All Filled Up: Silencing My Inner Cookie Monster

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All Filled Up: Silencing My Inner Cookie Monster

A few weeks ago I shared that I was going to begin a Whole30. You can read that post here. 

Honestly, there is a part of me that doesn’t want to share this. Is this really important? Aren’t there weightier things we could talk about? 

I’ve recently come to terms with the fact that I cannot be who God has called me to be if I’m bound by an addiction of any kind. I am not as effective of a witness. I am not living free. If I can’t move past this then I am limited. My purpose is limited. 

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Dear Adults: A Word from Your Local Youth Pastor

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Dear Adults: A Word from Your Local Youth Pastor

My birthday is just around the corner. 

Now, I’m not that old, but the older I get it feels like the faster the world becomes. 

I’m a child of the 80’s. I can still remember using my grandmother’s rotary phone (if you don’t know what that is click here. haha.) to call home as a kid.

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No Second Chances: 9 Ways to Jumpstart the Call on Your Life

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No Second Chances: 9 Ways to Jumpstart the Call on Your Life

Let’s say you’ve felt the call to ministry in some form. Or maybe you just know that you’re meant to do more with your life than just survive at a nine to five job.

But there is no obvious path to take. You feel apprehensive about moving forward because the unknown is frightening at times.

On the other hand, you don’t know if you’re wasting the precious time you’ve been given. Let’s face it, our time is a limited resource. After all, when we see Jesus face to face we aren’t going to say, “Wait, Lord. Can I go back? I didn’t do that quite like I wanted to.” We get one life. There are no second chances.

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Consider the Source

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Consider the Source

Have you ever felt like you are supposed to flourish but you’re just stuck?

You tell yourself you don’t have the time or you’re too busy or it’s too hard right now to do the things you know you’re supposed to. Maybe you can start later or next week or on a Monday.

I was once in a relationship that became super dumb. Those are the nicest words I have for it.

At first it was not dumb. It was great and fun. We laughed and frolicked in fields with daisies.

But then it happened. You know those people who get a boyfriend or girlfriend and then they disappear? That was me. I became needy and insecure. That, my friends, is not cute.

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Battle Born: Fighting the Funk of Depression

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Battle Born: Fighting the Funk of Depression

The irrationality of fear first gripped me when I was young. 

I was in first grade…and the thought of school terrified me. 

But that’s normal, right? Its culturally common for kids to hate school and who, at some point, hasn’t ever seen a young child screaming bloody murder when getting dropped off to their first day of school?

Then came middle school, where at age 12, I was so distraught with anxiety, that I walked in one night to tell my Mom I no longer wanted to live. I told her I had been having thoughts of ending my life with my Dad’s shotgun. 

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Destroying Porn: This One's for the Guys

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Destroying Porn: This One's for the Guys

**Note: While this post is intended to educate, challenge, and inform, it is of a particular graphic nature. Please read at your own risk.** 

Lets take the gloves off; porn is ubiquitous. 

As technology progresses, so has the consumption of pornography. As a result, porn usage has ruined families, marriages, businesses, churches, and many, many young lives.

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If We Truly Are Vigilant...

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If We Truly Are Vigilant...

Here we are. All of us together.

We have come to a point in history where we find that our desire to do good is thwarted by an acute case of self-obsession.

We are in slavery, our taskmaster, comfort. We dare not make way to the promised land knowing full well that between us and that place lies wilderness, lies difficulty, lies hardship.

Who am I to say such things?

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Stop Chasing Your Dreams

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Stop Chasing Your Dreams

"By the time a basketball or football player gets to Division I or Division II, they’ve already been a star in their own town and community. They have been elevated to celebrity status at such a young age, before their frontal lobe has even fully developed. It creates a high confidence level, but also a delusion around what’s actually possible."

– Dan Lebowitz, Exec. Dir. of NE University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society. 

 

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Meet Brother Arnold

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Meet Brother Arnold

In 2007, I was asked to preach at a small church in Leavenworth, KS. It was the beginning of an encounter with a collective of people that I now know and love.

Upon my arrival, I was introduced to this jazz drummer who my girlfriend at the time (now my wife) referred to as “Cool Guy.”

“Cool Guy,” was a lighter skinned, elderly, black man. His body was slightly hunched and swayed to one side, bearing most of his weight upon a favored foot. Observing his stance, I noticed that the rest of his weight was held up by a long black cane. Through a quiet voice with a slight rasp, he extended his hand to mine and spoke,

“How ya doin’ there? I’m Brother Arnold.”

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Is There Anything for this Generation to Declare?

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Is There Anything for this Generation to Declare?

Churches everywhere are working to maintain relevance in this post-Christian nation, scrambling to survive.

Church attendance in many places is steadily declining as people go outside the church walls for spiritual fulfillment or people have just stopped caring about church altogether.

"One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts."

- Psalms 145:4

Let me ask you, is there anything for this generation to declare?

 

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The Minister's Manifesto

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The Minister's Manifesto

I don’t know how to be something I’m not. 

