publishing house would be mine…
Pain to Pen to Paper
“If you can’t find the book you need to read, and you’re a writer, then that’s the book you were meant to write.” Such a powerful truth lies in those words from an IG post I read recently. Of course, books born out of pain and suffering are as hard for authors to write as they may be for readers to digest and apply. For a long time in the Christian community, they weren’t very popular. Or at least they didn’t leap out from the shelf at me in the early 2000s. That’s when I desperately combed the shelves at Christian bookstores looking for a much needed life raft. I…
LOVE TRUMPS ALL – Pt.1: Mutual Respect
The election looms over us now, forshadowing ill will like a menacing black crow in a Frank Capra movie. Before you flee this page in fear of politicking, please know that this blog is not written to influence your vote in any way. God laid it on my heart earlier this summer to raise a white flag in the matter. He impressed on me to remind those of us who consider ourselves difference makers in our spheres of influence to behave as He has called us to do. In Romans 12:18, we are told to “live peaceably with all, if possible, as far as it depends on you.” We are…
The Domino House
People in danger often tell of lives flashing before their eyes. But I find a greater clarity in pausing to reflect on my horizon from the rear view mirror so I have a better understanding of my current latitude and longitude. Priscilla Shirer made this watershed observation, stating “God can stun you in hindsight when you discover the careful orchestration of events in your life.” While I am a bit stunned, I’m really more amazed and grateful for how God really does work all things for good for those who love God as He promises in Romans 8:28. Some people misinterpret this verse, instead believing that those who truly love…