• Uncategorized

    Peacemaker Conference LiveBlogs

    In just a few hours, I will be leaving to serve at The 2015 Peacemaker Conference: The Rhythm of Peace. In addition to teaching, I also have the joy of liveblogging the plenary sessions. If you have no idea what liveblogging is, you are in good company! I just heard the term for the first time a few years ago. Basically, LiveBlogs provide continuous “live” coverage of events through text, photos, and links, so it’s like you get to be there, even if the event is halfway around the world. Plus, you get to participate in the LiveBlog too (if you want to)! You can interact with the speakers if they are holding a…

  • Hope in Suffering,  Perfectionism & Shame,  Redemptive Relationships,  Singleness & Marriage

    How Fred Responded When I Asked Him Last Week if I Had Ruined His Life

    Last week was a particularly hard week for Fred and me. At one point, seeing the marks of searing pain on Fred’s face (again), I was overcome by the sense that all of his worst suffering in life was because of me. (Maybe not entirely because of me, since, sure, I know my theology and I know we have three real enemies: Satan, the world, our flesh. I know we live in a fallen world that truly is not the way it’s supposed to be. I can pass the Sunday School test. But in that horrible moment of overwhelmingly self-critical thinking, I forget what I “know” [gnosis] because I don’t really “know” [epignosis] it.) So there I sat, feeling…

  • Trauma Recovery

    My Detective in Adult Violent Crimes – The Finest Law Enforcement Official My Attorney Has Ever Met

    I just had the truly amazing privilege of meeting (and thanking) in-person the investigating detective on my sexual assault case. (The adult violent crime prosecutor’s office sent me to him back when I first reported the assault .) Even my attorney said that Detective Scott Morrison is the finest, most professional law enforcement official with whom he has ever worked. And I completely agree.   Some people just make the world a better place. I am profoundly grateful. 

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  • Fear Not!

    Tackling Two (Irrational) Fears

    I’m continuing to prep for my women’s retreat this weekend (“Fear Not”) and sometimes I’m just laid out on my face before the Lord over the profound, applicable truths that God is graciously helping me to unearth and begin to understand. But in addition to the “deep stuff,” I’m also chuckling over and truly enjoying some of the fears that God is not only helping me to see in my own life, but also to overcome. Today, I’d like to tell you about two of them … First of all, it was only a few years ago (I’m 45) that I made mashed potatoes all by myself. Without any help or…

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  • Gospel Coalition LiveBlogs

    Paige Benton Brown: In the Temple – The Glorious and Forgiving God (The Gospel Coalition National Women’s Conference LiveBlog)

    (I’m already beginning to pray for friends who are serving at next year’s The Gospel Coalition Women’s Conference: Resurrection Life in a World of Suffering. I hope that you can be at the conference June 16-18, 2016 in Indianapolis! I am so excited to hear from some of the finest teachers on these important topics—Kathleen Nielson, Rosaria Butterfield, Don Carson, Nancy Guthrie, Tim Keller, Carolyn McCulley, Ellen Dykas, Melissa Kruger … and more!) To whet your appetite for the next TGCW conference, why not enjoy a quick review of the inimitable Paige Benton Brown from her 2012 TGCW plenary? Just click “Replay” below:   The actual LiveBlog replay above has over 11,600 words…

  • How to Love a Mentally Ill Addict,  Redemptive Relationships,  Relationships & Peacemaking

    Grace-driven acceptance of a person does not mean open-ended availability …

    I read a lot when I am in a season of insomnia (like right now). I try to pray, too. And sometimes I even exercise! But mostly, I read. Old stuff, new stuff; happy stuff, blue stuff. OK. Not really blue stuff—but exhaustion also makes me punchy, so sometimes the silliness comes out in Seussian rhymes. And gaffes. (Like last night when I was looking up a friend’s address to send his wife and him a card and I accidentally Facetimed him at 3AM! Poor guy. But also a nice guy—he just laughed it off and told me he prayed for our family as he rolled over and went back to…