As I cleaned up the remnants of our breakfast–the quiche where the bottom crust was too soggy, the biscuits where I’d burned the bottoms and had to cut them off, and the blueberry-almond muffins with their freakishly blue batter–I heard the words: “You’ll never be good enough. Remember that.” A student and I had just…
I wasn’t going to write this post. Or I should say, I wasn’t going to rewrite this post. I lost it when my trusty laptop-from-seminary-days finally decided to kick the bucket. I wrote the original on Tuesday when I was sitting in the church that I attend here in Bakersfield. I spent a good chunk…
Sometimes living out God’s mission in and to the world simply means showing up. In the middle of a very emotional week about a week ago (Let’s cover those emotions with Oreos!–yeah, that’s a great idea.), this was advice from one of my colleagues: Keep showing up to let Jesus use you in ministry and…
I’m reading a book right now that’s making me angry. The subject matter is one of those “hot button” issues in Christianity right now, and the way I feel reminds me of a quote from a book I read back in college. In Richard J. Mouw’s Uncommon Decency, he writes: “There they all stand, bumper-to-bumper,…
Many of the posts here on That Reformed Blog deal with deep theological issues or historical events that are fun to think about. As someone who enjoys academia just as much as the next person, I love pondering the deep tenants of what it means–and what it looks like–to be Reformed. And yet there are times when the…
There’s an old Point of Grace song that I love: I’m livin’ the legacy That the faithful have laid down I’m livin’ the legacy Findin’ the hope that my fathers [sic] found I am standing tall, when I’m on my knees I’m livin’ the legacy. As I approach my ordination just two days from now,…
“You need to figure out why that hit such a nerve.” These were the words my supervisor said to me at our recent Divisional Staff Meeting for the Surf and Turf, the division I’m a part of in my work for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Bakersfield, CA. She was referring to my reaction to a…
One of my idols when I was growing up was the Christian music artist Sandi Patty. There’s a reason why this woman is known simply as “The Voice”. The purity and clarity of her tone, her ability to sing anything with effortless aplomb, and of course, the fact that she can hit notes located only…
My life seems to be a study in these verses lately: I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good…
They’re doing extensive road construction on the road that runs right by the church where I work. Because I don’t drive a car, I have an awesome, hot pink, tricycle with a basket on the back. I can fit $100 of groceries into that baby. I love my bike. I wouldn’t be able to live nearly as…
