Who am I? My name is Melissa. I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, took detours to Minnesota and New Jersey for college and seminary, served a congregation in the Chicago suburbs for about four years before landing here in Decorah, Iowa, where I live with my dear husband, my two sweet children, and our two crazy cats.
I am a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. But my spiritual life is far bigger than just my career, and it takes many forms:
I love writing, music, cooking, knitting, and nature. I like to take pictures and write poetry. I love to read but am extremely picky about books. Sometimes I love running. (Other times I hate it.) I like to explore the world around me.
Having young children has helped me to appreciate the gifts of wonder and curiosity, as I am blessed to see the world through their wide-open eyes and hearts, where everything is new, and everything new is beautiful and fascinating.
I believe that everything I have and everything I am are nothing other than blessings and gifts of God's grace, none of which I deserve. I believe that I am called to live out that same grace in my life. I firmly believe that my purpose in life is to bear hope in the world.
Why this blog?
Let's be honest. It's not as if I needed another blog space. It's not as if I needed to take up any more room on the internet. But what I did need is an excuse to write more often about the things that most often occupy my head and heart: the intersection of faith and the world, the connections that I find myself making between the ordinary stuff of the world and the grace of God in and among it.
I'm particularly influenced by Barbara Brown Taylor in her book, An Altar in the World, where she describes the spiritual practice of paying attention, by which sacraments and holy things emerge from the everyday stuff of life. She says, "Regarded properly, anything can become a sacrament, by which I mean an outward and invisible sign of an inward and spiritual connection"(30).
Hopefully this space can be an outward sign of the inward and spiritual connections that I find myself making with the world around me. And hopefully, in reading, your own holy imagination will be stirred!
I am a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. But my spiritual life is far bigger than just my career, and it takes many forms:
I love writing, music, cooking, knitting, and nature. I like to take pictures and write poetry. I love to read but am extremely picky about books. Sometimes I love running. (Other times I hate it.) I like to explore the world around me.
Having young children has helped me to appreciate the gifts of wonder and curiosity, as I am blessed to see the world through their wide-open eyes and hearts, where everything is new, and everything new is beautiful and fascinating.
I believe that everything I have and everything I am are nothing other than blessings and gifts of God's grace, none of which I deserve. I believe that I am called to live out that same grace in my life. I firmly believe that my purpose in life is to bear hope in the world.
Why this blog?
Let's be honest. It's not as if I needed another blog space. It's not as if I needed to take up any more room on the internet. But what I did need is an excuse to write more often about the things that most often occupy my head and heart: the intersection of faith and the world, the connections that I find myself making between the ordinary stuff of the world and the grace of God in and among it.
I'm particularly influenced by Barbara Brown Taylor in her book, An Altar in the World, where she describes the spiritual practice of paying attention, by which sacraments and holy things emerge from the everyday stuff of life. She says, "Regarded properly, anything can become a sacrament, by which I mean an outward and invisible sign of an inward and spiritual connection"(30).
Hopefully this space can be an outward sign of the inward and spiritual connections that I find myself making with the world around me. And hopefully, in reading, your own holy imagination will be stirred!