Christianity
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Tangled Christmas Lights – Part 2
[Part 1 can be found here, and the TLDR could be that, untangling teachings around human depravity and humans being image bearers is even more daunting than untangling Christmas tree lights. I suggested that they can be untangled by rooting our identity in God’s work not ours. So rather than our core identity being sinners Continue reading
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Tangled Christmas Lights – Part 1
“The good news of the Bible is not that we are not worms, but that God helps worms who trust him.” ~ John Piper It’s a thought to chew on for sure. I feel like the teachings around humans being depraved and humans being made in God’s image are like tangled balls of yarn or Continue reading
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Me vs You
I’ve been struggling to write it all week … that God made humans in His image. that we are God’s beloved. that every life taken will be reckoned for. that in fighting evil from a place of vengeance and hate we make ourselves vulnerable to being consumed by evil. that even just vengeance is too Continue reading
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Worms, Rags, and Inherent Worth
“Read it,” my three year old son said as he hands me the crumpled paper from his fortune cookie. “‘The value lies not within any particular thing, but the desire placed on that thing,’” I read. My daughter asked the natural followup question: “What does that mean?” I think many Christians have heard sermons about Continue reading
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All the Time
Sigh. For me, anxiety comes when I see myself not get it right again. When I see I’m still struggling. When it takes longer than I want. I’ve started to remind myself there is time. Time is one thing I am not short on – Jesus has given me an eternity. It’s a little bit Continue reading
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I want to shout it to the world
“You control your own body.” I say it to my 3 year old after a scuffle with his sister. “Ask her to stop. Move away from her. Find Mom or Dad. You are not in charge of her. You’re in charge of you.” Later my 5 year old pulls out the phrase that’s been around Continue reading
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Faithful when we are not
Y’all there’s gonna be no beating around the bush in this post: Us church people have too high a view of the affect of our sin on God. My search in Scripture for evidence that God can’t be in the presence of sin comes up disappointingly empty. Instead I find countless times where God is Continue reading
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Yet
I heard I was God’s enemy.Yet God reconciled His enemies to Himself. May we accept the standing of “child.”I heard God can’t tolerate sin.Yet He carried the sin of the world.May we one day tolerate His holiness.I heard my sin separates me from God.Yet He says nothing will snatch His children from His hand.May we Continue reading
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When I don’t feel safe with God
An open window into my thoughts last night because (if we’re honest) I’m sure many Christians feel similarly: I realized I was using sin to cope with feeling unaccepted. And it dawned on me – I truly sensed it – that I didn’t “need” that anymore to be/feel accepted. I was safe enough to let Continue reading
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Prayer to the Shepherd
Gather the scattered.Bind up the injured.Strengthen the weak.Anoint us in the valleyand let Your Word light the way. Satisfy us with the Bread of Lifein the midst of our enemies. Fill our cups to overflowingwith Your presence.In the wilderness – the in between – let us find our home in You.Be our good Shepherd. “I Continue reading
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One Day
One day there will be no space between us. No downcast eyes. No attempt to hide parts of myself.No hesitancy in affection. No restricting hope with fear of disappointment. No brokenness pieced together. Only every broken thing made new. No shadows. Only joyful fullness. No more thirst. Only the satisfying quenching of it. You abiding Continue reading
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kneaded
I feel like dough being kneaded. Folded over, pressed down again and again – grief with hope, joy with sadness. There’s no having one without the other. But there is hope. “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope Continue reading
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With Me
I knowto be adopted by a sovereign Godat the cost of His own Sonleaves no room for reasonable doubtthat I am chosen,protected,and beloved.I knowto be brought into God’s family means the lies I heardfor so long -the ones I recitedto make sense of chaos -no longer apply.I have agencyto think differently,to feel differently,to choose differently. Continue reading
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Some Things To Leave Behind
Beliefs I’m realizing probably need to be left behind: The belief that my sin separates me from God (despite my profession of faith in the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross). The belief that “we can’t know the depth of God’s love if we don’t know the depth of our sin.” The belief that Continue reading
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What does God say when I disobey?
I was laying on the floor next to my toddlers’ bed, his hand in mine, when he randomly asked me, “What does God say when we disobey?” I was surprised and amused and stumbled through an answer. I’ve been asking myself the same question since. Our answer tells us a lot about what we believe Continue reading
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The Edge of Goodness
While in the wildernessI refused to enter the pleasant placesYou prepared for me. I refused to obey the Lord. In another land,my body was familiar with the ache of being controlled.My heart was comfortedby the predictable disappointmentof half-truths.But Your promises were my hope.And then, joyous day,You brought me out of that place. And now I Continue reading
The Worth Of Knowing 