Blog
A Word for 2021
We danced in the kitchen to Cindi Lauper. We made big sloppy messes on canvases with real paint from mommy’s stash of art supplies. We bought a pass to the city water park and squeezed in as many days of splash pads and sunscreen as we could between exploring new city...
12 New Books I Am Looking Forward to in 2021
When it comes to books I have learned (often the hard way) to wait for the marketing hype to die down and reviews to settle in before I pick up most new releases. However, there are books each year that I look forward to either because they come from a trusted and...
A Prayer for the New Year
As we tip from one year to another, let us slide with ease and grace into the next unknown. Let us seek the holy in the ordinary so that the extraordinary means more. May we burn the things that do not serve. Let us burn our selfishness, small slips of paper...
The Hidden Value of Lost Years
I am not sure that any of us know what the impact of 2020 will be on us as individuals or communities for quite some time. As a friend joked on Twitter last week “I look forward to unpacking what 2020 meant to me with my therapist...in 4 years.” This resonates with me...
Favorite Reads of 2020
As reading years go, this year has been unexpected which makes it very on brand for 2020. When I found a book I loved, I really loved it. However, much of what I read was good, but not amazing. My favorite books need to wow me, make me think, reorient my perspective...
Advent Practices for Shaping a Season
Five years ago Christmas stopped being fun. It had no reason to stop being enjoyable. I am a pastor charged with the teaching and preaching of this sacred and holy season, a season and story I delight in sharing. My children were peak ages for dollhouses nestled under...
Fall 2020 Reading Recap
As I review the books I’ve read over the fall season (September, October, November) I am struck by how as my reading nears the end of the year, it has gotten more focused. I’m less willing to give my time to fluff or average reads. I am prioritizing books I really...
Home by Another Way: A Meditation on a Covid Christmas
The highway between our home and my parents had been under construction for several years, as Oklahoma highways are neither expedient nor efficient in the repairs department. The road would predictably narrow to a bottleneck of a single lane where travelers would sit...
On Gratitude in the Hard Years
“Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth. Grace evokes gratitude like the voice of an echo. Gratitude follows grace as thunder follows lightning.” ~Karl Barth This has been a hard year but in the pantheon of hard years, this one does not take the...
