Pushing Past Hurts to Build Deep Relationships

Pushing Past Hurts to Build Deep Relationships

You’ve probably heard this quote by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: “If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” Many of us dream of having great relationships with a spouse, children, co-workers, neighbors, friends or extended family. Even self-professed...
Why We Lie

Why We Lie

Lying to others is deplorable. It erodes trust, the glue in any relationship. You don’t have to look to the political arena to see it either. Look at your workplace, in your home, and even in your own heart. But lying to ourselves (and to God) is worse than lying to...
Overcoming the Need to “Medicate” Emotional Pain

Overcoming the Need to “Medicate” Emotional Pain

It is human nature to flinch and flee from physical and emotional pain. And the torment from abandonment, rejection, verbal abuse, and shame can linger long after physical trauma has healed. But because those wounds are on the inside where no one can see them and...
Who Crossed the Line?

Who Crossed the Line?

Let me introduce you to… The Farmer In “The Chasm Crosser”, the farmer is a simple, straight-forward man uncomfortable with taking sides in a controversy. But when he meets the Bridge Builder, he realizes that inaction is a choice as well. Will he...
Dishtowels and the Aware-mess of Being Imperfect

Dishtowels and the Aware-mess of Being Imperfect

This morning I washed the last breakfast plate clean, set it into the dish drainer, and burst into tears. My life was kinda like that movie Crash when everything comes together just so as to cause this major collision. First, my husband and I—separated for almost four...
Two Corpses Walk into a Bar…

Two Corpses Walk into a Bar…

This week I was reminded why I decided to go into teaching. And no, it wasn’t some fulfilling teachable moment I had with a student or the epiphanic stare that tends to follow a windfall of understanding in a 13-year-old’s eyes. It was much more selfish than that. I...
A Fish ’n’ Loaf Faith

A Fish ’n’ Loaf Faith

I can be such a twit. I imagine Jesus shaking his head and sighing deeply over me just like he did with the Pharisees and even his own disciples (Mark 8:11-21). They just didn’t get it. About 15 years ago when my son was first diagnosed with autism, we heard about a...