Self-Care

'Light upon Light' Brings Meaning to Advent and Beyond

A book review
'Light upon Light' Brings Meaning to Advent and Beyond
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Each year I look for ways to make the Advent season more meaningful. It can be surprisingly hard to find something fresh and new. But a new release compiled by Sarah Arthur, Light upon Light, is my pièce de résistance for this year.

As Arthur says in her introduction: “Finding the works for this collection, discovering some of these authors and poets, ...

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Time to Stop Worrying

It’s about who God is, not who we are
Time to Stop Worrying
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The sensational displays of God's power described in the Bible may seem to us as though they happened all the time, because they are collected and familiar. But like us, most people throughout history, even ancient history, never saw such faith-bolstering events. They believed based on the stories they knew and on their own experience of God in the mundane. The people ...

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3 Questions to Ask Yourself before Letting Go

What keeps you hanging on?
3 Questions to Ask Yourself before Letting Go
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“The sheer volume embarrasses me,” I admit to my husband while standing over piles of clothes on my bedroom floor. Coats, shoes, shirts, and pants pulled from my closet on a Saturday like leaves letting go of sturdy branches and falling in a heap. Outside, sun slants through a canopy of changing colors with invitation, but I’m choosing a shift in perspective ...

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Lead Me On: Brave & Bawling

What happens when we give God a chance to use our relationships to change us?
Lead Me On: Brave & Bawling
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A few years ago, Saturday Night Live alum Amy Poehler delivered Harvard University’s Class Day speech. In a fake Bostonian dialect, she joked, “Just because yah wicked smaht doesn’t mean yah beddah than me.”

Then she got serious.

“All I can tell you today is what I’ve learned, what I have discovered as a person in this world, and ...

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When Loving Your Sheep Hurts

How I found healing after betrayal in ministry
When Loving Your Sheep Hurts
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Tears rolled down my face as I confessed my agony to a friend: “I love God and I love the church, but I don’t want anything to do with God’s people right now.”

It was a shocking confession that came after a deep betrayal in ministry. Someone I loved had turned on me with terrible accusations and lies, attempting to humiliate and discredit me. I ...

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Listen to the Shepherd

If you're going to follow God, you have to recognize his voice
Listen to the Shepherd
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Living life well requires following God. Leading others well requires following God.

Following God requires hearing God. Yet usually, our Lord doesn’t speak in an audible voice. We can’t hear him with our physical ears.

He has given us Scripture. We can read what is God-breathed. What treasure! Yet no matter how faithfully we study God’s Word, it remains ...

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6 Ways to Make Sabbath Realistic for Ministry Leaders

Yes, you really can
6 Ways to Make Sabbath Realistic for Ministry Leaders
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Finding the middle spot in the dim room between round tables draped in white, I push high heels into the carpet under a ceiling of twinkle lights and speak to women seated around china tea cups and glass plates of cookies. They’ve asked me to tell them about the Sabbath Society.

I share about my weekly email sent to a group of nearly 300 Sabbath-keepers who observe ...

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Lead Me On: Mouthy Mistakes

God gave you a voice–use it

I talk too much.

It's a habit. I talktoofast and talktoomuch.

Sometimes I could stand to zip it. I'm working on it.

However, I hate to contribute to what has been a common refrain in society–a common refrain also in some churches. The refrain goes like this: women might need to PIPE DOWN already.

God's opinion on the matter appears to have a refrain more like this: Do not neglect ...

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Lead Me On: When Doubt Dominates

When we express our doubts, we’re in faithful company

Fish sticker on the car bumper? Check.

Kid who can buzz in with "begotten!" for VBS Bible relay? Check.

Woman who should know better but still, sometimes, just a little, wonders? About, um, God?

Check.

There. I said it.

I'm just mentioning it for a friend. Not for me. That would be ridiculous.

I do not doubt! Geesh. Sometimes, however, on occasion, when things are confusing, I might ...

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What Feeds Your Soul?

4 ways to redefine work as creativity instead of achievement

I didn't understand why I was having panic attacks.

Writing a book wasn't easy, but I was writing a Bible study guide to explore the topic of rest. If there was anything I knew how to do, it was unpacking Scripture.

Yet here I was lying on my bed, unable to sleep, my brain muddled with worries. I found it difficult to breathe, a tightness clamped around my chest. If I dozed, ...

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