Fresh out of college and full of hope, enthusiasm, and confidence, I was ready to change the world, one pimply teenager at a time. As the school year crawled by, the demands of teaching 125 high school students wore on my optimism. Those kids seemed impervious to my influence, and there were so many things I needed to change to get my classroom running more smoothly.

By Christmas ...

I must admit right off the bat, I'd never been one to buy into "spiritual warfare." Though I've long believed evil was as real as the hand in front of my face and that Satan has his own grubby hands at work in this world, when people would claim they were "under attack" from dark forces, I worked hard not to roll my eyes.

Under attack seemed a bit much. Especially for the bits ...

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I've written two books. If I were asked to write a third book, I don't know if I would say yes or no. I would have to discern. I would have to listen to know what would give me life in this season. Right now, starting a book feels less appealing than the invitation to notice the myriad of transcendencies just out my door. Still, I have said yes to the invitation to ...

I would sit on our front porch, my lap filled with jean cutoffs and a bundle of embroidery threads. For hours I'd create sunflowers, peace signs, and butterflies across a canvas of Levi blue.

Back then I remember returning home stoned, to my family seated at the dinner table, "Leave It to Beaver" style, with my empty chair waiting. As I sat, I hoped against hope that my friends ...

As a leader—of myself, of my children, of a ministry—I find no greater source of angst than making difficult decisions. I wonder and pray and talk with others about whether or not plan A or plan B or starting this and quitting that is "God's will."

The phrase itself has become so overused—and misused—that I wonder if "God's will" is just "the best plan I could think of" dressed ...

The Bible I've owned since college is coffee-spill-stained, underlined in a rainbow of colors, re-bound with packing tape. Margin notes sit like altars erected along the journey, commemorating encounters with God.

A curious phenomenon: pages of the last third of this book are worn, dog-eared, dingy, graffiti'd with yellow highlighter and pencil. The first two-thirds, ...

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I walked off the stage, the title to my presentation—Community in Leadership—in bold at the top of my speaking notes. I had just spent 40 minutes convincing women leaders of the power and importance of being intimately involved in community with others.

Ironically, or perhaps hypocritically, I was the loneliest, most isolated person I knew. Mentally, I knew leadership ...

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The emails flying back and forth create a picture, comical yet somehow sad: "Would love to see you all, but can't do tomorrow, maybe the 10th?" and "I can't do the 10th, how about the 19th?"

Five of us, my closest girlfriends, are trying to find a time to get together during December. Just us, we wouldn't even dare attempt trying to include spouses ...

How's your memory? More specifically, how's your faith-memory, your ability to remember and hold onto powerful moments with God long after they've passed? Turns out that reminding ourselves—and helping others do the same—builds the kind of faith that pleases God.

Recently my friend's grandmother passed away. In her final hours, God pulled out all the stops to get my friend ...

Ten years ago my husband and I embarked on a year-long adventure at sea with our four sons. One leg of our journey took us to Albany, New York, where we docked our boat at a marina on the Hudson River. We'd planned to be in New York City by then, but we'd made a spontaneous decision to take a road trip to Boston for the weekend instead.

The morning after we returned to our ...