Be Encouraged

This is for the Christian who sees the world running gleefully-blindly-as fast as they can into the outstretched arms of the enemy of their souls. It’s for the Christian who is not taken in by the snake-charmers’ song: the deceptive, twisted, soothing tune sung over a generation of somnambulists: so seduced by a dream world…

This Is Us

Jackie Hill Perry once said, “If you’re not having fun when you sin, you’re doing it wrong.” She isn’t lying. If sin wasn’t appealing, we wouldn’t fall for it so often! We are presented with thousands of choices every single day, and sometimes the pull to give in to what’s easy or gratifying in the…

Now Trending…

I’ve noticed a trend in television. Every time they have a Christian character on a show, it’s never just a nice, normal family. No! All Christians, according to NBC, at least, are tent revival pastors who marry child brides or, better yet, doomsday preppers who get trapped in their poorly-ventilated bomb shelters. More and more…

Hope Is Not a Strategy

I’ve apparently reached that fun stage of life where I get to experience the unforeseen joy of things that can only be labeled unglamorously as “gallbladder issues”. In April last year I spent a week in misery and all loathsome symptoms (you can look them up if you want to but let’s just say I…

A Gift and a Curse

I am a practical gift giver. You won’t catch me meandering through H&M at the mall hoping the perfect present for each family member will just jump out at me from the shelves. Nope. If I love you, you’re going to get wool socks and a kindling splitter. Winter is coming and heat is expensive….

Hospitality Starts at Home

Dear Babe: You don’t need to read this one because I’m going to fail hard at it and I don’t need that kind of pressure. Ok, so. I get together with a friend out in the country about once a month. It’s a beautiful drive out to her house. The last time we meandered down…

The Beloved Charter

I have become a bit jaded in regards to Christian conferences. They just seem a bit…fluffy. All this “you are enough” -self-help-me-ology stuff disguised as Bible teaching. Ennea-what? Thanks, but no thanks. This past weekend, Ben and I went to a Christian conference anyway, mainly because our pastor’s friend and mentor Larry was the one…

Wisdom

The further we go from the Lord, the dumber we get. Hear me out. Our society places enormous value on higher education. The more degrees you have (ostensibly, unless you major in underwater basket weaving or social work), the greater your income will be. The higher the income; the better your quality of life. It’s…

Enough, Already!

Most days I don’t feel like I’m enough, in God’s economy. I look at other Christians and feel like I fall woefully short. I haven’t adopted a bunch of kids. I often let my fear stand in the way of getting out there and sharing the gospel or doing ministry. I still think Ricky Gervais…

Don’t Be Floppy

I made some pretty awful pizza this weekend. Now, we have homemade pizza every Friday night. I’m not new here. But things went terribly wrong when I decided to improvise. I had some tomato sauce leftover from another recipe. It was about twice as much as I usually use but I thought it would be…