Today’s to-to list is enormous and overwhelming… like normal. This morning’s verse from a dear friend was this: “Whatever you do, do your work heartily as to the Lord, and not to men…” – Colossians 3:23 I can hear my children’s groans (along with the strains of a march-like tune Read more
My grapevines look very sad. And they are teaching me a thing or two, as usual, about God’s pruning. Thanks to the recovery time dictated by a complete knee replacement, they have mostly not yet been pruned. Care for grapevines (if what you are after is fruit) means reduction of Read more
Regrets. We all have them. I should have bought this when it was on special. I shouldn’t have spoken to my child that way. I should have made a better choice of…anything. I could have had a V-8! Regrets are the subject of today’s fast on my Lenten journey (started Read more
Phil Wickham’s Hymn of Heaven contains the line, “stand beside the heroes of the faith.” Usually that makes me think of the list of notables in Hebrews 11, those who paved the way of faith for us by being utterly everyday humans who were granted unique opportunity to hold on Read more
Sometimes my thoughts are like a skittish school of herring, flashing this way and that at the least provocation. I found myself asking God to settle them, or herd them into His net. Is it on the right side of the boat or the left? It isn’t always that He gives Read more
Usually when we say “everyday,” we mean common, ordinary, run-of-the-mill, and that is certainly what I intend when I talk about following Jesus in the everyday: dishes, laundry, gardening, family relationships, church stuff. When Jesus was introducing His hearers to the Kingdom of God the way God sees it, He Read more
Add one more failure to the list. At least that’s where I’ve been about it… “I thought you were going to put out a song a month.”…Yeah, yeah, yeah. So did I. (heavy sigh) …”I must have launched out without proper planning, or God’s okie dokie, or something. I don’t Read more
Depressed children often chatter like George Washington’s wooden dentures at Valley Forge, and bounce off the walls. Depressed adults are often quiet — silent, even. I was the classic depressed adult. I sat at the computer last week, and wrote nothing, because I had nothing to say. I was depressed… Read more
Seeking for the source of the withered places in my heart, I had a “chance” conversation with someone who is getting therapy for trauma. I asked what the trauma was, and the answer sent me diving into research about trauma. Here’s what I found from UNYTE-ILs. It can include ANY Read more
So, there was this guy… Jesus noticed him… a man with one hand that didn’t work right…so much so that it had shriveled up and was useless. In a time and culture where almost everyone’s work was manual, to have only one functioning hand was a big loss. There were Read more