There have been many times I have imagined myself as Mary in a scene from the Gospels. I have imagined almost every feeling she must have had navigating being the Mother of God. I have viscerally felt her fear, anxiety, joy, and, most of all, deep, lasting love for...
In college, I majored in Mathematics. Even though I engage less with Mathematics these days, some of the essence of being a mathematician has stayed rooted in me. I love a concrete answer. Even if the path towards it is winding, I love being able to get to an end...
Desolation is a tricky subject to write about. At least, I think it is. After all, sometimes the spiritual desolation I feel is hard to describe to another person, especially if I’m trying to reason out why it is plaguing me. Spiritual desolation has come into my...
Truth be told, I am kicking myself for agreeing to write on this particular topic for this series on Sustaining Hope. A couple months ago when I put my name down for this and typed the words “finding hope in the unknown” as my choice of topics, I thought I would...
“It’s because he has not yet found his people, Gretchen.” This was one line that stuck with me all last year when I was agonizing over switching my oldest son to a school specifically for learning differences. They were words spoken by an educator helping me with...
Have you ever wondered if God really sees you? Have you wondered if God is watching you right now? Have you wondered if God is aware of how much you are struggling? Have you wondered if God notices when you do well? If God rejoices when you rejoice? If God cries...
When I contemplated this familiar passage about Mary and Elizabeth to write this post, I found myself lingering on the very first line: “Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste…” To be honest, it was a part of the passage I had never stopped to...
I bolted upright in bed, my hand clutching my chest. It felt like my heart would beat right out of it. I took deep breaths trying to quiet the thump, thump, thump resounding in my ears. My heart felt so loud in the quiet, dark room. I touched the sheet, the...
I remember so clearly how the chapel looked back then. It was kinda tiny - a little sliver of a thing parked between two bigger parts of the high school campus. One of the long sides of the narrow rectangular room bordered the library where the Campus Ministry...
After a particularly difficult day of second grade for my oldest son this year, I was walking him to the car hoping to provide some encouraging words to combat the rain pouring outside and inside of both of us. I began to tell him tidbits about his new school. “You...
