We’re now in the middle of our move. Half of us are here in Southern California and half of us are still back in Michigan. The half of us living in LA is hanging out in a Residence Inn and managing lots of new-life, people who don’t know us, or no people at all. The two of us still in…
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Sometimes when we forge new paths, we find footprints we ourselves left decades earlier. Our family is moving back to Southern California from the serene and naturally beautiful Western edge of the mitten state. (Hold up your left hand.) I spent my childhood in Michigan, so I have a deep fondness for the lakes and the uniqueness of this state’s…
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Last week on NPR I heard a fascinating interview with a psychiatrist who uses avatar therapy to quiet the negative voices in people’s minds and free them from the burdens imposed by fear, doubt, anxiety, insecurity (etc.). I’ve since read that this sort of therapy is even used to treat clinical schizophrenia. Fascinating, isn’t it? Talk about theater of the…
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In this war Our enemy likes to keeps us off kilter. Spinning our heads. Tossing in grenades of worry. Obstacles meant to keep us from moving forward with purpose. Yet the greatest warrior king of all time beckons us to trust. Shedding fear and doubt. Shouting strength and giving glory to God. The one who is our armor For all…
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One of the significant slivers of conditioning that I’ve had to wrestle as a shattered-and-redeemed woman, is many years of training that sin has tiers. Sort of like a small, medium and double-triple-XL spectrum of sin measurement. Unfortunately when I learned the beautiful gift of confession, it was apparently attached to a commensurate punishment, which of course, meant my 12-year-old…
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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…
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My husband and I had a wonderful impromptu date on Friday night. We stole away to the only Persian restaurant in town, and instead of talking about our nutty list of activities to manage over the next 48 hours, we pondered our opportunity to grow… as parents and as humans who have learned a thing or two along the way. In…
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You’ve seen a bumblebee when it bounces frantically, persistently into the window, unaware of the clear and solid obstacle between him and the luscious bouquet of wildflowers on your sun porch? The squirrels and robins watch this bumblebee and try to shout to him “it’s no use!” but he doesn’t seem to get it. He thinks he can fly through the…
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I know. I’m like that girl in the office who quit smoking and now thinks it’s her job to make every other smoker quit too. Right now. Annoying possibly, but you know she’s right. ~~~~~ It seems like every day I’m hearing about someone getting divorced. Or wants to. Maybe it’s my reticular activator running the show since I’ve been…
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Pastor Jim Cymbala uses a wonderful metaphor of the Holy Spirit of God settling on us like dew settles on the earth during those secret hours when nighttime brings it’s calm and cool. God’s Holy Spirit, coats us with a gentle presence, almost invisible to the eye, but nourishing and surprising. It happens while we sleep and then first light…