Where do we find the strength to go on when our weakness and sin seems to drag us down? Listen for some good news.

Just this morning I awakened to the news that two more police officers had been shot…this time in my own city. As I scrolled through my Twitter feed, I read other accounts of political corruption at the highest levels of government, and terror attacks around the world.

The landscape that evangelical women live in is a howling wilderness littered with the blood, sweat, and tears of thousands of hardworking, weary women . . . and also with the carcasses of the faith some of them have shed as they’ve given up in despair and exhaustion.

When I was a child, I had a recurring nightmare. I would dream that I was standing on a darkened stage, completely alone. In my dream I wasn’t able to move, hide, or even speak. Rooted to the ground in terror, I sensed a threatening presence lurking just out of sight. I was lost, wandering. Somehow, and though I didn’t know how then, I knew I was ruined and had ruined something, and that there was nothing I could do to make up for my mistake.