“I am surrounded by death.” These are my words I brought out as my husband brought home a deer last night. The first one of this season…and the first of a very long season of not getting one. I tried to be happy for him but…I still felt sad when I saw the once wild doe now limp and lifeless. I am happy for my hunter-gatherer man but…this week it is another death.
A sister in Christ went home last week to be with Jesus and one…
Just a couple of years ago a friend of mine lost her husband unexpectedly. My husband drove us to the memorial – a short drive across a short town – not a lot of time to prepare words. I had only seen her a few times since returning to my hometown. I spent the night at her house once or twice in middle school We laughed as we spied on her sister kissing her boyfriend in the driveway. I remembered that silly youthful moment as we pulled into the funeral home. Who was I to now approach her in her deepest sorrow…the loss…
There once was a woman named Ida Mayfield Wood…perhaps you’ve heard of her. She lived in squalor in a couple of rooms at New York’s Herald Square Hotel. By the time of her death in 1932, Ida had hoarded nearly $1 million in cash in her hotel room. The money was stuffed in pots and pans. A diamond necklace was even found inside a Cracker Jack box.
Ida was found to have $10,000 in cash sealed around her waist.
For some reason her story has stuck with me since I first heard it and she has come to mind several times in…
I watched the kids from the neighborhood play under the street lamp…unwilling to let go of the last summer night. The fall wind quietly entered our neighborhood last night and stirred their hair. The parents stood around talking about work and how we needed to get in, get the kids to bed but, like the kids, we were really holding on to summer. We knew what was happening. We knew that another season was ending. That next summer might be different. It might be the one that our kids no longer want…
What is it about the gospel of grace that can make me endure better? Is anyone else out there challenged in their endurance levels? Physically I can go…push myself to get it done. But I’m talking about how I respond to challenging emotional situations. These days that mostly plays out in how I respond to disappointment throughout the day. A temper tantrum on top of trying to keep up with homeschool on top of one crying for attention on top of all kinds of other needs and duties. Just the simple but overwhelming challenges…
I went camping with my family last weekend. We canoed in a lake littered with tree trunks…still standing in water but dead. What was it about them that drew me to take many pictures? Time and time again I carefully brought my camera out, risking the safety of it in a canoe of four to get just one more haunting angle. One more picture of the sun shining down on them.
And I think of them again as I ponder suffering.
How can I approach suffering…
I find it hard to write on Tuesdays…there is less time because every Tuesday I do something special. I talk to a dear friend and we discuss what God is doing in lives and then we pray. We’ve been doing this for about a year now and I am finding that every Tuesday I come away with a new thought about how God is working in our lives or how I want to see him work in our lives.
Today I am thinking about the healing of the mind. Every Tuesday I will pose a simple question or give a…
The bike trail is long and there is not enough time or energy to go further for some in our family. My six year old boy slants his eyes and looks down at the bike path he just made with his tires. My pint-sized explorer feels free on this never-ending bike trail and doesn’t want to stop. I know before he says a word that we will experience a blowout. If it were only the tire that was…
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you; my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
I’ve seen you in the sanctuary, beheld your power and glory.
Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands. Psalm 63:1-4
I love to hear my three-year old’s sweet voice as she sings Psalm 63:1-4. We’ve been practicing it for about a month and she sings it…
It is early morning and the only sound I hear is the coffee pot clicking away and the black gold slowly dripping into the pot. It is still dark and as I wait for the morning light and my favorite drink, I review the summer’s writing in my journal. I laugh and I cry. One more summer added to the 15 recorded so far in my life. One more summer of God’s handiwork in my life. I wonder…will I ever figure this thing out? Life. Fifteen plus years of grappling, seeking, growing, turning, changing, transforming, answers to prayers and encouragement – recorded.
This was the…
