Others’ opinions about us can lead us to feel we are caged. Trapped, we grow in fear and worry, but recognizing them and boldly stepping out of the cage can bring us into new freedom. I could feel myself slipping into the dark place of despair again. As is my […]
Faith & Mental Health
We often miss the obvious, but when we stop and take notice of the changes, we have but one response – thanksgiving. I noticed something about them. They had changed, and it was for good. Something deep had happened in them. Instead of being so caught up in the emotional […]
If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got. Henry Ford. To change, it may feel like you’re driving on the wrong side of the road. It all made sense. I began to understand how the brain changes and that to learn something new […]
There is a grain or a pattern to our thinking that needs to change, but we are stuck, so God gently comes against the grain and changes it from the inside out. Quick answer: Life experiences form a “grain” in how we think, a set of beliefs and brain […]
No one likes to submit. It feels foreign and dangerous, but we long for intimacy (in-to-me-see), so we taste and see if the other is good and safe. There was movement and rhythm as the couple glided across the dance floor. He gently led, she moved in response. She would […]
There is a self-centeredness in all of us, a turned or curved inwardness called incurvatus in se. But there is one who shows us how to break the gravity, the pull of the curve. Quick answer: Incurvatus in se is Latin for “curved inward on oneself.” It describes the gravitational […]
The change felt good, but they were also afraid of who they might be becoming. Then they learned that they were not alone and to trust the train they were traveling on. It’s always scary when you don’t know what’s on the other side. Who am I becoming? What will […]
They kept feeling a sense of guilt and blame for something they didn’t do, but then they discovered a Scapegoat living in the backyard of their brain. It wasn’t nasty, or maybe in a subtle kind of a way it was, but they felt like they were receiving all the […]
Many of us carry secret questions, and we are hungry for answers, but we need someone safe. Someone secure in themselves yet vulnerable to listen well. When the pastor sermonized my personal story, I felt exposed. I was once in a small group in a church, where our Pastor […]
There was a single tear, and I knew we were on sacred ground, but there was a decision to be made. I chose to linger and listen. I was talking with a man in his eighties the other day when I noticed a tear forming in his eye. I knew […]