This past weekend I got to go to a beautiful dance concert. The dancers were well trained, the costumes were interesting, and the music was beautiful. I love dance. I love that it’s time set aside in our lives to experience life in a whole new way by moving to …

Whose music are we going to listen to in the car? That is a very important question that we have to deal with when we go on mission trip every year. I spent last week with the CYF mission team in Chicago. My music tends to be a little more …

This week thinking about listening to music as a spiritual practice made me think of my friend Patrick. Patrick is possibly the silliest human being I’ve ever met. Because of Patrick there is no shortage of fun in my life. One of the best gifts that Patrick has to offer …

When I walked past the choir room at church the other day, Rev. David Diebold was playing some classical music (loudly…very loudly).  It blows my mind that music, which was created hundreds of years ago, still speaks to me.  These composers used the same musical notes that we use today …

This month my spiritual discipline has been exercising. I’ve decided that it’s about goal setting. I made a goal last week to be able to complete a 5 k within a ½ hour, and I’ve achieved it. My goal is now to work on being able to do the same …

This month I’m working on my spiritual discipline of exercising. If you know me you will not be shocked to know that exercise is rarely (if ever) on my priority list. Friends gasp when I order a salad, people applaud when I tell them that I actually ran, and I …

When we read people’s Facebook pages, see people on TV, and walk down the street…doesn’t it seem like everyone is ridiculously happy all the time? I’m slowly coming to realize that not every moment of every day can be filled with the pure joy and doing exactly what we want …

When I reflected on what I celebrated this week it revolved around the fact that I’m in love with this city. I’m in love with Kansas City, what isn’t there to love about it? This week I got to see some beautiful art when I went to a play with …

  This past month I’ve been focusing on taking time for Sabbath rest for myself.  The other day I was sitting in a coffee shop reading scripture and someone asked what I was doing.  I told them that I was taking some Sabbath time.  This person knows what I do …

This month I am focusing on Sabbath as my spiritual discipline. Doing your taxes doesn’t sound like Sabbath, but I did everything I could to avoid having to do this very scary task. Numbers have always scared me. My best friend works at the coffee shop that I frequent, and …

This week in my Sabbath-keeping I decided that I was going to maintain reading in a coffee shop. One of the reasons that I like reading in a coffee shop so much is the community that naturally begins to form as you sit and enjoy coffee. There are baristas with …

This month I am focusing on taking some Sabbath rest for myself as a spiritual discipline. To me taking Sabbath rest doesn’t have to be a full day, but it does need to be time taken in the week to rest with Spirit. Sabbath is about taking time to feed …

This past weekend my parents were in town to see me sing in the Heartland Men’s Chorus.   They got to come with me to worship as well.  During worship one of the prayers talked about the things around us that helped us see the sacred, and I’m pretty sure that …

I text messaged my sister and asked her how she was doing.   Her response was “Raising three kids, working full time, and trying to take 14 credit hours of college classes.”  I responded with “You are too busy…I love you.”  She responded, “I always have time to love you.”  This …

This month my discipline has been engaging in worship more fully. At Country Club Christian Church this past week we reflected on many things, one of them being how a heart broken may be a heart open enough to give and receive love. My favorite poet, Mary Oliver, wrote “Whoever …