blog.

Disturbance (Meditation Monday)

By Megan Westra / January 7, 2013 /

(credit) “Disturb us, Lord…” I’ve read this before.  The Prayer of Sir Francis Drake.  It was plastered on scrapbook paper above my bed during my sophomore year of college. The boldness, the daring shakes me like it’s the first time though. “Disturb us, Lord, when We are too well pleased with ourselves, When our dreams…

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An Intention for 2013: To Become Rooted

By Megan Westra / January 2, 2013 /

I must confess, I am skeptical about all of this New Years resolution stuff. A sizable chunk of my undergraduate work was spent discussing change – in the context of weight-loss mostly – but change nonetheless. I know Prochaska and DiClemente’s Transtheoretical Model for Stages of Change forward and backward. The truth is, most of…

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looking back…

By Megan Westra / December 31, 2012 /

As I sit here trying to look back on this past year, I find myself feeling a little lost.   I know completely, 100% who I am in this moment. I could tell you what breaks my heart, kick starts my mind or ignites my soul right off the top of my head. I could…

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branching out

By Megan Westra / December 26, 2012 /

i’m guest blogging today over at Soul Munchies. head on over there to read my thoughts on justice, or at least those thoughts sparked by Rachel Held Evans‘ New York Times Best Seller A Year of Biblical Womanhood.

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for celebration

By Megan Westra / December 25, 2012 /

“Christmas message number one from Mary, the Mother of God: ‘God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.’”    – Miroslav Volf to you and yours as God wraps Godself in flesh as light pierces this great darkness as we are finally at so very long last welcomed home  …

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the year Christmas got real

By Megan Westra / December 19, 2012 /

Christmas has always been my favorite. Family. Friends. Good food. Presents. For an extrovert with a tendency towards a cookie-based diet whose love language is gifts, it’s a win-win-win.   Growing up in the Church, I was taught faithfully that Santa wasn’t real; that “Jesus is the reason for the season”;  that we should always…

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meditation monday (that almost came on tuesday…)

By Megan Westra / December 4, 2012 /

  “Why would you want to read that?” The question is honest, but it takes me off guard.   I’ve just cried my way through the first forty-some-odd pages of the book Half the Sky.   The question jars me out of Pakistan, Nepal and India and drags me across shards of glass back to…

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meditation monday

By Megan Westra / November 26, 2012 /

Yesterday was the International Day Against Violence Against Women, which also marked the beginning of sixteen days devoted to advocacy and education about the atrocities facing women on a global scale. (photo credit: Half the Sky) Stop and think for a second about all the women you know. Your mom. Your daughters. Your sisters. Your…

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meditation monday

By Megan Westra / November 19, 2012 /

photo credit: becoming minimalist My breath retreats deep inside of my gut as the brisk air threatens to take it away. The sky is still dark, but my eyes are wide and my brain is humming with excitement. Black Friday. Admittedly, I’m a junkie. From my early teen years on I joined the myriad of…

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famous

By Megan Westra / November 17, 2012 /

“What is your family famous for?” The question reverberated like a gong somewhere around my left ventricle. I hadn’t expected a discussion on family traditions to be so thought provoking.   Tradition is pretty minor in our house for a variety of reasons. The main reason being that we have a nine-month-old. Traditions in our…

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