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Receptivity and Offering: Preparing for Christmas

Lynne Baab • Wednesday December 22 2021

If you’re like me, the Christmas season will involve some conversations – in person, online, or on the phone – with people who might be challenging. The section I wrote on receptivity for my book on listening seems particularly relevant for holidays:

Being receptive requires a kind of holy curiosity that enables us to wonder what God is doing in a situation before – and after – we arrive. Being receptive helps us slow down a bit and pay attention to what’s already happening in the lives of the people we encounter, their thoughts, feelings, concerns, passions, and desires.

Love motivates us to...

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First post in a new series: Receptivity and offering

Lynne Baab • Friday December 17 2021

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what exactly we offer to God. After all, so much of our relationship with God involves us receiving gifts from God: life, breath, relationships, love, strength, comfort, forgiveness, intimacy with God, and much more. Obviously we are called to offer thanks for all that, but what else do we offer? Our very lives? Yes, of course. However, it is often hard to figure out exactly what that looks like in real life. Maybe the way to do it is to offer parts of ourselves to God at different times. Or maybe we offer our...

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Can we feel sad when we have something we longed for?

Lynne Baab • Friday December 10 2021

Heather went through three rounds of exhausting in-vitro fertilization before her healthy baby was born. In the months after the birth, she experienced post-partum depression, but she felt she couldn’t tell anyone about it. “I just felt I should not be feeling this way. After everything we’ve been through, why should I have any kind of depression?”

Kristin, mother of one child, lost a baby at 39 weeks of pregnancy, then miscarried. A year later, when her daughter was born with significant digestive issues and cried a lot, Kristin just about went crazy. She wanted to be thankful for having a child...

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Grief and gratitude in Advent

Lynne Baab • Thursday December 2 2021

“We have a prevailing feeling, especially in the west, that spirituality must always be uplifting and positive. This tendency arises out of a confusion about what love truly is. We know that God is love, and that we are called to live lives of love, but we often think of the fake love of Hollywood movies and catchy pop songs. Love is not a positive happy feeling. It is not always uplifting and encouraging. Love is selflessness, it is the rapture of being lost in the well being of others. So, it follows naturally that if we have love for creation,...

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