He was 26 years old, a football coach with a medium build, blue eyes, and red hair, living in Carroll, Iowa. His name was Boyd also known as Tommy. He worked on his parent’s farm after graduation and didn’t like it, so decided to go to college in nearby Mount Vernon. His college education launched […]

I had a crazy day of way too many virtual meetings! Yuck. I was ready for the day to be OVER, and took off to go run on the Pathfinder. I was working all the stress out of my body and finished up my run, and went back to my truck. I had a text […]

I follow a really interesting hospital chaplain named JSPark300 on Instagram. He recently shared some information from Dr. Stacey Altiam and it talked about how self-care doesn’t work for people who come from communal societal frameworks. The West is built on the values of individualism, and in other countries built on communal values, these individualist […]

Do you feel like you are endlessly waiting for life to “even out” or “calm down?” Do you feel like you are waiting for when things are “easy?” I have been reading the book “The Road Less Traveled” and in it Dr. Peck, begins chapter One like this: “Life is difficult. This is a great […]

I flew to Kenya on June 6th, and it is so hard. The travel is long, exhausting, and uncomfortable. You have to actually fly for 18 hours in a plane to get there, but that doesn’t count the endless lines, security checks, and waiting. You get there, and your body is like, “What did you just […]

The Power of Restraint… The first day of 9th grade, a teacher stopped me in the hall on my way to class. “Are you in my class?” Me, confused, “I don’t know? What is your class?” “Cross-Country, if you are not in my class, you need to be in my class, let’s go get your […]

There is no promise of ease in this life, but I still want it. We all do, and unfortunately, the comforts of our Western culture reinforce and coddle us into a false reality. A reality that everything in our environment and life should be “just right”, should bend to my comfort, and make me “feel” […]

My marriage started falling apart two weeks after our wedding. I was 20 years old and a Junior in college. I ended up at one of my best friends’ dorm rooms that night, sleeping on a bunk bed, when just two weeks earlier I was walking down an aisle in my wedding dress. Our dating […]

I was faced with my first major life crisis at 20 years old. The kind of crisis “good Christian girls, who followed all the rules” are not supposed to face. It was a moment when your faith is shaken. It is a moment where every solution being presented, “just keep praying,” doesn’t “work.” It is […]

I recently had a coworker, Mike, tell me about his personal counseling session. After explaining the issues and problems he was facing in life, the counselor asked one poignant question. “Who is Mike?” He stared at the counselor, wide-eyed, and a bit taken back. He gulped, “I don’t know.” I was on a phone call […]