Who I Am
I’m Jamie, and I hope you find respite and encouragement here. My heart belongs to Jesus, but my husband of 30 years doesn’t mind, because his does too. We have three grown children and a bonus daughter, as well as a crazy Belgian Malinois who thinks she deserves favorite child status. I worked for two decades as a freelance writer in advertising and public relations while raising our family.
Besides dogs, I’m passionate about experiencing nature, cooking, travel, great stories (whether told through a book or podcast, or on a stage or screen), and gathering people together around a table. I hope you’ll pull up a chair here often as I share what I’m discovering in the space where faith and life intersect.
My Ministry
As a follower of Christ, I believe with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength that God has good plans for our lives (Jer. 29:11) and created us for good works (Eph. 2:10). Moreover, it’s no mistake that we are alive at this time in history. (Read the Book of Esther to see what I mean.)
God has called me to a three-fold ministry of:
- Sharing the beauty in words
- Spreading encouragement
- Being an abiding presence
My prayer is that Living InWords and the dialogue that happens here awakens you to the beauty in the bittersweet woven throughout God’s story. Whether you recognize it or not, YOU are at the heart of it.
How Living InWords Was Born
This cozy corner of the blogosphere is a place I entitled Living InWords. (I’ve always loved a good word play.) You’ve been on my mind for eons as I’ve considered this space where we could dialogue about truth and grace.
For as long a can remember, I have loved words and the Word.
My earliest memories – and I mean early – are of being visited by Jesus and his angels in my crib and of being read to by my sweet mom. The warmth and peace of the Light of the world Himself and the transformative power of story linked arms early on in my life.
Where words were, life sprang up!
I sailed around the world to exotic locales with Jenny the little black cat. I rolled down verdant Wisconsin knolls with Caddie Woodlawn. I snuggled into Mrs. Piggle Wiggle’s ample bosom whenever I needed a reassuring hug. And then I doubled over in laughter while she regaled me with her yarns!
In college learning took on another dimension as Biblical characters – real people from history – climbed from the pages of my textbook and showed me how history is HIS story! On that tree-shadowed sidewalk from the Commons to my dorm, I began walking with Jesus regularly.
It’s in this intersection of faith and stories where my search for the beauty and meaning in life has played out. Like you, I suspect, I have had to learn to live with hard things. What I’ve discovered is we have a choice: either let that crap consume you or look for the beauty hidden alongside it.
I choose the latter.
I hope you will join me here regularly to share how you’re finding beauty in the bittersweet.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body….
Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (New International Version, 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, 16 & 17)