Gaining a heart of wisdom
Elisabeth Elliot offers the most durable definition for suffering I've ever heard: Suffering is Having What You Don't Want -- This covers everything from cancer to a flat tire. Or Wanting What You Don't Have -- A spouse, a child, a new job. Life on a fallen planet includes suffering of all types and intensities,… Continue reading Knowing God in the Midst of Our Pain
According to popular wisdom, ten thousand hours of deliberate practice are required for excellence in any field. After 20 years of homeschooling, 25 years of mothering, and 30 years of gardening and canning, I'm doing the math and wondering if mastery is even a possibility in any of these life compartments. Maybe a more realistic… Continue reading Why It’s Great to Be a Woman
When my thrifty mother-in-law made mincemeat, she would start with the venison roast from a deer who may have had the audacity to nibble on her tulip leaves. From there, she would improvise, adding whatever needed using up on that particular day: a batch of jam that didn’t “set up” just right or an over-abundance… Continue reading Evidence of Grace in the Cycling of Seasons
Written by real people with genuine feelings--often worn closer to the surface than this stoic New Englander might like--the Bible gives voice to a full range of emotions. There is plenty of joy, lots of celebration, and this has found its way into our worship. However, we are less comfortable with the practice of biblical… Continue reading A Melody Above the Noise of Your Grief
One thing so often leads to another, and, in retrospect, it takes a conscious effort to trace the trail of God's active participation in our lives. Here's a fresh example: In August of last year, I wrote a piece about praying for our teens because that's something I do. (A lot.) When Desiring God picked… Continue reading Musings: March 2019
When Ray Rhodes, Jr. was investigating topics for his dissertation, he followed his life long interest in Charles Spurgeon and began to research Spurgeon's marriage and the spiritual element of his relationship with his wife of thirty-six years, Susannah Spurgeon. Surprisingly, his interest led him away from "the prince of preachers" and toward a more… Continue reading The Life and Legacy of Susannah Spurgeon
There's an old hymn that we don't sing much any more, but it's worth re-visiting because the final verse puts words around the futility of language in expressing the inexpressible: "Could we with ink the ocean fill,And were the skies of parchment made,Were every stalk on earth a quill,And every man a scribe by trade;To… Continue reading When You Expect Nothing and Get the Gift of Everything
One of the great gifts of blogging has been the privilege of helping authors with book launches as they release their good words into the world. Here are four books that have been joyful additions to my personal reading for the month of March. War Against Distracted Living In a world where our brains are… Continue reading 4 Joyful Spring Reads for You and Your Family
When C.S. Lewis wrote Surprised by Joy, he was clear that it was a “spiritual autobiography” designed to track his pilgrimage from atheist to deist and, finally, at long last to “the most dejected, reluctant convert in all of England.” In Christian circles, we’re fond of talking about finding God, until we realize that He has… Continue reading Surprise! God Has Your Best Interest at Heart
When life sends a hard turn in a direction I am not expecting, all the cracks and flaws in my theology show up. The wheels come careening off my carefully constructed orthodoxy, leaving me in the ditch with all the prosperity gospel folks or the "Where was God?" finger pointers. When God does not “cooperate”… Continue reading When You’re Sitting in the Winter Room
Living Our Days 