How to love a fool
“When we live in close relationship with fools, so often we take on their shame as if it were our own.” I’ve spoken with a lot of folks lately who are suffering greatly as they try to figure out what...
View ArticleGreater love and messy hope
“The story of transformation and the story of fixing are two different story lines.”- Bob Carlton It is a simple observation actually, but powerful in its implication: The love of heaven is greater...
View ArticleSelf-compassion: sorting guilt and shame
“Self-compassion is an extension of Jesus’ compassion…” In my life and work, one of the most helpful pieces of Brene Brown’s work is the way she distinguished guilt and shame. Guilt says: I’ve done a...
View ArticlePositive change, negative response
“If we can muster the courage for the initial choice, we expect affirmation and blessing.” It is a moment of being invited to grow up. It is usually an unwelcome invitation. When we make a difficult...
View ArticleA ponder-less people
“Wisdom does not come to us in snippets and sound bites but instead in deep rhythms to be revealed and discovered as we ponder and seek. “ I was visiting this week with my mom who has dementia. It is...
View ArticleSelf-compassion and resistance
“We tend to believe that we welcome compassion; that the world could never have enough. At the same time, we often resist compassion,…” She was my first introduction to these thoughts on our...
View ArticleGeography and spirituality
“She (Sarah) planted herself not on the edge but in the center of God’s land of promise…” Kathleen Norris opened her book Dakota with this quotation from Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gassett:...
View ArticleA love letter to my body
It seems I am forever just behind the culture curve… just outside the conversation. But when this invitation from SheLoves and Megan Gahan came across my field of vision yesterday, through this blog...
View ArticleSelf-compassion and not-so-easy small choices
One of the challenges of learning the spiritual practice of self-compassion is that it most often comes to us in the shape of not-so-easy small choices. Think of Mary of Bethany who courageously chose...
View ArticleGender mess
“It is not so much compromise that is called for but a greater wisdom and vision.” Years ago, I heard this wisdom from the famous evangelical preacher, Chuck Swindoll: ”Creativity is messy.” He was...
View ArticleSelf-compassion and limitations
“The moments when we meet our limitations are often the times when we struggle the most with self-compassion.” It has been an exciting week in the Davis household. On Tuesday, we welcomed our first...
View ArticleWelcoming interruption, welcoming transformation
“Transformation is real and it can make us into a woman we would never have imaged, a woman who feels at once like a stranger and a friend…” I’ve run across a few things this week that brought up the...
View ArticleCrazy like Jesus
“The soul of society is law; the soul of community is love.” -Roberto Rossellini About a year ago, I was at a women’s retreat where one of the icebreaker questions for Friday evening was something...
View ArticleSomething about God
“When I speak about God, I offer my words as a beginning…” My fellow Patheos blogger, Tony Jones, issued a challenge this week to those who call themselves “Theo-bloggers” to “Write something...
View ArticleSelf-compassion and unconditional love
“…will we dare to grow up… into the one who extends the unconditional love and deep compassion of Jesus to ourselves?” I have recently been re-reading The Return of the Prodigal by Henri Nouwen, a...
View ArticleSelf-compassion and insight
“when I am safe for myself, doors of insight tend to open.” As I have said often, my optimum life pace is about 30-35 mph. I don’t know why it helps me to express it in mph units, but it does. Now,...
View ArticleListening broadly
“We see God all around us, and learn to look for God in unusual places.” This beautiful post by a fellow Patheos blogger, Enuma Okoro, reminded me of the gift of seeing broadly, of seeing God in life...
View ArticleSex, lies, and simplistic thinking
“life doesn’t follow the rules and when it doesn’t, we scramble to make sense of it… “ Unwanted pregnancy resulting from rape is an impossibly complex reality and even more painful than it is complex....
View ArticleSelf-compassion and regret
“I have learned from wiktionary that regret is just intense grief” I’ve had more than one run in with the painful emotion of regret this week. I said some unkind words of judgment that I wanted to take...
View ArticleSettle for More
“Faith moves us toward that which we cannot see” I will be on Midday Connection at noon today talking about chapter one of My Own Worst Enemy. We will be exploring the story of Lot’s wife and how her...
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