When Joe and I first came to Vintage21 Church in 2002, there was great hope. As the body grew and the church gained momentum, we felt a part of something larger than ourselves. People gave selflessly of their time and resources. Community was easy, on some levels at least, because it was fun. But as with all relationships, newness wore off. People made mistakes. Feelings got hurt. At times they got really hurt and people left. There were times seeing…

Back in high school and college, I was highly introspective, prone to times of getting lost in my emotions and thoughts, and wrote a lot of poetry that anyone on the brink of despair should never read. Writing was my therapy, and some of it was actually beautiful, but as kids have entered the picture, there just aren’t words, and there is far less introspection. Whenever deep(er) thoughts start to creep up, they are usually interrupted by little gremlins disguised…

I know I’m supposed to have these deep pervasive thoughts that just explode onto the screen when I sit down to write – but that just isn’t happening anymore. Instead I find phrases tumbling through my head and broken pieces of imperfect ideas trailing along behind them. One of these phrases is “just be true to yourself.” The idea being – so what if people don’t like it, so what if you are standing alone, so what if you look…