Most of us are ready to kiss 2020 goodbye. It’s been a marker of disease and death, upheaval and shock. Yet simply turning over the pages of a calendar doesn’t mean life magically rids itself of pain. No one but God knows what the next year holds which is why I’ve been so thoughtful about what word I’ll choose to meditate on during this upcoming year. After much prayer, I feel God leading me toward the word HOPE. Years ago, Steve Westbrook ingrained in my Read More
Walking with God
Is It Better “To Do” or “To Be”: How a Goal-Driven Person Seeks God
Not long ago, I finished up a beautiful study on the book of Hosea by Jennifer Rothschild. She challenged her readers to do something I love: to make a to-be list instead of a to-do list. I’m prolific at creating master to-do lists. They give me a sense of control, a sense of accomplishment and keep my cluttered mind from letting crucial jobs slip through the cracks of my faulty memory. (Correction: these things give me illusion of control, accomplishment and clearer brain function.) Despite Read More
Will You Take the 30 Day What-You-Say Challenge?
Words are powerful. They can build up a life through language doused in love, or they can cut a life down like a scythe slicing through brittle grass. When I recently asked my oldest daughter what she loved most about her best friend at school, she replied, “I’ve never heard her say a bad word about anyone. She speaks the truth, sometimes very directly, but always with kindness of love. She’s not a backstabber. It’s hard not to love being around someone like that.” Her Read More
When Love Rescues
The pastor walked back down the dirt trail etched in the side of the Arkansas mountains, his heart heavy. The new visitor at church had begged and pleaded. “Please, sir. Please visit my family. They live up in the mountains just outside of town. I’ve been telling them about Jesus, about how he changed me but I don’t think they’re listening.” The young man’s ears reddened. “My family is a mite…peculiar. Superstitious. They think I’m confused but I believe they might listen to you.” He Read More
How a Pandemic is Stripping Away My Idols
The year 2020 was supposed mean vision. 20/20 laser focus on what’s important. At least, that’s what a friend recently told me. She scratched her head. “This was supposed to be the year for clarity. Why does it feel more like I should be watching for a plague of locusts on the horizon?” It’s been rough. COVID-19, riots, murder hornets, food shortages, natural disasters, and economic instability has left the world reeling with anxiety. To be honest, I took most of the upheaval in stride. Read More
When The World is Spiraling Out of Control…What Do We Do?
During this tumultuous season in our nation, its easy to raise our voices, to shout our opinions, our convictions, and our testimonies. In all honesty, I feel that social media can become a riot of its own…a mob of anger, name-calling, opportunities to be ‘seen’, and pointing fingers. Little of it is effective. Some of it causes the wounds to deepen. We live in a sin-sick world, filled with broken people who have been grieved and hurt by other wounded people. The ripple effects of Read More
How to Find Joy in Failure
The Arkansas State Police is a happening place to be, especially in the motor vehicle office and even more so from one to four when they are administering driving tests. I recently took a family member to fill out some paperwork, which provided me plenty of time to sit in the waiting room and watch people coming and going. Anxious teens milled around, some of whom were too cool to show their jitters. Nervous mothers smacking gum contrasted against parents who rolled their eyes, muttering Read More
Breaking Free Part Two
In part one, we looked at the very real possibility that many of us, although we accepted the freedom Jesus bought for us, continue to have our minds and emotions stuck in the ‘slavery mindset’. It conditions a person to accept harmful circumstances to themselves as the natural order of things. They view their own worth through their master’s eyes. They believe about themselves what they have been told to believe, whether it’s true or not. The dichotomy between our freedom and the slavery mindset Read More
How to Break Free from the Chains
“I freed a thousand slaves. I would’ve freed a thousand more, if they only knew they were slaves.” ~Harriet Tubman If they only knew they were slaves… In writing and researching the Civil War, I learned Confederate plantation owners often made it their goal to break the will of their enslaved. They would make it their goal to have the slave accept their “station” as a mindset. After all, ‘normal’ is whatever you grow up with. ‘Normal’ is what you’ve always known. Frederick Douglass put Read More
What is my 2020 Word of the Year?
Each year I pick a word to meditate on…I know. The whole concept can seem a bit hokey, but for wordsmiths, this concept is an exhilarating gem. It’s a way for me to stay focused on God, and His character, throughout the ups and downs and crazy distractions that mark each year. Past words of the year have been bold, peace, presence…you get the idea. After much thought and prayer, 2020’s word of the year is follow. This word wasn’t chosen lightly. This past season has Read More