Noise can be a drug. It's a numbing anesthesia, insulating us from pain and reality, a distraction that keeps us from looking too deeply at what haunts us most. We do the same with food, with shopping and debit cards, with possessions and degrees, with sex and alcohol, power, possessions, money, relationships, children...yet the more I consider the bombastic nature of our society, the more I believe noise has become the preferred drug of choice. By noise I don't mean only auditory transmission, but sensory overload. Cell phones are nearly sewn on to fingertips. Television shows and music can viewed…

Last week I told you my word for the year was presence. I've become desperate to release the juggling, the striving, running and cistern-filling that never actually fills. I yearn for Jesus' presence...to sit at His feet. To learn and love and live. I don't want to care about what each day brings as long as I can journey through each day with Him. I thought my biggest obstacle to sitting in His presence would be learning to rest. For the past few years, I thought tending to chores around the house was resting. Compared to standing on stage while…

I'm not a big believer in life verses. It's too easy to manipulate a verse from the Bible and make it what you want it to be while ignoring context and purpose.  But I do enjoy choosing a word for the year. Each year I pray over a word God may have for me. Last year's word was Sinai. I know what you're thinking. Sinai? Really? How about Mephibosheth? Or Maher-shalal-hash-baz? Trust me, I thought the same thing, but after seeing the way God breathed His plan and sang over the pivotal moments of this past year, looking back I…

"No room."  Most of us have heard the story. The fabled innkeeper who turned away Mary and Joseph in their hour of need. The calloused man has become a staple in the Christmas story, though he's never mentioned in the Bible. No, really. The only Gospel that makes mention of there being 'no room' is Luke chapter two. Check it out: "and she gave birth to her Son, her firstborn; and she wrapped Him in [swaddling] cloths and laid Him in a manger, because there was no [private] room for them in the inn." (Luke 2:7 AMP) No innkeeper, only a…

This past week has been a rough one. Why does it seem like holiday time is a tractor beam for bad news? Someone I love dearly received an unexpected diagnosis. My heart ached to hear it. As this person shared their news on Facebook, one person remarked, "Well, this must be God's will." My eyes bugged out as my blood began to boil. God's will? Really? I've been mulling over this concept for quite some time. When someone receives a medical diagnosis, people often blanket it under the guise of "God's will". When hurricanes drop devastation, we say it was…

I'm a beautiful mess this time of year. And I've learned that's okay. For years I lost precious sleep, valuable hair and added circles under my eyes to achieve the perfect Christmas. For my kids. For my husband. For my church. For my own ridiculous ideals. Christmas is the mother ship for us perfectionist types. Correction, recovering perfectionists, because that's what I am. I wanted to give my family the Norman Rockwell paintings of Christmas memories. You know, something they could look back on and say, "Ah, those were the good old days." I nearly made myself a nut job…