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Harvest Update – Book Release – Desert of Solitude
“This book is a must read. Desert of Solitude really helped me understand some things in life that I struggled with. It's very refreshing to see someone overcome so many obstacles I've struggled with. Thank you, sincerely.”
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Praying for Refugees
We are overwhelmed by the needs of a suffering world, dear God. Protect us from paralysis. Help us to proclaim the liberating gospel of the Lord Jesus, and to live out that gospel. {Click to read.}
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Quote: Justice grows out of recognition of ourselves in each other.
Clem understood that justice grows out of recognition of ourselves in each other. That my liberty depends on you being free, too. That history can’t be a sword to justify injustice. Or a shield against progress. It must be a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. {Follow link to read full quote.}
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Eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney by President Barack Obama
Justice grows out of recognition… of ourselves in each other... then my liberty depends on you being free too. History can’t be a sword to justify injustice. Or a shield against progress. It must be a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. How to break the cycle. A roadway for a better world. He knew that the path of grace involves an open mind, but more importantly an open heart.
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A Fucked-Up Life and God
It is one of the deep blessings in life to realize that our imperfect lives and experiences can be used to offer hope at the perfect moment. God is so good. Continue to turn to Him and surrender your heart and spirit – repeatedly. {Click the link to read this post by Cyndy Lavoie.}
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What really matters in the end…
I am not one to admit to having favorites within my family. There’s a great deal of jealously on both sides and I learned early on that what I did for one person, I had to do for others. Most especially for my two grandmothers, who had the wonderful foresight (or cunning) to be neighbors for the majority of my life. From the age of five, I have been a visiting granddaughter “from out-of-town”, and as such, my grandma time has been split almost consistently down the middle during my visits to my hometown. Morning at Grandma B’s, evening at Grandma S’s. First night at Grandma S’s, second night at Grandma B’s.…
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The Grace to Receive
There’s a fundamental difference between receiving and taking. A receiver is someone who accepts something that has been freely offered. A taker is someone who claims possession of something that doesn’t belong to them nor was it freely offered to them. The first couple of years I lived in New York City, God put me in situations where I had to learn how to accept people’s offerings with His grace. I had grown up on the tough lesson that no one could be trusted with my well-being. So I sought for many years (teens and twenties) to become more independent and self-sufficient. As I entered my thirties, I stopped asking people for help because…
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Are you asking for forgiveness or expecting to be forgiven?
While out shopping over the holidays, I ran into someone from a former congregation of mine. She spoke about the turmoil gripping her congregation at that time because of a tainted leader. My heart grew heavy with sorrow from hearing the story she told. Essentially, the turmoil was caused because a leader egregiously offended a member of the congregation and then went on a smear campaign against that person to certain groups within the congregation. When the leaders’ actions against this person became known to the whole congregation, many others became offended by the leader’s behavior and treatment of this person. The leader was then called upon to give an account of his behavior,…
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Blessing those who don’t wish you well
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemies.’ But I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you.” ~ Matthew 5:43-44 One of the hardest things in life is to recognize the sabotagers in your life but not move against them or strike back after an attack. The Bible refers to this as “turning the other cheek” or “do not return evil for evil, but repay evil with good”. [Matthew 5:39; 1 Peter 3:9] In the world it becomes a rather hard task to complete when someone has just attacked you. But it is possible. By faith, you can exert your…
