DEEP WATERS

If you're like me, you've been watching the 24-hour news stories about yesterday's terrorist attack on Paris, France.  If you're like me, you were mortified over the news. If you're like me, you're asking lots of questions... How can people have such hatred for perfect strangers? Why do such horrible things happen to good people? How do we make sense of the senseless? I honestly don't have answers to these real life questions. And yet, today I purposefully opened my heart to God's voice while praying over this tragedy.  This is what I heard God say in my spirit... Carla, you've spent most of your Christian life pursuing comfort and safety. But I haven't called you, or any of my children, to a life of safety.  Instead of a life of safety, I've called you to a life of meaning and purpose. Hearing these words from the Lord made me think about  The Barbarian Way,  a book written by one of my favorite pr...

Last night I completed my latest read, a book that I'd been hearing about for months - The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd , author of The Secret Life of Bees . This was a good read - a great one even. The Invention of Wings tells the story of Sarah Grimke, the daughter of Southern slaveowners in early nineteenth-century Charleston, South Carolina and Hetty, a.k.a. Handful, a slave girl owned by the Grimke family. On her eleventh birthday, Sarah receives a special gift from her parents - her very own slave girl. That girl is Handful. This story follows both women as they come of age in the early 1800's, as they share the sense of powerlessness they both feel as women, and for Handful, as an African American slave woman. We dip into the valley-lows with the women as they experience loss, betrayal, rejection, and paralyzing fear. But we also follow them to their mountain-highs as they embrace purpose, friendship, love and courage. We witness them finding their voic...

Last year, on September 11th, I published a reminder for us to never forget the nearly 3000 people that lost their lives on September 11, 2001. I remember that day like it was yesterday... Do you remember where you were on that day? Well, if you can remember that day, then obviously you were not counted in the number that died that fateful day. You are here for a purpose . Do you know what that purpose is? I believe we all have a special assignment from God that we were created for. I believe we all have gifts and talents and influence that God wants to use to impact the world. But I also believe that we all have a general calling in life. It may take on different forms and utilize different methods. I believe this calling can be found in the Bible: He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy  and to walk humbly with your God.*  No matter where we live, where we work, who we are, G...

This week I watched "Dead Poets Society." A lover of quotes, this movie was made for nerds like me. I've been quoting lines from the movie ever since. I offer you one here, delivered by John Keating (played by Robin Williams), an English teacher at a prestigious prep school for boys: "Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, 'Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.' Don't be resigned to that. Break out!" Do you strive to find your own voice in the world? Have you ever felt that "quiet desperation"? Have you known the urge to "break out" of the mold of your life? I believe there are two facets to this need, this desire, this desperation. 1. We are called to something bigger than ourselves As far back as I can remember, when I was but a little pigtailed girl in Baltimore, Maryland, I've believed that there...