Walking with Homesickness (& The Amnesia of Home)
Every bit of ground I own, every space I occupy, I’m homesick. I’m homesick with an ache so loud, I can almost hear it growl. But I feel it too. Clawing at my insides, searching for something to devour, eating away at my throbbing heart. Nothing satisfies. All of it is highlighted against the backdrop of the overwhelming weight of the world. I remember how Hope first came to me. How I’d lived as an unconventional rule-keeper, the punk-rocker who also kept her nose clean, eventually becoming the wide-eyed Christian who–to this...
read moreGoing into the Season with Intention & Courage
“Shame needs three thing to grow out of control in our lives: secrecy, silence, and judgement.” The Gifts of Imperfection, by Bene Brown Our authentic lives, frees others. It enables them to let themselves off the hook, the one perfect hook they keep trying to hang from. It also lets us off the hook too. When we hide our true lives, because of shame and fear, we try in vain to live before others, instead of before God. I live in smalltown U.S.A. By its sheer lack of size (and coziness), it also stretches the boundaries of those...
read moreWhen You Soldier on in the Creative Life, Even on Days like Today
“The vulnerability required to be open and creative is a vulnerability that puts our creativity at risk.” Julia Cameron, The Right to Write The past couple of weeks, I’ve craved sleep. But somehow, it has eluded me. And then, so much news from the world presses in too, a heaviness that pushes my eyelids further down by the weight of it. If not for faith and a hope that does not dissappoint, I could recluse my life away like the fiddle-back spiders we sometimes find on our farm. Today, I simply rest. My...
read more15 Writers from #write31days You Won’t Want to Miss (from Bravery, to Handling Social Media, to Landing an Agent)
I scanned hundreds and hundreds of #write31day-ers, scouring contributor websites just for you, and came up with this collection. Getting Your Brave On: Inspirational: If you haven’t listened to any TED Talks, you should. ...
read moreThe Stage of Letting Go that Might Kill You (or Grow You)– Empowered by the Spiritual Life: Guest Post
Guest Post: by Amy Breitmann {I first met Amy in November, 2013, at Laity Lodge and remember how we howled with laughter (and tears) next to a crackling fire with Kelli Woodford and Paula Gamble. That glorious weekend of no internet, meant we connected with many of our writing friends who, before then, were mostly online. Out of that, Amy and I became fast friends and if you know her, she has a way with others, of making you laugh so hard your sides hurt. But then she takes you to a whole other place when she writes, drawing you...
read moreHow Failure Leads Us to Depend on the Grace & Power of a Holy Spirit (Empowered by the Spiritual Life)
One might imagine the opening act, of an empowered spiritual life, involved a stage where only privileged characters get the choicest roles, those with big names and phenomenal ministries. Mostly, the opposite is true. In fact, a large portion of our work operates behind the curtains of our thought life. It’s not outward appearances that matter. It’s those pesky inner ones. Being empowered goes the wrong direction of the world. So much so, we ourselves feel forever stuck, in a rehearsal of sorts, as our world closes in...
read moreEmpowered to Embrace the Wondering (Empowered by the Spiritual Life: Guest Post)
Guest Post: by Adela Just {I remember, a couple of years ago, reading Adela’s first blog post. She drew me in with her topic on failure and then had me at, “That moment when your child publicly decides to air his grievances and all the other parents are staring at you as if none of their children ever pitched a fit in all their born days.” As parents, we live these hard and humilitating blips in time. But survival makes us tougher (and humble-r). Adela lives a couple hours down the road from me. You’d think...
read moreSpiritual Warfare Inside the Intentional Life & Rightly Dividing Conviction from Condemnation (#Empowered by the Spiritual Life)
“The meaning of our lives is not dependent on what we make of it but of what he (God) is making of us.” Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways–Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live As if making up for the years of running away from myself, of chasing happiness over contentment, I am here, stepping into who God created me to be. I’ve been reflecting on our intentional life, of the bravery in sharing it with others. In the past, I’ve withheld. I’ve kept my distance, more so from...
read moreRecgonizing Your Gifts in the Body (Guest Post: #Empowered by the Spiritual Life)
Guest Post: by Kathy Schwanke {I’ve not met Kathy in person but we frequently “see” each other in the same blogging/writing circles on the interwebs. This past May, she was part of a video series for the book Your Sacred Yes, by radio host Susie Larson. Kathy also spoke at the Set Apart Conference, and is a writer, blogger, mentor, and teacher. Her infectious smile is contagious. Today, she talks about a subject near and dear to my heart–discernment. Do we ever have enough of that? Discernment, helps us...
read moreWhen You Want Earthquake Answers, But Instead, Get A Whisper (Guest Post: #Empowered by the Spiritual Life)
Guest Post: by Monica Roberts Synder {Maybe it was over dinner rolls or near the crackling, cavernous fireplace but it was at a writer’s retreat when I first met Monica. At the time, I knew nothing of her testimony. However, I’ve come to know her incredible journey, part of it being her life with a debilitating condition known as Chiari, and other conditions called, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Tethered Spinal Cord, Craniocervical Instability, Postural Tachycardia Syndrome, Intracranial Hypertension, Mast Cell Activation...
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