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Summer Snapshot: Popsicles on the Front Porch
She cups two hands around her mouth as we drive by, and I hear her voice through the open window, tank top stuck sweaty to my back: “I’ve got popsicles – come down!” The boys jump out of the mini-van...
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Hear It on Sunday, Use It on Monday: Why Can’t We Just Get Along?
How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along. (Psalm 133:1, Msg.) It sounds lovely, doesn’t it? It sounds easy and simple and true. Yet the reality is, so often we don’t get...
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On My Knees, Painting
When I tell my friend Sarah I’m painting the trim in my bedroom, she asks, “So how are you, emotionally?” She remembers the last time I painted a room, last winter, when my father-in-law was dying and...
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Be Kind
I see him two or three mornings a week, always at about the same time and at the same place. He wears navy blue shorts and a blue plaid shirt, and occasionally pulls a cap over his military-cropped...
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Backyard Church
There were hymns and a reading from the Book of Hebrews, prayers and a children’s message. But despite those familiar elements, it wasn’t church like I’m used to. In fact, there was a time I didn’t...
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We Need YOUR Story {the 2014 inRL Conference}
As we inch closer to publication day for Spiritual Misfit, I’ve been hearing one question in particular. People are curious if I’ve always wanted to be a writer and if I’ve always wanted to write a...
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What I Learned from a Week of Living Like a Monk
I took my dog Josie Belle to the vet last week. I was worried about her. She seemed lethargic and excessively sleepy. And on our daily walks, she lagged two steps behind me; I had to cajole her along,...
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The Hard Work of Growing Authentic Relationships
I think one of the hardest parts about being a writer, and specifically a memoirist, is that it’s often challenging to know where to draw the line, how much to tell, how much of myself and my private...
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The Greater Purpose of Your Work
Earlier this week I met with five ladies who recently read Spiritual Misfit together as their book club selection. We sat around a large table in the back corner of the local Perkins. They bought me a...
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Why Building Bridges Doesn’t Happen Overnight
I’ve been running a new route these days, not because I want to, but because my typical trail is closed due to construction. The bridge that spans the trail I usually run has been demolished and is...
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Sometimes You Just Need a Little Library in Your Yard
I watched from my office window this morning as a man stopped in front of my house. He unlatched the door of the tiny turquoise structure that’s perched on a post outside the picket fence and ducked...
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Why We Need Both Solitude and Community
Two weeks ago my husband and our two boys spent spring break in Minnesota. I stayed home with only the dog and the lizard for company in order to prepare for a speaking engagement at the end of the...
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Practicing the Ministry of Presence
Hi friends – I’m still on a blogging break, but I wanted to share my monthly column I wrote for the Journal Star with you. Thanks for your patience and grace as I take a little breather from (most of)...
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The Year of Friendship & Hospitality
Last November my closest friend here in Lincoln moved to Connecticut. Even now, nearly three months later, the impact of Deidra’s move still reverberates. I feel a quiet pang when I spot a car that...
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Why the Plural Pronouns in the Lord’s Prayer Aren’t a Fluke
Not long ago, I took it upon myself to edit the words of the Lord’s Prayer. That’s right: I rewrote the prayer written by Jesus himself. It wasn’t a complete rewrite, mind you; I simply tweaked the...
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Community as a Courageous Act of Peace {and a book giveaway}
Truly, I have never seen so much food at a single meal. Not on my mother-in-law’s Thanksgiving table. Not even at my Aunt Maureen’s annual Easter smorgasbord. The feast was epic. A few weeks ago our...
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Why Small Talk {even about the weather} Is More Important Than You Might Think
Recently I was reviewing the daily listings I had recorded in my gratitude journal during January, and I noticed something I didn’t expect to see. Nearly every day my list of three or four...
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How to Build a Bigger Table
I called Angel on a Wednesday morning for a “human interest” article I’d been assigned for my job at The Salvation Army. I had very little information about him, aside from the fact that he and his...
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The Small but Important Work of Talking in Rooms
Two years ago my husband Brad and I received an invitation from the Bishop of our Nebraska Lutheran Synod to join an anti-racism committee. Honestly, I couldn’t have imagined a more unappealing idea...
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Move at the Pace of What Is Real
Yesterday, as I gathered my water bottle and purse to make my way to The Salvation Army community center in north Omaha, eight words on the back of my notebook caught my eye. “Move at the pace of what...
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