“It is the great mystery of human life that old grief passes gradually into quiet tender joy.” Dostoevsky, The Brother’s Karamozov The West calls it divinization. The East calls it theosis. It is the journey, goal, and purpose of the Christian life lived out in this world, getting us fit for the next. “For the …
Anything…when idolized and leveraged for the sake of control or avoidance…can spin out of control and become addictive and problematic. Even the behaviors and attributes we consider noble and good.” Matthias Barker, LMHC Our family is at a new stage of healing. There is a dumpster in the yard. A big one. It’s an eyesore, …
This last Sunday the Gospel reading in the Liturgy…I have been thinking about it ever since. It won’t let me go. I have been pondering the Paralytic who laid by the pool of Bethesda, waiting for the angel of God to stir the waters of healing. We don’t know his name. In Scripture he is …
Three years ago I wrote this, exhausted by the life I was trying to hold together. I was crumbling under the weight of the expectations I put on myself, that the world was only too happy to reinforce. I was one big paper cut and the world was a lemon. However, one night in my …
I was recently reminded through someone’s Instagram story of Galatians 2:20-21. Honestly, I haven’t thought about this particular verse in a while. However, in my youthful zeal, I took this Scripture as my “life verse” when I was just 13. I was flying high on a mission trip in Mexico. I was reading through all …
I have a complicated relationship with alcohol. I didn’t grow up with it at all. Never even had a sip until after I was married. Being married to an alcoholic for 20 years, you would think I would despise it and never have it around. But, it’s not alcohol’s fault. And I am still a …
I loved my grandmother’s hands. Her nails were always beautifully shaped, just naturally. My daughter has the same hands. They are lovely and I like to look at them. As my grandmother got older I used to pinch the loose skin during church and feel the softness of the aging. She was so tactile. She …
You know that Kanye song, All of the Lights? “Cop lights, flash lights, spot lights, Strobe lights, street lights, (All of the lights, all of the lights)” How about the check engine light? Mine has been lit up for six months. It’s a faulty O2 sensor and not essential to my commute. Nevertheless, I just …
I was a “gifted” little kid. The kind who got to get out of class to sit in a room with other gifted kids and do special gifted things. I was a little snob. I was a people pleasing little kid. The kind who never got corrected by a teacher and rarely by a parent. …
I think about boundaries a lot. I talk about boundaries fairly often. I wouldn’t say I am obsessed with boundaries, but some people have accused me of being so. Maybe because I didn’t discover this concept until so late in life that it has taken a decade to get the riff-raff out of my yard …
