Gaining a heart of wisdom
Lately, I've been looking at the trees towering over our house, shading our front lawn, and providing a boundary around the back lawn. What an audacious trust to permit something so tall and heavy to coexist so closely with our home! A strong wind coupled with a heavy load of snow could bring the tree… Continue reading Planted and Present: A Game Plan for Growing Deep Roots
We just returned from a working vacation, a time to get away from responsibilities here on the home front and be challenged and encouraged in my reading, writing, and studying. However, before we could leave, the garden needed attention! We had to weed around the tomatoes and beets and hill up the green beans. In… Continue reading Do It Today—Don’t Wait for Everything to be Perfect
Going from one chore to another, following well-worn routines, it's easy for me to lose sight of the big picture, which is, of course, my life as a Christ-follower. Does it matter how I weed the garden or hang sheets on the clothesline? Is there one molecule in the universe that is better or worse… Continue reading Overcome Distractions as You Run the Race of Faith
Scripture memory is one of the more challenging spiritual disciplines. Right now, I'm working on Psalm 27, and it's reminding me that there's another discipline that's even harder for me. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me!You have said, 'Seek my face.'My heart says to you, 'Your face, Lord, do I seek.'"(Psalm 27:7-8) I… Continue reading Speak To The God Who Has Spoken To Us First
It's only June, but already our calendar is filling up with summer plans. Conversations about beach days and family camping trips have me wondering when we'll fit in the more mundane but necessary tasks of weeding the garden and mowing the lawn. When we had four barefoot boys running summer wild here on the hill,… Continue reading A Life Lived in the Presence of the Lord
It's testing week here on the hill! My oldest grandson and granddaughter have been here with me to take their end-of-year standardized tests. Remember those forms with all the little dots to be filled in with Number Two pencils? Testing is a big deal1 because it helps my son and daughter-in-law assess their children's educational… Continue reading What to Look for When Times of Testing Come
Peeling potatoes for dinner, I was listening to music, a lovely arrangement around a poem by Robert Frost. Of course, I couldn’t help but sing along until... “BONG!” The clock in the living room began chiming the hour. The sudden dissonance stopped my singing, but not my enjoyment, because I loved that clock, and because I knew… Continue reading Delighting in the Reality of Temporary Dissonance
Happy Pentecost Sunday! I wonder how we would respond today to a reenactment of the original Acts 2 Pentecost scene, complete with rushing wind, tongues of fire, and unscheduled utterances in various languages. The Early Church was building the plane as they flew it. There was no "earlier church" to set a precedent for what… Continue reading The Sure and Steady Pilot Light of Pentecost
When he was dying of pancreatic cancer, author and New York City pastor Tim Keller made the surprising observation that although cancer was taking its toll on his body, he and his wife, Kathy, would never want to go back to the kind of prayer life or spiritual life he had before the cancer. Knowing… Continue reading You Are Here—Whether You Like It or Not
Mother's Day can be rough. A day intended to honor and encourage mothers sometimes spirals into disappointment or feeds our feelings of inadequacy. We compare ourselves to other mothers (either in our real world or in the tiny, square pictures on our phones) and conclude that everyone else is doing it "better," having more fun,… Continue reading Wishing You a Happy, Holy Mother’s Day
Living Our Days 