blog.

Weekend Reading (and indulging in my love for parenthetical notes)

By Megan Westra / February 16, 2013 /

So much good stuff this week! Ben and I dedicated Cadence last Sunday.  Really, we dedicated ourselves as parents – which is rather intimidating, even though we’ve been parents for a year now. I am so thankful to be raising our daughter in such a wonderful community surrounded by so many who will faithfully point…

Read More

My Manifesto (or, how motherhood unexpectedly turned me into a feminist)

By Megan Westra / February 13, 2013 /

(credit: Robyn Vining)       She was the greatest little surprise I could never have even begun to imagine. My nose. Her father’s eyes.  A personality all her own.   I had been told all my life that motherhood was the ultimate fulfillment in a woman’s life.   For me, it has been more…

Read More

Be Free

By Megan Westra / February 12, 2013 /

(credit)   “That all that confines you would will fall away. That you will loose yourself into the love of God With devotion and desire. That you may know the way that makes for peace In your soul and in this world. That you will give your life to its path.”   –  Jan L.…

Read More

Meditation Monday: Stranger

By Megan Westra / February 4, 2013 /

(credit) “I was a stranger and you welcomed me…” (Jesus in Matthew 25) Day by day I’ve been forcing myself to look, and then look again, and then look deeper. To walk away, disrobe myself of the mottled mix of European cultures  turned middle class American mindset, and look yet again. With a thinner lens…

Read More

Arrhythmia

By Megan Westra / January 31, 2013 /

“The Psalmist unpacks what ruling under God entails, for a ruler after God’s own heart will ‘rescue the poor when they cry out to him…the oppressed, who have no one to defend them.  He feels pity for the weak and the needy, and He will rescue them.  He will redeem them from oppression and violence…

Read More

Sideways Glance

By Megan Westra / January 30, 2013 /

I’ve started to catch myself doing it.   I’ll say something funny provocative insightful.   But I won’t let it stand on it’s own two feet.   I won’t let the words ring with the undertones of the Holy Spirit within me.   I cast a sideways glance.   My eyes betray me.  They speak…

Read More

Why?

By Megan Westra / January 24, 2013 /

(credit)   Why God, Why? Suffering bugs me, and it seems especially so this week. No matter how you phrase it: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” or “Why do good things happen at all to a fallen people in a fallen world?” or any variation of that.  We suffer.  Some more than…

Read More

Meditation Monday: To Love

By Megan Westra / January 21, 2013 /

(credit) In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As we remember… As we reflect… As we find ourselves in a world so full of division and hate… Love. “Love is patient, it waits its turn and doesn’t give up. Love is kind, always looking for the best in people. Love doesn’t want what other…

Read More

Dream Bigger, Dear One

By Megan Westra / January 17, 2013 /

“There is more to us than we know.  If we can be made to see it, perhaps for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less.” And with this brilliant quote from Kurt Hahn, my journey into Carolyn Curtis James’ Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women begins.…

Read More

When Being "Pro-Life" Actually Isn't

By Megan Westra / January 15, 2013 /

I am mad. And in my anger, I am trying not to sin. I am trying to love, but you must hear me loud and clear, I am angry. I am angry because the Church in America is marked by a disgusting entitlement that would liken itself to a spoiled child, rather than by the…

Read More