Gaining a heart of wisdom
Food preparation and clean-up run like a perpetual conveyor belt through my kitchen and through my life, so for me, the bigger challenge of hospitality is always logistics. I feel overwhelmed as I gather chairs from the far corners of the house. I forget to dust the top of the piano or spend too much time perseverating… Continue reading Hospitality: The Power of Authentic Connection
This month, we said goodbye to my husband's brother. He had been living in a nursing home for six years as the effects of Parkinson's disease1 relentlessly diminished his ability to move, to care for himself, and even to speak. We were thankful for his peaceful acceptance of his distressing circumstances, but it was heartbreaking… Continue reading A Full and Busy Life Equals a Normal Life
When the Council of Nicaea met in 325, they decreed that Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, is to be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon that falls on or after the first day of spring. With the stroke of a pen, Easter and spring would forever hold hands. Since I live in… Continue reading When You Celebrate Easter, You Celebrate Resurrection
Fleming Rutledge wisely labeled the days we're living in as "the time between the times." We're a little bit like our Exodus ancestors, set free from slavery in Egypt, but not yet living in the Promised Land—having already received the benefits of a great salvation, but awaiting full redemption from sin's effects and consequences on… Continue reading Living as Family in the Time Between the Times
Living in Maine means that at least once every winter I get to shovel a foot of snow off my deck. This winter has outdone itself in snowfall, so yesterday, after the storm when the sun came out, we strapped on our wooden snowshoes and slogged through the snowy woods. My husband courageously broke trail,… Continue reading How Can Finite Creatures Know An Infinite God?
2024 Best Reads! I'm flinching just a bit over the word "best" here, because what would be a blissful read to me might be torturous for you—or for my good husband who has yet to comprehend my devotion to Wendell Berry's and Marilynne Robinson's fiction. ("Nothing happens!") The four superlatives I've chosen have distinguished themselves… Continue reading My Favorite Books from a Year of Good Reading
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
Early in the year, I invested several weeks in an attempt to memorize The Nicene Creed. It's not as if I didn't already know what its words reveal about the nature of God. I just wanted those particular words in my tool belt to remind me of all I can and should be remembering and… Continue reading Is the Book of Common Prayer Still Useful Today?
Prayer is hard work, and it is important work—perhaps the most important and impactful ministry to which God has called each of us. In prayer, we carry those we love into the presence of God. We stop our mad rush and acknowledge an occasion, a moment, a feeling, or a state of being. Our prayers… Continue reading The Gift Of Fresh Language For a Daily Practice of Prayer
The church has fallen on hard times, and there's no denying that some of the bad press has been well-earned by churches with broken leadership structures, a show-biz mentality, and pastors who prey on their congregations more than they pray for them. Even so, it's hard to get through the New Testament without doing business… Continue reading 3 Reasons You Should Go to Church this Sunday
Living Our Days 