2015's Best of the Best
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Usefulness...It's More than You Think
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First and foremost, I bid you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!
It’s Thanksgiving Day, and I’m likely beginning my day with a delicious cup of coffee. Now, there’s something to be thankful for—COFFEE! I am exceedingly thankful for coffee. I believe it to be the most enjoyable drink on the earth. And it’s a drink to be had in any season. You can drink it all year round.
For the cold months, there are a million ways to have it hot. There’s nothing better than sipping your favorite tasty latte to warm you from head to toe. Yet, even when the temperature outside rises too high, a well-made cold brew is absolutely appropriate, and quite refreshing.
Read MoreDear Adults: A Word from Your Local Youth Pastor
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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.
Read MoreStop Chasing Your Dreams
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"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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Is There Anything for this Generation to Declare?
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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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Reaching Beneath the Surface
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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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Shake that Zombie Off
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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.
Read More9 Critical Things Learned After Stepping Away from Ministry
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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.
Read MoreEscaping Comfort
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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.
Read MoreFighting Back
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For the past 3 months I have barely left my house.
Back in December our only car got totaled and it left this stay-at-home mom totally stranded with two small children.
Now, before you start to feel sorry for me let me tell you the truth. I didn’t mind it. For someone who is supposed to be a sanguine extrovert I was oddly comfortable inside my little house for entire weeks at a time. And then it happened...
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Take the Risk
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Here is something that scares me...when people don’t understand.
People won’t always understand our actions.
Why did I do that? Why did I say that? Why did I write that?
It’s seriously frightening. Hands sweating as I type these words, frightening.
There’s a risk we take when we put it all out there.
Read More3 Things that Scare the Pants Off of Me
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Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”
The kingdom of God and His righteousness, simply put, is His rule, His reign, and His way of doing things.
Over and over again scripture bids us do the things we aren’t naturally inclined to do and lots of times we just boil Christianity down to good behavior. But, there are a few things in scripture that challenge me beyond “just shut up and be nice to people”. And I’m willing to bet there are times where you feel the same
Read MoreThe Battles We Fight
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Seeds of discipline sown in times of adversity will be reaped as discipline’s reward in times of harvest.
You may have read my husband’s post about how we didn’t kiss until we were married. If you missed it, you can check it out here.
Shortly before I met Matt, I decided the next person I kissed would be my husband. And to me there was only one way to ensure that was the case. Our first kiss had to be on our wedding day.
I had kissed other guys before and after thinking about it I realized I was sowing seeds of commitment that could never be reaped. It was time to sow seeds of discipline.
Read MoreIf God is Real...
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When I was 14, I remember riding in the passenger seat of our family mini-van, looking out the window on a bright summer day. I turned to my mom and said, “One day, I’m going to do something big for God. I don’t know what it is, and I don’t know how, but it’s going to be big.”
The conviction in my heart was so strong. If I could have grabbed my mom’s head between both of my hands and downloaded the knowing that I had straight into her being I would have. Because I didn’t want to just talk. I hesitated to tell her because what if that’s what it was? Just fourteen-year-old talk?
Understand that I had not just returned from summer camp or had some experience where I saw Jesus flashing like a neon sign. I just knew. But what I didn’t know was what “big” looked like because what people consider “big” is not usually what God considers big. But I was willing to do whatever it took to get there and I was okay with whatever it ended up looking like. Even then I had a sense that God could do miraculous things with a life that is radically surrendered to Him.
Read More5 Ways to Spot Spiritual Junk Food
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I like “Sour Patch Kids.”
You could even say I’m passionate about those little, chewy gummies. The sweet and the sour hit me with a combination that I really enjoy. Sometimes, I even experience a sudden rush of blood to my face when I eat them. My wife knows these are my choice movie snack while watching a good film. I know for her, it’s “Milk Duds.” I’m sure in the proper setting you have your preferred snacks and “go-to” junk food, as well.
Junk food is like momentary fun, disguised as food.
It’s the stuff that’s high in calorie, but has no real nutritional sustenance. It’s the kind of food that hits you hard, but leaves you empty. For a brief moment, you get elevated and your glucose level spikes to provide a burst of energy, then the wave settles and you’re left just as empty as when you first consumed [insert choice junk food here], and aside from the short-lived high you discover that there was really nothing in what you ate to help your body long term.
So let me ask you, have you ever experienced this while sitting in church?
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