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Making Room
They searched place after place, inn after inn, and all with the same reply, “No room!” The city was crowded and bustling with people. Everywhere they looked to find a place, there was no room. I doubt Bethlehem felt like a very welcoming or inviting place to Mary and Joseph. Constant noise and constant people…
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Chasing Happiness
“Mrs. Patton, we want to make you happy,” my students explained when we were talking about the requirements for their upcoming writing assignment. “But my happiness is completely irrelevant,” I said. I didn’t want my students to write to make me happy. I wanted them to write to make themselves happy. I wanted them to take pride…
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Stuck: 10 Things Paul and John NEVER Said From Prison
Lately I’ve been talking and writing about this idea of being in prison. Sometimes God takes us through seasons where he makes our worlds very small, and it doesn’t make sense to us. It got me thinking about Paul, John and others who wrote most of the New Testament while sitting in prison. I thought…
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Stuck: Letters from Prison
Lately I’ve been thinking about and having conversations with other people about the idea of being imprisoned in a metaphorical, spiritual sense. It’s a season when you just don’t feel like you have what you need to do what God has called you to do. I have been through the wasteland and discovered who I am…
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Lessons from the Wasteland: Prison is Not the Same as the Wilderness
Being in prison is not the same as wandering in the wilderness. In Scripture, we see different characters deal with these two different challenges. The Israelites and Elijah experienced the wilderness. Joseph and Paul were familiar with prison. Lately I’ve been identifying with Joseph more than the Israelites. Unjustly accused, misunderstood, thrown away, discarded, locked…
From Queen to Princess 