Articles & Stories
Resources to inspire, challenge, and inform
The first time I realized I was a racist, I was 22. It was 1985 and I had just moved back to Texas. I needed to renew my driver’s license, so I went to the DMV, which is never fun under the best of circumstances! When I opened the door, I realized several things all at once—I wasn’t going to get out of there any time soon, the place had terrible signage and it was the epitome of everything you hear about DMVs. There were multiple lines for multiple licenses, tests, registrations, etc. I was completely confused about where to go for what I needed and started to look around for someone to ask.
“But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 (NLT). Another translation of Isaiah 40:31 has, “They that wait upon the Lord..” Still another translation, “They that hope in the Lord...” Waiting, trusting and hoping in the Lord are closely related.
“Thumper, what did your father tell you?” “If you can’t say somethin’ nice, don’t say nothin’ at all!” My favorite Disney movie ever is Bambi, and Thumper’s my favorite character. I love him. And that quote has been buzzing through my head ever since we started the Me & My Big Mouth series at Relevant.
While the world lives in fear during this time, Christ-followers must look to the peace and power that God provides and be living the hope found in His name. Faith can be an antidote to fear. We are promised in God’s Word that he is faithful and will protect us. God wants us to let go of fear and to live life to the fullest as in John 10:10 (NIV) states: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
If you’re like me, your life has been completely discombobulated. Yes, I looked up how to spell that. The dictionary is still working, despite the threat of a virus, thank goodness! How we work, how our kids go to school, our church gatherings...I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that protecting ourselves from this virus has drastically changed how we are able to interact with each other. Streets are quiet, the office (when we do go in) is quiet, parking lots are empty, restaurants are dark, people are losing hours, or losing their jobs completely, and it’s become really hard to say hello to the Amazon delivery guy.
While the day has become a much commercialized celebration of all things Irish, let’s take a moment to review the inspiring Christian origin about this time of gospel advance. Saint Patrick’s direct mission from the Lord was about pioneering the church among an unreached group of individuals and bringing God’s amazing grace to an ungodly country.
God gave me a body that….well...let’s just say if I had a receipt, I’d have returned it a long time ago. It hasn’t worked right since I was young, but as the inertia of things goes, more and more things have gone wrong over the years. I’ve had type 1 diabetes since I was young, had a seizure disorder until I was a teenager, and now, I’m in end stage renal failure, on dialysis waiting for a kidney transplant...which has a whole litany of issues in and of itself. As I write this, it sounds terrible, and makes me want to cry...but, there are other things God gave me.
We all struggle with fatigue. I am not the only one that finds herself working extremely hard yet remaining unsatisfied. Acknowledging this, I confessed my biggest reality in the article I wrote last July: I am sooo tired. In this article, I spoke of searching for rest in a variety of ways. Over the past six months I have practiced “finding rest,” and in doing so, God revealed to me the source of my exhaustion—my mindset.
You may not be surprised to hear that most New Year’s resolutions don’t last. Unfortunately only about 9% of people who set resolutions actually achieve them. After a few weeks or months of starting out strong, life gets in the way and we lose momentum with the good habits we established in the beginning. The same thing can be said sometimes with our walk with Christ.
So many of us start the New Year thinking of ways we can better ourselves, kick bad habits, or have a fresh start. We like to lay out goals that we believe are good for us. Eating healthier, exercising more, changing a bad habit, becoming a better person—and these are good things! I know in my own life I start making long lists of things I believe will make my life better. What I want for my future.
I know it’s the beginning of the New Year and I ought to be writing about something hopeful and peppy maybe but I know I cannot be the only person here in 2020 that feels a little bit sad. Because as the ball dropped and people all around the world welcomed the next three hundred and sixty five days with fireworks, toasts and celebrations I was sitting on my couch feeling no different than I had 10 seconds earlier. I still felt lost, heartbroken and confused.
Thanksgiving is a day when many Americans gather around with family for an afternoon of food and football. Thanksgiving week is the busiest traveled holiday during the year. But none can probably top the travel of a group of English settlers, who left on a ship called the Mayflower in the fall of 1620 from England, traveling to North America where they ended up in Cape Cod Harbor establishing Plymouth, the first colony.
First, a summary of a well-known story: “David & Goliath” in 1 Samuel 17: There was a king named Saul who ruled the Israelites (God’s chosen people) but kept disobeying God. So God asked Samuel to find a new king. David, the youngest son of Jesse was anointed by Samuel to be the next king of Israel. Meanwhile, Saul was still the king, but he and the Israelites were not in a good relationship with the Philistine people.
I’m a working mom. I have two beautiful kids, a wonderful husband, and a blue dog who’s built scary but loves people too much to be scary. We’re busy, always busy. If you’re anything like me at all, your mind is on so many things at once, that it really becomes easy to lose sight of what’s good and constant and, well, promised. No judgement here. I’ve been in that boat a long time. But, this week, something has brought me back. Something surprising.
It’s that time of year again—hurricane season. The time of year when, despite responsible preparation, catastrophic winds and unfathomable amounts of water wreak havoc on coastal lands. In the past few years, it has become increasingly clear that a direct hit from the eye of a hurricane will leave everything in its path changed forever. The destruction has been supernatural, and even I—a born and raised Nebraskan—have been paralyzed by the videos of the recent hurricanes.
