Birthing pains. The agonizing pains a woman endures as the life inside desires to purge herself from her amniotic cocoon that’s been her incubator. Pain indicates the fullness of time. Time to exit a space no longer hospitable to life. Dying pains. Remarkably they mirror birthing pains; reluctance, fear of the unknown, purgation, and fragility. The guarantee of human existence is that we enter and leave in much the same way–– through birthing pains. Birth…
Spiritual direction is becoming more well known, and I think that’s a good thing. However, it’s not always clear what it is or why someone would engage in the practice. For a brief introduction on spiritual direction click here to learn more. When people discover I am a spiritual director, and they’ve heard enough to be curious, I get a few questions. A common one is: How do I know if I should see a…
It’s easy to quickly pass over the story of Ruth. Her life story is only a couple pages muddled in the midst of the “boring” Old Testament stories of the Law, Judges, and Kings. For me, Ruth is more like a hidden gem tucked away in the middle of very poignant movements of God loving his people toward redemption. Ruth’s story is the knot that ties God’s orchestrated plan together. Not only that, she’s a…
I am not much of an adventurist. I don’t take many risks and honestly, I’m scared of more than I’d like to admit. I don’t ski because I fear heights. To ski, you have to jump off the lift to go down the mountain. I can never let go. I’d rather ride the lift around until I accidentally plop into a mound of snow. In summary, anything involving letting go without control is not my…
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…
