“Why, yes…yes you can. And with great compassion and integrity!”

Emily Askew, PhD.

This is the answer I have given hundreds of times to people who do not believe that

online learning can be as good as face-to-face (F2F) learning in creating community,

offering a rigorous curriculum, and at...

Reflection Point: “A tiny sapling can feed the world and a small hope can lead the lives.” —Ruthwik Reddy Sunketa

Scripture: “Jesus said: What is God's kingdom like? What story can I use to explain it? It is like what happens when a mustard seed is planted in the ground. It is the smallest seed in ...

Reflection Point: “The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.” —James Allen

Scripture: Then Jesus said, “This is what God’s kingdom is like. It’s as though someone scatters seed on the...

“Fiction is crisis.” I was reminded of this Jonathan Mayberry quote in a recent article in

Writer’s Digest. Ryan Given Cleave wrote how fiction is all about the character’s messy

life. You don’t write about a bunch of happy people having a lovely day. “Instead, it’s

about embracing tension, chall...

I love mountains—the long love affair God has with humanity is manifested through many biblical stories that feature mountains: at Mt. Horeb, Elijah encounters God in sheer silence; at Mt. Sinai, Moses receives the Torah from God; at Mt. Olive, Jesus prays and sweats blood before being arrested; and...

Reflection Point: “Life does not accommodate you, it shatters you. Every seed destroys its container, or else there would be no fruition.” —Florida Scott-Maxwell

Scripture: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair." (2 Corinthians 4:8)

Wisdom from a ...

I was in my 20’s when I went through my dark night of the soul. The once strong, tightly wound pieces of my belief system slowly started to unravel. At the time I was also burned out and exhausted. And the one part of my life that was always my constant, my faith, didn’t make sense anymore. I had ne...

Reflection Point: "The tiny seed knew that in order to grow it needed to be dropped in dirt, covered in darkness, and struggle to reach the light." -Sandra Kring

Scripture: Jesus said, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it b...

The season of Lent can offer grounding and growth. 

Lent is a 40-day period leading up to Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday (it falls on March 5th this year). It is a sacred time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving—a season where divine grace and human participation intertwine. Rooted in Christi...

At the end of her life, when my mom was living in an independent living facility, she gave canned cokes to the workers when she especially liked someone. Mom thought of it as a “thank you.” The
residents were not supposed to offer tip money to those who worked in the building, but Mom didn’t think of...

As a teacher, you learn as much from the students as they may learn from us. In the Wisdom Tree Collective’s 2024 Spiritual Direction Cohort, this question was asked:

“What are you aware of now that you were not aware of before taking this course?”

One of our first-year students responded as such...

I once read a story of a town in ruin, a town filled with resentment and despair. The people distrusted one another and no longer worked together. The town was falling apart. One resident left to seek wisdom from a wise person who lived in the forest. After a long journey, the resident found the wis...