Love in LoCo

Perhaps you’ve heard this famous quote from Theodore Roosevelt before: Comparison is the thief of joy.  I was in college the first time I heard it and it hit me square between the eyes.  Comparison has always been a struggle for me.  In school it was everything from grades, to looks, to athletic ability.  In recent years, it’s more about career, stage of life, and sadly, still looks.  As I’ve ventured more seriously into this world of writing in the past year, comparison has come in looking at my small blog, with its small (but faithful!) readership, to those of some of my favorite authors who have multiple published books or other bloggers who have been at this for a decade.  Sounds silly, right?  Author Jon Acuff says, “Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.”  But we all do it in our own ways.  While I might be looking at other writers I admire, you might be in the throes of toddler parenting and looking at the activities of a mom with school-aged kiddos.  For many

For as long as I can remember, I have loved learning about the lives of professional athletes. When I was a kid, I remember reading biographies of athletes like Mia Hamm, Lisa Leslie, Michelle Kwan, Shannon Miller, and Michael Jordan.   As an adult, I still enjoy learning about these athletes.   I love watching big events like the Olympics and March Madness but to be honest, the story-teller in me loves the human-interest pieces on these athletes just as much as watching them play and perform!   I am even more interested to hear the stories of professional athletes who are followers of Jesus.   I guess it’s fitting, then, that I work for a sports ministry. This morning at the gym I was listening to a podcast from Q Ideas , a talk given by snowboarder Kelly Clark about two years ago at a Q Conference.   I already knew Clark was a believer because of an article in the Winter Olympics issue of FCA Magazine that came out in January.   But listening to her share how she merges her faith

I know I wrote about rest not too long ago, but it seems to be a recurring theme in my life lately, a topic God is really trying to hammer home, so here I go again… For so much of my life I’ve been serving and doing and “behaving”.   For a long time, I thought all of this busyness would earn me God’s approval and thus, the things I want from Him.   I’ve grown a lot in my understanding of grace over the years, that God’s grace is a gift because of His love for me and not something I could ever earn.   But still, it’s hard sometimes to stop the doing.   And although I know in my head that I can’t possibly earn God’s love or approval, my heart sometimes forgets and cries out to God, “Don’t you see all of this STUFF I’m doing for you?!”   Sorry if that’s ugly; just keeping it real.   Lately, though, God has finally gotten my attention.   As I said, rest seems to be a popular theme in books I’ve been reading, podcasts I’ve been listening to, and even in my own time with the Lord.   I

Welcome back!   I hope you all had a wonderful Easter with your families.   For the Loudoun/Fairfax crowd, I hope you also enjoyed your Spring Break.   If you’re on break this week, I hope you’re able to take time to relax and enjoy your families.   I spent the season of Lent this year going through the She Reads Truth Lent Bible study which went through all of Exodus and ended last week by going through Jesus’ last week on earth.   God taught me so much throughout this study, which I am still processing in part, but as we are just coming off of this season, I wanted to at least share some reflections from this past week.   For those of us who have grown up in church, I feel sometimes that fight for fresh eyes sometimes in reading the stories that we grew up hearing.   Here are a few of the ways that the Easter story hit me anew this year: 1)       Jesus endured humiliation for me (Mark 14:65, 15:29-32) so that I can be free from shame.   Am I always living this way?   Or are there