The reason (I believe) that there are so many Christians who do not act or look at all like Jesus, in this world, is because they have misunderstood the gospel. Many Christians think like this: "I believe Jesus is the Savior of the world. That means I'm saved. My eternal destination is set. Okay. Great. That's all I have to do from here on out. The rest is business as usual. Moving right along." The gospel is reduced to "heaven when I die." That's it. There's no actually following Jesus in the dailiness of life. This is not Christianity as Jesus defines it. True, authentic Christianity is following, trusting in, relying on Jesus so fully that we would actually do the things that Jesus would do, if He were in our shoes. There was nothing evil or self-centered, o[...]

Life is so much, becoming. That's the adventure, really, of following Jesus. As we follow Him, keeping our eyes on Him, slowly learning to trust Him with this little thing and then that big thing, He actually helps us to become who we were always intended to be. Our very best, most beautiful selves. I love that. The other day, I found a Monarch caterpillar munching on some milkweed. So, I brought him in, right after he had quietly attached and suspended himself underneath the Lilac leaf. I love the story of caterpillars and tadpoles and baby salamanders. How they all start out in this world, looking entirely different from what they will end up being. I fell asleep the night I brought my caterpillar friend inside,  absolutely in awe that there was a little creature ov[...]

Hi, my friends. Life is flying. And I don't know why, but I get a little freaked out by that. I get a little panicked. Like, "Crapola! My kids are growing up too fast! And the grass is growing too quickly and I didn't get to walk barefoot on it enough! And the creeks are flowing by and they'll just keep flowing by, whether I wade in them or not! And the fireflies keep blinking and then I blink, and my baby is learning to crawl and my oldest is eight already which means I'll blink again and all my summers with him will be gone." I know. I need to calm down. So, I'm learning to do that. I'm learning to stop breathing like I'm constantly running a marathon and start breathing like I'm enjoying things. Deep, slow breaths. Taking it all in breaths. The only way I know how to[...]

I found these for you today. Little yellow love letters. God shouting from the ditch, "I'm here! I made all of this. I love you!" A friend reached out to me the other day. She struggles with fear from time to time, and she knows I do too, so she just wanted to talk. She wanted to not feel so alone. Isn't this why we share our struggles and show people our real selves sometimes? Because there are folks out there, wondering if they're the only ones. "Do you still feel overcome by fear, Maggie?" She asked it quiet and then paused to listen. I told her that I still feel afraid for a bit, nearly every day. But, it doesn't take over anymore. It doesn't latch on and suck me under, like it used to. I didn't have much to give her, but I gave her a few things to help. I want to g[...]

Jesus is a Mighty Beauty. I wish I could really get this into us. Preach it to the church, you know. That Christianity isn't about keeping rules, or defending systems of dogma or one-upping others, or having all the right answers, or even having our act together. Christianity is about walking daily here in this dirt and this filth and this wreck, alongside a Mighty Beauty. There is a great Some One who who wants to live our ordinary life with us. We could live in awe of Him. Of the One who transforms us from the inside out. As we rub shoulders with Him, keep our eyes on Him, ask Him for His thoughts and do the sort of things that He did, we actually become like Him. That is compelling to me. It's the kind of stuff that ignites fire in my bones and gives me hope for the w[...]

Miracles still happen. But they often happen in the dark unexpected places, the places where no one’s really looking. They’re quietly happening. Because you pray and you hope and you wait, seems like forever you wait, and you don’t see anything good or glamorous, yet.  But you planted those seeds with your prayers and you watered them with your tears and sometime when you weren’t paying attention, things were growing. Slowly, slowly growing. Little heart, didn’t you know? Haven’t you heard that there’s a glorious Kingdom full of light? And love? And vibrant life? It comes slow and quiet like a dawning. It’s a strange paradox, this Kingdom. The here already and not fully realized yet. Sometime in the quiet of night, when the moon waxed full there was this breaking. You coul[...]

Dear Artist, (Or Photographer, or Writer, or Musician, or Creative Maker of any sort of things,) You know that feeling you get, when you sit down to shape something new, and you feel stuck because you're pretty sure nothing you create is any good? It's that paralyzing feeling. That angst that makes you second guess yourself and so you figure you'll just go ahead and put away the camera, like for good. And shut down the lap-top from here on out and never scratch out another word or dry out the paint brushes and never pick them up again. But, something in you just won't let you quit. Because you know, if you don't create and if you don't sometimes share what you make, then you'll sort of wither away, little by little, there on your insides. That part of you that come[...]

Dear fellow human being, You have permission to rest. To walk outside and sit at the foot of a wild thing, and be ravished by it's ecstatic existence. Or to take a nap. Or read a book. Or just sit a spell and stare at nothing much, for a little while. You don't have to produce all the time. Or try to fix everything. You really can enjoy your life. If you're a sensitive person, this will feel strange. If you're constantly aware of the suffering in the world, you'll find it difficult to rest. You'll feel guilty that you can plant seeds, or water the garden out in the sunshine, while someone else is being oppressed. You will want to run around, relentlessly, trying to figure out how to save more people from harm. And if you're a "do-er" it will humble you to stop doing for [...]

Somewhere along the way, I become a Martha. Do you know what I mean? There's this story in the Bible. It's the story about how Jesus speaks into the lives of two women who are desperate for meaning and peace. It goes like this: Jesus is traveling around town, preaching and teaching and healing folks and Martha, (whose family is already good friends with Jesus and greatly loved by Him) invites Him over to her house. Which amazes me because I rarely invite anyone over to my house unless I'm good and prepared. She must have been good and prepared. The dishes were probably washed and the floor was swept and the windows were wiped down and the toilet was scrubbed. When I do finally have someone over to the house, I'm usually scrubbing the toilet RIGHT as they are walking in the door. [...]