On Our Knees—Together, Part 2
We need to stand in the gap for the vulnerable and give them the best news of life—the gospel. This piece is the continuation of Wednesday’s post about the boy who threatened to kill our son, his friend, his biological father, and himself. He had a plan. He was serious. He was a desperate, hurting soul. […]
On Our Knees—Together
What you are about to read is true. Names are changed. Broken has no bounds. Broken affects us in a small farming community. Broken affects us all. But so does God’s grace—even more. God wants to love us in our broken. Will we let Him? Will we be part of the healing process? Or will we […]
When the World is Falling Apart and You Need Your Own Care Package
Sometimes I read the headlines and am tempted to despair. Sometimes I’m tempted to feel guilty for my own problems when I see those suffering from darkness all over the world, feeling real terrors of their own. Then again, I know Jesus cares for all—for all the masses and for just one. He suffered and […]
A Stunning Love
“I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and […]
Faith, Not Feelings (and sometimes some medication)
I’ll be real here. I was struggling with feelings the past two days. Ever been there? After a week of pretty much nonstop caring for two injured kids on pain meds and doing all the farm chores they usually do but can’t, I’m tired. Despite my best efforts to pray, coach myself with scripture, exercise, […]
Banged Up
It’s spring. Birds and kids are flying. And some of each got banged up recently. Nick ran around in the dark playing Capture the Flag with his Boy Scout troop. Suddenly, his body hurled forward while his foot stayed behind, bound by a protruding tree root. A trip to the ER and an x-ray showed […]
Into the Woods
I meander through conifer forest next to our home, whipped by white pine branches and pricked by wild rose stems. Trails cleared years ago for riding horses in summer and cross-country skiing in winter are now overgrown from lack of tending. Some paths are hardly visible. Others are too near eroded banks of the creek […]
Broken and Burned
We go on the hunt today. Through field still cold and unturned, we hold our destination in sight, a ramshackle barn and a crumpled man’s home. The ruins. The broken. The history. The textures of a life long-lived. That’s what we’re after. We don’t want prettified. We want real and we want to see the deep […]
Connection with God and Others
She opens a spiral notebook and shows me a cross she drew. I saw her pain on the page. Not like she fell apart or anything. No one would ever know. I’ve known her for a long time, but I’ve not really known her. It’s just that when one has been hurt so deeply for […]
Worth the Wait
The bay by Fish Creek is melting, the ice breaking into white geometric chunks outlined in blue. A lone goose ambles next to shore, smacking her webbed feet on the still frozen. I giggle on the inside. She’s looking, beak moving left and right, waiting. Memory of last spring’s fuzzy goslings makes me smile. Does […]
New Life
Here it is, the day between death and life. Our Lord Jesus was off the cross and in the tomb. And the waiting—the waiting is hard. The hoping—holding onto hope can be so hard. But when God makes a promise, best believe He will deliver. Nothing is impossible for God. He’s all about resurrections, restorations, […]
Good Friday—Our Hope
Reflecting on what Jesus did on this day brings me to a still, quiet place of awe and gratefulness. I can’t fathom His suffering, His love, His utter determination to not leave us as broken orphans in a broken world. He chose to heal us with his life—and death. His choice cost him everything. We […]