Hitting the reset button on your life

September 14, 2016.Reading time 7 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep My breakfast was so pretty I took a picture. And posted it on social media, of course. I felt proud, like it was my kid, and this was her first day of Kindergarten. Ok, sure, it was just two fried eggs sprinkled with roasted and crushed kale, diced fresh tomato, apple […]

Going Dark–or at least Going Dim–to find your way

June 21, 2016.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep I love going to the movies. I love sharing an overpriced pop, gorging on Good and Plenty smuggled inside my “movie purse” because it makes up for the pricey Pepsi, and watching people wander into the theater and spend that awkward 15 seconds making their personal seating preference known to an audience of […]

Mother’s Day with all the vowels

May 8, 2016.Reading time 3 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep Sometimes on a day you could and should sleep in, you wake up at 4 a.m. instead, because, well, that cup of peach tea at 8:30 p.m. …and that thing or 10 on your mind that you need to pray about. So you wake up God, too, who like a patient […]

Sticky Notes from the Universe You May Have Missed

February 2, 2016.Reading time 7 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep There were sticky notes everywhere. Just to make absolutely sure that the high school and college graduation party for my kids went off without a hitch, my mother had strategically placed important messages throughout the house. “pans for grilled food only” (read: don’t use these pans for E-coli-ridden raw meat holders […]

Being Bob Cratchit: What Should You Carry into the New Year?

December 29, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep Bob Cratchit got fired from his low-paying job on Christmas Eve. Sure, it was a miserable job–the office was freezing in the winter, the hours were long, and he had only one day off each year. Christmas Day. And then there was his boss, Ebenezer Scrooge. As I watched A Christmas […]

Why Advent Hope Is Way Better than Junior Prom Hope

November 30, 2015.Reading time 7 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep I REALLY wanted him to ask me to prom. I waited. And waited. And. Waited. Until one day, when it seemed all hope was lost, a nervous young man twitched his way over to my locker and sweated out an invitation to our junior prom. Except it was the wrong young […]

“Ordinary” Jesus Loves Turkey and Sinners

November 28, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep As I looked around our family table at Thanksgiving, I imagined Jesus sitting there. Probably at the head of the table. . .and after dessert, in Dad’s chair, because my father would so give up the microfiber recliner for his savior. We would have offered Jesus one of the drumsticks (before […]

How to Pray Like a Refugee

July 16, 2015.Reading time 4 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep From out of the desert of Africa, my daughter brings home the custom of praying with your eyes open and your hands held out, palms up, as if you are just that expectant, that trusting, that bold. The first evening she is back at our house church after five months of perspective […]

You wouldn’t believe the stars

April 28, 2015.Reading time 3 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep “You wouldn’t believe the stars.” My daughter tells me this in one of her voice messages from the refugee camp in north Africa. She and her friend had dragged their bedding out onto the desert sand, staying up until 2 a.m. as if this was some junior high sleepover, chatting and “wow”ing and awestruck. We live 30 […]

Are we still gazing up at the clouds?

April 6, 2015.Reading time 3 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep Easter Day 2015 I have one raw egg in the fridge. My youngest is at a missionary camp in Florida. My other daughter and son are at their dad’s girlfriend’s for the first time. These things don’t negate the fact that it is Easter, and the sun is shining. But I […]