On Finding Motivation & Three Ways to Get Your Routines Back on Track
A few years ago, I followed an online influencer for a while who commonly told her followers: “You are in charge of your life.” Over and over, she talked about how we choose how we respond to our circumstances. That we have control over our futures. That life doesn’t have to “happen to us,” in fact, she would ask “what if life is happening for us?” For that season, she inspired and encouraged me to take some steps I needed to take in my life. Only, it wasn’t long before I realized that her words were only half the story. [...]
Nine Signs Your Routine Is Off
Before I experience it anywhere else, I feel it in my chest. I wake up in the morning to an anxious tightening in my lungs that makes it hard to breathe. And it’s as if my body knows before my brain does that I am overwhelmed. I can’t see the forest for the trees. I know I have a lot to do. Only, I can’t figure out what to focus on or accomplish first. I may not even know what day it is. For me, these experiences and feelings are my first clues that my routine is off. That my [...]
Sometimes, Change Isn’t the Problem
Sometimes, change isn’t our problem. I know it feels like a weird time to say this, as change is all many of us have experienced this year. Not only that, but many of the changes that have come our way, haven’t been good. The difficult part of change, isn’t always the change itself. Only the difficult part of change, isn’t always the change itself. Rather, it’s the many minuscule reactionary changes that it sets off in its wake. I’ve been feeling this especially since our move last month. As I shared two weeks ago, after eight years of trying to [...]
Our Church Story
On Monday, I shared about why I have so much hope for the church in the time of COVID. Today, I want to share a little bit about our journey with church, to hopefully cast a little light on where that hope comes from. It’s weird to say I went from working in full time ministry for almost a decade, to not attending church at all. It’s not how I planned things to go. But that is what happened. Eight years ago, when I left ministry, Tony and I stopped attending church. At first, we both needed some time to [...]
Is COVID Taking Away Church?
What do you do when the place you’ve gone to most for spiritual comfort, strength, and community, is no longer an option? Or, at least physically not an option? That is what many of my friends and church-goers across our country have been asking and struggling with these past four months. The restrictions of many States, have prohibited their usual gatherings. But where some churches and their staffs have taken social distancing seriously, and have engaged in mental gymnastics trying to continue to serve their congregations, many aren’t having it. They’ve said the restrictions are persecuting them for their beliefs. [...]
The Surprising Way to Keep Living in the Midst of Difficult Change
About twenty-five hundred years ago, the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus said, “The only thing that is constant is change.” It makes me wonder what he would have thought of 2020. The year in which the only thing besides change that seems constant, is the spread of COVID. We still haven’t seemed to rid ourselves of it, so the changes to our daily lives have been endless. “The only thing that is constant is change.” --Heraclitus In our state alone, the rules of social distancing have been modified numerous times. Just last week, I learned I’ll have to take a COVID test [...]
