Gaining a heart of wisdom
Christmas is a celebration of God's great rescue plan. Paul, chief of the apostles and “chief of sinners,” put it succinctly when he wrote that God “did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all," and then asked, "How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) Having gone… Continue reading Celebrate the Gift of a God Given Rescue Plan
A hymnal is one of the books I use almost daily in my devotional routine, and I love Thanksgiving hymns in November. Their tried and true words and melodies call up visions of harvested fields, gatherings around a loaded table, and God's "countless gifts of love." I learned one of my favorite Thanksgiving hymns in… Continue reading Thank God for What He’s Given You Now
I spent most of my twenties looking in the mirror at a face I didn't love. Makeup interventions, hairstyle adjustments, and even color analysis failed to take the edge off my conviction that something about my face was simply not right. Around the same time, I discovered C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces and felt… Continue reading Learning to Love the Face You’ve Been Given
"Let's move on," wrote Paul in his second letter to the Corinthian church. "Let's go on to visions and revelations of the Lord." And he revealed, probably for the first time ever, an out-of-the-body experience in which he was "caught up to the third heaven." Did it happen when he was pelted with stones and left… Continue reading When You Don’t Want the Gift You’ve Been Given
Standing on one foot, I counted seconds and looked out the kitchen window. A downy woodpecker paused in drilling for his breakfast, almost as if he sensed my gaze, and the leaves around him glistened with the morning's heavy dew. My mind-numbing morning exercise routine has made me an avid observer of the world outside… Continue reading Your Extraordinary Life is the Life You Have Been Given
"Remember, now, we're looking for interesting shapes in nature," I advised my grandson as he picked a tiger lily to add to his collection. We ranged far and wide in search of ferns, winged seeds, leaves both pinnate and palmate, and anything else that caught his eye. His new bright red T-shirt was stretched out… Continue reading Look to Creation for a Story of Hope and Flourishing
The gardening life is full of surprises. It yields good surprises like volunteer tomato plants that show up among the squashes from last year's random self-seeding—and bad surprises such as the utter gluttony of one woodchuck who feels entitled to our green bean plants. This year's best gardening surprise has been the unexpected results of… Continue reading God’s Joyful Surprise: The Gift of His Given Strength
I have a battered notebook that has been with me for so long that four of its pages date back to the birth of each of my sons. In this notebook, I write down the requests—big and small—that I bring to God. Help my kids to be wise and godly parents.Who gets my vote this… Continue reading Faith Sees as Good Whatever God Has Given
For me, 2024 has been a year full of opportunities for in-person teaching with lots of invitations to share God's Word here in the great state of Maine. For a writer with mostly invisible online readers, the experience of seeing and interacting with my students is life-giving, and I've loved the personal connections. What most… Continue reading Use the Great Gift That’s Been Given to All Believers!
Maybe I haven't been listening carefully, but I don't recall ever hearing someone say, "It was only after my huge success that I finally got my priorities straight. It was only after the big book deal and the first million in the bank that I cried out to God with sincerity." Isn't it true that… Continue reading The Gift of Grace that Grows from Our Challenges
Living Our Days 