By Susan McFarland 

I believe that a Christian's most important personal responsibility is to continue to mature in our love towards God in such a way that it changes how we love and serve others. Real change has to have hands and feet attached to it.  This lesson came home to me in a very personal way several years ago when I had the opportunity to assist in a small town’s recovery immediately following Hurricane Katrina. The impact of those events will remain with me the rest of my life.

By LisaMarie Goetz

If someone had told me a few years ago that I would be taking a course in Monasticism at Wheaton College and that it would serve to deeply impact and change me, I must admit I would have been quite surprised. I confess that I had several presuppositions about these things before coming to Wheaton. The course included a retreat based upon monastic principles which frankly had me a bit hesitant at first. Although I grew up on Long Island, which is a heavily Roman Catholic area, I generally viewed Catholicism as  “dead religion,” based mostly upon out dated traditionalism.  I certainly would have viewed the study of monasticism and contemplative spirituality as something irrelevant and I did not feel any desire to look into these practices to see if they might enrich my own spirituality. However, the Lord has taken me on a journey in this area and I can now see that I personally had some incorrect ideas about the core values of the Catholic faith, its traditions, and about Catholic individuals in particular.  

By Chrysti Gilbreth

I drive home from work slowly, taking the longest, most circuitous route I can find. I picked the one that winds through the hills, heads north, and then south again, because I need the time to decompress after a long, hard day. My heart is still heavy with the decision I had to make today and the inevitable confrontation that ensued. I hate confrontation but it seems to come with my job. This morning was about the 20th time that a manager verbally wrestled with me over my decision to enforce a safety policy that he didn't like. Still, I know I did the right thing - I'm sure of it. But some how doing the right thing doesn't always make me feel any better. His angry words combine with my own insecurities to cause the phrases, "not good enough" and "failure" to echo in my head. I feel my heart ache. At some point along the way home, I start thinking about how much I just want to feel better - even momentarily – and soon after, I find myself craving the chocolate chips that I know are in my kitchen cabinet drawer. 

By: Annette Cooper

Four years ago I went through one of the  most devastating events in my life. After 18 years of marriage, my husband Ralph* decided to leave me for another woman. I was a Christian and active in my church.  But that didn't seem to save me from the nightmare of watching my home break up and my life change forever.  How did I get into this situation when I was a believer, regularly in church, and surrounded by Christian friends? There are no easy answers but part of the problem is that we fail to really get involved in and stay involved in people's lives and problems. Some problems are deemed too "personal" or too difficult for us to deal with.  We leave those problems to the "professionals" - the ministers and church leaders to sort out. But we fail to see how vital our role is as Christian friends.  After all, the church isn't just "the professionals" - it's the family of God.

By: Jenni Demont

When I was a little girl my aunt used to tell me a story about an old woman and her pig. In the story the old woman went to the market to buy a little pig, and on the way home they came to a stile, which is a type of crossing made up of a series of steps that allows people to climb over a fence. Somehow, I feel like I understand that story better now because it helps me understand a difficult time that I have recently come through in my life.