Gaining a heart of wisdom
Welcome to the season of ceaseless striving! Of course, Thanksgiving and Christmas are never billed that way, and I truly hope that it's NOT your experience! However, if you're paying close attention to all the flickering candles and peaceful white twinkly lights on your Instagram feed, it's entirely possible that you're getting a different version… Continue reading A Peaceful and Joyful Holiday Season Begins with a Request for Rest
I stood today on the front deck, camera pointed upward, waiting for the wind to blow. The rain of colored leaves was more dramatic in person than in the video I was trying to make, but I know this particular beauty signals the beginning of the end: the end of a season of brightness and… Continue reading Your On-Ramp to Comfort and Joy for Seasons of Suffering
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour and that one is what we are doing.” Annie Dillard, The Writing Life When I first read this quote from Annie Dillard, I was up to my fetlocks in raising four sons. What I was doing… Continue reading Jump-Start Your Daily Routines and Establish Good Habits for a Lifetime
Switching the microphone over to my left hand, I hooked my right thumb into my skirt pocket to still the trembling. My always-forgiving church family might have attributed the tremor to nerves--and it's even more likely they didn't notice it at all. But I noticed it, and while I find this symptom of Parkinson's disease… Continue reading Celebrate Grace and Gratitude on the Coat Tails of Mourning
My grandchildren are learning to sing hymns, and I love it! There's not much cuter than hearing a two-year-old's rendering of timeless theological truth. And whether or not he understands it today, the words are in his brain just as all those crazy advertising jingles from the seventies will forever be stuck in my own… Continue reading Rest: Growing in Our Understanding of the Words We Think We Know
In August, I injured my back--poor timing indeed with canning to do, tomatoes to pick, lawns to mow, and a family beach day on the calendar. Nevertheless, I know the drill: ice, rest, ibuprofen, repeat. I can cheat and be "more productive," but, when I do, I'm just slowing down the healing process. Which makes… Continue reading What Do You Hope to Gain When You’re Neglecting the Care of Your Soul?
I'm planning a party for the kids who attend the church I call home. On the first Sunday in September, we will celebrate Promotion Sunday--and we'll do it with Promotion Sundaes! Before we start a new year of classes, we're going to pile ice cream and sticky toppings into bowls and pause to give thanks… Continue reading What Is Truth and Why Is It Important?
Weekly we gather — seldom daily as they did in New Testament times, the era of ravenous lions and Nero’s flaming, pitch-dipped Christians, human torches to light his gardens. Lugging our three pound Bibles and a week’s worth of accumulated angst, we gather, having in common our hearts of flesh and likely the scar tissue… Continue reading Every Sunday Come Together for the Better and Receive the Story Anew
I've just turned the last page in the book of Deuteronomy. Moses's ministry has come to a close, his life has come to its end, and he's given a glimpse of the land God had promised to his people. But he will never set foot on it. One of the benefits of my plodding through… Continue reading Finding Rest and Being Satisfied in the Land of See and Trust
When you flip all the pages to the back of your Bible, when you take a deep breath and begin to excavate the words of John's Revelation, what exactly are you looking for? Are you hoping for an end times road map? A winning slam dunk in your next theological argument? How about blessing? Have… Continue reading 3 Resources to Help You Search for Blessing in the Book of Revelation
Living Our Days 