On beauty and ruin…

April 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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Friends, I wrote a post for A Deeper Church this week. On the tragedy in Boston, on beauty and ruin, and how sometimes the bravest thing we can do is hold both at the same time.   On Monday, people died cheering for their loved ones at the finish line of a race that has always existed as a celebration, a challenge to accomplish, a dream to make real. For the Boston Marathon that innocence has been stolen. Violence always steals and ruins. On Monday my friend Kristin was in the crowd … [Read more...]

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One Good Phrase: Kristin Tennant (Tomorrow is a new day)

April 3, 2013 By 5 Comments
KTennant

Kristin Tennant is sharp, generous, and brave. She is one of those rare blogging friends I've gotten to know in real life. A little further down the mothering road than I am, her wisdom and honesty about raising teenage girls is a gift to me. I hope after you read this post, you'll stop by her blog, Halfway to Normal, and stick around there for a while. Today has been one of those days. It seems like at every turn I’m letting someone down, digging myself deeper into holes, feeling more … [Read more...]

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Light Your Candles Quietly: Keeping Advent with Mary, Vol. 3

December 17, 2012 By 14 Comments

Vol. 3 - Defiantly Demanding Redemption “In sober fact there is little romance or beauty in the thought of a young woman looking desperately for a place where she could give birth to her first baby… it is a bitter commentary upon the world that no one would give up a bed for the pregnant woman – and that the Son of God must be born in a stable.” (22) -JB Phillips “The Dangers of Advent” (From Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas)   Desperation is a word I … [Read more...]

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These Sacred Everydays

December 12, 2012 By 8 Comments

Last week marked our very last in the series {This Sacred Everyday}. I have loved this series. I've loved hearing other writers consider what makes their simple lives holy. I've loved being challenged by how beautiful the common tasks of living can be. Thanks for being part of this with me. I kicked off this series in May when I had no idea that by the fall I would be living 1700 miles from our then home. I talked about walking by a flowering bush on my block in Austin that reminded me of the … [Read more...]

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Light Your Candles Quietly: Keeping Advent with Mary, Vol. 2

December 10, 2012 By 9 Comments

An Invitation to Ponder   When I first started asking God and myself what it means to be a mother who prays in the midst of the chaos of life at home with kids, what it could look like to practice prayer when my life was not quiet, when most of my attempts at a personal prayer time were interrupted and distracted, I begin to think of any examples I could find in scripture. The Bible doesn’t say a lot about how to be a mother.  But it follows one mother more closely than any … [Read more...]

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What I am not.

November 15, 2012 By 16 Comments
from Pinterest, via the always honest Tamara Murphy

From Dale Bruner's The Gospel of John: A Commentary, on John chapter 1, verse 2 (65 and 70) "Now here is the witness of John when the Jewish people of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ Well, John spoke right up, he did not deny it, he spoke right up and said, ‘I am not the messiah.’ So they asked him, ‘Who then? Are you Elijah?’ And he said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you The Prophet? And he replied, ‘No.’" John the Baptist knows and confesses who he … [Read more...]

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Jesus in Real Life: Halloween and Death and Celebrating the Saints

October 31, 2012 By 21 Comments
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“Why is it called Halloween, Mom?” We're driving to preschool. This is the time of day when August asks all the good questions. “Ummmm…” I say. I say that a lot. See the thing is he wants a real answer. He wants the history and the reasoning. If he knew the word ‘etymology,’ he’d want that too. I stop at the light. “So, Halloween is a holiday that comes from ‘All Hallows Eve.’” “Just like Christmas Eve!” “Yeah, like Christmas Eve is the night before … [Read more...]

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A post that ends with grace.

September 6, 2012 By 10 Comments
Album cover from E Power Biggs via Kami L on Pinterest

Send out your light and our truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Psalm 43:3 The blogging life is the weirdest. Most days, I post something and hope that my mood and my hormones and my common sense all collide with my inner artist and that something beautiful is waiting on the screen for all the readers who will come and listen. Other times, I realize I let my Crazy out and now everyone knows. Of course, I’ve warned you that she (my Crazy) … [Read more...]

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Waiting

August 20, 2012 By 7 Comments
image from Pinterest via Denise Lieb

I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; in his word is my hope. Psalm 92:4   I wait alone in my room, my hands open, arms raised. I wait in silence while my husband and boys read books in the other room. “Brooksie, where is August’s nose?" I hear Chris say. "Do you see August’s nose?” I wait as I read my little boy to sleep in his room and look around it in the dusk. How many more nights till he loses his room? 10 nights? I wait. I wait while we search for a place … [Read more...]

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Gospel, Pascal, Heart (and why I believe in Jesus)

May 21, 2012 By 6 Comments
Icon of the Trinity

“Make [Christianity] attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is.” –Blaise Pascal* Blaise Pascal was a scientist. He believed in the simplicity of hypothesis tested by research. He believed in fact. He used his mind to make proofs. But he did not believe God could be calculated or proven into existence. He understood that a book of facts will never turn someone toward God. Only the heart can do that kind of work. Pascal believed in God because he … [Read more...]

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