Not neat and tidy. Nope. This following-Jesus stuff is messy! Questions come up that don’t have any neat solutions. Or even straight-forward ones. Conflicts arise for which there is no resolution. Depression hits and won’t let up. Disease and death still affect and afflict us, cheating and robbing us of Read more…
“You guys are like stubborn playmates on the playground…I suggested a great game full of delight, and you poohpoohed it. When my friend told you a sad story, none of you were willing to listen and cry over it with him.” When I came across this passage (my paraphrase), I Read more…
Little numbers on the scale, little words spoken, little words unsaid, little seeds and little seedlings…Little fingers and toes, little hugs, little squeals… As much as I would, or think I would, like to have a monumental impact on the worlds around me, most of my life is made up Read more…
My dad had a poster near his desk with a Raggedy Ann doll bring squeezed through a wringer. (If you know who and what I am talking about feel free to skip the next paragraph! If you don’t know, the internet will tell you more than you ever wanted to Read more…
“Sometimes fault lines can only be identified and mapped after an earthquake.” —40 Days of Decrease, Alicia Britt Chole That’s why failure is such an important thing to not be protected from. (She says from her ivory tower…) We often ask God to bless our event, activity, or adventure, expecting 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…
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…
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…