Celebrating in the Midst
We must approach celebration as a spiritual discipline, a rebellious act of worship we practice on the good days, the hard days, and the ordinary days. When we’ve spent time earnestly rehearsing a spiritual response, it becomes a part of who we truly are. With the ingrained discipline of sacred celebration, we can live and respond from a place of truth, rather than a place of regret or despair.
Community & Commitment
Christ-like community is neither incidental nor accidental. It requires the intentional surrender of our time, money, comfort, and emotional energy in the interest of contributing to the healing of our neighbors and, ultimately, the healing of the world.
Calling & Limitations
Limitations don’t have to be losses; they can be the avenues to our flourishing. This is particularly true if we stay focused and creative within their boundaries, if we care for and cherish what’s inside them.
Detours
I imagine most of us have fairly straightforward pictures in our heads about what our lives will look like and who we will become. When something happens that is not inside the four corners of that picture, we view it as a detour and hope to get back on track as quickly as possible. So what happens when you take a detour and can't ever get back on that original path again?
Choosing “Through”
God never intended for us to be damsels rescued from distress, but for us to be His co-laborers in this beautiful world, which means he wants us to wake up to who we were created to be.
What You Get When You Choose Gratitude
This rhythm of thanking God even in the loss of expectation begins to retrain our minds to recognize Him sometimes withholding not just the things we desire but blessedly, the things we most fear.
On Anniversaries
Every year as spring is reaching its zenith of new life, we’re forced to remember how Katherine nearly died, out of the clear blue. Despite her "resurrection" of sorts, many other things died that day. And yet, in a very sobering way, life is a series of these little deaths, calling us to really live.
The Final Question
Sometimes, the asking is more important than the answers, because it reminds us that we still have a voice and we are not alone, even in the midst of the great mysteries of our lives.
The Thorns
Since we know the end of the story, we can confidently endure, moreover embrace, the depth of suffering guaranteed in our own days. It is impossible to live in the joy of new life if we don't first internalize just how far we've been taken away from death.
Redefining Ability
We are not alone in disability. It’s a reality all of humanity shares at its core. But more than that, we are not alone in our disability because God is there with us, to show us himself in ways that are hard to see when we are blinded by the illusion of our ability.
A Mother’s Day Card
The simple words on that Mother’s Day card belied a deeper meaning, a revelation that James was developing into a little boy who recognized his life and his Mommy looked a little different from those of his friends.
My New Face
Now I know my face tells a story far deeper and richer and more intentional than good genes or expensive makeup. My faces tells the story of survival, second chances, and suffering strong.
The Scars We Have and the Scars We Give
Maybe the best way to parent my boys is to not to hide the hurt, but to show the healing.
Redefining Waiting
Romans 5:3 teaches us that suffering leads us to perseverance and to character and, ultimately, to hope, which will never shame us and will never disappoint us. There is a promise and a purpose in the painful process of waiting, which means we can learn to wait well.
The Identity of Hope
The transcendent world of a life-giving God tumbles in tandem with a creation utterly decaying into death. As believers, how do we not shy away from whole-hearted living while simultaneously holding our tenuous existence with open hands?
Survival Guide: Katherine & Jay Wolf
Hope Heals seeks to re-narrate the story of suffering by sharing the lives and lessons of real people—their honest answers, vulnerable struggles, and surprising transformations through enduring life's greatest storms.
Why I Love My MomBod
Beneath our pursuit of external beauty and eternal youth is both a deep fear—to escape death—and a deep longing—to be loved without having to earn it.
The Good/Hard Life
When we choose to embrace the stories we’re living and release the stories we wished for, we can know in our deepest places that this good story is being written a God who can’t write any other kind of story.
Waiting Well
Our lives have been full of good things, which means our future is full of good things if we are willing to define and identify them rightly.
Walking Away from Shame
We are beautiful because we are made, re-made, and loved by Jesus—beauty made manifest.