Go
I have always been a planner. I believe God made me this way for a reason, but I also see how he has been working to break me of it in recent years. I think many of us experienced this breakage in those aimless pandemic days. All our plans went out the door as we […]
Seeking Orientation in Transition
The only way to reorient is to admit I’m disoriented. Transition is exhausting, and I’ve lost count of the number of transitions we’ve endured this past year. I’m tired, my brain is foggy, and I’m in need of orientation. There’s no longer a built-in afternoon quiet time (aka toddler naptime) in this season of my […]
A Perfect Shelter in Seasons of Change
I lift up my eyes to the mountains-where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip-he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you-the […]
Who Said Returning Would be Easy
If I could write a letter to my weary self in the spring of 2015, as I was surrounded by 20 years of our China life, packed in semi-sturdy fruit boxes from the market… In that stressful season, when my sense of accomplishment each day was how many trash bags I could send down the […]
Losing Identity In The Return
I bit down on my tongue to stop the words I was thinking from flying out of my mouth. Staring across the table at my coffee date, I wondered how I had once been close friends with this woman? I laughed out of obligation, not because I thought her pop-culture reference was funny. While others […]
A Letter to the One Returning Home
Seven years ago, with all my earthly belongings bundled into two 50 pound suitcases, I flagged my last taxi to the airport. I dozed on the 13 hour flight arcing over the North Pole to return back to the U.S. after living in China for five years. I was returning home. If you are preparing […]
Tips for Transition Sanity
Habit is a crazy thing. Our electricity is out. As I am talking to Sam about the problem, I walk into the next room and switch the light “on”. Though I know there is no electricity, walking into that room initiates an automated turning on of the light. Habit, in defiance of reality. Habits, those […]
Just Get Over It Already
I thought I was over it. At a women’s retreat with our organization, I shared some of my most recent struggles with a member care counselor. Memories from long-ago seemed to rear their ugly little heads and as I shredded a box of tissues with my snotty tears in that bright and airy Athenian hotel […]
Let Music do the Praying For You
I used to sing in the car to myself, to my babies, to the sky. In our “before Ireland” days, I’d wake up with the sun to drive my husband to work. Then I’d sit in the parking lot on sweaty afternoons waiting for him to clock out with a hungry, fussy baby passing minutes […]
Recounting My Ways
Each birthday I ask God for a passage to focus on for the coming year. That particular portion of Scripture becomes a companion, traveling with me as a challenging, comforting, transforming friend. And like a friend, as the months go by, shares more and more, revealing insights, subtleties and layers of meaning. This is what […]
Onward Christian Hobo
I started 2016 with a prayer penned in my journal “Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.” It’s a beautiful and poetic line from The Message (Psalm 51:7-15). Instead of doing a One Word for the year, I claimed this as my phrase. Looking back, I realize I had absolutely no idea […]
Preparation in the Waiting
I came back to my Nebraska, USA home from my Asia home for a few months of rest and refreshment this fall, depleted both physically and emotionally. I’m not even sure how to describe this last year, but I know I’m preaching to the choir when I tell you that there have been those days […]