Dear LB and Moo,

Girlies, you are always on my mind and in my heart, but today, even more so. As your auntie, I’ve had the honor and gift of watching you become….in every season of your 14 and 16 years on this planet. I see you thriving and struggling, seeking Jesus and speaking up, even when the circumstances are hard…

In October of 2022, I was about as low as I’ve ever been. Chris (my childhood best friend since we were 6) had died unexpectedly in June and I had been dumped over text. I was having a crisis of career & calling…

Chris Toomey and I met in Sunday School when we were six years old. In addition to going to church together, we were neighbors and schoolmates. In many ways, he was a brother. My friendship with him spanned 41 years, never wavering, always a constant. Chris never met a stranger. He loved people and when you were in his presence he gave you his full attention…

I’m writing this at 2:53AM and sleep is elusive. I can feel the anxiety in my body — shortness of breath, wide awake, adrenaline pumping through my veins and a mind that races. This is new territory with a pandemic now being part of our global narrative. I know in my head that anxiety, for…

In July and August I wrote about burnout and the relational issues that contributed to my own journey. This month I am sharing my third and final installment of this series. You can read part 1 here and part 2 here. When burnout hits, you come to a fork in the road where one direction…

Last month I shared how I had to quit the job I loved. Ignoring the signs of burnout landed me in a medical leave of absence. You can read Part 1 here. How did I get to such a dark place without knowing what got me there? Over the course of a few months to years after this time, I began seeing themes…

In December of 2009, I sat across from my boss in a hotel lobby and said, “I am done.” I couldn’t take another minute of continuing to do a job I once loved. For years I had given the job all of my best energy and care, until what felt like an out-of-the-blue, 180 degree turn, landed me in a reduced-schedule medical leave of absence…

I want to share about moral formation versus spiritual transformation. Exhaustion and the path to slow burn out begins when we begin to live morally vs. spiritually. Moral formation is any attempt to grow or fix yourself to rid yourself of guilt or shame, trying to be good and pleasing to God. It’s always behavioral. It’s a temptation to wrestle the wrestle.

The deconstruction process with me and the Lord around the topic of “c”hurch has been brutal. There. I said it. If you’ve been in my close circle you’ve known the journey of the past four years. The sleepless nights, the loss of community, the looks of concern when you admit you are “that person” struggling with lower case “c” church…