I’ve spent more nights than I want those who love me to know, curled up in bed, begging God like I’m in my own personal Gethsemane to please change the path He has set me on. More often than not, He has answered with the very cup of suffering I begged to avoid.  Suffering is an expected part of the Christian faith. And I spent years of shame because of bad theology around suffering. If I just learned my lesson faster, surely God would take it away? If I fasted more, was that what He wanted? I was relyin[...]

What does it mean to love well? I’ve been wrestling through everything that comes under the umbrella of love, specifically tough love, and how to walk in true Christian charity, or Christian love, well.  Depending on what translation of the Bible you read, you’ll often see the same word used in different ways, sometimes as love and other times as charity. Both words have their place but the use of the word charity has wormed its way into my head and made me think about how I’m practically extending lo[...]

There isn’t going to be a cosmic sweeping under the rug.  On that final day, when we stand before God, He’s not going to wave a wand to wipe away the broken, humiliation of our human experience.  I used to be afraid of this, of heaven.  As a good Christian girl, I, of course, could never give voice to these thoughts. I had to tuck them away neatly like the spring rain hiding neatly below the grass it has just forced itself upon.  I didn’t want anything to think less of me, that I[...]