Raised To Stay

That crushing was actually a pressing. The pit wasn’t my grave but the safety of a barrel.  He was making new wine. I was pressed but not crushed. Persecuted not abandoned. . I was struck down but I wasn’t destroyed. . What the enemy thought would disconnect me...

A few months ago our 6 year old, Selah, got lost at the mall.  It was the most terrified I’ve ever been and within seconds our panic was at an all time high.  Other moms heard us screaming her name and an army of women dispersed throughout the building searching for...

I was supposed to fly to Florida today to be part of a worship conference with my friends...a category 5 hurricane changed those plans.  I have been looking forward to this for months!  As a 7 on the Enneagram I have some major FOMO but with this change of plans has...

I remember the first time I saw a demon cast out of an addict. . The smell of the ER when they told me to say goodbye to my dad, flatlining on the table as his heart gave out...I laid across his chest and screamed, “take up your bed and walk!” And then he did. . The...

Paul speaks these words to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:18 to encourage him to live out the calling entrusted to him, to fight the battle well.  I found myself reflecting  on all the seasons including those I didn’t fight as well, possibly didn’t fight at all. . Those were...

When I was a kid I liked to move around the church during worship.  From the front pew to the balcony you could see people encountering God in so many ways.  I learned that some people cried.  Some laughed.  Others danced, and not always well 😂. There were singers and...

I wanted to be a youth pastor through most of high school.  18 years in the church and all it took was one bad experience to make me high-tail it away from seminary and right into the arms of a major University where I would spend 5 years trying to convince myself...

I’m tossing and turning on a mattress on the floor, the soundtrack to My Best Friend’s Wedding playing through flimsy 1997 foam headphones.  Our family of 4 had moved overnight from a 3 bedroom parsonage to sharing a room in an efficiency apartment located over a barn...

29 years old.  12 weeks pregnant.  I’m sitting in the Head Master’s office with my resume- a collection of broken fragments of what felt like failed attempts. . I’m trembling, embarrassed.  Two sheets of paper covered in black ink with dates and places too many...

The sanctuary was my classroom.  I took notes on the back of offering envelopes and sat directly behind our piano player where I could watch their every move.  I have journals filled with sermon notes, binders full of chord charts and conference materials.  And every...