Karen Stiller – författare

She never expected to be a minister’s wife. And the life she discovered was more challenging—and more beautiful—than she could have anticipated.We all wrestle with tough questions about life and faith, and Karen Stiller has learned that answers don’t come any easier when you’re married to the minister. What does it mean to live faithfully in our complicated world? Is there a place here for me—the real me? What does everyone expect of me, and what if I fail? In The Minister’s Wife, Karen shines a light on the rhythms and tough realities of the spiritual life for each and every one of us. She explores how community helps us grow; the unexpected beauty of doubt; the messy pain of families and funerals; how church can hurt and heal; and the beauty of showing up when sometimes it is more appealing to go to a coffee shop on a Sunday morning (even when you’re the pastor’s wife).Warm, witty, and achingly honest, The Minister’s Wife is a memoir in essays on choosing to belong, and an invitation to join a spiritual adventure.

Close our eyes and most of us can recite the Lord''s Prayer by heart. It is as familiar as childhood memories. In some church traditions, we say the prayer together nearly every week, as a community standing before God. We call on those so familiar words and the comfort and direction they offer. The comfort that God is holy, that his kingdom is coming, that he provides just enough, and that he can protect us from ourselves and from evil. The direction that we are to worship him, that we are part of this kingdom-coming work, that we have the discipline of forgiveness as almost a daily task, and that we are vulnerable to temptation, so being on guard is a fine idea.The Wycliffe College faculty featured in this book take the Lord''s Prayer line by line and excavate it for its forgotten meaning and its neglected treasure. Each brief essay, pondering each line of this foundational prayer, guides us more deeply into the very things the Lord''s Prayer requests: a sense of God''s holiness, a sense of our own truest selves--broken and redeemed--and a glimpse of his kingdom, coming.