Tag: jesus
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Bring on Year “57!”
It’s August! That means that it’s my birthday month and time for me to continue my annual birthday month tradition of reflecting on all the valuable lessons that I have learned in the year. I like my responses to correlate with the number of years that I have been growing in these experiences. This marks…
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Before the Next Goodbye
In Honor of My Friend, Ralf This week, my heart was reminded of a truth I wish I didn’t have to learn again. A dear friend passed away unexpectedly in a tragic accident. One moment, life was unfolding as it always had. The next, everything had changed. News like this has a way of silencing…
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The Slow Work of Restoration
“The comeback is always stronger than the setback.” — Proverb There are seasons in life when everything feels like construction. Not the exciting kind where blueprints are fresh and possibilities seem endless, but the slow, dusty, exhausting kind where what once stood has been dismantled and the new foundation isn’t yet visible. Rebuilding is rarely…
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When Goodness Feels Impossible
There are seasons of life that don’t fit neatly into testimonies. Seasons that don’t resolve quickly, don’t make sense easily, and don’t soften no matter how much faith you bring into them. Seasons marked by loss, uncertainty, loneliness, and questions that seem to echo without answer. If you’re in one of those places right now,…
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Rooted Thoughts
Cultivating Truth From the Inside Out We live in a world that constantly tells us to “just think positive.”Smile more. Worry less. Speak good things into existence. But if we’re honest, positive thinking on its own can feel thin—like trying to paint over cracks without repairing the foundation beneath. Because what happens when life isn’t…
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Tender Truth
This past weekend I spent time with a long-time friend, the kind of friend who knows your story and isn’t afraid to speak honestly about life and faith. Somewhere between laughter, reflection, and the quiet spaces where meaningful conversations often unfold, we found ourselves talking about kindness. More specifically, we talked about how many followers…
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Everyday gifts
A few days ago, I had the gift of hearing Ann Voskamp speak at a conference, and her words stirred something familiar and tender in me. Years ago, her book One Thousand Gifts deeply marked my faith, teaching me to name grace in the everyday. Listening to her reflect on enduring suffering — something we…
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Grace at the Threshold
Grace is often quiet. It does not always arrive wrapped in ease or answered prayers the way we imagined. Sometimes grace is simply God sustaining us through what we never expected to endure. Gratitude is the moment our hearts awaken to this truth — the realization that even within loss, transition, and uncertainty, God has…
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Beautiful Tension
There is a quiet lie we sometimes believe: that joy and suffering cannot exist in the same space. That if life is heavy, joy must be absent. That if grief is present, gratitude must be forced or fake. But I am learning—slowly and tenderly—that this is not how God works. Joy does not wait until…
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Carried Not Crushed
This year did not unfold the way I would have chosen. It was a year marked by heartache and loss, by challenges that felt unrelenting, by fear that crept in quietly and grief that arrived without asking permission. There were moments when the weight of it all felt heavier than I knew how to carry.…
Braving Authenticity 