My Story
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Words for the Year
Last year I posted this on my writer Facebook page: “I’m gonna be honest…I was feeling kind of snarky about all these “words for the year” on social media right now. Kind of cynical and cranky. Like seriously, people do not need to get a word from God for the year. How do we know it’s really from God? How do we know we aren’t just pulling something out of our own mind? Stop pressuring people with strange, Christianese junk! It reminded me of the emotionally charged relationship I had with Jesus back in the day…back in my crazy fundamental days. Then, I was sitting with my hot coffee and journal…
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The Lengthy Process of Writing a Book
Five years ago I felt like God asked me to write a book. It wasn’t something I’d ever planned on doing, but I was up for the challenge. Or so I thought. I had no idea how long of a process this would be, how many disappointments I would face, how discouraged I would get, or how much my book would change over the years. Originally I wanted to write the story of how I found the real Jesus — or rather how He found me — in the midst of cultic, legalistic Christianity. I was heartbroken over the many people who grew up like me, but chose to reject…
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Embracing My Strength
“Do not let your adornment be merely outward…rather let it be…the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God” 1 Peter 3:4. (NKJV) How did this verse get so twisted and taken out of context that it stopped meaning having a heart that trusts Jesus and started meaning having a soft voice and quiet demeanor? I have no idea. Welcome to the crazy place where I lived during my teens and early twenties. When you spend a decade or more being told that your personality, gifts, and abilities are sin, it takes a while to recover. But I’m working on it.…
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Choosing Trust
(Re-blogged with some tweaks from a post I originally wrote a few year ago.) Looking at the ultrasound monitor, I didn’t need anyone to tell me. I knew as soon as I saw him. My baby was dead. Less than an hour later, we sat silently in a small waiting room, surrounded by dim lighting and multiple Kleenex boxes, waiting for the doctor. Four weeks ago our baby was wiggling all over that monitor, waving to us, measuring just right, looking good. And now he was dead. Why would God do this to us again? We had just lost our first baby seven months ago. By the time I started miscarrying at…
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Thoughts About Obscurity
It started with one word. Number eight on a list of Ten Traits of a Servant. Obscure. Google’s dictionary defines obscure as “not discovered or known about.” It’s ironic. Every writers’ conference I’ve ever attended holds entire sessions on how to build your platform…how to become known…how to be found. If you want a chance at writing a book, you’d better have a couple thousand followers on at least one social media platform. Put yourself out there. Schedule posts that will keep popping up through out the day. Build your tribe! Find your people!! Be a servant…be willing to be obscure…not discovered…unknown. I don’t know if I can be both.…
