December Newsletter and Book Giveaway
It's only the first week of December and I can already feel the pace of life picking-up. I find myself waking up and immediately wondering Should we do a Christmas letter? Can we even afford gifts this year? (We have two sons in college and a June wedding coming up!)...
Top Ten Books for 2018
When folks find out that I work as a writer/author, one of the most common questions I get asked is What are you reading? Well, I'd love to share my favorite reads from 2018 with you, just in time for you to put some of these on your Christmas list. (Not all of these...
Pulled in Two—Or More—Directions: Nurturing You Marriage while Serving Your Family
Because the average age for marriage has been slowly inching upward (27 for women and 29 for men, according to the US Census) and life expectancies are now just below 80, many of us can anticipate supporting two generations at some point in our lives. According to the...
Seven Books That Need to Be on Your “To Read” List
I've read so many wonderful books this summer! Rather than writing individual reviews (which are tremendously time consuming), I thought I'd do super short reviews of my favorite books, include links to buy, and most importantly, give away THREE of these titles. So...
Yummy Paleo Pudding
I'll spare you photos of every angle and every step of the process because frankly, I don't care that much. I just want to eat this. Lots of it. Since going paleo about 18 months ago, this has become one of my favorite treats. However, the first time I made it, I...
The Clarity that Comes with Forgiveness
Twenty nine years ago, my fiancé broke up with me. I had just returned from a nine-month overseas photography assignment. This was pre-cell phone and I was totally blindsided. These kind of relational ruptures are aways messy. This one was even more so because we had...
Is Social Media Disconnecting Us? Part 2
Social media apps are counterfeits. Their sophisticated designs understand and capitalize on our deeper needs without actually meeting those needs. As tech designers have admitted, Facebook and other social media sites were created with a profound awareness of our...
Is Social Media Disconnecting Us?
At a time when we have an unprecedented ability to connect with anyone, anywhere, research is confirming what many of us intuitively know: we’re lonely. We’re actually not connecting, at least not in meaningful ways. That loneliness is contributing to higher rates of...
How Not to Lead A Discussion on Race
The 2018 Festival of Faith and Writing happened in Grand Rapids, MI, last week. I had the privilege of organizing a panel titled The Risk of Writing on Race—And Our Moral Obligation to Continue. I hoped that a handful of white folks would show up and that the four of...
The Strange Goodness of Good Friday
What happened between the crucifixion and the resurrection? Scripture reveals little, telling us only that Christ descended into hell. Whether you read that literally or figuratively, it feels an apt description for those seasons in our life when we feel buried alive....