What are we missing?

Will I wake up one day and realize that I missed the point? Has God tried to do something in my life but I was too busy, too heart-pinned with worry, and numbed by all the cultural noise that I missed the opportunity? For me, Lent is less about giving

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Wear Your Heart Outside Your Chest

Welcome back! It has been a busy last six weeks for me! I was ordained, turned in a manuscript for a new book, and helped my daughter Belle with all of her college applications! Following is an excerpt from my ordination ceremony. A timely message for Valentine’s, but more, I

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Find Your Joy

Something more for Christmas

Some years we need Christmas as if our whole life depended on it. Maybe this has been a challenging year in mind, body and spirit, more dark days than light. Maybe you do your best to conceal it but underneath you are lonely, afraid, and short on hope. Or maybe

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Seasons of Wonder

Boy do I have a Christmas gift for you! My friend and fellow Sewanee grad, now a popular professor of English at Belmont University, and the author of several celebrated books, has written what I believe to be the spiritual book of the year! In a world that feels coarse

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Be a Blessing

It's Thanksgiving week! I am running around picking up coconut cake, pecan pies, salad greens from the Farmer's Market, bread from the bakery, and fresh cranberries. I am excited to gather around the table, actually we will need many tables, with my sisters, brothers-in law, parents and 16 kids. There

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Half-Time “Pep Talk”

I don't know what has happened. For over 26 years, I have watched my husband's enthusiasm—devotion—to football. The moment the TV switched on, that was my cue. Go for a hike. Take a lavender Epson salt bath. Fix a cup of tea and curl up with a book. Something

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Glory Jars

I recently rediscovered the special book, A Book of Hours, by Thomas Merton. Merton writes, "We do not know we are full of paradise because we are so full of our own noise that we cannot hear God singing us and all things into beauty." I am learning that when

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Bono and Eugene Peterson

I am an avid fan of Bono and his iconic band U2. What I didn't know until recently was that Bono is a passionate seeker of God. Recently, I listened to a beautiful conversation between the rock star and Eugene Peterson, one of the most treasured writers and theologians of

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The Secret Life of Bees

I became a beekeeper for three reasons: One, I love honey. Two, I know the bees are integral to the health and survival of our planet. And three, having watched a friend working in his hive, a portrait of calm in the center of a bee swarm storm, I wanted

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What Truly Matters

When attending a funeral, we are brought to an uncomfortable but clarifying edge between life from death. The internal troubling conversation begins. We know deeply what a gift it is to be a human and extraordinarily kin to God. Our time here is short to be filled with all the

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