BRAVEHEARTS

This is the next videocast in the Radically Redemptive Relationships series. We talk about betrayal, but the truth is that we can’t put words to it.  We were made to never be betrayed, and so we don’t manage it well. We rage at God, we hurt others, and ourselves.  Betrayal is the exact opposite of […]

Tags: Alcohol and Grace Abuse, Come out of Hiding, Erik Guzman, keylife.org, Steffany Gretzinger

Radically Redemptive Relationships? You’ve Got to Be Crazy! Into Me See – It Takes A Braveheart The day has finally come when my dear friend since college (dare I say, over thirty years ago!?) Holly Stratton (lifehurts.us) and I share our debut VIDEOCASTS: Radically Redemptive Relationships: Finding Common Ground For Love’s Sake. The videocasts were […]

Tags: Friendship, Hiding, Intimacy, Teresa of Avila

Everyone is talking about it. Betrayal. Whether it’s a pastor whose name was discovered in the Ashley Madison hack or President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran – that some say is an unforgivable betrayal of Israel – betrayal makes us run for cover in fear that we might be the next to be betrayed or […]

Tags: Ashley Madison, Ben Affleck, Betrayal, Blake Shelton, Divorce, Divorce Decree, Elie Wiesel, Iran, Israel, Jennifer Garner, Miranda Lambert, Tattoos, the Holocaust, the signature of Jesus

        We met under a street light and started talking about everything . . . the war between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, the Pope, the South (in the 1970’s), boys (in the 1970’s), Jesus, and the strange soup that they served in the Dining Common that married the unlikely flavors of […]

Tags: Ashley Madison, Dan Allender, Elizabeth Gilbert & Zuckerberg, Family are Friends Too, Friendships, I Have a Friend Who Know My Name, Josh Duggar, Life-giving Words of Friends, Love Will Win, Radically Redemptive Relationships, Richer than Oprah, Slow Fade of Love, Stranger Friends, the Joy set before Him, The R-cubed Challenge

  Alone.  Several weeks ago the History Channel began to chronicle the fascinating and sometimes bone-chilling stories of, “Ten men who enter the Vancouver Island wilderness carrying only what they can fit in a small backpack. They are alone in harsh, unforgiving terrain with a single mission–stay alive as long as they can. These men […]

Tags: Addiction, Alcoholism. Busyness, Donald Miller - Scary Close, Grace, History Channel Alone, Isolation, Living Water, Loneliness, Masks, Perfectionism, Powerlessness, Predators, Reality Television, Redemption, Relationships, Singleness, Starvation, Surrender, Survivalists, The Last Addiction, Thirst

  The following stories are true. The scam is real, but names and inconsequential details have been changed to protect those involved. Okay, Cupid. My friend, Sara logged on to the dating website, Ok Cupid, with reluctance and the tiniest bit of hope. Almost immediately she was messaged by a handsome man, with a job, who […]

Tags: alcoholism, Catfishing, Come home, Divorce, False promise, Fhishing, Fraud, Imposter, It is Finished, Jesus, Nigerian romance scam, On-line dating, Prone to Wander, Scarlet Letter, Singleness, Stand at the Door and Knock

  I scrolled through a lot of Blogs and Facebook posts reading about Friday’s Supreme Court ruling acknowledging same-sex marriage. I think everyone who posts something about this subject is brave (or crazy), because it has been “the issue” that has polarized our country. After about an hour I couldn’t read anymore. I was dizzy […]

Tags: Dehumanizing Behavior, Gossip, Kindness, Listening to Story, Righteous and Unrighteous Anger, Supreme Court Ruling on Same-Sex Marriage, the Kingdom of Love

  The headlines crush us again with stories of inappropriate relationships that result in severe consequences — the loss of job, reputation, and trust. I’m afraid we read the headlines and fill in the story with images from terrible television shows like Mistresses or country western songs that tell stories of lost lovers or lost dogs or […]

Tags: Affairs, Confusion, Divorce, Forgetfulness, Inappropriate Relationships, Love, Naivete, Presumption, Tulian Tchividjian

  A stately Norwegian man with white hair and sparkling blue eyes stood before a bunch of beat-up, bedraggled, brave women.  He was giving us some final words before we left the place-of-no-other-choice to join a world filled with too many choices.  We were at Haselden – a treatment center hidden in the tall Minnesota […]

Tags: Addiction, Grace, Haselden, Jesus, Reality Television, Relationship with Jesus, Rescue, Surrender, Taylor Swift, Telling Stories

It all began with Fifty Shades of Grey. I should explain.  As many of you have kindly noted and inquired about, I haven’t written a blog for a long time.  Quite honestly, I didn’t have anything to say.  My own health struggles left me barely able to work and crawl home to sleep.  The heartache of […]