I used to spend a lot of time pondering two questions: Is God real? Does my life even matter? In my last blog post, I wrote about how I’ve come to realize the great impact one person has on the world around them. In this post, I want to tell you another thing I’ve come to know for certain: the God of the Bible is real. I watch God acting in lives all around me, every single day. When I began working in full-time ministry three years ago, the number of “God stories” I encountered increased exponentially. I see evidence
Read moreThis year has stretched me well beyond my comfort zone, and my schedule has been so chaotic, I’ve frequently lost track of the day and month. Much has happened since my last post. I was happy in my job, even though I never imagined myself doing accounting for a living. Accounting was a necessary evil when I ran my small business; something that had to be done, but I didn’t enjoy. It was different at GraceWorks. The first time I cut a check and realized my efforts stopped someone from being evicted on Christmas Eve, my heart for accounting changed, and I became
Read moreI cannot count how many times I have settled down with my journal to pour out my frustrations and dashed dreams, and within a span of a few pages, find my writing shift into something like praise. It’s not because I’m holy or somehow divinely inspired. It’s because God shows up, time and time again, and speaks truth to my heart as I write. I recognize God’s voice by the sense of peace that comes along with it. It’s the sense that I am moving towards joy. It was October 8, 2016 and our small business was slowly failing. The
Read moreI’m excited USA Today published my article on working at the GraceWorks Ministries food pantry during COVID-19. Click here to view it!
Read more“Where do you work?” This simple question has a way of turning into a serious discussion, when you work for a nonprofit organization. “I work for an organization that fights the sex trade in Cambodia,” the woman said to me. Just like that, the small talk was over, because how do you say something trite like, “How interesting!” when you realize that someone is taking their very best talents and applying it to helping…truly helping…helpless people? She told me American businessmen go to Cambodia to have sex with children. When the founder of her organization first went to Cambodia, a
Read moreI used to say I didn’t have a single entrepreneurial bone in my body. I was brought into business ownership when I married Rich…a guy with extreme independence, unique talent and big dreams. I fought incapacitating anxiety as we bade our small-but-consistent paychecks goodbye to launch our first business. I was 25 years old, starting a business with my (fairly) new husband, in a male-dominated industry, in a small California town where we essentially knew nobody. It was lonely, and scary, and I spent way too much time alone with my husband and three cats, creating websites for photographers using
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Many events stop traffic on my morning commute: Crossing guards in the school zone; Parents dropping off their kids; An occasional accident…But few things have been more memorable than the day a skunk stopped traffic on the corner of Old Fort and Veterans Parkways. I was sitting patiently at the intersection, munching on my Cheerios and waiting for the impossibly long light to turn green. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a black-and-white animal, ambling down the road, completely oblivious to the lines of traffic directly in front of it. I had been waiting at the light
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A few months ago, I began attending the Mostly Mom’s Bible study at World Outreach Church. As I settled in that first day, I discovered the group was beginning a new study called, Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted by Pricilla Schirer. It was uncanny timing…our lives had just been completely interrupted…and for the past six months we had been calling Tennessee our Nineveh. I sat there, stunned, as I realized this Bible study was EXACTLY WHERE I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE. In October 2016, when Rich and I heard from God that we would be moving to Nashville, we thought it would
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After living in Yosemite National Park and the Sierra foothills for the past 20+ years, I’ve been spoiled by beautiful views and natural treasures. That’s why, when I recently took a walk around my neighborhood, I didn’t expect my subdivision with thousands of nearly identical houses to give me much joy. But it was a beautiful fall day, I wanted to be outside, and I didn’t feel like driving, so I ventured into my little piece of suburbia. I didn’t find wildlife like turkeys or deer, but I found something else. I found people enjoying their lives on a Sunday
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It was just past sunset as we drove a twisty road toward the interstate. An old church with a cemetery appeared along one bend, with a “point of historic interest” sign. We turned around a mile or so later, intrigued to see who might be buried on that old piece of land. Our kids thought we were crazy, and they begged us not to stop…it was growing dark, and their imaginations filled with stories of ghosts, dead bodies and who knows what else might lurk in an old cemetery. We knew better… Having grown up in Ohio, with family on
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