Gaining a heart of wisdom
In every season, my garden speaks, reinforcing in leaf and humus Scripture's messages around patience and diligence, inviting me to rejoice with the arrival of every cucumber and blazing pumpkin and to lament with the erect skeletons of sunflowers, their heads bowed at season's end. Predictable and yet ever new, the cycling of beauty and… Continue reading Loving and Listening to God in Every Season
From the first syllable of Austin's prayer, her words caught my attention. The urgent tone implied warfare, and she invoked Ephesians 6 fighting words in her pleas for protection as our team prepared to lead a group of one hundred youth on an outreach project. Austin knew we were embarking on an adventure, a holy… Continue reading Your Battle Plan for a Holy War
Given the word "God," without self-editing or over-thinking, what's the word or phrase that comes immediately to mind? If you've been schooled in the false gospel of ceaseless striving, you may come up with words like judgment, severe, or disapproving. After all, it's clear that we are not equipped to measure up on our own to the demands… Continue reading No Greater Message: God Is For You!
Pushing a middle-aged body out the door for a daily walk comes with its challenges, especially when I step up the pace to a jog/trot on the final hill leading home. I'm learning, though, that this discipline offers benefits beyond cardiovascular fitness and tending to the needs of a demanding dog. The impact of my… Continue reading Will Your Faith Stand the Test of Hard Questions?
The recent biographical movie featuring the life of J.R.R. Tolkien captures him saying, "After all, what's language for? It's not just the naming of things, is it? It's the life blood of a culture, a people." Language and the way we use it reveals our thinking and our character. The structure of a language reveals… Continue reading The Gift of Language and the God Who Speaks
The phone rang, and it was bad timing, but I answered it anyway out of habit. A friend from church was looking for some very specific information, so the call was quick. We accomplished the purpose and the call ended. But the phone rang again. My friend had heard something in my voice, and she… Continue reading The Treasure Buried in Your Weakness
Child #1: "But I don't want to do my spelling lesson." Child #2: "I really don't feel like cleaning my room." Parent: "I'm not asking you to want to. I don't expect you to feel like it. I'm asking you to do it anyway." There was a season in which conversations like this were standard… Continue reading Self-Discipline: A Wholehearted Yes to the Call of God
Secrets have a way of grabbing our attention, particularly if the secret comes with a promise of something good. If I claimed to know the secret location of a buried treasure or to possess the secret for permanent and effortless weight loss, the world would beat a path to my door. Paul claimed to know… Continue reading The Secret to Contentment in a Discontented World
In rural Maine, conversations around race seem remote, theoretical, and (frankly) like somebody else's business. Colorblindness is nigh unto snow-blindness here: whiteness all around and a certain sightless condition that follows hard after it. Raising sons in the 90's with a narrative of color blindness involved earnest conversations on the way to Portland or Boston,… Continue reading Avoid These 4 Obstacles to Seeing the Color of Life
Wild extremes live on the bandwidth that comprises Christian faith. At one end of the scale are those who believe scarcely a thing at all, but even this is not as frightening to me as those on the end of the spectrum who have God all figured out. With algebraic precision, they are able to… Continue reading The Gift of Wonder and God’s Glorious “And”
Living Our Days 