The Blog
When Clichés Don’t Cut it Anymore
Advent Week 2: Trusting In His Presence
More than merely remembering, Advent is also about anticipating, living in the tension of what is and what will be—the Second Coming, when Jesus returns. Whereas Lent focuses on fasting and repentance, Advent centers around prayers of expectation, a...
Advent Week 1: The HOPE of His Presence
For the month of December, I will be focusing on Advent, the four weeks preceding Christmas Day. During Advent, Christians all over the world remember the arrival of the Incarnation, God’s presence with us in the flesh-and-blood of a newborn...
A Life-giving Kind of Remembering
It was 5 years ago today. November 25, 2014. The day the battle began. It started with surgery, a surgery that would leave me marked in a way I didn't yet comprehend. All I knew is that I didn't have any other options. All my other options had been exhausted in the...
Fresh Conversations About Faith & Suffering
It's been my (often painful) experience that too-few people of faith engage in transparent conversations around faith and suffering. Our Christian Living Bookshelves don't often have much to offer in the way of helping the truth-seeker who is desperate to overcome...
ANNOUNCING! Relentless: The Unshakeable Presence of a God Who Never Leaves
“I don’t know what I believe anymore.” I’ll never forget the day I finally said those words out loud. I sat outside, on the deck in our backyard. The sun was shining, but I couldn’t shake the cold that had set in my bones. My husband didn’t know what to say. Neither...
When Pain Feels Close and God Feels Far
It was a question I never dreamed I’d ask. But that was before. Before life pulled the rug out from under my easy faith. Afterwards? All I could feel was my own pain. And God himself seemed far away. “I’ve now come to recognize the near-universality of the “Where is...
The Reason We Dance
He approached me at my book table after a speaking engagement. A young guy, maybe mid-thirties, clean-cut and professional. He stood in line behind a half-dozen others. When he made it to the front, I threw out my hand and smiled. “Hi, there. I'm Michele. Nice to meet...
A Bad Rule That Needs To Be Broken
I sat alone at Gate C31, lost in my own head and surrounded by fellow passengers and all their backpacks and computer bags. In less than 30 minutes, we'd board the plane. After a glance at my watch, I settled into a free chair and pulled out my laptop, content to be...
To Be Held
It was the fact that he wasn't wearing shirt or shoes that first caught my attention, not the fact that he held something in his arms. After all, it's not often you see a man walking the neighborhood barely dressed. Moments before I'd left the end-of-the-season...
