A Hebrew Word for 2021
Does anyone else get really excited when you learn a new Hebrew or Greek word, and it causes a word you’ve always known to suddenly pop with new depth, new richness? I have a Hebrew word for us. It is perhaps a Hebrew word for 2021. The word is tiqvah (teek-VAH). It is one of […]
Marking the Moments of Hope
A little over four years ago, I had to have surgery in Bangkok. A routine appointment revealed a small tumor and my doctor didn’t want to mess around. I wasn’t in the hospital long but needed to remain in town for the results of the biopsy. That week of waiting was hard. I tried to […]
Arrows and Anchors
As we stand at the brink of another year, it is a little hard for me to see past this moment. I feel grateful and thankful to be here, when I know the road for many has been littered with transition, grief and the word of 2020, uncertainty. But can I say it? I’m a […]
It Has Everything to Do with Hope
Last fall, while attending pre-field training that took us deep into the wilderness, one of my teammates reached a place where she was certain she could not go on. No amount of “you can do it” encouragement from us nor self-determination from herself could force the next step. It was all but over. That’s when […]
High Speed Waiting
“High speed waiting.” This sign above the entrance to a waiting room in a bus station in China made me smile. It was attempting to describe the room where one waits for the high speed bus. But, isn’t this how we often feel about waiting: fly through it, and get it over quick? One time […]
This is My Story: Recovering from the Dark Places
I’d prefer not to tell you my whole story. Just the good parts – you know, the parts we write about to our family and friends back home. The parts that will make you like me or admire me, and prove I’m on the road to glory. But THIS is the story He’s led me […]
Pringles, a Cracked Plastic Spoon, and the Desire of our Souls
A Star Wars Jabba-the-Hutt Lego set. That was what set my brother-in-law on a quest that would end up with a costly broken lock on a car, and a big fat punishment for him. When he was a kid, he desperately wanted that Star Wars Lego set. So, when he was pretty sure that his […]
Bird’s Nests, Eggshells and the Remedy for Our Desperate Reaching for Control
I have dirt under my fingernails constantly from scraping for control in a world where I have learned in recent weeks I maintain very little. Yes, this is a bleak sounding way to start off a post. I promise the light will crack through because it always does and often in unexpected ways. Earlier in […]
The Greatest Song You’ve Never Heard
Do you hear that? Stop for a second. Listen. It’s faint but undeniably present. Can you hear it? It seems to be . . . a melody. It is distant, almost inaudible. If you strain you will hear it more clearly. It is beautiful, wistful, enrapturing. This is the sound of your life. Indeed, life […]
The Ideal Future
The future we dream about reveals a lot about our hopes, values, and desires. One of my favorite life coaching techniques is the “Ideal Future”. This technique involves taking a dream or vision and imagining a specific moment in the future when that dream has become a reality. Rather than focusing on how a person […]
This Word Called Hope
Hope. This word that I say dozens of times a day. This principle that I’ve been taught to cling to and rest in. This reality that is meant to be always accessible, trustworthy and fool-proof when it is placed and aligned with the Father and His heart. This security, safe place, refuge and promise. How […]
How To Not Be Overtaken By Fear
How does connecting with God and His perfect love cast out fear in your life? Enveloped in the lived truth of God’s furious love, insecurity is swallowed up in solidity of agape, and anguish and fear give way to hope and desire. ~Brennan Manning There is a certain fear that comes with moving overseas; not […]