Sanctuary

What happens when you are lonely? What types of thoughts invade your thinking space? What can happen if you don't ever reach out? These are all reasonable questions that we need to explore and determine answers for as we endeavor to loosen the tent pegs of the camp on Loneliness Island. I will confess that all I have to go on are my own personal experiences and those of many who have confided in me over the years. With 24 years of itinerant ministry under my skinny snakeskin

Thank you, dear one, for joining me over the past few weeks as we explore Life on Loneliness Island. If you haven't been able to read the first two entries, why don't you take a few moments to catch up by clicking here. I'm longing for a coffee date that I didn't ask for and that doesn't involve me needing to have all the answers or pray the prayer of faith. A friendship that doesn't rely on only me to do the pursuing. Frankly, I'm longing for a way out of loneliness. And the

Today I am wrestling...yes, still. I don't feel as though I am kicking against the pricks of God's plan but just wrestling with the woman who seems to keep hijacking my body, mind, and spirit. My gut keeps labeling her peri-menopausal and unstable. Truthfully, I hate "her". "She" isolates me and causes me to question what I'm doing all the time. "She" makes me feel like I'm simply existing, wishing I could just snap out of it and get back in to life. A menagerie of advice is

I want to let you in on a little secret. I feel like I've failed.

At Sanctuary, one of our greatest goals is to bring heightened awareness to the all-too-often state of loneliness and isolation many in vocational ministry experience. If you aren't lonely right now, you might find yourself in such a season at one point or another. (I've written about this before, but I double-dog dare you to stay with me.) Unfortunately, much of loneliness is self-inflicted due to an attempt to, in essence, martyr-ize ourselves for the Cause. And much of thi

I'm just too busy. No one lives near me who gets how my family lives or the burdens we carry. I don't need to plan one more thing. I've tried that before. And it just didn't work for me. I did a lot more of that when I was younger, but it's just not as important anymore. I just wish someone would reach out to me for once. Do any of the above reasons (aka excuses) sound familiar to you? Probably so if you've been married and in the ministry for more than a few days. We use the