Blog
Front Porch Retreat
As a little girl, I savored special visits with my paternal grandmother. Granny lived in a sleepy southern town. Americus resided just one town over from Plains, Georgia, now well-known because of President Jimmy Carter’s fame. Back then, those small towns in the south held a slow pace of life...
Imagine What’s Possible
Something about the beginning of the academic school year invigorates me. It might be because I was an elementary school teacher for two decades or that I’m a perpetual student myself. I inhale the excitement of learning. I listen to the joy bubbling up in my grandchildren as they rattle...
Habits of the Heart
As a young Christ-follower, I actively explored a variety of ways to know more about Christ. Knowing about Jesus became desiring to be WITH Jesus and I began to grasp that those are different things—knowing about and being with—yet both are vital to the soul’s faith walk of creating habits for...
The Comfort Zone of Habit
Habits repeat themselves almost unconsciously. They feel comfortable, familiar: the usual way of doing things. I’m thankful for habits that help me breeze through the day. Truth be told, I pay little attention to my habits until something interrupts my way forward. My comfort zone setting...
Jesus’ Invitation to Rest
“My soul rests in God alone,” says Psalm 62:2. Is this true? Does my soul rest in God alone? Do I know how to release the what-ifs and the how-longs and the whys to God? Or do I gut it out and keep going with a ragged edge of restlessness wrapped around my hurried soul? Do I even...
The Way of Rest as a Way of Writing
As writers, we think we know what we need. We need an idea. Make that two. Or ten. Or twenty-two. We need a pen and a journal, or a keyboard and a computer, or maybe all of the above. And maybe we need just one more notebook. Or two. Or ten. Or twenty-two. We need a writing space...
Play as a Spiritual Discipline
We are formed by that which we think on, that which we encounter, that which we respond to each day. We know it’s transformative to enter into spiritual disciplines for they help us create holy habits which, in turn, move us deeper to the heart of our God. We also know that to get good...
Summer Reading: A Playground for the Mind
My childhood nooks and crannies tucked themselves into lingering places: the treehouse perched high in our three-pronged magnolia tree, the rope hammock secured between towering ancient oaks, the window seat sequestered at one end of the family den. Each place gathered me into a new space of...
Peter’s Ponderings
The loss of Jesus slams me to the ground. I tremble at the puzzle of all of this new way. Yes, He appears but He doesn’t stay. I want to go back to what we had before. Unsure of next steps, I return to familiar places and do familiar things. Stuck, I tuck myself back into comfortable...
Thomas’ Thoughts
Eastertide stretches over 50 days. When we read through the Bible, we see the disciples and other followers of Jesus meet Him in unexpected ways. Imagine, if you will, what it was like to engage with Jesus after Tomb Day. After Resurrection’s glory. With my sacred imagination, I wondered what...
Watching Over Our Hearts
"Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life." Proverbs 4:23 When I watch over my heart, with diligence, I examine it from all angles. I look in every realm to see what it looks like. What exactly is forming in: my spiritual life? my emotional life? my...
