Thanksgiving in Inexplicable Hard Most of us stumble into this Thanksgiving holiday plumb wore out from the events of the past year. Dealing with continued uncertainty and controversy, we make decisions and “we’ll see” commitments in a world where the pandemic marches on and election results drag out. Stress and dissension have us on the brink of brain lock, and we struggle to stay out of ditches of discouragement. We’re tired and tired of it. It’s hard. Yet, when we...
November 5, 2020
Ditching Discouragement Discouragement. Despair. Dejection. Downheartedness. Where blue skies and sunshine reigned, clouds of fog roll in and engulf us. Out of the gray mist morphs an unwelcome funk setting up residence within us; putting to the test the hopes and beliefs we build our faith upon. This condition can last a day, weeks, or even months. Huge discouragements result from soured relationships. We don’t live long before we learn we fail ourselves, we fail others, and others fail us....
October 29, 2020
Grace for This Moment One recurring hard we grapple with is staying in the moment; being present in the present. Fully investing our emotions, our mind, and our spirit in the very minute and circumstance we are living. Our tendency leans toward missing this moment because we’re focused on another; often a future situation, which quickly can become all consuming in our minds. Our path looks precarious as we ponder upcoming events, probable predicaments, overwhelming deadlines, life milestones, and endless unknowns....
October 8, 2020
Enduring Election Turmoil Election year creates a unique hard all its own. We encounter social media disputes, cut-throat political ads, and disbelief at the great divide of opinion and thought, with those both inside and outside our spheres. During the months leading up to election day, we experience about every anxiety producing emotion possible. Climbing concern. Tightrope tension. Deep distrust. Dynamic disagreement. Angst and anger. Fear. How do we know God’s goodness in all of this? What possible treasure awaits...
October 1, 2020
Two Calls Ringing Across America Two hand-in-hand messages resound across our Country. They resonate from various venues, to the tune of different voices. These two calls make us uncomfortable as we pinch our ears shut and slip way from their conviction. The first is the cry to repent: as individuals, as a church, and as a nation. The events of 2020 and where we are as a society speak with clarity to the “why” of this call. To repent is...
September 17, 2020
Ain’t Nothin’ Gonna Steal My Joy Anybody else feel like you’re living under a cloud that just doesn’t go away? Walking around in a smoky haze the sun can’t break through? Seriously, just about one more “thing” added to the chaos and we vote to cancel the rest of 2020. Need we list all the things? Viral pandemic. Racial tensions. Brain-numbing riots. One destructive storm after another. Fierce wildfires. Hateful election rhetoric. And these don’t include world tensions and personal...
September 3, 2020
Surviving “In the Moment” Uncertainty In a difficult time, we often hear platitudes like “It’ll work out. It’ll be okay. It’s just a phase. This too will pass. My brother’s uncle’s cousin’s neighbor went through this and they’re getting along fine now.” But the truth is? In the moment of the crisis, we don’t know. We don’t know if it will be okay or work out or pass. Our minds run down a list of other’s experiences, or our own,...
August 20, 2020
How to be Awakened, Even if You’re Woke Can we just be honest? All of us share the same hard right now. Between Covid-19, social turmoil, and presidential election discord, we are embedded in a difficult season. We find ourselves at conflict within ourselves, with family members, church members, and the world. Turmoil stirs within as we check and double check our beliefs and position on a wide range of issues from how to do life with a virus to...
August 6, 2020
How to Abate an Identity Crisis
Being a woman today is HARD. Yes, we have conveniences and luxuries our grandmothers did not have. More opportunities and advantages open to us than ever before. But appreciation wanes because the space opened up by those benefits quickly fill with endless expectations; placed on us by society, the church, family, friends, and ourselves. Somewhere between the raging storms we battle and the mundane, routine of life we slosh through, we lose ourselves. We forget who we are in Christ....
July 30, 2020
Surviving Suffocating Layers of Difficulty
Proven often during a lifetime, ungracious hards pile up in layers, one heaping atop another. Many experience this with the pandemic. People already struggling with difficult situations had another layer added when the virus spread. Despite the dissension over aspects of Covid-19, we all agree on one thing: the results make life difficult. From sickness to unemployment to malaise. From nightmare schedules to loneliness to financial distress. As these difficulties pile more layers to already existing struggles, we begin to...