Author: Jocelyn

  • This morning was a normal morning at my house.

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    Jocelyn
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    I woke up to a quiet house, save for the whir of dueling white-noise fans. I drank a cup of coffee and read a chapter in a book about Jesus, feeling in my stomach the tension at not knowing at what moment the silence would turn abruptly to mayhem. This morning I had just about 20 minutes. Oh, those blessed…

  • I love it when my family gets in a fight on the way to Sunday church.

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    Jocelyn
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    I love it because it reminds me of my brokenness. I love it because it humbles me, exactly in the place where there used to be pride that I couldn’t even see! I love it because it invites me back into the repentance (turning away from self & turning toward God) rhythms that are absolute necessity for…

  • a {new} devotional study through the gospel of Mark

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    Jocelyn
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    At church we’re starting a study of the life and ministry of Jesus through the eyes and pen of the Gospel-writer Mark. I’ve decided to write a little bit alongside our teaching pastor – one devotional study per week. I’m calling it a devotional study because I hope that you’ll find each one to be…

  • from hireling for God to lover of God

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    Jocelyn
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    A lover of God is better and more pleasing to God than a hundred thousand hirelings. from Theologica Germanica (ca. 1350), a document birthed out of the fourteenth-century German “Friends of God” renewal movement, later championed by Martin Luther   For many years, I was happy being a busy, responsible, visibly dutiful worker for God.…

  • a Sunday prayer

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    Jocelyn
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    Oh God, thank you for a new day – a new opportunity to learn to pray. We come to you, again, as learners — novices. We come to you as little children: trusting, seeking, needy. And so we say again, alongside your first followers: “Teach us to pray.” We think of all that you taught…

  • Should we even teach our kids ‘right’ and ‘wrong?’

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    Jocelyn
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    “Fools are bad.” It was a comment out of the mouth of my newly-turned 4-year-old. We were debriefing Day 2 of VBS. The theme is ‘Wisdom & Foolishness.’ I have to admit, his comment startled me. I may even have gasped a little bit out loud. Such pretension. Such confidence. Such seeds of disdain for…

  • One of those days.

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    Jocelyn
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    I had one of those days this week. You know: those days. Maybe you did too. You know, just work and life and relationships and entropy and dirt and full and loud and chaos. And no end in sight. You know, those days when everything feels hard and nothing feels easy. I’m sure I bring as…

  • something meaningful, refreshing, life-giving for summer: 5Mondays

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    Jocelyn
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    I’m trying a little something new this summer. I’d just thought I’d share it with you in case you want to try it in your community, with your friends this summer, too. It’s not revolutionary or anything, at least on a large-scale. But I am praying for revolution, revival, renovation, restoration on a large-scale in…

  • Praying the Psalms

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    Jocelyn
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    I spend the summers with Eugene Peterson. Not face-to-face, but face-to-page. Eugene is my spiritual mentor whose life and personality and spiritual giftedness are perhaps more starkly different from mine than any of my other mentors. He sees the world through an entirely different lens than I, and, therefore, his mentorship is invaluable to me.…

  • Stop Volunteering; Start Ministering.

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    Jocelyn
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    We don’t need any more volunteers in this world! We need ministers of God & His Gospel Good News. We’re all volunteers, right? Somewhere, somehow, in some way, we all give away some of our time and energy for free. Some of us volunteer lots of hours, others just a few. Some of us choose…