Posted in reflections, tagged seasons of life, women in ministry, women pastors on January 1, 2019| Leave a Comment »
By April Yamasaki
What is time?
I’ve been watching a mini-series on Albert Einstein, the brilliant physicist who asked this grand question, whose great intellect and imagination were so taken with it, to the detriment of his personal and professional life. (more…)
Posted in reflections, tagged gratitude, seasons of life on November 27, 2018| 2 Comments »
Photo by Elisa Self
By Joy Wong
Beauty’s a tough subject for me — and, I imagine, for most women. It seems that nearly every woman I encounter is unhappy about some aspect of her appearance. One woman laments the size of her hips and thighs. Another mom marvels at the ability of a lady on a blog who gave birth seven times and is still able to maintain a flat stomach. Personally, I’ve been noticing an increasing amount of freckles and sunspots on my face. I also wonder when (or if) my tummy will ever go flat again, and if I will ever lose all my postpartum weight.
What’s funny (and horrific) about it all is that it seems that my ideal self is an ever-moving target. These days, I pine for my slim self when I was in my 20s, but as I recall, back then I wasn’t happy about some other aspect… perhaps some acne, or volumeless hair, or whatever. One of the graces I find about being a mom of three kids is that while I’m too busy to work on my appearance, I’m also too busy to spend too much time critiquing myself either.
“Beauty is fleeting,” as Proverbs 31:30 says (NIV). It makes me think of cut flowers — beautiful for a couple days, and if you’re lucky, for a week or so; but in a short time, it all starts to brown and wither. I find that roses tend to die most gracefully, but even dead roses are such a sad comparison to their former gorgeous blooms. Very depressing, especially when we think of our own beauty in the same way!
But a new metaphor is now dawning on me, and giving me a bit more hope: not the beauty of cut roses, but the beauty of a rose bush, planted in the ground. It reminds me of the tree “planted in streams of living water, which yields its fruit [or in the case of our metaphor, flowers] in season and whose leaf does not wither — whatever they do prospers” (Psalm 1:3 NIV). Or even of Paul’s exhortations to be “rooted and grounded in love” (Eph. 3:17) and/or “rooted…abounding in thanksgiving” (Col. 2:7) (NIV).
Perhaps it’s true that our beauty is fleeting, but just as a rose bush yields new flowers in new seasons, so also perhaps our lives yield new beauty in different seasons of our lives. In aging, perhaps there is new beauty in confidence, in joy, in maturation, in appreciation, in wisdom, in gentleness, in patience, in perspective… and the list goes on.
For me, something I’d like to gain is appreciation… for the beauty I have, rather than the beauty I’ve lost, or don’t have anymore. After all, beauty is fleeting, right? What I have now (and fail to appreciate), I may not have tomorrow, and perhaps I may be lamenting the loss of it in the next season. Instead of succumbing to the incessant nagging of my inner critic, I want to be grateful. Moreover, I want to be rooted, yielding beauty in the due seasons of my life.
Joy Wong has an MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary, a BA in English from Princeton University, as well as four years’ experience in industrial distribution management. She is a contributing author to Mirrored Reflections: Reframing Biblical Characters, published in September 2010.
Posted in about AAWOL, tagged leadership, motherhood, seasons of life on October 4, 2017| 1 Comment »
Photo by Kevin Dooley
By Joy Wong
I’m currently a full-time stay-at-home mom with a 4-year-old, 2-year-old, and another baby on the way. Most days I’m barely getting through the day, just trying to keep everyone fed, clothed, and my toddler diapered. If I can keep everyone bathed, that’s a bonus.
Because of this, my vocational goals in recent years involving ordination and getting certified as a spiritual director have been shelved — which I’m ok with. (more…)
Posted in reflections, tagged seasons of life on September 12, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Photo by banoootah_qtr
By Jerrica KF Ching
When I was in elementary school I was convinced that my best friend would be my best friend forever. I had a BFF locket that I shared with her which further reinforced this belief. My views on friendship were very static at the time; you make a friend and you keep that friend forever. It should be simple, right? (more…)
Posted in reflections, tagged career vs. family, parenthood, seasons of life on September 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »
By Pedro Fernandes
By Wendy Choy-Chan
The trees outside my window are changing colors. My daughter is happily taking the sweaters out of her closet, while I am dreading about having less daylight and more rain. As each season approaches, we make adjustments. Sometimes, just when we have settled in with the changes, another season comes. Sometimes, on the other hand, we get tired of the same old season, and we gladly welcome the next. (more…)
Posted in reflections, tagged aging, change, seasons of life on November 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Photo by Jonathan Kriz
By Debbie Gin
…or so I thought. When friends or family decide on a venue for dinner, I typically get annoyed if additional options are mentioned after the decision’s been made because that means we waste more time considering the pros/cons of those options instead of proceeding right away to the restaurant. It doesn’t help that I’m not a “foodie,” but change has always felt unreliable to me. (more…)
Posted in reflections, tagged change, seasons of life on August 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Photo by lina smith
By Liz Chang
Fast forward to present.
Recently, I decided to go to the salon to get my haircut. I was planning to get another trim, layer it like I usually do, and be content with the way I’ve gotten haircuts for the past several years. I left smiling because they convinced me to get an “inverse bob” cut by chopping seven inches off instead. I felt refreshed and strengthened to embrace the major life changes I have been encountering over the past two months. (more…)
Posted in reflections, tagged busyness, motherhood, raising a family, seasons of life, self-image on January 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Photo by Jonathan Kos-Read
By Tina Teng-Henson
Dear Reader,
I realize, I don’t really know you. I read your little bios at the bottom of your blog posts, and I remember bits and pieces of things you’ve shared over the years… but who are you really? And who the heck am I? 🙂 Our words take us a long way on this journey to know and be known – yet at their best, they are still an approximation.
It’s mid-January, 2015. I don’t have any formal ministry responsibilities lined up ahead of me. I have one class this quarter then one class next quarter — then I’m done with my MDiv. I am, Lord willing, going to give birth to our second baby this summer, but that’s about it. (more…)
Posted in reflections, tagged balance, employment, money, seasons of life, transition on July 29, 2014| 2 Comments »
Photo by Riley Kaminer
By Liz Chang
The furniture fidgets got me last week for the first time in six months, and the reality of transition has become too obvious for me to ignore. I am moving out of a full-time-student-with-work-on-the-side world into a full-time-employee-with-workshops-on-the-side world. (more…)
Posted in reflections, tagged growth, seasons of life on March 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Photo by kevin dooley
By Ann Chen
Those of us who grew up in California don’t experience seasons too much. Having beach weather in January is a beautiful thing, but we definitely don’t seem to handle any changes in our climate very well. Raindrops fall and chaos erupts on our freeways. Constant vents about the wet and the gloom can be heard everywhere, and most people yearn for the moment when the sun will shine again and we will go back to our normalcy. (more…)
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