Devotionals Spiritual Formation

To be Named is to be Loved

“—to be given a name is an act of intimacy as powerful as any act of love.” Madeleine L’engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art.  When we found out we were pregnant with our first child we immediately began scouring baby name books. Knowing we were having a boy narrowed down the process but didn’t lessen the pressure. We knew nothing about our little bundle of life to come, yet had to choose…

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As we wander in transition Learn by Paradox

Not Forgotten: Remembering in Loss

Two years seems like enough time to grieve, right? Sitting cramped in my economy seat with a pit of emptiness in my stomach leaving China with no return ticket, God comforted me through another’s loss.  “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept. We remembered Zion. If I […] forget you o’ Jerusalem may my right hand forget its skill. Psalm 137:1 & 5 (NIV paraphrase) Leaving the Shanghai airport, one of China’s east coast…

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As we wander in transition

Rising Anew

Making all things new The time to leave China arrived. As a person of imagery, the only picture in my spirit was darkness. A girl standing on a path unlit and shadowed. Where did the light unto my path go? Where do I go?  I thought I’d be in China for years to come, but God’s holy flame that guided my calling and life began moving. Like the Israelites, who followed the cloud by day…

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Guest pilgrims sharing their story

Airports

by Sue  I don’t like airports. In fact, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say I’m afraid of them. This is rather unfortunate because, being a missionary, I’m left to face my fear on many occasions. It’s strange, but my baggage always seems heavier in an airport. And I don’t mean my suitcase. In the airport all sorts of feelings of anxiety, loss and loneliness seem to ooze out, my mental zips unable to…

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Living as a wanderer The Pilgrim Life

Has grace made us lazy?

Grace is a gift. An unearned, undeserved package deal we receive upon our salvation and baptism into the Faith. As a teen, someone described this grace through a picture story concerning the day of judgment in which I would stand before God. The story went as such… Standing before God at my final judgment with nothing to show for my life but a long list of offenses I’d committed against a holy there was silence.…

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