In February of this year, I dreamed of stones. In my first dream, I am looking down at a smooth, milky white stone in my hand…

Have you ever played the game “Two Truths and a Lie”? It is an ice breaker commonly played at parties that is marginally fun, mostly stressful. I do not like ice breakers. When someone says, “Let’s do an ice breaker,” I immediately start to sweat and get clammy palms…

She entered my office slowly, shuffling across the carpeted hallway and hesitantly hovering near my open door. I welcomed her and she sat down in one of the purple velvet chairs that had held the sacred stories of many women before her who had come to our shelter in pursuit of recovery from homelessness, addiction, and domestic violence…

For better or worse, the women in my family are known for their devastatingly keen sense of smell. When confronted with overwhelming odors such as certain heavily cologned and dimly lit mall stores selling hip teens’ clothing, the result is headache or nausea. When encountering everyday smells, it is a fantastic tool for detection…

Minutes before Drew and I shared our first kiss (huge deal, by the way), we found ourselves swimming in the frigid waters of British Columbia’s Howe Sound…

Moving during a pandemic in October means that at best, you will get to meet your neighbors across fences and from several yards away. Such conversations may involve a good deal of polite shouting and animated gesticulating to understand one another…

This week I have the joy of sharing my story of how God initiated a season of healing and freedom for me through my trip to the Philippines in 2018…

A month ago I received a phone call from an unknown number, which I answered *solely* because I believed it was my eye doctor…

On the night of November 9th, 2018, my bridesmaids and I were gathered in a small upstairs room, laughing and talking, surrounded by half-eaten bowls of popcorn, squashy pillows, and bright piles of wrapping paper from just-opened gifts. As I looked around the room, it felt surreal to be surrounded by the same circle of women who had surrounded me at my first wedding years before, and who continued to support me through the pain of the years to come…

Shortly after we were married, Drew and I attended a faith-based conference together. At the end of an early morning session focused on Lament, we were invited to walk down an aisle to the front of the auditorium, where a large canvas featuring a black outline of Jesus’ face awaited us…

I have always been ashamed of how easily I cry. If it occurred in private settings only, that would be fine. But the number of times I have cried in public when speaking at a microphone and/or in front of more than five people who are not family or friends is. . .embarrassing…

I remember the first time he confessed. I sat rigidly in a wooden chair from my friend’s kitchen table, dragged into the study so we could have some privacy. My body felt small and cold; my jaw was clenched. I knew something was wrong, and was bracing myself for pain…

Throughout the past one year, two months of living in a pandemic, my husband Drew and I have embraced a simple practice which has expanded our sense of accomplishment, teamwork, and physical endurance. It makes us feel like lion-hearted champions—heroes, even…

Sozo is a small Greek word that contains an abundance of depth and meaning. It means “salvation,” but also means “made whole” or “healed.” In the spring of 2015, I found myself sitting in a thinly cushioned chair in the small conference room of a mega church—desperately needing wholeness and healing…

I am standing with my Dad at the back of the church, out of sight. It is my wedding day, and I am doing actual lunges (my dress was stretchy) and small Rocky Balboa-style boxing jumps in my stiff red heels (clearly very chill and poised)…

I looked down at the papers in my hands in anger and disbelief. This wasn’t supposed to happen to me. I had done everything “right,” had prayed and stayed faithful, had surrendered this to God one thousand and one times, and yet there I was—two and a half years after my wedding day, signing divorce papers and checking the box that read “irreconcilable differences” as the “reason for dissolution”—as if those two words could ever describe the pain I had endured as I clung to that marriage and what I believed was God’s plan for my life…

When Joy comes to your house,
Welcome her.
Kiss her upturned face and give her a seat
At the head of your table…

It was a chilly evening in early spring, and my husband and I were running late. In the highly introverted pacific northwest, it is a momentous occasion to leave the coziness of one’s home on a dreary midweek evening—a decision not entered into lightly—especially for a church event…

For my dad’s birthday this year, my sister gave him the gift of digitized family videos that were previously unwatchable. And oh, what a treasure trove this has been. This weekend, my husband, family, and I watched as my 7-year-old self gave a groundbreaking performance as the Angel Gabriel in my siblings’ 1997 Christmas production of The Nativity…

On a balmy July night in 2018, I found myself in a crowded upper room, surrounded by Filipina and American women who were praying and worshiping God. This was an act of preparation, for we were about to be sent into the neon lights and booming sounds of the bar district below…