When You Feel Like The Edges Of Your Life Are Crumbling And You Need Solid Anchors
I stood on the edge of a cliff wondering whether the rock would hold me if I ventured too far to the edge. From my high vantage point, I could see the vast array of autumn colors and the large lake down below—Devil’s Lake. I saw men and women with ropes anchored in rock, thrown […]
For When You Feel Like A Failure: Kingdom Economics 101
At 3:10 PM, he clomped up those steps to the library, not with his usual enthusiasm. He plopped down in the yellow chair, right by our second-story fireplace, right across from my light blue Lazy Boy where I sit reading, waiting for him. I sensed him. Something was wrong. ”Hi! How was your day?” “Not […]
Some Thoughts on Dying When You Feel Like It and the Hope That Stops You
It is late September. The sugar maple is tinged with fire, a burning mix of orange and red and yellow, engulfing the green. Honking Vs of geese fly over the barn. One yellowed leaf curls on the grass. Three Sandhill cranes lift off alfalfa field, warbling their way into the air, a trinity created by […]
A Heads Up When You’re Feeling Down
Looks like my sunflowers are having a hard day. Or week. Or month. Look at their heavy heads hanging low! Every year these Russian Giants break out from small seed buried a half-inch below crumbled earth mixed with composted horse manure. A great growing ground—fresh earth and the once icky! Within three months, stalks rocket […]
True Compassion That Helps The Hurting
O, Lord, the grieving are many! A wayward son, now beyond what the family can help. Another son can’t shake the depression but won’t take his medicine. Another son runs away from home leaving parents worried without information on his whereabouts. A husband gone to another woman’s bed, leaving his wife and young children […]
A Place For All God’s Creatures in His Special Upside-Down Economy
Our traditional Sabbath day family connection is a hike somewhere—anywhere on a trail through nature. It’s our ritual. Our comfort. The holy tie that binds. This past Sunday was one of those near-fall afternoons where temperatures slipped. Long sleeves and sweatshirts replaced the T-shirts of summer for the first time since June. Breezes blew stiff. […]
Why Burning Is Good For Our Souls
I answered my cell. “Hey Mom! The barn’s burning tomorrow. We’ll be there at 5:45. Everything’s going down except the house which we’re doing later. Are you coming?” “Of course! You know I wouldn’t miss it!” Zach, our nearly 22 year-old volunteer fireman, was about as excited as his pyromaniac mother. My friend Nancy and […]
When Black and White Mix With God, What Happens?
When worlds collide, what happens? Things can get ugly, even deadly, quickly. Then again . . . When worlds collide, what happens? God’s kingdom can expand. Last week, black met white as we marked our 8th annual Nature Camp here on our 44 acres of country. Long before we moved to this farm, we drove […]
Can God Give Too Much?
This is the third and last in the series of my Alaskan ponderings. May you be blessed by the glory of God given to us, for us, that we might worship the One who created all and, in him alone, find our fulfillment. When I was a kid, my dad would tickle me in the […]
Can God Be Trusted In The Dark?
When rain clouds obscure reality, keep looking forward in faith. And pray to be thrilled by the One who holds the rain—and you, even in the deluge. Two years ago, we were here in Denali National Park, Alaska, a vast wilderness of six million acres. Temperatures were warm, skies were clear and we learned […]
How Do We Rise Up When Life Cuts Us Down?
Ever felt cut down? Dried up? Bundled heavy? Tightly strung? Thrown in a heap? Left alone in some dark, dry place? I can relate. This past week the farmers rolled into the fields all around us, even ours. Make hay while the sun shines, the old adage goes. We take that literally around here. Horse […]
Beautiful Beyond Description
Here’s the thing . . . You are about to witness the juxtaposition of evil and beautiful. I have done this on purpose—to press a point. There is gross darkness in this world. Orange jumpsuits filled with men, caged like animals but handcuffed like no animal. Submerged slowly. Methodically. Into a drowning pool. With underwater […]