Without realizing it, my heart developed a self image. Subconsciously, I saw my own heart as made of porcelain. An exquisite object, weighty with glory. And shattered. It was shattered. An ex-patriot since infancy, everywhere I’ve ever lived, shards of my heart were elsewhere. As I’ve lived and loved in far flung places, more and […]
From Before the Beginning
Most of us imagine God starting from scratch, creating the heavens and the Earth from nothing. But when you read the Genesis account, it’s not that there was nothing. There was all this stuff. It’s just that it was all a waste. This might seem depressing at first, but I think this glimpse into the […]
The Cloud
For several months, a cloud followed me everywhere, and darkened every sky above me. Which was strange, because the cloud was thousands of miles from anywhere I’d ever stood. Still it did cover me, awake or asleep. It was a cloud of ash, born out of a volcano I’d never seen. We’d been invited to […]
Fool for Love
What’s your superpower? I always struggled to figure out that one thing I was ridiculously good at. It sounds selfish, and maybe it is…a little. Mostly that desire was born out of a much deeper desire to bring God’s kingdom. I’m still settling in to this realization: my superpower is letting my heart be broken, […]
The Law of the Thief
We all know why he came. Kill. Steal. Destroy. And yet somehow when it happens to us, when the thief ruptures our reality, we can’t help but feel surprised. There’s something about it that makes us catch our breath. Maybe it’s because we associate being children of God so strongly with being protected. If there’s […]
An Altar of Uncut Stone
This summer I lived in my friends’ garage. It was both better and more awkward than it probably sounds. (For an explanation of our living situation and other details, you can read my friend Becky’s account of our summer here). We met them twice before they invited us to move in. We had enough money […]
The Glory and the Launch
We’ve never met, but her song reverberates through my bones. I’d like to think we understand each other. She’s mentioned by name just twice in the Bible, but don’t let that fool you. Her legacy spans farther than those few paragraphs would lead you to believe. We know so little about her life, yet for […]
Who Advocates for You?
In college, I spent a school year studying the book of Job and adapting it for the stage with a group of friends. The words of this book became so much a part of us. We talked about our own struggles, the suffering we’d witnessed in our young lives, and questioned what God’s response really […]
His Mercies Aren’t Just New
God’s mercy and compassion toward us are good news. But sometimes I wonder if we’ve associated this idea of daily mercy with the daily portions of manna the Israelites gathered in the wilderness. In a sense the manna was also “new every morning,” but it was only good the day it was collected. After that, […]
I Thought I Had Nothing Left. Then I Found This:
A few days ago God gave me a picture of my life as a jar of fireflies with no cover. I held it against my chest while all the things we’d invested in blinked, faded, and blinked again, until they melted into the night. My children’s peaceful hearts, spiritual breakthroughs, houses, jobs, languages, health, friendships, […]