Gaining a heart of wisdom
In my senior year of college, I took an English elective on the writings of C.S.Lewis. The professor, Dr. Kaye, was ebullient, effervescent, and contagious in her love for the Oxford don who spun words into gold. Her instructions for the final exam were simple but ominous: simply bring a pen and plenty of paper.… Continue reading Lessons from C.S.Lewis: Becoming Fully Human
Motherhood, for me, started out like a tightrope walk. To keep my balance and maintain my place on the tightly stretched wire, I read all the books, analyzed all the angles, second guessed all the decisions, and the only thing that saved my sanity is that Google had not been invented yet. I'm still in… Continue reading Motherhood: Learning the Ropes of Joy
Wendell Berry poured this wisdom into the mouth of one of his fictional characters: “Telling a story is like reaching into a granary full of wheat and drawing out a handful. There is always more to tell than can be told.” (Jayber Crow) This is always the nature of story, and in Wounds Are Where… Continue reading Drawing Out a Handful of Light
If it is true that, as we age, we become even more of whatever we have been all our lives, then Luci Shaw is becoming more and more difficult to “shelve.” A poet and essayist well into her eighties, she continues to tackle topics ranging from quantum mechanics and the incarnation to the haecceity** of… Continue reading Decoding the Beauty in the Universe
Imagine the shrill ring of the phone and the jolt into wakefulness. The voice in your ear carries unthinkable news. Is it possible that you are still dreaming? "Your son has been been arrested." "The charge is murder. The victim: his wife's ex-husband." As daylight comes, you learn more. Your son was desperate to protect… Continue reading Desperate to Hear God’s Voice
Little Rock, Arkansas was the Sunday stop on the last leg of our cross-country trip. I don't recall the denomination of the church we visited, but I sure remember its personality: the two-handed handshakes, the over-the-top meet-n-greet . . . and the dear woman who sat next to me and kept touching my arm whenever… Continue reading A Guide for Living Well as an Introvert of Faith
Following the writings of the prophet Jeremiah has been a challenge this year. So far, it's been seventeen chapters of lament tempered by steadfast faith -- along with words of judgment interspersed with glorious promises of restoration. It shouldn't have surprised me then when Jeremiah 17 took a sharp curve in the road at verse… Continue reading Who in the World Am I? (Dating the Enneagram)
Part of the delight of spending time with my tiny grandson is that he takes nothing for granted. Nothing. "Bam, why bubble pop?" "Because you stood on it." "Why?" Well, good question. Why indeed, but our conversations routinely run on in this vein of relentless curiosity. They move forward not because "Bam" comes up with… Continue reading The Spiritual Practice of Curiosity
No one has to remind the forsythia bush outside my dining room window to break forth into yellow luminescence as an announcement that spring has come. The sassy gray squirrel steals shamelessly from the bird feeder "according to his kind," and the chickadee scolds and stitches up the air behind her -- because that is… Continue reading Attending to the Details of Congruence
Saying "I do" at any age carries a freight of challenges and adjustments along with the joy, but a 57-year-old newlywed, married for the first time, brings a unique perspective to marriage. Using the parable of her wedding preparations, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth begins Adorned: Living Out the Beauty of the Gospel Together with a challenge to adorn… Continue reading Love and Truth Made Visible
Living Our Days 