Beautifully Broken

It's hard to put into words what is going on in the world right now.  There is chaos and isolation simultaneously.   There is a deep longing to be with community, but also a fear of being around people.  There is a deep tiredness from listening to the news, from our fear, and from grief of loss, while there is also anxiousness to move and get on with life.  This situation that the whole world is experiencing is new, strange, and scary. While we can't physically go to church right now, I was listening online and reading through Hebrews.  This week, my discipleship group is ironically studying about how Jesus has given us a "better tabernacle".  Considering we can't actually be in the church building right now, it was a good reminder of what Jesus is offering.  The reading today focused on the sacrifice priests had to make just to enter the tabernacle and experience the presence of God back in the old testament.  I am also currently reading th...

With the beginning of every year, there is typically excitement in the air.  A new year seems like the perfect place to start fresh.  To make changes.  A new year brings 365 days of opportunity as one chapter closes and another waits to be opened.  We make resolutions, goals, and dream of what the next year might bring.  We make plans to leave the past year's pain and hardships behind as we enter a new year, currently a new decade, and just KNOW things will be better! But now, you have made it to January 3rd.  In those three short days, what if the newness of the year is already starting to wear off, and you're realizing it's still life.  And life is HARD. Unfortunately, pain doesn't go away just because the year does.  That hurt you so much wanted to leave behind was the first thing to greet you when you woke up Wednesday.  That sin you were so determined to beat came with even more temptations.  That resolution went out the w...