A fellow pastor has a blog entry entitled “keepers” for this week. My blog post will be nothing like his. Although, his made me think about the fact that it was about time for me to write this post. If you are not a woman, you might want to skip this post. Just come back…
you can’t please everyone…
I’m coming to realize that one of my greatest weaknesses is trying to please everyone. I have a very terribly hard time saying no. I agonize over the fact that I might be letting someone down by something I do or say. And lately this impulse… this attempt to please multiple people at once… has…
The Gift of Love
This week, my husband and I had two houseguests… our niece and nephew. They had the distinct honor of being able to have a sleep over at our house and boy, were they excited! For the most part, I think that excitement came from hanging out with their favorite aunt and uncle. But a few…
being hit on
**note: this post feels really disjointed. I’ve been thinking about writing this for days now and it is just as scattered as my thoughts on this are. So bear with me.** Three times in the past week I have been “hit on” in our little town. Never mind the rings on my finger indicating my…
BE the church
This morning we find ourselves in the midst of a pretty familiar story. It is a story of contrasts… the holy man on one hand and the sinful woman on the other. It is a story of grace… and a man who doesn’t think he needs any and a woman who is begging to be…
The F.I.T. Challenge
For over a year now, Bishop Trimble has been talking about the F.I.T. Challenge. And I think tonight, for the first time, I really understood how genius this very simple, simple concept is. F.I.T. stands for Focus, Invest, and Tell. It is the overarching framework for ministry in Iowa. I don’t have the brochure and all…
it causes me to tremble…
Day two of our annual conference has completed. We have voted on exactly 7 items of legislation. And we have celebrated and praised and prayed and remembered and sung and danced and ate and hugged and sat and walked and listened. Some brief highlights for me so far: “Hi, I’m Fred.” Our “priest” for the conference…
Vocations?
Today at our county ministerial alliance we talked about the multiple vocations that people have in their lives. The conversation sprang from a book we are reading together and a scene in which a Catholic priest approaches his bishop to let him know that he has fallen in love. The priest both feels called to…