Gaining a heart of wisdom
Generations ago, here in Maine, I imagine one way mothers prepared their daughters for life was by teaching them how to make a good chowder. They would have needed to learn how to regulate the heat on a wood-fueled cookstove, and if they wanted to eat in February, they would have needed to learn how… Continue reading The Best Preparation for a Meaningful Christmas
They were really just a bunch of good old boys taking care of sheep,sleeping in shifts, trying to stay warm,and to ward off predators around a fireoutside a little town we would never have heard of if it weren't for God's redemptive plan. God's proclamation of peace on earth and goodwill to men landed in… Continue reading Make The Christmas Story Work To Fulfill Kingdom Purposes
When the Apostle John picked up his pen and began his first letter to the church, light was one of the metaphors he turned to. As the only remaining living witness to Jesus’s life and ministry, his goal was to establish a solid base of truth concerning the Word of Life in a post-apostolic world in which… Continue reading What Happened When the True Light Arrived
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love its simplicity and its uncluttered focus: Gather and give thanks! That's it! No cards or gifts, and no expectation of a big program at church. For the believer, Thanksgiving is a wake-up call to a God-conscious mindset, so I view these days leading up to the holiday as… Continue reading Celebrating a Simple and Uncluttered Holiday
I've been keeping a sentence journal since last spring, part spiritual discipline and part occupational therapy. I'm losing my handwriting thanks to Parkinson's disease, and scrawling a coherent sentence in legible script every morning is one way of pushing back. During November, I'll be expanding the practice by listing three things I'm thankful for. Keeping… Continue reading Thanks For The Good Gifts I Never Thought Of Asking For
The word on the street1 is that, of the twelve tracks on Taylor Swift's newest album, only four will emerge unfiltered on the other side of Spotify's parental controls designed to block explicit content. Having raised my four sons in the prehistoric era of dial-up internet in a remote outpost far from the nearest smoke… Continue reading The Sure Wisdom Found in Unfiltered Gratitude
You opened your new eyesin the garden that God Himself had planted.Born a woman, you bypassed childhoodand came into yourself with a rush of speech,a flood of images,and a seamless, three-way companionship: you, Adam, and Elohim. Was Eden’s bird song the first sound in your perfect ears?Or was it the world’s first love ballad, crooned… Continue reading One Forgotten Truth from Our Sister Eve
Today is just an ordinary day, and that's appropriate because by the reckoning of the liturgical calendar, we are in Ordinary Time—the long stretch between Pentecost in the spring and the first Sunday of Advent. Ordinary, however, need not mean tedious, especially for the believer in Christ. God has profound lessons and innumerable blessings to… Continue reading Find Joy Right Now—in the Midst of an Ordinary Day
The word judge has fallen on hard times as the universe falls all over itself to be seen as broad-minded, tolerant, and accepting. Many years ago, I had an encounter at my dining room table that has formed my thinking on judges and the practice of judgment... We had just moved into the area, bought… Continue reading Will You Let Your Heart Be Judged by the Word of God?
I wonder what you or I would have answered if we were in Solomon's shoes—or in his pajamas, actually, because the biblical text has Solomon asleep and hearing from God in a dream: What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!” Would we have had the good sense or the optimism… Continue reading 3 Principles For Discerning The Hearts Of People
Living Our Days 