a planted life | learning to love
First I want to confess, I'm a coward by nature. I, like Pilate, avoid conflict, washing my hands of decisions that might cost me peace. Without the reigns of the Spirit of Jesus in my life, I would trot off down the path of keeping peace, shutting my mouth. I would disguise my passivity, hoping... Continue Reading →
It's hard for me to remain calm while thinking about the insanity behind bills like the ones in Virginia and New York that seek to make normal and acceptable the act of ending the life of a late-term, pre-born human baby; and in the Virginia case, a newborn infant. But I'm going to try to... Continue Reading →
Taking up the role of leading the kids ministry at my church was not something on my radar of plans for the future. But the push of the Spirit in my life over the past year or so has been to stop holding on to what God has so graciously poured into me, and start... Continue Reading →
You walked ahead not knowing I was thirty years behind. I was nineteen putting on a ring promising till death. You were forty-one walking through the valley of the shadow ahead of me. Three decades later a block apart our boundaries and times cross providentially. Silver hair ahead of my fading blonde bent over with... Continue Reading →
The problem of sexism and enabling abuse is not only a Southern Baptist Church problem. It's a culture problem. I don't know Paige Patterson. I've only been acquainted with the Southern Baptist Convention and a member of a Southern Baptist church (that I love) for about a year. I didn't grow up in a Baptist church... Continue Reading →
The tension was thick. My husband and I sat opposite ends of a 6 foot couch and 23 years of piled up trouble from each other in a last ditch effort to save our marriage. "Well, what about you? Your wife shared where she thinks some of her wrong thinking has come from. What do... Continue Reading →
When I was pregnant I noticed everyone who was pregnant. When I had a 1969 Volkswagen bug, I noticed everyone with a classic Bug. And today, when the fire in my belly is still burning from the issue of abuse and the message Christian leaders like Paige Patterson send women, I'm noticing every message in... Continue Reading →
Statements from the president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Paige Patterson, have stirred up a dark message I heard as a young girl and still hear as a 43 year old woman in the conservative evangelical American church. The message goes something like this: Being a Christ-like means being passive, quiet, soft-spoken...don't upset the apple... Continue Reading →
Cultivating Faithfulness 