5 Ways to Hold On When You Can't Hear God's Voice --- For a good while now, my conversations with God have been one-sided. I talk... and then there’s silence. I ask... and perceive no response. I wait…… and still there is no sense of His nearness. This is not normal for me and God. I feel forgotten, alone, defective. Hope wanes. The light of my countenance dulls. An extended “silent treatment” has afforded plenty of time to try a few new-to-me “are you there, God?” posturings.
For the life of me, I cannot get clarity right now. Can’t hear God, or feel Him, or see the way forward... At the same time, a great deal is being stirred, shifted, and exposed within my heart. Timidly trusting that growth and healing is taking place, I wonder if God is involved; if He [...]
Fall 2017 has been yet another season of transition for me. Cas began middle school, Jay settled into his new position, Jake (all five of us, turns out) joined a travel soccer league, Molly is learning to read, and I am working most days from bus pickup to bus drop off. All this means my [...]
Overwhelmed. It’s a state I’m quite familiar with. I thought we’d be less familiar the older my kids get. But Overwhelmed has a way of folding itself into every season of my life, in different forms and manifestations. For several years, God’s been teaching me to ask a specific question that disarms blurred anxiety and [...]
I've been quiet over here - it's summer, you know. But while I haven't been writing, I have been reading and listening and thinking. You know our ultimate dual-mandate: to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves? I've long considered this a three-pronged mission. For we are to love our neighbors as much as [...]
It's the morning after the last TCAP (Tennessee's standardized tests), a soft rain just the permission we needed to sleep in. As a third grader, this was Jake's first experience with the tests that somehow mean everything and nothing. Jake is more of an athlete than a scholar, and I'm still trying to figure out what to [...]
You walk into your living room and suddenly it hits you: Wait, this place is a mess! Was my house this dirty yesterday? What happened? Who lives here, a gaggle of vermin? Didn't I just clean... um... a couple days ago? Naturally, the next thought is: the last thing in the world I want to do right [...]
