Heidi Goehmann

My husband and I go running a few mornings a week. We don’t go far, but it’s a chance for fresh air and to watch the sunrise before kids and life and work happen for the day.

How many of us will sit around this Thanksgiving season and recite a small list of things we are thankful for?

In 1998, my husband and I bought a tent.

This tent spelled adventure with a capital A for us. We traveled everywhere with that tent–we hiked up and slid down the Indiana dunes, watched Missouri sunsets, swam in Kentucky lakes, cheered on baseball teams in Ohio, Colorado, and Michigan, ate unidentifiable foods in the deep South, and tucked into our -30 degree sleeping bags Up North at night.

I am prone to fits.

Not giant fits of rage, but tiny little fits that come like little storm squalls, all thunder and lightning and then nothing, silence, all done.

Except they’re not all done. These little fits stack up, and my husband and family get the worst end of it.

About three years ago, some of our dearest friends found themselves in the middle of a divorce. It was awful. It was terrible. It was hard.

Divorce always is, isn't it? It's never the easier thing, even when we think for a minute that it might be. It leaves people, families, and homes in a million broken pieces.

The good news is that God is in the business of broken pieces.

Life is hectic. We find ourselves constantly waiting for the next season of life when “things will slow down.” They don’t. Part of contentment is making peace with the reality that life holds lots of responsibilities, and part of it is asking God to help us realign our values with His—daily, weekly, yearly redefining priorities, reassessing what is important and what matters most by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost is one of my favorite seasons within the Church Year. Acts 2 gets my mind going and my blood pumping with its imagery and promise.

May 28—It may not mean much on your calendar, but on mine it means romance—anticipation, a dress, maybe some heels, a bow tie for my husband, wine, a meal I don't have to cook, dishes I don't have to wash, and mostly, it means conversation, long and lingering.

Long before Jerry Maguire uttered the words “You complete me,” we as the human race have had a penchant to search for fulfillment in anything but Jesus. We look to achievement, entertainment, wealth, glory, excitement, and people to fulfill us, to build us up, to make us feel valued and worthy of our role and place here on this planet.

Whenever I think of the term mother-in-law, I can see Ray’s mom on Everybody Loves Raymond saying patronizing things like, “Now Debra . . . ” or “Debra dear . . . ” You might have your own classic version of the Hollywood mother-in-law in your mind, but most of us probably have some version.