For One Hour

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1 One summer as a college student I had the opportunity to go to Colorado with Athletes in Action. We studied the book of Philippians and the theme was "Dioko!" ( Press on!). It was a period of great spiritual growth and fellowship for me as we spent the summer learning about Philippians and sharing our faith in the places we worked. One Sunday afternoon I got to spend an afternoon in the park doing some Bible reading. Somehow I ended up in Jeremiah 17 and this chapter deeply impressed me. I had one of those supernatural moments where I felt God was telling me, "This is the truth you need if you are going to live in freedom as a Christian." I had grown up Catholic and we went to church every Sunday, but my knowledge of God and the Bible was extremely small. I had no idea how small! This is the passage I felt God wanted to mark indeli...

"But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ--yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead."(Phil. 3:7-11) "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." (vv. 20-21) "Brethren, the test of us who hav...

I feel weary this week. I feel like I've been on a hamster wheel of meeting needs, driving here and there, running errands, meeting with friends, and being "productive," and yet I'm running on empty. Yesterday it all came to a head when it occurred to me that I had had five and a half hours of  kid-free time and the thing I most desperately needed to do I hadn't done: sit by myself. I did several good things: visited with a friend I hadn't seen in a while, stopped by Allen's Grandma's house to bring her a meal, went to the grocery store to get my kids some lunch food, and went to counseling. All these things are good in themselves, but at the end of the day I felt frustrated. I hadn't really made the first thing the first thing. I needed to fill my tank. As an introvert who also really loves being around people, it is so tempting for me to fill all my hours with people. It somehow seems selfish to schedule in alone time as a necessity. Yet, if I do...

One of my new favorite authors is Anne Lamott. She writes with honesty and clarity and truth--and humor! The first book I ready by her is Blue Shoe. It's a fictional story of a very human woman who is trying to love her family well but keeps falling into old habits. I could relate to so much in this character and yet it encouraged me to seek God's help in relationships more than any Christian "how-to" book has. The most recent book I am reading by her is bird by bird. It's her instructions on writing and life. In it she said someone asked her why she writes and she answered, "Because I like it. And, because I'm good at it." It has taken me a while to say that I'm a good writer. Something in me rebels against calling myself good at anything, as if that is boastful or conceited. I've even resisted giving myself any labels at all,  like "a stay-at-home mom", or "a runner", or "a writer." I just don't want to...

Recently, I was in two different situations where my children reminded me of a powerful truth that I had forgotten in the moment, but had, by Gods grace, taught them along the way. One was while helping my son search for a beloved lost toy. I was giving instructions on where to look, how to look and why he needs to keep track of his things—and he looked at me and said, “Can we just pray?!” Then just this morning another child was feeling anxious about a big test and I was trying to give her encouragement and she quietly asked, “Will you pray for me?” It gave me so much joy that despite my flawed and lacking parenting, the Lord had preserved this message we have taught them: that God cares about every detail of our lives and so we can and should talk to him about everything.  We did not find the toy and I’m not sure how the test will turn out but we do know our loving Father sees, cares and wants to hear what’s on our hearts—regardless of outcomes. A lot of times I’ll...

I've been thinking about shame a lot lately. It is a word I hear a lot around the church. I've always thought of it as something you feel when you've done something wrong, and I think it does apply there. But we may also feel it about ourselves in ways that don't relate to guilt. I had lunch with a vibrant, brave, joyful friend recently who has walked through really hard times in the last few years. I think she could be fearful and ashamed of what has happened in her life. But instead I see in her this clinging to Jesus and this joyful belief that He is her defender and He lifts her head. She has done the hard work of seeking out godly counsel and seeking out forgiveness and seeking out ways she needs to fight sin in herself. I think sometimes the sum of all we've done and all that's happened to us results in a cloak of shame hanging over the real person we are. We are not really sure why it is we feel ashamed, but there must be some fault in us that has cau...

One of the hard things for me about where we live is that once we pass winter and I'm eager to get outside in the springtime, my allergies hit! So the one thing I'd love to do after a long cold winter actually makes me feel horrible (allergy medicine definitely helps!). I was out walking recently after it had rained a lot and my allergies were not acting up. I thought to myself, "The rain must have covered up the pollen or something because I'm not reacting to anything." Then my next thought was, "But I know what rain does--feeds those flowers and trees and eventually will cause even greater growth!" It made me think about seasons in our life--sometimes we look around and all we see is gray and cold and rainy weather. It can be hard to imagine it will ever change. Then, out of nowhere, this beautiful new growth appears, stronger and more beautiful than we could even fathom. I think in the Christian life, the Lord consistently sends trials (or rain) to H...

This week, grief and suffering have been on my mind a lot. I read Rachel Denhollander's interview with Christianity today and I found myself agreeing with so much of what she said. Although her topic was abuse, I feel the church tends to respond similarly to any issue that involves suffering. I don't mean to generalize because I know the church is made up of people and many of those people are very empathetic and kind, but overall, the feeling I have gotten at church is that suffering and grief are things we should be able to move on from pretty quickly if we have any hope and faith in God--as if grief and suffering are the antithesis to faith and hope. If that is the case I'm in some big trouble. Our small group meets on Sunday mornings and this morning our dear friends were sharing a struggle in their life that consistently brings them pain and discouragement. They are one of the kindest and most prayerful people I know, but this morning they lamented sounding "like...

One year, I decided it was high time I read through the entire Bible. I bought one of those One Year Bibles and diligently started reading the long selections from the Old Testament and shorter selections from the New Testament. I started out strong. I was motivated. I could do it! Then I hit Exodus, and Leviticus. I'd miss a few days. I'd try to catch up, but it took so. long. I felt defeated. I just couldn't do it. Before long, I started to feel ashamed when I even looked at that Bible. Maybe you can relate in some way to my experience. You resolved to exercise more, eat better, get organized. It seemed easy enough, attainable enough. Other people do it. Surely you can too! But, alas, you missed the mark and felt defeated. Let's take a look at the definition of the word "resolution" vs. "experiment." The word "resolution" means to firmly decide to do or not do something. "Experiment" is a course of action tentatively adopte...