Most of us don’t.

Since I can remember I’ve loved 2 things: ministry & art. 

In the same way you like unique foods and your own manner of doing things, I can’t imagine not having a passion for these pursuits. 

For me, it’s a peculiar combination. 

Most of my life I’ve felt too “Christian” for the art world and too “artsy” for the local church. 

And so, finding a space to call my own has been a pursuit of discovery.

Its also been an intentional pursuit to carve out more space for others like myself...maybe for someone like you too.

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The Best Thing to Believe

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The Best Thing to Believe

Right now, my eyes are heavy and sweet sleep is calling my name.

I am writing this on a borrowed laptop, as we camp out in a nine year old's room while he sleeps on the couch.

This is life on the road for the Shirleys. 

The past couples weeks have been filled with incredible experiences, really good food and even better company. 

But as our time passes Matt and I find ourselves praying about the future and endeavoring to hold all things loosely. 

This time is conjuring in me a belief that grows more firm with each passing day. 

Jesus is enough. He is sufficient.

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Kill the Clutter. Reclaim Your Life.

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Kill the Clutter. Reclaim Your Life.

I really thought adulthood would be a certain cure to procrastination.

I thought I would arrive to a place where I could inherently muster myself to a place of responsibility, never to leave any of my work undone again.

I was wrong.

It's delusional to think that things will organize themselves.

Have you ever thought this?

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Reaching Beneath the Surface

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Reaching Beneath the Surface

The past week has been a whirlwind of activity.

Packing and goodbyes all around.

When it comes to packing, I tend to procrastinate because the moment I start I will have to deal with all the chaos that comes with it and my life is already pretty chaotic. So, I like to do it all in just a couple days. It’s stressful and overwhelming, but it only lasts for a moment.

The goodbyes. Those are hard. But it was a little different this time. I didn’t say goodbye to one person I didn’t feel like I wouldn’t see again. It was definitely more of a “see ya later”.

Have you ever voluntarily pulled all of your junk out of every crevice of your house and asked people to come help you pack it?

 

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How Do You Know When It’s Time to Go?

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How Do You Know When It’s Time to Go?

Many of our friends and family already know this, but we wanted to share it here too.

We’re moving.

You know it’s God when your husband comes home and says, “I think we should move in with your mom”.

That’s exactly what happened a few months ago.

Immediately we both knew it was what we were supposed to do.

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Shake that Zombie Off

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Shake that Zombie Off

Most of us live too safe. 

Most of us live too tired. 

Most of us live too bored and too busy. 

We are so preoccupied by what we have to do or what we didn’t get done that we neglect to see the joy in the faces of our children, the beauty in the world around us and to just be thankful. (John 10:10)

I’ll just say it this way. We all have the tendency to be a little zombie-like at times.

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Embracing the Gift of Work

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Embracing the Gift of Work

"So, what should I do next?"

I speak to audiences of people on a pretty regular basis, so this is a question I hear often.

I mean, I get it.

You're searching for a blueprint or formula than can carry you in the right direction and ideally, help you secure a more successful future, right?

But what if there's more to it than this?

Motivation is a powerful thing, especially when it comes to how we look at work.

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9 Critical Things Learned After Stepping Away from Ministry

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9 Critical Things Learned After Stepping Away from Ministry

A couple years ago my husband and I made a transition out of our jobs at a church and ministry.

Out of this transition we entered one of the most challenging seasons of our lives.

This often left us asking ourselves if we did the right thing. I think that’s a question anyone would ask. When you move on, especially in ministry, there is this belief that things are supposed to be newer, brighter, shinier, that opportunities are supposed to pour from the sky and everything is going to be A-Okay.

There are many reasons we encountered some of the hardships we did and then there are some things I really can’t explain, and that’s okay. But we aren’t going to talk about that right now.

What I do want to talk about is what we learned over the past two years and what we were maybe tempted to question but we are now convinced of beyond a shadow of a doubt.

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Cooking Up Some Truth

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Cooking Up Some Truth

I love cooking.

It’s a fairly recent development. I think it got really serious when I started watching cooking shows and reading cooking blogs.

It hasn’t always been that way. When I first got married I made breakfast burritos with maple sausage. Just one bite inspired my gag reflex. It tasted like Mexican food drenched in syrup.

Matt actually ate one and went back for seconds (because he’s a man and I feel like they will eat anything) but half way through he conceded. It was wretched. But now I think I’m a fairly decent cook. I love to add layers of flavor to my food and I love to make things from scratch.

 

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Escaping Comfort

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Escaping Comfort

Do you remember school dances? I do.

The dress, the hair, the date. All awkward, all the time.

One night after one of these historic dances I decided to corner my date in the car.

He couldn’t escape. He had to hear me out. He didn’t have a choice unless he wanted to tuck and roll out of a moving vehicle. He listened to me rant and cry for a good fifteen minutes because I couldn’t take it anymore.

I had to get out.

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