Becoming a Poet (all my life)

I wrote this poem for a class my last semester of school. It is a certain style of poetry that requires the lines to end with the same 6 words rotating. The Beauty of the Broken was a thought that had been swimming around in my mind for awhile and it was this assignment that allowed it to come to fruition. I wanted to share it with you because I have again been thinking a lot about how Christ is often reflected better in our broken pieces than in our healthy habits. It is a strange thing that broken glass reflects light so differently than a flawless...

Becoming Broken and Whole

It is the greatest paradox of life that in order to become whole, one must be completely broken. I was going to wait until next month to write this entry. It is a reflection on the last year of my life. August 14th will be exactly a year that I have been searching for a job and filling my months with random short-term sources of income. Would I ever have imagined this year? Of course not. Would I ever have planned or hoped for twelve months of uncertainty....

Becoming a Volunteer Coordinator

You may or may not know that I recently interviewed for a teaching position at an early education center. Well, today I received a letter in the mail informing me that, while they appreciate my interest in the position, they have decided to hire a different candidate...Rejection notices are so personal. So, I will not be teaching and herding 10 toddlers around every day for the next year. I, still, don't know what I will be doing for the next year....

Becoming Joyful

Joyful and happy are so very different. Why can't we get that? We say it all the time..."Happy is based on circumstance. Joy is based on knowing and believing Christ." We say that, and then in the very same breath we tell the person who is crying to suck it up because they should be joyful. I think our, or at least my, understanding of joy needs to be broadened. I had a very sweet friend tell me once that I was always sad. She challenged me to be more joyful. I certainly think there is weight in what she share with me, which went a little deeper...

Becoming a Truth-walker

First of all, I feel compelled to clarify my last post a little bit. I think it may have come across to some that I believe if a job is not what I want to do, if it is hard, that I don't think I am supposed to be doing it. That is not at all what I mean. What I mean to communicate is that the place where faith and logic come together is lost on me. I do not plan to avoid jobs simply because they are difficult or boring or uncomfortable or whatever...

Becoming Disheartened

One of the points of Sunday's sermon was when you can't see clearly what to do, take the next logical step of faith. What the heck does that mean? I know that there is some way that logic and faith meet, but I cannot figure it out. It must be due to some incorrect definition of one or the other or both. Logical: natural or sensible given the circumstancesI know that isn't the only definition of logical, but it is the one that I associate with the...

Becoming Wine?

In order to make fine wine, grapes must be harvested at the precise time, preferably when physiologically ripe. A combination of science and old-fashioned tasting usually go into determining when to harvest, with consultants, winemakers, vineyard managers, and proprietors all having their say. Harvesting can be done mechanically or by hand. However, many estates prefer to hand harvest, as mechanical harvesters can often be too tough on the grapes...

Becoming a Waiter

This week I have been really struggling to trust the Lord. On paper, I can write out that God is faithful, he is provider, he loves me, he is good, etc. But I am having trouble living every day in that truth. Tonight I even thought, "He keeps telling me to wait. I can see exactly where the door is but all he says is 'wait'." As soon as the thought was completed in my mind, I felt the Holy Spirit poking me..."That sounds familiar, Erin. Kind of like something you taught the youth this summer." Well heck. It's true. I did a Sunday morning lesson...

Becoming Pieces

Brokenness is a terribly, painfully, wonderful, beautful thing. Now, I say that on the fringe of becoming broken. I am not in the middle of brokenness ( at least not as I have known it to feel in the past). I am however about to be broken. I say this with such confidence because of how things are lining up. First, I was asked to speak at a girls' conference about finding satisfaction in Christ. How to speak about that when you don't know how to do that to begin with is extremely humbling. Preparing that lesson was a huge lesson for myself. So that...

Becoming Infected

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