In Unknown Territory: The Journey Continues

Eleven months after leaving my job in Birmingham, I moved to Dallas and started a new adventure. A fitting eleven hours on the road brought me to my new hometown at nearly midnight, with movers set to arrive the next morning to begin setting up my apartment. The hotel that night was an inauspicious beginning, …

The Known Place (Part 5)

Crossing from the I-Don't-Know-est Place to The Known Place used to be pretty easy. I've always been an avid learner. A reader. A seeker of knowledge. I didn't necessarily require school to pursue learning; I just did it myself. (As a kid I actually set out to read the Encyclopedia, though the effort did cave …

Dance Practice

I have learned that sabbatical is so misunderstood. Sabbatical is given - commanded - in order to teach us the lesson of Rest. Drop everything and listen, listen as he speaks:     “Don’t turn a deaf ear as in the Bitter Uprising, As on the day of the Wilderness Test,     when your ancestors turned and put me to …

Like A Dance

Big decisions can be sticky wickets. We want to get it right. We want to be sure we are getting it right. We over-analyze and under-listen. Decision-making becomes a tar-baby we can't get loose of. Decision-making is an expression of the authority God bequeathed to His image-bearers - both in creating humans in His image …

Do For Me…

"Good morning, darling, have you finished the laundry?" As I sit down with my coffee for my morning quiet time and Bible reading, I'm distracted by my worries about my job search and its lackluster progress. But I begin looking at the passage for my Sunday School lesson this week and the commentator's opening thoughts. …

The Longest Distance

Recently a friend asked me to drive her to the doctor, and while I was waiting in the lobby, I was scanning through job opportunities on my phone. In just a few minutes, I read so many job descriptions and scanned dozens more. So many choices, and yet nothing really stood out from the rest. …

When God Delays

The story goes that the night I was born was utterly chaotic. I was the second child born to my parents, their having had my brother three years earlier on a U.S Army base in Frankfurt, Germany while they were stationed there. My brother's birth wasn't exactly ordinary, but it must have seemed a walk …

Who’s Walking With Whom?

Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat—I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to …

The I-Don’t-Know-est Place (Part 4)

A couple of days ago, another layer was added to the I-Don't-Knowest Place: I received an offer on my house. As a banker, I've seen many people have financial struggles without taking certain logical steps to deal with the situation. Perhaps its a business owner who is impacted by the economy and, through no fault …

Busy-ness Ethics

I have a friend who has had the opportunity to teach seminars on business principals to business people and aspiring entrepreneurs in other countries. They commented that in some countries, the ethical breakdown is so profound that teaching the mindset of ethics and trust in business is extremely difficult. In some places, the people have …