Sometimes I sit in from on my computer screen and read about the world. Ok, not sometimes. Pretty much every day. I read about convicts on death row in Florida, orphans in Syria, American pastors imprisoned in Iran. I read about the city in Spain that sends dog poop back to their owners when they … Continue reading I don’t know what it’s like to know everything.
During the World Race (an 11 month mission trip) we fought for a lot of things. We fought to be present where we are, fought to be positive, fought to maintain honesty and vulnerability when we just wanted to shut down and tune everyone out, fought to make every day the best it can be. In Kenya another fight … Continue reading Rethinking a Drop in the Bucket
As a typical child, I never wanted to go to bed. After a bedtime story and elongated conversations and organizing stuff animals, I’d say to my parents, “Just one more thing Mommy, just one more thing.” I thought that if I could just prolong the act of sleeping by a few more minutes, I’d have … Continue reading Just One More Thing
“If people don’t like me, I don’t want them to like me. I don’t put on airs for nobody and I don’t kiss nobody’s ass.” These are wise words from my grandmother. She stands about five feet tall and 110 pounds. She’s an Iowa girl and has been her whole life. She’s raised three kids, … Continue reading “I don’t want them to like me.”
7. You win some and you lose some. Don’t feel discouraged if you fall behind in a big thing or a little thing, because God turns the world’s ideas of “winners” upside down. He doesn’t see things like we do. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will … Continue reading 7 Reasons Why Everything is Going to Be Alright
Sometimes I think about wealth and time and luck. And standards of living. And just the idea of sheer comfort. It’s pretty crazy, when you think about it, how different people have completely different ideas about what’s good or what’s comfortable. I could dish out a bunch of statistics about people who live on a dollar a day or … Continue reading The Seemingly Craziness of Christ
In June of 2012, I was in Mbeya, Tanzania. One of my friends’ camera was stolen and we went to the police station in hopes of retrieving it. I had no idea that I would be going headfirst into an experience that would be one of the most influential moments of the entire year. It’s … Continue reading Excuse me officer, will you please refrain from slapping my child?
I wrote this blog back in October of 2012 while on the World Race. My team was in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Let me say first that it was a rough month and I was coming down with a case of apathy, partially as a result of all the disparities around me. This is what God … Continue reading Watching Cambodia Go By
I was practically hyperventilating as I trudged up the rocky path alone. Why again did I agree to hike up a mountain? I hate hiking. I know I hate hiking. Why am I here, in this moment? ALONE?? Due to my ever impressive ability to take more time than anyone else while “hiking” (aka breathing … Continue reading You don’t need a silver lining when you’ve got the whole sky
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant … Continue reading If I wanted mudpies I would live in the dirt.
