“Are you there, God?” That’s a question asked again and again in scripture and in the stories of our time - like teen fiction! Because it’s a question most of us can relate to.
You are enough! I find it easy to agree but hard to internalize. That’s why I wear it and preach it and share it because I think lots of us struggle with faith in our enoughness, too.
Doubt is a hand being raised by your heart and head saying, “Hello from in here! Can we talk with you, because we have some concerns?”
Vulnerability is risk, uncertainty, and emotional exposure. So, doubt, like vulnerability, is hard to feel. But if that hard (and heart) feeling place is also the birthplace of joy, love, belonging, faith, all the good stuff, then don’t we need to pay attention to our doubts?
Without curiosity we would never learn to crawl, let alone walk. But as we grow we tend to abandon our innate inquisitiveness in favor of certainty. Curiosity is risky (it killed the cat, right?).
I am not a fan of Matthew’s Jesus. Too angry, too punitive, too much gnashing. I can however relate from my own experiences, to that sense of urgency. It’s the urgency of protest. It’s the urgency of now. It’s the urgency of knowing we have this one incredible life too accept a divine invitation we sometimes ignore.
The thing is my friend, you were made for such a time as this (cf. Esther). And you have exactly what you need to pastor and preach and plan and lead, right now.
Too often I hear people refer to Lent as a punitive season. A time for denying ourselves and bemoaning all the ways we aren’t good enough in our personal and spiritual lives. As if the purpose is to own up to all the ways we believe we are disappointing God.
When you unlearn something, it doesn’t leave you. We transcend and include. It is a process of evolving and maturing. It is, surprise, a process of becoming.
Grief invites us to pay attention. This has been my experience. That was when I began to see this process of becoming. I don’t just mean when a person dies. I mean when by choice, or by circumstance, we accept something has ended. It has run its course. A relationship, a career, a part of our body. When we lean into letting go and soften our resistance to what must change.
“You need to be more vulnerable. Do you know what I mean?”
Do I?! Ha! Yes, vulnerability is what I’m “certified” to teach! You’ve got to love the divine irony of the Universe. She is a comedian.
Holidays come with a plateful of preparations and expectations smothered in a gravy of “shoulds.” Upending regular routines brings some anxiety. To practice wholehearted living, here are five gratitude practices to get you through.
The 3 insights from my favorite bosses and mentors changed my life and perspective, and they can do the same for you, too.
If God loves everyone, invites everyone, welcomes everyone into a relationship of belovedness and belonging, why do so many of us have a story of being made to feel like we don’t belong at church?
Does your inner critic chatter, like, ALL THE TIME? Having an inner critic is a part of being human. Enlist your INNER COACH to take charge and calm your critic down.
Perennial wisdom which resonates in new ways at different points in one’s life. My recap of Richard Rohr’s The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, And Believe.
Whenever I’ve attended a clergy conference, retreat, workshop, delegation, convention, you name it – there are clusters of collars, knitting. Someone in your pews needs to be reminded of an experience, a person stitched into their heart.
We are all, individuals and institutions alike, reluctant to wrestle with, let alone expose, the dark stuff inside. What shared shadows keep us from reaching out for our neighbor, or ourselves?
If you want to walk out of your next meeting feeling like you were an effective & productive leader, begin with these 4 key questions. Whatever your title, you will be fostering community, building relationships, and modeling the heart of a leader who cares about her people.
The smile in that photo was a breakthrough, the day before had been filled with tears. Life is always becoming - a back and forth between tears and smiles, hellos and goodbyes, grief and joy, which in so many ways is what The Daring Way(TM) is all about.
Love is my prompt, every time I preach. It’s the one sermon I feel I preach again and again. Even though you and I know they are all different. In this new space I want to prompt myself and prompt you in your preaching!
In that instant my heart was transformed, and my thinking irrevocably changed. The idea of some misplaced need of ownership of an “institution of marriage”, of keeping it out of the hands of some, seemed pathetically ridiculous.
The work and happenstance of uncovering and discovering who we are is holy work. It is good, hard, spiritual work to becoming whole. So, in this space, in posts, sermons and reflections I want to continue exploring, validating and wrestling with that experience of becoming. Because I have a feeling the essence of my struggles and joys, have something in common with yours.