I’ll never forget the hairdresser’s expression. She’d just asked what I wanted done with my hair, and I’d said, “Whatever you’d like. I’m a clean slate for you to do what you think best. I trust you.”
Her eyes grew large in excitement, and I had an idea of what she’d looked like as girl on Christmas morning. Already, I could see her looking at my hair and calculating all the possibilities. Continue reading “Clean Slate”
“This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls” (Hebrews 6:19a NLT).
When I read those words, I picture a heavy anchor held fast to the ocean floor, and at the other end of its chain, I visualize a ship not simply rooted in place but instead swirling with a massive current until it goes ’round and ’round in a circle, but it holds fast.
That just gets me. If my life is a ship on an unpredictable sea, an anchor is one thing I don’t want to be without. When the storms come, I don’t want to be carried willy-nilly. I want to be held fast by something stronger than my own strength and determination. Continue reading “This Hope”
Moving can teach a thing or two about life.
I’ve seen a fair share of new addresses. While there are military and missionary families that have much higher stats than I do, I’ve moved abroad twice and lived in rental houses, permanent homes, guest houses, basements, and campers. And as I’m in the middle of a move right now, I’ve been reflecting on my last five years in this town and on all the moves I’ve ever done.
One thing I’ve realized: while it’s the time in between moves when we do our living, the moving process can show us how we’ve lived.
Here are the top ten things moving has taught me about living: Continue reading “What Moving Has Taught Me About Living”
I’ve decided, here at the end of 2017, to wrap up the “There’s More” series.
But the journey isn’t ending—just the blog posts.
This series began with hope, and it’s ending with hope. It began with a life-long desire to understand God’s love. At times throughout the series, especially when life got messy, that goal was not at the forefront of my mind. But it seems like the less I’ve blogged about there being more, the more I’ve witnessed it. I haven’t posted consistently because I wanted this series to come from the overflow. I didn’t want my posts to be dry words from a dry heart. Honestly, for most of 2017, I’ve been churning with more questions than answers. Continue reading “The End (There’s More series, pt. 9)”
When I stood on the safe side of a recent decision, it looked daring; on the other side—the 20/20 side—it looked crazy.
This whole series has been about knowing there’s more than what I (or we) typically experience and/or understand about God, His love, and our relationship. I know there’s so much more to the Christian life, a richness of love and intimacy and adventure and meaning and, well, even craziness that most of us do not typically touch on any given day. Life gets so hum-drum and we get so short-sided, when, all along, there is a current of deeper importance running parallel to this thing we call “living life.” Only every now and then do we glance over at it, dip our toes in, or take pictures of it. But I know God meant this Christian life for so much more. Continue reading “There’s Still More (There’s More series, pt. 8)”
You and the tandem partner strapped to your back—whom you’ve known for only five minutes—shuffle toward the back of the narrow airplane, where the door is open wide. Everything you’ve ever learned through commercial flying has been defied in the last thirty seconds, especially as you’ve watched the three other tandem teams stand in the doorway and immediately disappear.
Now it’s your turn to plummet. As you hang out the door, there is absolutely nothing between you and the ground, which is more than ten thousand feet below. Even though you’ve traveled by air all your life, the sensation of looking so far down is not the same as that moment you let go. Continue reading “God’s Love is Like Skydiving (There’s More series, pt. 7)”
It was as if an old version of me stood before the current me, whispering a lesson I’d forgotten.
I was kneeling next to my bookcase, an old Bible study guide in my lap. Moments before, out of nowhere, I’d gotten the overwhelming urge to clear through my bookcase. I’d pulled all the donatable books two weeks ago, but today, I’d decided that wasn’t enough; I had to get rid of some others. They wouldn’t be donated, just put out of sight.
Even though I was being rather fast and furious in my “everything, be gone” spree, there was one book I had the urge to flip through. I’d been doing shockingly well not flipping (as book lovers are often wont to do), but I couldn’t resist this urge as I held the old Bible study guide, even though it evoked bittersweet feelings. Continue reading “Spiraling Down, Inching Closer (There’s More series, pt. 6)”
