Gaining a heart of wisdom
A favorite Elisabeth Elliot quote comes to mind whenever I overhear fragments of the ongoing row about the role of women in the church: "I am not a different kind of Christian because I am a woman, but I am, most certainly, a different kind of woman because I am a Christian." Since ten of… Continue reading A Different Kind of Woman
Elisabeth Elliot coined the most memorable definition of human suffering that I have ever heard: "Suffering is wanting what you don't have -- or having what you don't want." These words came to mind often as I read Between Pain and Grace, because Gerald W. Peterman and Andrew J. Schmutzer have initiated a fresh conversation which does… Continue reading Pain, Emotion, and God
A long-ago friend I'll call "Beth" suffered from depression, growing more and more discouraged as she slogged through her days under the weight of it. I asked her one day, "Why don't you try reading a book about depression?" "I've tried," she replied, "but they only make me feel worse!" If only she could have… Continue reading The Way to Hope
For quite some time now I've had the urge to poll a room full of people with this question: What words come to your mind when you think of God? First impressions are what I'm looking for, and I have a feeling that very few responses would include the word "happy." In The Happiness Dare, Jennifer Dukes… Continue reading The Holy Pursuit of Happiness
When I pause for a minute to ask my self what I really want in life, my unedited first response is . . . well, embarrassing. I want to be happy, and my shallow definition of a "happy" life looks something like this: a vehicle that never breaks down, children who behave well and experience… Continue reading A Theology of Happiness
The wow-factor of my kids' birthday parties? The visibility of certain muscle groups in my arms, legs, and torso? The ease and finesse with which I can entertain a party of twelve, self-publish a book, or create deck furniture from wooden palettes? Are any of these a worthy means of measuring my excellence? Not according… Continue reading Excellence — Who, Me?
It must have seemed as if his life was over. At the age of fifteen, swept up in the aftermath of his country's demise, in a series of cruel blows, he was enslaved, deported eight hundred miles -- never to see his homeland again, stripped of his identity, and given a strange and foreign name.… Continue reading Move Heaven. Change Nations.
C.S. Lewis described our world as "the Kingdom of Noise," and he composed a psalm in the praise of noise from the pen of Senior Tempter, Screwtape, in his letter to a young apprentice. By contrast, artist Makoto Fujimura praises the beauty of silence particularly in the context of Japanese culture. "Perhaps in no other… Continue reading Silence and Beauty
A perfect Saturday: a hand-holding walk with a patient man, an antique store, a cafe, and, finally, a beach with two lawn chairs. In the company of the Atlantic Ocean, the summer sun, and my snoozing husband, I was introduced to a new poet -- Marjorie Maddox -- in my meandering read through True, False, None… Continue reading Wherever the Poem Takes Us
My grown-up boys have a particular smile that I see whenever they come to the house, and I start hauling food out of the refrigerator. It's a combination of, "She really can't help herself, can she?" and "Well . . . I might be persuaded to eat a sandwich." Even though I can't keep a… Continue reading “Mother” Is a Verb, Too
Living Our Days 