I was recently challenged to pick just one word to focus on this year. You might find this challenge interesting as well: http://oneword365.com/ My word may not be a year-long word. I do need this word until my brain pathways get fixed. You see, I have discovered that I’ve developed a new mental twitch. When […]
My last two weeks were delightful. There are vacations where you restore, and others where you get yourself wrapped up in God’s agenda. We spent this time enjoying one another, but saw God pull us into others lives to help them through some rough patches. I discovered something important – my gift is to be […]
I saw this video today. It occurs to me that sometimes, God frees us and it isn’t easy. He frees us from rules, schedules and expectations. Our natural response? To stay in our rules, schedules and to keep a close list of others’ expectations. As you go through the next two weeks, and the burdens […]
In the liturgical church, the four Sundays before Christmas are called Advent. This Advent season, “waiting for God to show up” is our theme. It occurs to me that sometimes our problem is that we don’t expect God to show up. Yet, far more often, when we expect God to show up, He doesn’t show […]
A quick review of the first few chapters in Luke show us that we all respond differently when God speaks. John’s dad, Zechariah, had an angel appear to him, and his response? “How can I know you are speaking the truth?” Mary and Joseph each had angels appear to them. Joseph just did what he was […]
Tomorrow, I am 46. Not 45, not 35. Tomorrow I start the second half of my life. At the beginning of the first half of my life, I had to learn to breathe (with asthma, harder than you’d think), how to walk, talk, and learn. (I think eating came pretty naturally.) Actually, I spent most […]
Locust are giant grasshoppers. These giant grasshoppers come in hordes, and overwhelm the area they occupy. When a swarm of locust show up, pretty soon there are no more new plants. Like a thousand cousins descending, they eat everything in sight. There are times in life when all you can see are the locust. You […]
Last week, we had the annual service to our furnace. Mr. Furnace guy told me that our whole system had to be vacuumed out. (cha-ching). I made the appointment, and Mr. Vacuum man came out yesterday. I was prepared for a morning of noise. I almost forgot to uncover the vents – like the one […]
Some days, thinking on good things seems impossible. In fact, it is so hard that the negative just bubbles right up and announces itself. The Bible gives us these directions as to our thoughts: Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent […]
There is a wall that we all hit from time to time. In fact, there are several walls, but there is one we never expect. Here is how it creeps up on us: We are driving down our nice little mental road. We can see the road ahead. It is beautiful, with an occasional gentle […]