I was on a plane when the tornado hit our town last Sunday. My phone buzzed with notifications while I stood in line to board my connecting flight to California. My husband, sister, brother-in-law, and I had been planning our trip to the West Coast for six months, and I stood with indecision before boarding […]
I started praying for healing about fourteen years ago. I started praying for a baby twenty years ago. Of all the things I have prayed for in this life, those two things have topped my prayer list the longest. With an autoimmune disease that has only fairly recently been tamed, I’ve spent many agonizing nights […]
When I was fourteen, I attended the funeral of an acquaintance who had died in a car accident. She was just sixteen, and it was the first funeral I’d ever attended for someone close to my age. I remember how much I cried, how wrong it felt to bury a teenage girl, how unfair it […]
“Who am I without my thorn?” I asked myself. The needle on the spring-loaded pen was much smaller than I expected. I pinched my skin together and injected my third dose of TNF-blockers into my stomach. For six weeks, I’d been giving myself shots prescribed by my rheumatologist, and I’d watched—incredulous—as my pain levels gradually […]
When I was in grade school, the curriculum in my small Christian school required third graders to memorize Hebrews 11. While I missed the point of the assignment as a nine-year old (my only goal was to earn the Twizzlers promised to those with perfect recitation), Hebrews 11 presents us with a beautiful lineage of […]
In the Baptist church of my childhood, every Sunday service ended with an altar call. My pastor stood at the front of the church in case anyone needed prayer or wanted to make a profession of faith in Jesus. During that time, the music minister would lead the church in a hymn from the Baptist […]
It wasn’t that long ago that you made your New Year’s resolutions. Remember the one about reading the Bible more? Maybe you resolved to “read the Bible every day.” This was going to be the year you were faithful, you were certain. And now that we’re nearing the end of January, you’ve already gotten behind […]
The steam from the industrial dishwasher plumed into the air in the back part of the kitchen. My shift had ended an hour ago, but the rules were straightforward: every member of the wait staff had to roll fifty silverware bundles before leaving. Rolling silverware was mindless work, a nice reprieve after several hectic hours […]
“You could be faithful with your frailty.” I was walking the track at the gym like I do every morning before my workout, and the lyrics from the Christian hip-hop artist were so quick I almost missed them. You could be faithful with your frailty.[1] He’s speaking, I think, to our inability to make our […]
A quick scroll on any social media platform shows me one thing about the people I follow: everyone is mapping out their goals for 2024. Some are planning diets; others are beginning new exercise regimens. (Most are doing both.) Some are making financial goals or career plans. I’ve been encouraged to see many people making […]
