2011

[bl]I[/bl] made the statement in my last post that lowering expectations is essential to being and creating environments of grace. I want to be clear what I mean by this. I believe expectations create disappointment and failure. Whether you place them upon yourself or others, expectations foster an environment of pressure that often leads to unmet goals and discouragement in the reality. But a friend raises the question How do we reconcile becoming more like Christ – becoming holy as he is holy – with lowering expectations in order to be more gracious? Good question. Christians are called to strive […]

…because we fill our homes with our spirit. The email went like this: Okay, so don’t roll your eyes or panic or get frustrated…..I found a house I want to look at. I said don’t roll your eyes. We were worlds apart. Mark in Africa, me in Michigan.  But our hearts were comforted knowing we journeyed the same road of transition.  Six months prior we had moved home. Home from what had become home. We had been away for four years. Long enough for a move home to initiate a time of struggling, a season of reinterpreting. We moved back […]

[bl]E[/bl]leven years ago today, I welcomed a child into our home, into our family. It’s all the years that followed that are teaching me how to receive life. This learning how to let someone take from me, and trusting that God will fill me. At the heart of hospitality is exhaustion. Emptiness. Because receiving life means giving yours. Which is why, more than anything else, children have prepared me for a life of hospitality — a heart that welcomes, a spirit that invites, and a life that is interruptible. For these children, they enter. They take. They interrupt. And there […]

[bl]W[/bl]ords I hate to hear: I’m bored. We live in a time and place where children have more toys and games and things to watch on TV than ever before. And they’re bored? And don’t you dare speak these words when I’m stepping over a pile of laundry to get to the oven to see if dinner is ready. There are many days I wish I was bored! My children should know better. They’ve lived in a place where children make toys out of wire clothes hangers and bottle caps. They make soccer balls out of bags and ropes or […]

[bl]F[/bl]or Mother’s Day I received a basket of herbs. Fresh mint, basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano and cilantro. I will set this basket in the sun and let it grow, watch it overflow it’s wicker container. And I will pick from it to season, to enhance taste, to make delicious. Mark knows I want to be a mother that grows. But what I really want to grow is children. Grow them to love the Lord, to respect others, to engage people, to participate in God’s redemptive mission. What I really want to grow is love. Love rooted in Christ. Genuine love […]

[bl]I[/bl]n a time and culture where dining predominately occurs in restaurants and busy schedules keep people on the run, houses have become showrooms of style and a place where families put up their feet at the end of the day. Long gone are the days when the majority of families regularly gather around a table to share a home cooked meal and engage in conversation. There’s soccer at 5, gymnastics at 6 and I can’t help but wonder if the people who schedule things like this eat dinner. Or have a family. I can remember my Grandma in a robe […]

[bl]O[/bl]ur family often discusses the possibility of more children. Our hearts desire to receive life into our family and home, however this looks. But we have one child that is not in favor of increasing our number. We’ve known this for a while. In fact, she wasn’t in favor of child number four….or five. But she loves them silly. Today, this child number three was able to verbalize why. Without shame, she admits she believes I would pay more attention to a new baby than I would to her. I draw her close. Do I do that now? I ask. […]

[bl]S[/bl]ome will rejoice. Some will sigh. Some will rest easier. Some will fear. Some will cry. Some will protest. Some will mourn. Some will seek revenge. Some will call upon the grace of God. Some will get to go home. I will not judge the response of others. For I am far removed from the pain and injustice brought about by the sin of the man who no longer walks in his wicked ways. I simply want to remind those who follow Jesus that we are called to respond differently than the rest of the world. We are called to […]

For me, it’s onions frying. When I smell the sweet odor of onions frying in oil with tomatoes and curry, I know a meal is about to be shared. A good meal. One that includes cabbage or beans, pork or chicken, rice or posho. And to me, it’s the smell of hospitality. A meal shared between friends and maybe even strangers. I have eaten this meal in a mud hut. Outside on a bench. With a fork. In a church building. With bare hands. At the Source Café. Around my table in Jinja. At my teammates’ homes. With Tom in […]

The chill is gone. Flowers are blooming. Children are smiling. And climbing. The trees are budding. The skies are blue. And preparing to storm. Spring. It’s here! It’s finally here. God never keeps us in winter. Spring always comes.