In my role as a campus minister over the last 15 years, I’ve had the privilege of helping students embrace the value of simple, flexible, and defined spiritual disciplines.Read more…
Writing Captures the Moment (Writing As a Spiritual Discipline Series)
Since finishing undergrad, I’ve moved back across the country—from school in Illinois to home in Orange County, CA. Writing has been a big part of the past 8 months as I’ve been re-adjusting to the area, away from the majority of my social circles.Read more…
Scheduling for our Souls (Scholar’s Compass)
I’m not sure where you are on your academic path, but as a freshly graduated Ph.D., I am excited as I start a job as an Assistant Professor this year. It means I get to learn how to create my life schedule amongst a bunch of newness: new city, new home, new church, new university, new community (including new coffee shops!), new university, new colleagues, new students, and honestly, a new me.Read more…
Summer Snapshot: The Discipline of Simplicity
Two years ago, my husband and I packed our two-bedroom townhouse into my parents’ garage and flew to the U.K. with two bags each. During our postgraduate studies, we lived in a 300 sq. ft. apartment and shared one three-feet-wide closet for a whole year. Aside from traveling and making friends from around the world, we learned a few unexpected lessons which we are trying to integrate into our lives this summer.Read more…
Summer Snapshot: The Secret of Solitude
Same setting yet different pace of life. A transition from being an undergraduate student to graduate student at the same university is a place of mixed feelings. As I’m utilizing my summer by starting a research project, the reality of large time commitment is becoming very tangible for me as I realize how quickly time escapes from me.Read more…
Book Review: The Spirit of the Disciplines
Dallas Willard’s classic work “The Spirit of the Disciplines” explains why and how spiritual disciplines are vital for transformation into the character of Christ as his disciples.Read more…
Finding Christ When You’re Busy, Part 2 (Scholar’s Compass)
Perhaps the time you can make for prayer and meditation right now feels like the widow’s mite—practically nothing on the world’s scale of value. Maybe you only have 15 minutes to give to prayer and Scripture reading at this moment. Maybe you only have 5. Read more…
Book Review: Discovering Lectio Divina
Editor’s note: In response to Bob’s review of his book Kneeling with Giants: Learning to Pray with History’s Best Teachers, Gary Neal Hansen commented that this Lent he’s trying to engage in a more serious lectio divina. For those desiring to learn moreRead more…
Book Review: Kneeling with Giants
As a young Christian, I thought there was one way to pray. I learned the ACTS acronym (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) and thought this was THE way. Only later did I discover that even within scripture, people prayed in widelyRead more…
Do you desire rest?
What kind of spiritual discipline is rest? What exhausts you? introduced an exploration of the spiritual discipline of rest, one which I find particularly pertinent not only to my life, but also to the lives of those whom I interactRead more…
What exhausts you?
“People in a hurry never have time for recovery. Their minds have little time to meditate and pray so that problems can be put in perspective. In short, people in our age are showing signs of physiological disintegration because weRead more…
Thank you. You can rest Dallas Willard.
I write after a good cry. Dallas Willard died this morning after announcing stage 4 cancer on Monday. You can read more here. For those who don’t know, Dallas was a longtime philosophy professor at USC. He was a great voice forRead more…
What Are You Thankful For? The Spiritual Discipline of Gratitude
Gratitude is hard. When things are going well, it’s easy to believe that we have accomplished our success entirely through our own effort and that we owe nothing to anyone else, least of which God.Read more…
Which Bible do you use?
At church on Sunday, a friend leaned over and asked me what Bible I was using. It happened to be the ESV Study Bible; she asked because of the many (and long) footnotes, margin references, etc., but this is onlyRead more…
Freshmen, Stress, and Spirituality
The NY Times reports that the emotional health of college freshmen is at a 25-year low, based on the annual survey conducted by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute. In the survey, “The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2010,” involving moreRead more…
Do You Pray Before Class?
As I mentioned in Friday’s Week in Review, my InterVarsity colleague Tom Trevethan pointed me to a recent post by Fuller president Richard J. Mouw on Duke’s Call & Response blog. Mouw asks: What difference does it make to openRead more…
Strength through Pruning
Last week, I began reading the new book from IVP publisher Bob Fryling, The Leadership Ellipse: Shaping How We Lead By Who We Are. I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the question “Who am I?” (and reading other IVPRead more…
How Did You Celebrate Easter?
How did you celebrate Easter yesterday? Do you see celebration as a spiritual discipline? Read more…