Flourishing or Languishing?
When I got my first job out of college, it certainly didn’t feel like I was flourishing. I lived in New Jersey and worked in New York. I woke up every day at 5:30 AM to catch the train, and if there was a seat, I could spend a little time reading the Bible. The […]
White Space: The Art of Scheduling Nothing
I was going through the motions…you know, the ones I do every day. Making a quick dinner, cleaning it up, preparing for an evening meeting, rushing off to whatever, and then back home to get some sleep, and thinking, “Didn’t we just do this?” In fact, we had, just 24 hours earlier, right? I “run […]
Christmas is a Collision of Worlds
Within a few weeks of throwing my lot in with Jesus, I pledged a sorority. It was a collision of worlds. I was an ignorant freshman, a fledgling Christian and a freshly-minted sorority girl. I look around at my new sorority sisters. Hmm, we all look the same. Young, white, well-dressed women, from good-enough families, […]
Suffering?
I get together with a group of men that starts each meeting with updates about our lives and a few prayer requests. I’ve started using the ACTS prayer tool (Adoration – Confession – Thanksgiving – Supplication) as a framework for what I’d like to share. At some point, I realized that my thanksgiving tends to […]
“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 […]
