• Living Vertically,  Our Kids, Our Family

    Now That’s Worship

    SUNDAY MORNING JULY 1, 2012 I thought we’d know by now. I expected to have more clarity, to have finished more, to have a better understanding of the next step. For it is in this hope that we are saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope…

  • Living Vertically,  Our Kids, Our Family

    The Wonder of the UnPlanned

    Lots of us recovering control freaks still want to construct the world according to the vision we have for what we know to be the best course of action for us and those around us. (Exhausting even to read!) But this week in my clicking, (particularly via Jon Acuff’s blog) I’ve encountered fun conversation about the glory that often resides…

  • Living Vertically,  The Story

    Mom? Scandalous?

    Scandalous runs in my family.  It goes back for generations. In this fuzzy 1973 snapshot of a few well-mannered, if giddy, English family members, the layers of unheard of behavior would make your hair curl! The woman in the middle: my grandmother. Born in Santiago Chile in 1901, married an Englishman who worked for the BBC.  During WWII her husband…

  • Living Vertically,  Serving, Leading

    Vibrating Thresholds

    I know, weird.  But the idea of vibrating thresholds is once again the best way to describe this time. It’s my new way of thinking about life change that we can sense but can’t see to the other side.  Sometimes it’s merely waiting. But often it’s continuing to heed the insistences on our heart. Walking towards the dream. Steve’s and…

  • Living Vertically,  The Story

    BLUE LIKE JAZZ

    It finally came. Like many, I followed closely as my best-friend-Don (who I’ve not yet technically met actually in real person face-to-face) struggled and amazed everyone with the whole GET IT TOLD process.  The BLJ book, the other book about the making of the movie, the funding of the movie, the almost not movie …. (inhale) and now the public…

  • Living Vertically,  Our Kids, Our Family

    Sext Drama: Day Two. The End.

    There is a gap… and we hope we are standing in it. My beautiful 13 year old girl is on one side… Knowledge, Confidence, Security, Purity, Achievement, Direction all reside on the other side of the gap. Distraction, peer pressure, foolishness, juvenile understanding, media are in the swamp between. As it turned out, the texting from Foolish Boys continued and…

  • Living Vertically

    It’s Time to Break the Glass … Again!

    Even though we’re all motivated, talented, focused creators of our art, sometimes we have to PUSH THROUGH RESISTANCE, don’t we? When I need a kick in the keyboard, I reach for my EMERGENCY INSPIRATION file.  I titled it READ ME FIRST and I keep the brilliance fresh by switching out quotes from authors and thinkers that are particularly helpful at…

  • Living Vertically,  Serving, Leading

    An Age-Old Recipe

    Now I step committed into a new course of study.  My first assignment: absorb the teaching that’s housed in a book thought up by Dr. Henry Cloud a few years back. (Not to toot my own horn, but once again, it’s all connected.) GRACE …….  TRUTH …………… TIME All three essential: each one with particular and custom proportions for each…

  • Living Vertically,  The Mystery of Marriage

    Committed Dreamers

    Maybe we should be committed.  (hmmm… does it negate the “committed” part if we say “maybe”?)  Scratch that; let’s keep going. Saturday: Today we have a two-hour drive to Riley’s weekend volleyball tournament, and we accept the opportunity to ponder yet another transformational life-moment.  This week we made some key decisions. We settle into the truth that both Steve and…

  • Living Vertically,  The Story

    Giving Up Lent (not)

    I’ve traveled a somewhat circuitous pathway from the religious rules of my childhood, to a new understanding of the full work of Jesus-God (which is emphatically law-averse for many good reasons), to a new independent place where I know that God sees through all spiritual camouflage.  It is our hearts He wants – because only then can He free us…

  • Our Kids, Our Family

    Shoes Talking

    Recently, Steve and I hosted the middle school’s Wyldlife Club gathering in our home.  It was so fun and easy – we just had to feed the [fabulous] leaders and then stay very invisible.  Got it.  We kept ourselves out of sight during the entire 4.5 minutes that 50 kids arrived and scurried to the downstairs family room. Once the…

  • Our Kids, Our Family,  Serving, Leading,  The Story

    Childlike Faith

    Steve was reading to Jack tonight before bed and they found themselves in the story of Jesus walking on water.  Jack asked, “what’s he doing?” Steve answered, “He’s walking on water.” Which made Jack ponder a bit and say, “It looks like he’s standing on the water.  How’d he do that?” “It’s a miracle!” Then Jack smirked and nodded and…