Unexpected Harvest: When You Wonder What God Has in Mind for Your Life
Harvest. Our garden provided abundantly throughout the summer and keeps giving. Lettuce, spinach, beans, peppers, carrots, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe, pumpkins, raspberries. Each summer, this garden reminds me of the same truth—I can’t out-give God. I plunge seeds into the dark earth in spring. And then this. So much blessing. Too much blessing. I must […]
The Wedding That Eclipsed the Eclipse
We stood on the concrete driveway, two of our three grown kids and me. Anna and Nick stared up at the cloud-covered sky as our bare feet soaked up the warmth from the sun we couldn’t see. I looked around. The grass seemed greener. The swallows flocked together. The temperature dropped. Though not completely dark, […]
When You’re Scared and You Don’t Know What To Do
Since this weekend? Seems we’re consumed. In our nation . . . What he said. What he didn’t say. When he said it. Or didn’t say it. Why he took so long to say it. Is he fit? Is he unfit? Are we safe? Are we unsafe? Is the world safe? This opinion. That opinion. […]
Why We Really Need Jesus To Clean Us
The older I get, the more I recognize my depravity, the deep-down dirty of my thoughts, words and deeds, of my even deeper motivations and instincts. And the older I get, the more I know my need of Jesus. Kind of like Paul in Romans . . . I do not understand what I do. […]
Make Hay While The Sun Shines
They say, “Make hay while the sun shines” and this is true. Those of us around here with horses need hay cut at just the right time. We watch the weather, hoping for three, back-to-back sunny days for hay harvesting because horse hay must be dry. Otherwise, hay molds and can’t be fed to horses. […]
Abundance from Dependence
What do you do when your dreams aren’t coming true? What do you do when your heart breaks from the ache of wanting something so much and it looks like that one dream may never be yours? Like Hannah who wanted a child. Desperately. So what did Hannah do? Instead of lashing out at her […]
Fear Not—An Invitation to the Freedom of Dependence
The men in my life are laying out clothes, filling up containers, packing enough for five days of their ten away in two cities where terror has struck again—London and Paris. And they’ll be standing on the beaches where some other mother’s boys landed and turned the waters red at the same ages as our […]
Foreign Affairs and What’s Right With the World
Terrorist attacks. My two sons and my husband are heading to London and Paris in two weeks for a WWII trip . . . I pray. I reflect . . . I put a poster board together for him Saturday, the day before he walked the aisle. The day before he took his seat among […]
Encouragement for the Broken and Stigmatized
I stepped out of the shadows and declared—on Facebook—during Holy Week—that I was suffering with clinical depression. I had hit the hard floor of desperation on Wednesday before Maundy Thursday in the midst of a medication change, one of several I’d been through over the past twenty years. So why did I dare post and […]
Over the Edge
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Luke 12:6-7 Soon, I will watch the swallows nest in the barn, hatching naked in cups of twig and […]
UNRAVELING THE UNKNOWNS
He’s in critical condition with broken bones and a ripped up brain in an induced coma. He’s the 16 year-old brother of one of my former art students. Our families attended the same church for a few years. Headed to school last Friday morning, he comes to a curve. His car tumbles sideways—three times, I […]
What Has a Strong Hold on You?
How do you define “stronghold”? I used to think strongholds were just negative. Because most strongholds tear down and destroy. There’s only one Stronghold who laid down His life for us so we can have True Life now and forever. Jesus is the One-and-Only we can turn to, run to, cling to who will surely […]