Four types of power play a part in our lives, but the power that will transform you enters your ditch and is with you. I’ve seen it all. Through the eyes of my half-dead body, I watch them come, look, and then go. Will no one stop to do what […]
Helping Others
85 posts
Sometimes you can feel like you are a problem to be fixed, but you’re not that. You may have problems, but not a problem. You’re not a problem to be fixed. Neither are you a personality to be probed. You’re not a diagnosis, a number, or a category. You may […]
Sighs and groans can come with such ease, but inhaling is also necessary. So we take note of our diet of breath. ‘That was a deep sigh,’ he said to me. I hadn’t noticed it, but he was right. I had let out a long deep sigh into the safety […]
You wake up and see a new day, but you didn’t want to wake up. So it’s a call to endure and go deep with God. They want the pain to end. The struggle of the journey has become too much. That’s the underlying theme of many of the emails […]
We can get angry to the point where we want to curse the day we were born, but being held in our anger allows us to go through and not around the pain. It was about time they got angry. As the words vomited at me, through me, and around […]
Are you out of balance? Perhaps what you need for your mental health are more activities that are tangible and tactile. In the 1980s, my father and I spent many months building new fences on the farm. We would clear the old post and wire fence away and make a […]
Grief is hard, but grieving alone can be a torment of anguish, so we sit with the broken; we are silent and Shiva to the tears. When my father cried loud and hard, I experienced a kind of solidarity in my grief. A child had died, and a funeral was […]
We want change, and we want it now, but deep change requires the granting of space and time. So grant it to our self and others. It was all becoming too much. Pressure from others to ‘get over it,’ to ‘let it go,’ and ‘sort your life out’ was beginning […]
Emotional pain can lead us to some very dark places, but embracing the pain may open doors for the Christ light to come and eat with us. It was another email of pain. I looked at my inbox, and someone had sent me an email in response to my ‘God, […]
So why did the Samaritan cross the road? Perhaps he wasn’t afraid of the sky falling in. Let’s not be chicken with people like us. I happened to call an acquaintance of mine a few days ago. He does some jobs for me every now and then. As we talked, […]
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 […]
Life has many struggles, but with a champion, someone who will walk and talk, we have someone who reminds us of our progress and gives us hope. I was recently talking with someone about the struggles in their life. We had walked many a mile together over the years. As […]
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 […]
When I feel respect, I feel valued, and I know I am loved. Respect is about love. It is love in action. Women need respect as much as men. In 2004 a book by Christian writer Dr. Emerson Eggerich was released. It was Love & Respect: The Love She Most […]
Life can be tough at times, but to have someone come close and tell you that you’re doing ok can bring deep reassurance and a sense of being centered. Sometimes you need to be told that you’re doing ok. They were in a time in their life when it felt […]
There is a mask or even a mist that we can see something quite wondrous when we see behind or through, but it takes awareness to see the vision of what they are becoming. There is a drive I take every week to a farm and garden out in […]
We’ve all fallen to the oldest trick in the book, but we need to know the oldest truth in the book. Knowing the difference between ministry and manipulation. I watched them do it. They said a few words, suggested some options, smiled in a certain way, and waited. It wasn’t […]
It can be so debilitating to be told ‘you need to have boundaries,’ but as you grow the heart, a new empowered strength slowly builds within. ‘You really need to have boundaries’ How many times have you heard this said or even said it yourself? I always feel a little […]
It was a time to pivot, change, alter course. Dr. Larry Crabb met me at the junction. Larry went to be with his Papa, Jesus, and Spirit on Sunday, February 28, 2021. There are times I believe that God brings people across our path that have a long-lasting impact on […]
I need a nest that I can call home. Actually, digging down a little further, I need a grouping of relationships that know me, love me, and have compassion and kindness when I get things wrong. The other day I was pruning a vine and there high above my head […]