"Tell me about a book you've read more than once." This is how you can find some of the best books in the world. If you ask me this question, I'll tell you about Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Big Magic. Big Magic is a book about creative living beyond fear. Fear is boring, and creativity calls […]
Today, I've been thinking about the time when we were on a layover at the airport and a young man asked Peter to tie his tie for him. His mother would be waiting for him at baggage claim, and he knew she'd want to see him in a tie. He needed somebody's dad to help […]
A Few Days Later, Mary Hurried. These words lit up on the page today. I love when I see something I've never seen, especially in the story of the birth of Jesus. That sentence holds a palpable tension. She waited a few days, but also, she hurried. Here's the context. In the sixth month of […]
Some of you have written to me, asking me to write in response to the sadness that overwhelms, asking me to speak into what we can do to help when we don't know what to do. To all of us who are helpless but want to help someone grieving in our world, to those of […]
My fellow artists, makers, thinkers, crafters, creatives, Have you ever wondered where your ideas come from? Whether they're yours or entirely and wholly other? Ever wondered how these ideas find you, whether you generated them or if they're floating around waiting to be claimed, or if someone sent them to you? I've wondered. Most artists […]
'Tis the season for all the sparkly things. I live in a house divided, and the majority of us are itching to deck the halls. One of us drags her feet, not so eager to bring up the boxes from the basement. For some of us, sparkly things are prickly things. I used to love […]
I was driving home on a cold November evening, when I pulled up to a stoplight at a busy intersection. I saw a familiar face: a homeless man whom I've claimed as a friend of mine. His name is David. He lives outside in our city, making the rounds in a 4-mile radius. He shows […]
Maybe it’s because I am forever a hostess at heart, and wherever there is a party there is also food a’ plenty. Or maybe it’s just because I love when a story comes to life, especially when I can get into the minds of the characters. Either way, whether I’m thinking with my head, my […]
What's the deal with Christian art? Why is some of it - most of it - so boring, so two-dimensional? Who delights in two dimensions? Who delights in muted shades when we could see with brilliant color? Are we afraid we'll misrepresent God with an angry poem? A story without a happy ending? A dark painting? A […]
I know Eve’s story. So do you. She’s the reason we have mosquito bites and skin cancer and miscarriages and adultery. She ate the apple, and everything we’ve never known fell to pieces. Thanks a lot, Eve. We know you and your story. But I read her story today and discovered something new. I love […]
I've been in my share of parades. Probably more than my share, actually. Marching band parades, down the main street and next to the fire station of my home town, ringing in the glorious mark of Memorial Day. (You have to love a town that has a Memorial Day Parade.) Halloween parades with a whole […]
I had spent a couple of years without a place to call home on Sunday mornings. There were no real reasons, I guess, but one week at home had turned into a few weeks, then into a few months, into a straight-up sabbatical from Sunday morning routines. Church and me: we were on a break. […]
I have been thinking of the words, "Let every heart prepare him room." As we prepare our homes, decorate our trees, hang our lights, frost our cookies, and prepare our feasts, we are preparing room. We are making space to remember: something amazing happened. They waited for him then, and we wait for him now. […]
My husband (Peter) and I have two vastly different stories of faith miracles. He begged and pleaded with God from a desperate place in a jail cell, and God told him yes. The miracle is that he was set free. I begged and pleaded with God from a desperate place on my bedroom floor as […]
I feel like I don't know how to do Good Friday well enough. It feels like when I love someone so much that I want to celebrate them so big, but nothing seems big enough to match the crazy affections of my heart, so I do almost nothing because I am paralyzed to do anything. […]
Our Father, Father to all of us and each of us, Of those who violently stormed our nation's capitol yesterday And those who watched in horror from our homes, Staring in disbelief in fear While people broke windows and stormed hallways; You are Lord above all of this and in all of this. Hallowed be […]
Sometimes I like to pretend like I’m having coffee with you. This is one of those times.
Every night, we have ice cream at 8:00. And some evenings, we have it at other times, because it's 8:00 somewhere. We are living it up in our locked up condition. Last night, before our evening constitution, Peter brought us all together at the dining room table. There were four cups of fruit punch and […]
Don't you love when a great podcast pops up in your feed? My friends Juli and Hannah invited me to join them on Authentic Intimacy waaaay back in December. (Hannah was even wearing the most charming Christmas sweater on the day of our dialogue.) But it's crazy how the conversation from so many weeks ago […]
Parents of Preschoolers and Toddlers, this season is the real deal, isn't it? You are in the t-r-e-n-c-h-e-s. When my guys were preschoolers, I had to have them out the door by 9:00am, or the house would surely crumble around us. I was sure of it, and my theory was fairly proven. And now, this […]
