Becoming Our Best Selves: Reflections on COVID-19, Week Three
This past week, week three of our shelter-in-place, I went for a walk in the nearby conservation land. Though it has become much more popular since the threat of COVID-19 has eliminated most normal recreational activities, it’s by no means crowded. Which is why what...
Reflections on COVID-19, Week Two: Idolatry
If you put your ear to the ground, you can hear the sound of idols toppling across the land. In the past month, we’ve seen: • the Dow’s biggest fall in three decades • highest number of unemployment claims in US history • the cancellation of all sporting events,...
Reflections on the COVID-19 Quarantine, Week One: Online Church
Like most of us, I had what felt like an insane week during the first seven days of our COVID-19 shelter in place. I lived through the hype of Y2K and the horror of 9/11. This is unlike both. For one, I've never, ever seen churches shut their doors! One of the ways I...
What’s the Point of Marital Sex? Much More than You Might Think
When was the last time you and your friends engaged in an honest conversation about the purposeof sex? In my experience, such conversations seldom happen. When we do go there, it seems we limit the purpose of sex to procreation and pleasure. And this leaves out two...
Mid-Life Crisis of Faith
Mid-life throws us some mean curves. We expect certain losses: our parents passing away, our kids moving on, our bodies changing. It’s the ones we least expect that sometimes catapult us into crisis. As we sat listening to the sermon, my husband and I gripped each...
Why Marriage Counseling Is a Great Idea
Every marriage needs a little help from time to time. Maybe it’s when the kids are little and you lose touch with each other. Maybe it’s when a health crisis hits or a parent suddenly passes away. Or maybe it’s just a pervasive disappointment that you can’t shake....
Glorious Peonies
Peonies originate from China. They come in every color except blue. Every year I eagerly await their blooms and mourn when the last petals drop off. The American Peony Society has 6500 different cultivars. I've probably only seen about twenty-five. Peonies are the...
Gluten and Dairy Free Coconut Tahini Truffles
Those of you who have been following me for a while know I used to post gluten and dairy free recipes on a somewhat regular basis. Life got busy. This new recipe is so fabulous I wanted to share it. It's (slightly) adapted from Diane SanFilippo's Practical Paleo...
Jemar Tisby’s The Color of Compromise
Writer, speaker, and historian (PhD Candidate, University of Mississippi) Jemar Tisby has created an authoritative masterpiece. The Color of Compromise relies on history as “the main vehicle to take us on a journey toward greater racial understanding.” And what a...
The Slow Nature of New Things
What does it mean for God to do a new thing? Seven hundred years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah wrote, For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in...