Hot Tea and the Holy Spirit

From magazines to memes, secular to spiritual, the topic of self-care has been trending for years. As far as I can tell, there are two primary reasons for the obsession: 1) Marketing. Advertisers know that people are tired, stressed, stretched thin, taking on more than we probably should, and trying to look good while doing so. They know that we are all basically waiting for someone to say, "Treat yo self; You deserve it!"  And they know that if they can convince us that treating ourselves is actually necessary for the greater good, then we might just take them up on it. Pedicures so I can be a better mom? Heck yes.  2) Necessity. The truth is, we should be taking care of ourselves. Like any gift from God, our bodies and our minds are both a privilege and a responsibility to steward to the best of our ability. But what does self-care actually mean for a Christian? Here's one way to look at it: Self- care : putting your needs above other people's wants. Self ish : put...

"Jesus wept."  ( John 11:35 ) I don't think it's any accident that this is the only two-word sentence in the Bible, making it the tome's shortest and therefore securing its spot as a prime piece of Bible trivia that even non-Christians might know.  I think God wanted this sentence to stand out so that we would take note. He wanted us to know that is was there. The context of the verse is this: Jesus was very good friends with two sisters and their brother. While Jesus was in a different town, He received a message from the sisters that their brother was very sick. Jesus declared right away that the sickness would not end in death, but by the time He got to their town, His friend had been dead for four days.  When the sisters and some of their friends came out to meet Him, they were weeping. Jesus was moved to tears, and He wept with them.  Then Jesus shocked everyone by going to His friend's tomb and commanding him to come out, and that once-reeking corpse, al...

When tragedy takes over the national news, Facebook lights up with the offering of prayer.  This response angers some. Many are quick to ridicule the prayerful as cowardly and feckless, calling for action over prayer. If prayers worked, they say, we wouldn't have these problems.  What's a Christian to do? PRAY. Do not believe for one second that prayer is synonymous with inactivity. Prayer is where we start.  We must pray for the families of those involved. We must pray for our own families. We must pray for our country and for the world. We must ask for comfort and for the peace that passes all understanding, but we must not stop there.  We must earnestly ask God how we can affect change. Maybe that means making sacrifices. Maybe that means we reevaluate our stances on things. Maybe that means we makes some calls and take some stands. I'm not here to tell you what that means. I'm here to tell you to pray about it.  Really, legitimately pray.  Don't just sa...

"Be the joyful one," I tell myself as I amble from the locker room to the childcare-pickup at my gym. These four words have become my mantra for this 50-yard journey past the fittest of the fit. It began one day when I could feel the comparison monster coming out to play and my insecurities rising. I felt like a champ during my workout, but as I progressed past the impressively muscled, zero-percent-bodyfat contingent of the gym, my strut subsided to a shuffle.  As I caught my confidence and countenance shift, I considered my insecurities. Why was I affected like this? The answer, I believe, lies in identity.  I am a relatively fit person. Nutrition, wellness, and physical activity are very important to me . . . but so is dessert. And couch-potatoing. Suffice it to say that while a lot of the people on this particular fitness floor look like they are prepping for a Baywatch-era Sports Illustrated cover shoot, I do not. And yet, fitness is part of an identity I have always att...

I don't know about you, but there are a lot of lies I buy into on a pretty regular basis.  These little gems are so incredibly tempting to believe because they are specially and specifically crafted for me by the master manipulator, the Father of Lies himself. You see, Satan cannot truly create, he can only twist and contort. And that's what a lie is: a truth contorted. In fact, if you think you've never been entangled in spiritual warfare, ask yourself, What lies have I been believing? Here are a few of mine: Lie #1: I am a horrible friend.  Truth: I drop the ball in my friendships sometimes. I care deeply about others, but I'm not always the best at showing it. I can be flighty and busy and self-consumed, and I wish I was better at meeting people's needs and being God's hands and feet. I am constantly inspired by and learning from others in this area. That's the thing though: I want to be better, and with the help of the Holy Spirit I will be. A truly horr...

While I am not a very techy person and only recently discovered how to pause a Facebook story long enough to read it before it crosses over to the Internet abyss, I do enjoy me some social media from time to time. Facebook is my favorite. I have two Facebook friends we shall call Cindy. While they do in fact share the same first name, it has been changed for the purposes of this post to protect the innocent (and lend cadence to my Dickensian title).  One Cindy is the most vocally liberal Facebook friend I have and the other the most vocally conservative.  I often giggle at "the two Cindies" in my Facebook story feed and how their shared name seems to be their only similarity.  But in truth, the politically charged posts of both Cindies are full of passion, conviction, love, and hate. They are two sides of the same coin.  Sometimes I admire their boldness. Sometimes I agree wholeheartedly with what they have to say. Sometimes their posts make me want to throw my phon...

Who do you listen to? There have never been more voices vying for your attention and allegiance, and the number increases every day.  For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.   2 Timothy 4:3 I think about this verse ALL. THE. TIME.  This is our present reality. We can hit up the interwebs at any moment to find support for nearly any idea we might have. We can find "experts" who agree with or refute any view. We leave this experience feeling justified and bolstered by the congruent opinions and feeling justifiably superior to and irked by incongruent ones.  I think it would be very easy for any Christian (young, old, conservative, progressive, mainline, evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox, you name it) to use 2 Timothy 4:3 to condemn another. Surely we all believe our doctrine is sound, but how do we k...