My First Academic Publication!

After about 15 months of enthusiastic emails back and forth with several people from my alma mater, Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU), through a pandemic, and with shifting personnel (yes personnel, but actually, personal, as well) and priorities, I am thankful to God to announce that my Master's thesis is now published! It has been a long road and another lesson in patience. In fact, so much time had gone by, and life continued to happen, that I had placed this project in the back of my mind. That is, until this morning's wonderful and unexpected reminder!

I usually check my personal calendar and email first thing in the morning, but this morning, I had other things to do first so I didn't even think to check my personal email (still checked the calendar, though). I had no idea of the blessing I was about to become aware of.

Staying Focused

1 Kings 11:1-43 describes how Solomon’s selfishness, disobedience, lust of the flesh, and defiance led to him turning away from his calling as Israel’s king, and ultimately caused the majority of the kingdom to be taken away from his lineage and given to his servants. The Lord explicitly admonishes in Exodus 20:3 and Deuteronomy 5:7 that humanity is to have no other gods before Him, and not to make any graven images [or idols] for worship.

When They Lowered the Flag: A 9/11 Tribute

I wrote this poem (below) the year after the events of September 11, 2001, and many years before I married and changed my last name. I ran across this poem again today, and though the 2020 anniversary of September 11 has passed, I wanted to share this tribute because I don't think I had the courage to share it before.

The absence of punctuation is intentional, symbolizing how the events of September 11 morphed from moment to moment. America was forever changed that day. Yet, 19 years later, I don't know of anyone who doesn't recall where they were and what they were doing on that day, at that time.