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Unraveling
Rebekah Cornelius | Train – Develop – Care Tugging on one little thread can unravel the whole sweater—a visual that describes my relationship with grief and loss. Loss has unraveled my expectations, joy, longing, desire, rootedness, and sense of being known. I’m left stunned. How did grief and loss become a central part of my story? This year I’ve been tugging on the fraying threads, getting back to the original parts of myself that haven’t felt safe, known, or loved. My parents graduated to heaven in 2013 and 2014, earlier than anticipated, when I was in my mid-thirties. Those threads, along with unexpected singleness, unraveled me fast. It took me the next couple of years to make sure the unraveling wasn’t going to leave me with a pile of broken dreams and unmet expectations. In many ways, I’m still trying to understand it all as this year, I sell the house that became home for me after my parents passed and I felt alone. It feels like another unraveling. What I really want is to pick up some knitting needles and have my sweater back, please! I would like to have the long life full of being known and loved
Riding the Waves of grief
Grief is complex and non-linear, often resurfacing long after loss, change, or disappointment, and it can be visible or deeply internal while reshaping who we are. This tool invites reflection on personal grief and encourages honest lament before God as part of healing.
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Recent Articles
How Spiritual Direction Has Changed Me and My Ministry
By Jin Rood, World Missions – As my husband, Mark, and I were completing our final year overseas, discerning where God was leading us next, I felt drawn toward a ministry of care. A mentor suggested I explore spiritual direction, and I was immediately intrigued. This form of caregiving focuses on deepening an individual’s relationship with God. Richard Foster explains, “Spiritual direction involves a process through which one person helps another person understand what God is doing and saying.”
Mile Markers of Spiritual Formation
By Glenn Balsis, TDC – Often I gauge my highway travel by mile markers to help me understand where I am as I drive. For my spiritual journey, I’ve realized that I need a spiritual director to help me assess those mile markers in my walk with God. Coaching, mentoring, and discipling all have valued places within my life with God, but spiritual direction has offered a unique encounter with God.
With Me on My Journey
By Jo Newell, TDC
God walked so faithfully and kindly with me in the year following our only son Nathaniel’s death. He met me often through people, almost daily in nature, and usually through His Word. As I was approaching the first anniversary, I sensed from Him that He wanted me to seek a companion to accompany me as I continued this heartbreaking journey.
Dangit, Jo!
By Lyndi Lee Markus, TDC –
“Dangit, Jo!” I exclaimed to my spiritual director. Except I did not use the word dangit. I had come to our session discouraged to the point of tears, stuck in anxious thinking that left me hopeless and powerless. Her question had both lovingly and uncomfortably dislodged me from my rut. How was she so wise?
The Light of Christ
By Amanda Torres, Collegiate – As she struck a match to light the candle for our spiritual direction session, I heard my director say the familiar words she opens with time and time again, “The Light of Christ—who is with us, for us, and in us.” I needed this simple yet profound reminder to sink in deeply on this particular day. I was 21 weeks pregnant, and it was the day after the anatomy scan where my husband and I had found out there was something wrong with our daughter’s heart.
Safe Spaces of Silence in Spiritual Direction
By Luke Kleveland, TDC – Before COVID, I would not have imagined doing spiritual direction with anyone. In fact, if you had asked me about this five years ago, I probably would have looked at you in confusion because I didn’t really know what it was, and then with skepticism because I thought it was purely mystical stuff. Little did I know how my journey with Jesus would change my perspective.
Archives
Unraveling
Rebekah Cornelius | Train – Develop – Care Tugging on one little thread can unravel the whole sweater—a visual that describes my relationship with grief
Eastering Our Marriage
Judy Gomoll | SHAW and Encore Act one Our Happy Marriage Dies In 2001, death and betrayal arrived to our family, leaving a slew of
When Grief is Louder
Osaze Murray | Train – Develop – Care Sometimes, in the middle of my favorite show, a commercial comes on louder than the show I
Image of a Suffering God
Cassie Thornburg | World Missions I sat in another waiting room, wondering if the doctors would be able to figure out what was going on.
The Power of One Voice: Embracing Collective Prayer Practices
Jane Menning City Director | Minneapolis and St. Paul A few years ago, Adam Johnson, our ISM leader in Minneapolis, invited our staff team to
Just Be: A Letter on Prayer to a Younger Me
Lyndi Markus Editor-in-Chief for UpFront Dear younger me, You’re newish to praying— a little green, a little naive, but so expectant— and I can still feel
God Changed My View of Prayer
Peggy Reynoso Train – Develop – Care I had a love-hate relationship with prayer. For most of my life, God spoke to me sporadically, usually
Beauty Tips and Tricks
Unraveling
Rebekah Cornelius | Train – Develop – Care Tugging on one little thread can unravel the whole sweater—a visual that describes my relationship with grief
Eastering Our Marriage
Judy Gomoll | SHAW and Encore Act one Our Happy Marriage Dies In 2001, death and betrayal arrived to our family, leaving a slew of
When Grief is Louder
Osaze Murray | Train – Develop – Care Sometimes, in the middle of my favorite show, a commercial comes on louder than the show I
Image of a Suffering God
Cassie Thornburg | World Missions I sat in another waiting room, wondering if the doctors would be able to figure out what was going on.
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