2020 : We were born for this…
Not just your health, how’s your Heart these days? ❤
2020 locked our world down, and just as we’re touching streets again, the News of Yet Another police killing sets our global heart on fire.
My Dutch kids are literally watching in their classrooms what mom, grandma and grandpa have been speaking for years–not always subtle, sometimes hearts hurt too much to break it down slow.
But life has many wrecked patches. This is our human heritage.
Where do we take our stand?
Is it just me? Sometimes disappointment, frustration, or fatigue keep banging on the door. You’ve got a project, dream, plan, but it’s stuck. You wonder: Is it me? My skills or vision? Do I lack proper education or experience? Is my heart really in it?
I read about some fisherman who may have thought the same. They worked all night with nothing to show.
Were they unskilled?
No. They were “Fisherman.”
Was the net broken?
Nope. Strong and ready.
Were they in the wrong place?
Absolutely not.
Continue reading “It’s Not You, It’s Timing – How to Keep Hope When Nothing’s Working”
Encouraging memes can fall flat when you’re in the middle of a firestorm. My experience is that problems or stressors rarely come alone. I’m dealing with X, but Q is spilling over, and my heart is breaking about T (and D through K).. I’m not sure I’m going to make it about P….
Do troubles wait their turn?
Continue reading “Diamonds & Pencils: Become the Hero of Your Own Story”
Day 5 from the #UnashamedList Series. Written especially for youth or young adults navigating sexual integrity, porn addiction, identity, etc. Series intro here.
These posts are crazy vulnerable. This one was extra hard to write.
Remember when I said I gave it away to the first guy I kissed? (ugh). We weren’t even dating. It was just a friend who happened to be very cute, and a bit older, and anyway..
(ps, I 100% dispute the size of that “forever alone” quadrant
To the part of me that keeps screaming
To the part of me that keeps screaming,
Or is it wailing and on fire?
No one sees or hears you,
but I’m the witness.
Continue reading “To the part of me that keeps screaming [Poem]”
Why can’t I find Corrie ten Boom books in my library? This Dutch girl was part of a family that hid Jews in their Haarlem home during WW2. Betrayed by her countrymen, they ended up in camps and she wrote amazing stories of hope and God’s Hand through the darkness (eg. “The Hiding Place“/”De Schuilplaats”).
When touring the home (free and I highly recommend) the guide pointed out a framed embroidery of Mess. Hundreds of tangled threads hung midair and I longed to shift and organize them to make sense of a pattern. If I remember correctly, the guide asked:
Continue reading “Sense in That Mess? There May be Hope for us Heroes…”
I’m a bit bible nerdy and instead of skipping over peculiar texts, I sometimes dwell on them. It’s a quirk I’m trying to appropriate so here’s my take on a text you probably never heard preached in church: The fourteenth day.
It appeared during Moses’ instructions to Israel before the 10th and final, most gut-wrenching plague. Every first born was to be killed and this plague sparked the Exodus from Egypt.
Continue reading “The Fourteenth Day: An Obscure Prophecy That Might Give Everything Purpose”
