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2011

Be Awkward

[bl]T[/bl]here’s an uncomfortableness when initiating meaningful moments. Not sure why. But surely you know the feeling I’m talking about. The moment when you want to pray for someone, but you hesitate because it feels awkward. Or when you think it would be good to take a conversation to a deeper level, but you’re afraid others won’t join you. Or you gather as a small group and you hate to interrupt the social, and you’re not quite sure how to transition to the devotional. Maybe these moments are awkward because we wish they would initiate themselves, naturally occur without us trying. […]

An Altar of Thankfulness

[bl]W[/bl]hen anger settles in, or irritations gnaw. When schedules keep us distracted, or sleep captures us. We forget to be thankful. When we’re caught up in the good life, or brought down through hardship. We fail to draw close to God with offerings of gratitude. I go days without worshiping this way. Days without praise pouring from my lips. Yet I know that thankfulness births new life. New perspective. It shapes new choices and behaviors. It comforts the soul with hope. And it reminds our spirit that God is near, that he’s present in our story, and he’s always providing […]

The conversation of my heart

Is hospitality. My spirit and flesh wrestle as I struggle to understand how to give of myself this way. How to give of my family and home. How to be available when all I really want to do some days is hibernate with my family in the simple life. Indulge in the things I enjoy. Use my resources on myself. Today I’m thankful for the people in my life who converse with me. Who partner with me in hospitality. Who challenge me and affirm me. Encourage and restore me. I have a mother and sister who share a love for […]

One Source

[bl]W[/bl]hen Bobby told us that the village women of all ages and beliefs meet at the well every day. That their relationship and communal decisions – despite their differences in faith and traditions – matter because there is only one source of water and they have to share it….it struck me for the first time how this reality that I once lived among has significant theological truth. There’s but One Source. Of water. Of life. Of truth. And we all have to share it. Share Him. Jesus. The source of all things for all people. This is why our relationships […]

Everybody

[bl]I[/bl]t’s a catchy tune. But the words are even better. If there’s a theme song for our adoptions, this is it. The song of our heart, the words we want to proclaim. Everybody, everybody wants to love. Everybody, everybody wants to be loved. It’s Gospel, really. God is love. And everyone born of God is created to love and be loved. And if we don’t and we’re not, then we are incomplete. Not whole. Broken. This is the life of an orphan. They are missing out on the very thing they’ve been created from, created for. Love. And when we […]

When Boundaries are Hospitable

Good fences make good neighbors. I didn’t realize that Robert Frost is actually questioning this neighborly proverb in his poem Mending Wall. As two men come together to mend a stone wall, it’s the neighbor who utters the possible wisdom. Though many forces threaten the existence of a fence — the earth below, animals, hunters — this neighbor seems certain that its these structures that make good neighbors. The man who speaks the story wonders if it’s true. He says, before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom […]

There’s No Place Like Home

[bl]O[/bl]n the 26th we reached our two year mark of being home. Bitter sweet are these milestones that have us looking back and forward, praising God for where he’s taken us and where we’re going. Home. There really is no place like it. The smells, the people, the patterns, the food. I know home isn’t a place that brings everybody joy. For some, it’s been the environment of pain, abandonment or abuse. May God continue to redeem this for you, creating new places and people to call home. For me, home is like a blanket that wraps me in everything […]

Knowing Why

[bl]T[/bl]here’s been an increasingly obvious sibling tension running through our home. There’s always been a power struggle between the boys. Dear friends, they are. Rarely separated, nearly like twins. But they’re not. One is older and one is younger and those seventeen and half months create a distinct sibling rivalry. The older – the one who sets his ambitions high — just wants to be good…and right…at everything. The younger one is tired of comprising, and isn’t too young to express it anymore. But more than getting his way, he wants to be like the older brother. Luke is a […]

Power Outage and Pumpkin Bread: A Taste of Jinja

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[bl]T[/bl]he power went out. And I was taken back. Back to Uganda. To my cement house. To my frustrations over not being able to do laundry. To my gratitude for those hours of candlelight. To the moments lost because of no electricity. To the moments embraced because of no electricity. To the people whose dark hours were opposite of mine so we gathered in each others homes often. To the pounds of meat I would have to cook so it didn’t defrost and spoil. To the cold showers I despised. To the quietness that was first uncomfortable, but later treasured. […]

More than we can handle

[bl]I[/bl] continue to dwell on this idea of being fed. On why I’m afraid to feel hungry or empty. We misquote Scripture when we encourage the hurting or empty or anxious with the phrase, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” Emptiness, suffering and the pouring out of life ought to be expected in those who follow Jesus into the brokenness of man. God never promises that the load will be light. He doesn’t promise an easy journey. Or limited participation because we don’t think we’re capable of more. In fact, he says our load to carry is a cross. […]

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