Uncompromised

  What If They Don't Need Our Stuff? As Christians, or even just as people who go to church, I think there's one thing we can all agree on: missions matter. Short-term or long-term, missionaries usually have our hearts, our prayers, and our financial support. And rightly so. They're doing important work, going where many of us will never go, learning languages we may never speak, living in cultures very different from our own, and sharing the Gospel. So, kudos to all the missionaries out there. Seriously. And let me say this too: not only IMB missionaries are "real missionaries." I once heard a Baptist pastor say something along those lines, and honestly, it bothered me. The Great Commission belongs to Christ, not to one denomination. Jesus didn't say, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, as long as they belong to our denomination." He said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). All nations. Not j...

  I See You When God's Love Doesn't Look Like We Expected I see you. I see you showing up when you would rather stay in bed. I see you smiling in the church lobby while carrying something no one in that lobby knows about. I see you praying the same prayer for the hundredth time, wondering if heaven is still listening. I see you sitting with a diagnosis you didn't ask for, a marriage that feels harder than it should, a child who is struggling, a dream that quietly died, or a hundred small griefs that piled up until they became one very heavy thing. You are doing the hardest kind of faithful. The kind no one applauds. The kind that just keeps going. And somewhere in the middle of it, you have probably whispered a version of this prayer: "Lord, I know You are good. I just don't understand what You are doing." Friend, I want to sit with you here for a while. Not to explain your pain away. Not to hand you a verse and walk off. I want to open Scripture with yo...

  WHEN Para o Dia das Mães que pertence a cada uma de nós Em algum momento, ficamos com tanto medo de magoar alguém no Dia das Mães que nos esquecemos de realmente celebrá-lo. E amiga, eu acho que está na hora de mudar isso. Eu entendo. De verdade. As intenções são boas. Ninguém quer ser a responsável por fazer uma mulher em luto chorar na terceira fileira. Ninguém quer ignorar a mulher lá atrás que já espera anos por um teste positivo. A sensibilidade vem de um lugar real, e essa parte é linda. Mas em algum ponto entre ser cuidadosa e ser gentil, começamos a pedir desculpas em silêncio por algo que Deus jamais pediu desculpas. E amiga, não estou escrevendo isso de uma distância segura. Eu perdi um bebê. Vivi uma temporada em que fiz as pazes, quietinha, com a ideia de que talvez a maternidade não fizesse parte do meu futuro. E então Deus, do jeito inesperado e surpreendente que só Ele tem, me enviou um menino que eu não havia planejado, mas de alguma forma sempre tinha orado....

WHEN For the Mother's Day that belongs to every one of us Somewhere along the way, we got so afraid of hurting someone on Mother's Day that we forgot to actually celebrate it. And friend, I think it's time we fix that. I get it. I really do. The intentions are good. Nobody wants to be the one who makes a grieving woman cry in the third row. Nobody wants to ignore the woman in the back who has been waiting years for a positive pregnancy test. The sensitivity comes from a real place, and that part is beautiful. But somewhere between being careful and being kind, we started quietly apologizing for something God never apologized for. And friend, I'm not writing this from a safe distance. I lost a baby. I walked through a season where I quietly made peace with the idea that maybe motherhood wasn't in my future anymore. And then God, in His wildly unexpected way, sent me a boy I hadn't planned for but had somehow always prayed for. I lost my mom, my greatest exam...

The Quiet Ache in the Crowd It’s been a while since we caught up, my last post was back on March 17! A lot has happened since then, as I spent the last few weeks in Brazil visiting family, wandering through vibrant markets, and soaking in the incredible specialty coffee and cafe culture of São Paulo. I'm still a big city girl in the heart, and I confess it was refreshing! I have so many beautiful stories and pictures to share from the trip, but we'll save the travel journal and the local cafe finds for a separate post soon. Getting back to the quiet reality of our everyday lives, though: we have never had more ways to reach across the globe, yet we have never felt so far away from the person sitting across the table. I was sitting in my favorite booth at a local cafe the other day, nursing a warm matcha latte, watching the room fill up with people. It’s a familiar scene, everyone together, yet remarkably alone. So many times, a person is surrounded by a crowd and still feels co...

The Grief No One Prepares You For My Friends, There is a kind of grief that has no funeral. No casserole dropped at your door. No cards in the mail. No one dressed in black, sitting beside you in silence. It is the grief of watching someone you love become someone you no longer recognize. Maybe it's the friend who chose bitterness over healing and now lives in a permanent state of offense. Maybe it's the family member whose heart has grown so hard that kindness bounces off like rain on concrete. Maybe it's the person you prayed with, laughed with, dreamed with, who is still breathing, still posting online, still living their life, but is no longer here in any way that matters. They didn't die. But you lost them anyway. And the world expects you to act like nothing happened. This week, I sat with a dear friend who is walking through this kind of grief. As she shared her story, my heart ached for her. Not because of obvious tragedy, but because of the slow, quiet ...

  Known by God, Held by Hope Oh Lord, You know my heart. You know exactly where I am today.  You know my thoughts and my words even before they come out of my mouth. I am here, Lord. Use me. Today, I am sad. There are days when sadness arrives quietly and other days when it feels heavier. Today, the sadness is tied to longing. I am missing my mom. I miss her voice, her presence, and the comfort of knowing she was near. Even after time has passed, grief has a way of returning, often when we least expect it. I am fully aware of all that God is doing for me. I see His provision and His faithfulness. I recognize the many ways He has carried me and continues to sustain me. Yet knowing God is at work does not erase the ache of missing someone we love. Gratitude and grief can live in the same heart. Faith and sadness can exist together. The Lord knows this. Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up. You underst...