I have a nasty smart phone habit. Every commercial break, every need to stretch, every chance I get, I check my phone. I browse through Facebook posts. I glance at tweets. I absorb a lot and pay little attention to what is happening right here, right now. I realized that I often do not interact,…
Ministry in Heels
life as a young adult pastor
Pen Pals and Pinky Promises
I have never been great at long-distance relationships. I have no idea how my husband and I made it for two years apart at two different times in our dating life… except for the fact we made a really, really intentional effort to talk once a day on the phone and racked up a lot…
Turning It Off
The balance of self-care, Sabbath, and work is sometimes a tenuous one in my life so I try to set boundaries and guidelines for myself. They are: never work more than two blocks in a day (morning, afternoon, evening) take two days off every week take all of the vacation time allotted to me The easiest…
Church Whiplash
In the past six weeks, I have preached at some RADICALLY different types of churches. My latest traveling marathon began with the invitation to be the official Imagine No Malaria spokesperson at a 5k event in Lakewood, Ohio. As part of the festivities, I preached at the Cove and Lakewood United Methodist Churches. Cove and…
Writing… just not here
I sat down with the Bishop a few weeks ago and he asked me if I was still writing. It was a hard question for me to answer, because I full well knew this blog has been neglected in the past few weeks and months. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing. To start…
More than we can ASK or IMAGINE
On the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, a lot of people are talking about dreams today. Dreams for racial equality. Dreams for unity. Dreams for access to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Dreams for our children. Dreams for reconciliation. Dreams for a future with hope and freedom, love and peace. As…
Imagine 31 Birthdays…
Today is my thirty-first birthday. My work with Imagine No Malaria has introduced me to the faces and stories of children all across the continent of Africa who will never live to see their fifth birthday, much less thirty-one. In fact, of the 655,000 lives lost each year, 85% of those who die are children…
Praying… and sometimes ceasing
I have never really been able to establish a good routine when it comes to prayer. Just like most other disciplines in my life (exercise, healthy eating), a practice like prayer has come in fits and starts. One step forward, two steps back. Usually a week of exuberance and zeal is interrupted by a trip…