Trading Adversity For Abundance
Orange you ready for fall/autumn? Ugh. Ok that’s corny. You know, as in Indian corn! I can’t help myself! I hauled out my orange shoes and am starting to get a craving for – you guessed it- candy corn! Corn aside, it’s safe to say autumn’s here. Tiptoe across a blanket of butterscotch leaves if you’re lucky enough to live where the seasons change. Inhale the heady aromas of pumpkin lattes. Put on a simmering pot of spices and fill your home with notes of nutmeg and cinnamon. Set your DVR for the Hallmark love stories with an autumn flair. Curl up on the couch for a viewing party. Gently cradle…
A Rested Development: Tortoise Vs. Hare
Picture it: someone takes a saw. They cut out your old kneecap and replace it with a ball bearing joint. Slow and steady. This proved more agonizing than I’d ever imagined six months ago. I originally envisioned some minor discomfort while recuperating. I pictured myself surrounded by fragrant flowers. Sipping lattes in bed. I’d forge through my stack of books. Undertake mindless craft projects. Instead I received a rested development: tortoise vs. the hare. In a manner of speaking. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Instead, there were midnight crying jags, grueling exercises and med management exercises. Fortunately, my future included a rested development: Slow and steady wins the race. Life is…
Holding On Instead of Letting Go
This is an amplified excerpt from my upcoming book “The Side Door: Welcoming God’s Divine Detours.” What are you twisting away from that God is trying to lead you towards? It’s easy to rejoice in and with God in our beautifully abundant seasons when we feel close to him. It’s a cinch when we are reasonably happy with our circumstances and in harmony with his plans and purposes. I pray if you are in that season that you are basking in the moment. Because more than likely your next challenge is probably just around the corner. Out of our deep Love for the Lord comes a desire to please Him…
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…
