The best day of 2020

The day COVID-19 shut life down became my best day of 2020. But it sure didn’t feel like it in the moment.  We silently gathered for a hushed emergency faculty meeting: “Prepare for an imminent, sudden shut down.” I walked down the hall, swallowing tears, to bravely face a class Read more…

prayer hands

A Healing Peace in Problems

I felt anything but a healing peace in my problems. I was “wearied by the length of [my] way” (Is. 57:10 ESV) and I felt down, low, and weak. My frustration and anxiety over unwanted problems produced exhaustion. No wonder I felt no peace. I needed to look away from my desperate Read more…

background balance beach boulder

The Lord is My Help and Hope

Going back to school in a pandemic brings up all the feels, doesn’t it? Uncertain, weary, sad, hopeful, scared, excited, overwhelmed…simultaneously. We bravely want to transition well for our kids and health of all. On top of this, we continue to live with our financial, relational, and health challenges. We Read more…

banquet and feast

Intimacy with God During Exile

Are you experiencing a new, even desperate, yearning for intimacy with God? Maybe it’s just me, but this pandemic has given me a deeper longing. Written for those experiencing discouragement, attack, and loneliness in exile, Isaiah 35 describes my longing well…maybe it will encourage you too. Five S’s leap from Read more…

God Knows

I’ve realized that we teachers continually gaze to future. We create broad learning outcomes for students in our care and then artistically sculpt logical and detailed plans for every month, week and day. We become creators, molders, shapers, and potters who can visualize future beauty in each student as we Read more…

Singing “Be Still My Soul” in Crisis

Crisis threatened once again. Frightened, she prayed, “I am so scared. Lord, show me how to pray. I need You. I need Your guidance and wisdom. I need Your rescue. Please help me. Comfort me.” I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning Read more…

deep, deep love of Jesus

Deep, deep love of Jesus casts out fear

Do you hear pulsating fear everywhere? Do you notice an underlying “what if…” in spoken words and unspoken thoughts? I had a close soul-sister friend who could notice. She was the type of friend who saw my underlying “what if” as I talked. Her cancer brought her into eternity with Read more…

singing praise to God fosters trust in God

Singing the Gospel Into Your Stress

I call it “micro-stress” when I chat with students. We laugh about it, but there is a quiet knowing and empathy about its compounding challenge. You know…that underlying anxiety caused by constant infusion of horrific on the news. That incessant loud of needing the next “like” on social media, of Read more…

fortress

Fortress in the storm

Watching the radar, we knew it was coming. Time to inventory TP, bread, milk, canned goods. The storm bled red all over the screen. Hunker down in our basement. Exhausting, stay-up-all-night fear.  Immense interruption of normal life. Storms are chaotic, noise-filled, demanding constant attention and threatening our minds with imagined Read more…

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