What really matters...

Scripture James 2:14-26 A blogger I used to follow name Jon Acuff coined this phrase “Booty, God, Booty.” He was living in Atlanta at the time and he used this phrase to talk about this rap station that he listened to that had an “inspirational vitamin” every morning at a specific time. And he said these inspirational vitamins were often quite powerful, and included a scripture and a gospel song, but something he noticed was that they didn’t change their regular music around this time. So they would play a song like “In love with a stripper” followed by their inspirational vitamin and then go right back into a similar song. Booty. God. Booty. He talked about how this was obvious and weird on the radio station, but we also often live that way. We come to church on Sunday, but what are we doing on Saturday night? And Monday morning? This summer we have been talking about the Marks of a Meaningful Life, and one mark of a meaningful life is an integrated life. Living our faith in the

On Wednesday I went to Griggs Nature Preserve. One of the interesting things about Griggs is how secluded it feels when you are down by the waterfall, and yet how close you are to the busyness of life. Because the waterfall is so loud, I didn't even hear the traffic that was zipping by above me as I had time for me and God. Yet I know there was traffic. It's a busy road I travel all the time, and if you look at the picture below, you can see how close the waterfall is to the road. When Matt and I were getting ready for our wedding, we did premarital counseling with Pastor Tom, and he talked about the window of time we had after our wedding to create "our" normal before we naturally reverted to who we had been before the wedding. Likewise, I think we have that window after any of those "away" times when we meet God and ourselves in new ways. I have several changes I am trying to make in my window following the Women in Youth Ministry Campference

Last week I had the privilege of traveling to Montreat, North Carolina for the Women in Youth Ministry Campference. It was a getaway at the time when I needed it most. I was tired and drained from a busy 2016 to this point, We had a big fundraiser last weekend, serving dinner to approximately 250 people and raising thousands of dollars for our summer mission trip. The conference was from Wednesday to Friday, and Thursday afternoon we had free time to do whatever it was we most needed. I'm not going to lie - part of me wanted to sleep. But I am so rarely in the mountains, and I really wanted to see the view. So despite my physical exhaustion, I ventured out with a group of new friends to climb Lookout Mountain.  I'm not going to lie. I was breathing heavily the entire hike. I had to stop and rest. And as a runner who has run half marathons, it was somewhat demoralizing to be having so much trouble climbing this mountain, when my climbing friends were ahead of me. But I kept

It's the beginning of a new year and a time when people make lots of promises to themselves. Some people do really well. Others, not so much. Some of you reading this may have already "broken" your resolutions. And in fact - that's what I want to talk about. The most important thing I have learned in my journey to accomplish my goals is the importance of grace. And by that I mean grace with myself. For a long time I would set lofty goals for myself. Eating healthy all the time, having a quiet time everyday, exercising multiple times a week. All of these are good things. But it wasn't until I started having grace for myself in the process that I started succeeding at any of them. Because before, if I missed a day, I saw the goal as being over. I had broken the resolution, the promise. But when I started having grace with myself, I would simply try again the next day. Or the day after that. Sometimes it has worked better than others, but I have certainly had more