Personal Faith

DISPLAY:

Risk Brings Reward

I shouldn’t have needed the push, but I did. In retrospect, I’m not surprised; I’m not always forthcoming when faith and risk are required, even though I am a former staff member with Cru.  Not that a great deal of boldness is required to speak up about being a Jesus follower at a Catholic university […]

Transparency

Professors aren’t known for their personal transparency.  It seems part of the job description to keep up a good image and look like we have it all together. God put me in a situation where that job description was challenged with another one:  be vulnerable and talk about what God has done in my life. […]

Lessons From the Pandemic

Two years ago my husband, infant daughter, two cats, and I moved from Oklahoma to Florida to begin my tenure track position at the University of Florida. A steep learning curve ensued in almost all areas of life. We were beginning to find our feet…and then 2020 hit. The world irrevocably changed with the pandemic. […]

A Table in the Wilderness

Springtime in the mountains is evident from the view out my window as I work from home. My morning routine begins, as it does with so many of us, with those first few sips of coffee.  Familiar, gratifying. Oddly, without rush, now, as the semester is taught online and a statewide shelter-in-place order. Also without […]

Living With an Eternal Perspective

Professor Kuhlman taught me a lot about economics, but the lesson I remember most was about the power of perspective. I was a freshman in his economics class, sitting with about 200 other students in a University of Missouri lecture hall in 1974, when he explained how he could tell in 30 seconds how any […]

On the Road

What best describes your early months of 2020 as an academic? Fear, panic, depression, division, disruption, determination, dedication, hope, community, love, peace, tranquility? – I can relate to some, if not all, of the terms above. I remember the day we learned that research at our university would suddenly “pause.” /*! elementor – v3.6.8 – […]

What Does Your Concern Have to Do With Me?

In John 2:4, they have run out of wine at a wedding. They come to Jesus with the problem: “They have no wine,” shares his mother. Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern […]

The Lord’s Gentle Prompting

One sunny Friday I was headed to my office for the afternoon. Driving to campus, I felt peaceful, sensing God’s presence and hearing Him whisper, “When was the last time you talked about Me with one of your students?” I couldn’t think of a last time-other than in an introduction before undergraduates in my class […]

A Rock of Safety

I know what it means to be scared and to pray the words “Thy will be done”. I know what it means to see a loved one on a ventilator in a medically-induced coma and “call in the family”. I am not only a professor but also an Army wife to a soldier—who was initially […]

Finding Joy in Trials

I confess, as professor emeritus, I have never taught online. I needed to see the students’ eyes, faces, and body language. I needed their feedback. I admit I have never given an online exam. A Christian professor friend gave one last term, and students cheated. What’s a professor to do? COVID-19 is certainly changing higher […]