Author: rachel

  • Lifting Holy Hands

    Lifting Holy Hands

    I grew up in a church where lifting your hands in worship was a very progressive movement. My childhood church was not particularly strict, but it was a Southern Baptist church that preferred songs from the hymnal over a repeating chorus on a screen.  Even at camps and outside youth groups as a teenager, I…

  • Sometimes Serving Sucks

    I had an incident recently at church where I really didn’t want to serve God. It didn’t have anything to do with God. I just found myself serving in a capacity where I felt ill-equipped. I found myself working with a demographic I don’t generally enjoy. And I found myself having a bad day in…

  • Come, Pass, Shun

    Come, Pass, Shun

    Tis the season of giving, thankfulness, and compassion. Spending money and eating lots of food seems to make people more likely to volunteer, donate, and say thank you. Schools have food drives, people don’t snarl at the Salvation Army person outside the grocery store, and most will even donate that dollar or five at the…

  • God Told Me To

    God Told Me To

    Have you ever given that response as a reason for doing something? You either encounter people thinking that you are so in touch with God or thinking you are a little out there. Do you choose who gets that answer and who gets a response like, “It’s what I needed to do” or “It just…

  • I am Superman

    I am Superman

    Our church has been focusing lately on listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit. It’s basically every Christian’s superpower – the voice of the Holy Spirit. There have been individuals who have come into great wealth by praying fervently and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit to guide their business transactions. Others…

  • My Child is Not my Idol

    My Child is Not my Idol

    It’s Monday morning and I can hear my 7 am alarm. My son got up four times during the night, we got in late from church the night before and I’m exhausted, so I hit snooze. Five minutes later the alarm goes off again and the internal struggle begins. I could turn off the alarm….

  • The Window

    The Window

    It’s a soft morning. Outside my window the sun is beaming boldly with soft edges. The sky is light blue, marked by gentle clouds. And even though I’m looking over a parking lot and at other apartments, the world feels still. The stillness out there makes our world here in our apartment seem all the…

  • God is NOT in Control

    God is NOT in Control

    In the Christian community we have a language. As a Christian you might not realize that you have your own language, but you do. And it becomes very apparent when you’re conversing with someone outside of your faith. And, like all proper languages, there are different dialects. It varies based on your denomination or your…