Gaining a heart of wisdom
The snow is flying sideways like rice at a wedding, and I'm reading Lore Wilbert's blog post about marriage. She writes: "'We don’t treat our home like it’s the place where we can ‘be real,’ as though every other relationship in our lives deserves the fruit of the Spirit, but at home we can drop… Continue reading Timeless Words About Love for Your Valentine’s Day
One true gift of God is the tension of struggle: challenges that come out of nowhere just when you think the coast is clear; the demon Comparison that threatens to anchor you always in the Desert of Lack; besetting sins that cycle and re-cycle in a life that resembles an on-going game of Whack-a-Mole. Up… Continue reading Musings: August 2018
A week of teaching children in a backyard Bible club can have a clarifying effect on one's theology. Just exactly what is it that happened in Zaccheus's heart when he changed from being a dirty rotten tax collector to a repentant and honorable Christ-follower? When Jesus spoke to Saul on the road to Damascus, how… Continue reading Madeleine L’Engle and the Practice of Believing
When a committee of five gathered to draft the Declaration of Independence, it was Thomas Jefferson's pen that framed the colonies' complaints against England. Then, taking their own quills in hand, his colleagues made 43 changes to the document, and when it was presented to Congress, they made an additional forty-plus edits. Learning that Thomas… Continue reading Musings: April 2018
In the month of December, the Christmas story often stands alone, lifted with huge parentheses out of the New Testament — maybe delivered in Linus’s hushed boy soprano, and then tucked away with the durable resin nativity set and the white twinkly lights until next year. It’s a great story, so it’s easy to see why… Continue reading Word Made Flesh — A Celebration of Reading for Advent
Some mornings the new mercy arrives at 4 a.m., looking like a slice of lemon yellow sunrise behind ragged lavender clouds. My early morning drive to the hospital sent me due east. Not knowing what I would find there, I thanked God for the mercy of ambulances and strong men who lift gently and answer… Continue reading The Meeting Places
July has been a month of gatherings, and nothing is more precious to me than the gift of my patient husband and our family. To celebrate Independence Day we all trekked to our favorite State Park on Lake St. George for a daylong picnic and swim, and then off to the fireworks. We've relished a… Continue reading Musings — July 2016
I cannot abide bouillon in a mug, but I'm always a little sorry about that when I read the opening pages of Madeleine L'Engle's The Irrational Season. She sips from her warm cup, gazes out her two a.m. window at the Hudson River, and begins an Advent reflection that meanders through the liturgical year and the… Continue reading Battlefields and Slums and Insane Asylums
Living Our Days 