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Five Lies that Undermine Your Sense of Belonging
C.S. Lewis once commented that belonging to a group is the strongest emotional drive a human possesses. I suppose social media is just the latest arena, though I think most people have some pretty visceral memories of the popular crowd in middle school. I haven’t thought about being popular in decades but it ranked among my top concerns throughout adolescence. I have since discovered that many never grow out of this phase. And for good reason. A sense of belonging is crucial to physical and mental health. Isolation is so stressful that it has now become a fully recognized mental illness all on its own in the latest iteration of…
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What I Learned from My First Bad Boss
My first experience with a bad boss puzzled me for years. Nearly eighteen years ago, I taught at a small Christian university in Kentucky. A single mom with four girls, I was incredibly grateful for my job. I kept my head down and taught my classes. Towards the end of the school year, the chair of my department called me in. I remember the moment quite clearly. I liked my boss. He was about thirty years older than me. I had met his lovely wife and, from my naïve standpoint, thought they must have a lovely marriage. He asked me if I had heard the rumors. I had not. Up…
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Revelation: How to Open the Eyes of Your Heart
Revelation is a curious occurrence. The word itself means a disclosure of information by a supernatural source in most dictionaries. As I played with the word, I broke it into two parts, ‘revel’ and ‘elation’ because they describe how I feel when the Lord shows me something I did not know before. I’m aware that the word’s root is about revealing but I don’t believe that all word constructions are accidental. I revel in the revelatory. Though God has opened up scriptures or whispered pieces of wisdom to my spirit, a particular revelation comes to mind when I go through my catalog of spiritual happenings. I attended a conference at…
Healing Through Art & Words
