In this Advent season, I’m continuing to name my longing, inviting Jesus to come and watching for Him. Maybe He’ll arrive like a Christmas carol carried on the wind, a sweet scent in the air, or a star in the East. However He comes, I’ll be waiting and watching.
Read MoreThe thought of Christmas brings me both joy and grief. Every. Single. Year. And every single year I pull out Christmas music and gravitate to “Oh Holy Night” by Mariah Carey. As a teenager, I discovered her Christmas album and had one of those ancient cassette tapes - connected to a wire - connected to my CD player. Am I even remembering that right? It was a sort-of-conversion device to play compact discs in my car. (That’s a clue to just how old I am.)
Read MoreAs I sit here trying to let my flame of joy live, I wonder about this. My rational brain and therapist in me say, “Yes, we hold the tensions of this world, we hold our various emotions and experiences together.” But my body and my heart are skeptical, possibly even scared, unsure if it’s safe. Safe for what you may ask? Safe to believe God is all who She says She is and I am who She says I am. Safe to be in my body as I feel the goodness of God and not fear disappointment, death, and it ending. Safe to take up space. Safe to believe that it’s okay to find rest and relief in my joy.
Read MoreMary, can you beckon us back to Advent in its’ truest form?
This year needs more than a forest of lights draped over stiff buildings.
It needs more than cheerful Christmas melodies.
Read MoreEven the restful aroma of a plucked tree’s pine and mint
Cannot swallow such vast lament,
It’s despair that hangs in the air.
And there was evening and morning the first day. Who am I to say
That a God who bends down low
Who drinks deep,
deep of my sorrow
Never hoped for a better tomorrow?
Read MoreDuring this pandemic we have been waiting, struggling with political heaviness, the loss of loved ones and the carelessness of others… but through it all, hope continues!
Read MoreDurante esta pandemia hemos esperado, siendo testigos de tiempos difíciles y pesadez política, la perdida de seres queridos y el descuido de otros… pero durante todo eso, lo que continua es la esperanza!
Read MoreAs we look back on the most memorable moments in our lives, we look back with joy and celebration. We try to recall the things that make us feel good and forgot the things that don’t. During this Advent season, what do you think it would be like if you intentionally focused on the less than pleasant memories in your past to gain new insight about yourself?
Read MoreThe dark days of winter stretch from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Cloudy skies force the sun to take cover. I feel alone. Slow home-school mornings compete with news feeds of election season anxiety, and air thick with virus. Although I see the faces of four eager-to-please children, I know the weight of their isolation in my chest.
Jesus, I declare, “Come.”
Read MorePerhaps this Thursday, we can all sit, mourn, and honor the peoples who cultivated the earth under our feet, who cared for the animals, and one another. Perhaps as illness rampages across the country we will finally begin to comprehend in the tiniest way how a virus can change the way we work, live, eat, and gather. Perhaps we begin to repent. Perhaps we begin to know gratitude in our repentance.
Read MoreRead MoreWisdom is grounded in embodied knowing, holding complexity without losing conviction. We must imagine a third way.
Read Moreibrancy and beauty will come around again.
Did you know, Revelation 5:8 paints a celestial picture of the prayers of the saints as the incense filling golden bowls, brought before the Lamb? Our prayers are not forgotten.
Read MoreHope is,
Hope is a spark.
Shooting out from my fingers,
Pow, pow, pow!
Hitting the powder on the ground,
Blasting like fireworks to the dark.
It screams,
I (boom) am (crash) here (pow).
Esperanza is the treasure found in the faces of resiliency of our tias y tios, abuelas, the heroes in our village and the ones we’ve only heard about. Those that have sung a soundtrack of peace through the night.
Read MoreCruel mysteries surround us
About a plundered earth
Where people are pillaged,
Possessions cherished,
And cravings for power, insatiable.
With certain skin shades despised
While another is idolized.
Where there are wars and walls,
Image bearers banished to cages.
Read MoreGod doesn’t sleep. He doesn’t grow tired or weary. My burdens or the burdens of those I love are never too much for him.
Instead, Jesus invites us to allow him to carry all that weighs heavily on us.
Read MoreOn one hand hope fuels me to meet creative deadlines, stirred by the notion that my words will fall on ears to hear and eyes to see. Hope ignites passion to sit with clients who are filled with rumblings of despair as they look over the debris of trauma in their lives. Hope gives birth to desire and longing for repaired relationships.
Read MoreHope is like believing someone. A feeling of trust or something like that. Hope is hmmmmm.
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