In the midst of the chaos of change, we went to the beach. It was a spontaneous call and we were wildly unprepared. It was barely spring, the sun was setting and we had one towel between us. It was tempting to simply enjoy the changing sky and the chatter of locals in my relatively warm, definitively-dry attire. So tempting. After many moments of deliberation, including multiple toe-checks of the water’s temperature, I was in. …
Dear Christmas, I hope you look different this year This was my silent prayer in September as I saw the store shelves begin to bear their annual load of Christmas stuff. A singing reindeer, a nativity set, biscuits and tinsel and platters and bonbons. I couldn’t help but feel a little deflated. My pet hate is clutter, and I reserve a particular hostility for Christmas-themed clutter. Take Christmas-themed crockery for example. Why should I store …
Young people are amazing! This is my very biased opinion based on lived experience, and about a decade of working in youth ministries and programs. This is my opinion based on my daily interactions with children and families in hardship. This is my opinion as I watch my friends’ babies learn, but also teach. This is my opinion based on the brave responses of a generation to the injustices of the world they’re inheriting. Young …
Recently, a friend of mine described to me her theory that we all have buckets: a bucket for fun, one for freedom, one for intimacy, one for growth, for service, for solitude, for vulnerability, maybe one for chaos or significance, or heartache and hurt. Our buckets are labelled differently. And our buckets aren’t all the same size. In the past, I would pride myself on the size of my ‘uncertainty bucket’. I felt agile, I …
Giver God Journal Entry 3/05/2020 Of all the days spent in isolation, Sundays are the hardest. They’re the loneliest and they are the days I am most aware of what this season has cost us. To preface, I’m in a bad mood today. I’m sad. The kind of sad that has me waking up with a headache but doesn’t see me cry. I miss my friends, I miss my church, I miss café breakfasts, I …
Spiritual Parents I recently left the church I grew up in. My reasons are numerous, personal, not at all spiteful and something I will gladly share with anyone in the flesh. For those who might be concerned, I’m slowly making a church home elsewhere. But for the sake of the story, it’s important you know leaving was difficult for me to do. I also admit that while I speak about the Church* with great affection, …
Giver God I love singing to my friend, Jesus. I’m convinced music is one of the sweetest gifts God has given us. And not just to the “musically-inclined”! In my humble opinion a “pitchy” voice is akin to a funny laugh – an unofficial gift of the Holy Spirit, a contagious joy. My time in Indonesia, in a nutshell, was a pleasant surprise. The group of strangers I travelled with were far kinder than I …
When God “Breaks” Your Heart Earlier this year, before international travel became the stuff of daydreams, I made it to East Indonesia to visit Compassion Australia projects and my tiny but sunshiny sponsor child. Compassion Australia is an International Christian charity and child development organisation. Before leaving, I asked God to butterfly-cut my heart. As may have come across in the last few devotions, this year has been tiring on my spirit. Caring had become …
Read Psalm 139:6–12 Journal Entry 12 November 2019 Jesus, how much longer am I going to feel tepid and unmoved? It makes me shameful when I can’t muster the motivation to wriggle close to you, to lay my head in your lap and sob to You. I’m fearful of the hard heart-work of pruning and probing and growth that will no doubt take place when I finally crawl begrudgingly toward You. I just need a …
Patient Papa God. I’m going to call it: 2020 is the Year of Growth. At least, in my world anyway. And not the fruitful, picture-perfect, hustle-and-slay, wholesome-family-viewing kind of growth. So far, 2020 is proving herself full of the painful, earthy and hungry kind of growth that leaves me tearfully stumbling around for pen and paper to keep track of the deep work God is doing within me. A few years ago, in an old …
“What was the last thing you heard God ask you to do … and did you do it?” I felt the Father press this question into my spirit a few weeks ago – I’d been praying for the courage to have bolder conversations. The answer to my prayer was this awkward “ice-breaker”. No witty segue or magically electrified conversation but a call to step up and risk discomfort. I’ve learned over the years that God’s …
“Longer the dry spell, bigger the rain” My salt-of-the-earth “Poppa” made this comment as we chatted about the barren brown land that is becoming the Darling Downs, Queensland. My grandfather is an umpteenth generation farmer with hands as rough as his heart is tender and God-fearing. Living on the land, he’s learned its rhythms. I can remember being hushed fiercely at the dinner table as a child when the weather segment appeared on an otherwise …