Just get the first post written

Beginning this blog, I want to make it clear that I am working to live into the title and claim no great mastery of it. I daily struggle to live into the space of both/and in our polarized world. Just the other day I drove by someone with a bumper sticker for the presidential candidate that I am hoping will not win in November. I turned around and looked at her to see what someone that crazy looks like.

Wow. It was one of those moments when I was glad no one could read my mind. Nice example of “faith beyond either/or.”

So, I have as far to go as anyone and I hope that maybe I can write myself into the third way, into the way of compassion, into a space of curiosity, wisdom and grace, into the space that I believe God calls us into and that Jesus modeled.

If you are new to my writing, here’s a bit of who I am. I am mom to two beautiful girls, ages 9 and 12, who I adore, and wife to Chris, who I also adore. I am a Presbyterian pastor in Bend, Oregon, arguably one of the most beautiful places in the world (except for this week when it is like living in the apocalypse because of a nearby forest fire). Being a Presbyterian pastor was the last thing in the world I intended to do, growing up as a conservative Baptist girl. However jolting the journey has been, it has all been made as one who is seeking the heart of Jesus. Seeking to see it grow within me and in the world around me.

So now the first post is written. Got that over with. Onto find some breathing room.