“Help, Please!”
Before I graduated, I thought my life was fairly under control, but pretty soon, I found myself struggling with anxiety and depression. After college, I found a job I was excited about, but even so, many days felt like I was living in a dark cloud, scared, confused and disoriented. “What’s wrong with me?” I […]
Putting My Plans in Their Place
I never thought that two words—”Lord willing”—could have such a profound effect on my faith. It all started when I was 24 and in my second year working with The Navs in South Africa. I loved talking about my plans for the future: moving back home, marrying Melinda, and starting a new job. Then I […]
Poof!
I’ll never forget my father’s words to me on my 30th birthday: “How do you plan on investing the remaining ‘Poofs!’ that God gives you?” “Poofs?” I questioned. He took out eight matches and laid them on the table before me. “Each of these matches,” he said, “represents a decade. On average, we live seventy […]
The Mind Is Its Own Place
Chief Inspector Gamache, in A Rule Against Murder, confronts an old man who claims to have never been a prisoner of war. Gamache has the evidence to prove otherwise. Gamache: “Why did you say you weren’t a prisoner?” Old Man: “I wasn’t a prisoner…. You were right, I was in a Japanese prison camp, but […]
Unanswered Questions
When I graduated from college a few years ago, I joined The Navigators EDGE Corps ministry internship program with high hopes. I love college students, enjoy investing in women’s lives, and am not afraid of meeting new people, so EDGE seemed like a good fit. And it was in some ways! But the experience also […]
Dreams
Are you still dreaming? And I don’t mean the “sorting and filing” that happens in our brains while we sleep. I mean dreaming about who you want to be someday, what you want to do someday, where you want to go someday. Both professionally and personally. In high school and college, I dreamed about wearing […]
The Power of Prayer
We all go through challenging situations in our lives, but how do we get through them? For me, it has been through prayer. Prayer has helped me defeat many battles that I’ve faced. There are three significant situations in the past two years through which prayer has changed my life. First, alcohol was a coping […]
Sexually Compulsive Behavior
A large research group recently set out to discover what helps families function well and stay healthy. They found that the determining factor was not race or religion or socio-economic status. The one thing that makes families functional is that healthy families regularly take issues out from “under the table,” put them “on the table,” […]
“You Just Need Jesus”
Her words confounded me. They came at a time when, though I was a “good Christian girl,” I found my heart paralyzed. My freshman year of college brought anxiety like I had never known. Anxious thoughts crippled me. I lived for a semester and a half in a prison of dread—dread that I might out-sin […]
When My Behavior Stinks
I was sitting in my quiet-time spot, with my Bible open. Moments earlier, I had angrily yelled at my kids for some lame reason. (Angry as in full-of-rage-out-of-control Mama.) Now, I was filled with shame and grief: how could I be a follower of Jesus and at the same time be a mean mom? I […]
