Glimpse of Glory
Glimpses of Glory captures the ways God breaks into my ordinary life. Themes of church life, spiritual practices, and the wonder of creation. Christian faith, spiritual growth, and life in community are all topics this category tackles.
-
Advent Week 3: Angels
As I’ve reflected on the Christmas story this week, I’ve been thinking about angels. I am not expecting the angel Gabriel to appear next to my sink full of dishes, but the words of angels might help even still.
-
Advent week 1: Hope
I’m not really a fan of hope. I like other things better. I can lean into faith, rejoice in love, and revel in peace, but hope is hard for me. Hope requires that I acknowledge that all is not as it should be, or could be. I don’t need hope when everything is right. We don’t hope for things that already are. Share this...FacebookPinterestTwitterLinkedin
-
Receiving…
My strong friends, the ones who meet the needs around them are the first to offer what they have, and the last to ask for what they need. These women (and men) pour themselves out on behalf of others, and they sometimes forget that they need filling too.
-
It won’t be like this for long…
Some days I worry about the mistakes of my life. I can see the shadows of my bad choices still impacting my children. I carry a load of regrets that I’m not yet ready to put down. But, no matter what else is true… being their mom will always be my greatest accomplishment.
-
Puzzle pieces…
The grief of that reality has filled in a bit in the past few years. All my good intentions, my vows, and even my sacrifices could not protect them from life, or from me. My hopes slid down my face, as they began their own journeys into the unknown. They were raised with love and brokenness. I think that’s really all we have to give.
-
What can be shaken...
This season of turbulence has shaken everything, but what is left is very strong. It feels like a strong wind moved through my life and took everything that was not entirely secure. What is left, feels tested and true.
-
The faith of our youth…
When my kids were little, I had visions of our shared future. I imagined myself surrounded each Sunday morning with a throng of kids and grandkids filling a couple of pews in my local church. My hope was not without precedent. I had seen extended families gathered, maybe not every week, but often for holidays like Easter and Christmas. I looked longingly when I saw families of multiple generations gathering to worship together in the pews of our little church, and hoped someday we might fill our pew with a gang of worshippers in their Sunday best. Share this...FacebookPinterestTwitterLinkedin
-
Dear Colton,
Keep in mind, they are new to this parenting thing. They’ve been to all the classes and prepared in every way imaginable. In fact, if you ask me, they already know too much. What they don’t know is all the ways you will reshape their lives from the inside out.
-
Joy in real life…
Brene Brown says, “Joy is the most vulnerable emotion.” Maybe, that’s why I have always struggled with it. I open my heart to experience the exquisite beauty of this moment, but I know it cannot last. The sunset that paints the sky in sherbet colors of orange, gold, and lavender will soon fade to dusk. The moment of pure laughter and connection will soon shift back to living side by side. The smell of a warm baby, just out of the bath, gives way to a defiant tween. A long slow summer Sunday afternoon, too quickly turns to Monday morning. We don’t give ourselves over to joy in order to…
-
What is saving my life today…
What is saving my life now is the conviction that there is no spiritual treasure to be found apart from the bodily experiences of human life on earth. My life depends on engaging the most ordinary physical activities with the most exquisite attention I can give them. My life depends on ignoring all touted distinctions between the secular and the sacred, the physical and the spiritual, the body and the soul. What is saving my life now is becoming more fully human, trusting that there is no way to God apart from real life in the real world.” Barbara Brown Taylor from An Altar in the World: A Geography of…