This past week has been tough. Orlando, Paris, Tel Aviv, and many others have been a constant source of tears, heartache and mourning for the global community I know for me, death has hit home in a different way. Last week, my Grandma passed away at 89 years old. She was an amazing woman who was first and foremost, a Christian. She loved Jesus in so many ways, and in every way she embodied a older...
The Spirit prays for us. We do not know what to pray, nor necessarily to pray for that which we do not know what to pray for. Neither did we know how to pray, nor even how to pray for what we do not know to pray for, but our Lord has taught us. He did not merely teach us how to pray, but he has trained us in his own Spirit. It is the...
Last Friday, I had the awesome opportunity to speak in Biola’s undergraduate chapel about my thesis on shame and how it affects our relationships with God and others. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to share about what I’ve learned about shame and grace, and also my own struggle with shame and depression, and the hope and healing that I’ve found in my life through community. It all came about quite organically and it was...
Yesterday, in honor of the martyrdom of St. Valentine, I hosted a dinner party with a few of my girl friends. It was a good time of delicious food and engaging conversation. While Valentine’s Day can be S.A.D. (Singles Awareness Day), I wanted to celebrate the holiday in the truest fashion with having a feast day celebrating St. Valentine, as was the origins of the holiday on the liturgical calendar. While romantic love is often...
“Your F(f)ather loves you very much.” These words have been ringing in my heart for the past week. The last few days I attended a Chinese Missions Convention in San Diego, where there were over 3,000 people ready to hear about the different ways God is working throughout the world. Although I’m Filipino (and actually 1/32nd Chinese, since my great-great-grandmother was Chinese), I was recruited by a friend to play keyboard for the worship team...
When you’re learning how to knit, you need to learn to read a whole new language: K1, m1, p2, CO, k2tog. You learn to decipher charts and take something that looks good on paper and bring it to life. And you learn, through experience, that knitting takes time and requires a good deal of patience if you’re going to see a project to completion. A few weeks ago, my husband and I opened our home...
Don’t ever condemn someone to the “friend zone.” If you do, that person will become a stripper. That’s the moral of the stage musical Rock of Ages, which some of my co-bloggers and I caught during a weekend trip to Las Vegas last month. The first act launches a love story between Drew, a busboy who dreams of being a rock star, and Sherrie, an aspiring actress who’s just moved to Hollywood. The two form...
“Follow Your Arrow,” the catchy tune by singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves, has found a home on country music radio and is getting love from those who embrace its message: be who you are, live for the moment, stop caring what people think. Like many of today’s chart-toppers, it tends to clash with my beliefs. But that melody, those sweet-as-honey vocals make it hard to change the station. So I sing along, critiquing the worldview as I...
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.-1 John 3:18 She is new. None of us have seen her before. A woman with a modest hijab walks into our English class for the very first time. In many ways she is out of place. She is the only woman in our class and those of us teaching can tell that she is not from the ethnic group...
A friend made a comment about a blog post that I recently “liked” called Hearing God in the Midst of Suicidal Thoughts by Matthew Wireman on The Gospel Coalition blog. In jest, he asked if me if I was doing ok, and wanted to make sure to talk me off the ledge. In my response to him, I told him that I was currently doing alright, and to not to worry about me, that I...
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