You’ve Got Mail (The Truth About You in Love Letters)
Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Deuteronomy 8:3 Crab food. That’s what my husband calls it. He says that if I don’t have food when I’m hungry I get really crabby. He’s right. We all need food, water and rest on a […]
Growing Up
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18 Saturday was prom day for our youngest who turned 18 three weeks ago. I close my eyes and see him in that navy blue & white striped shirt he wore the day I held him for the first […]
Hardened Off
It’s May but still cold here. My potted geraniums survived the winter by staying put in front of our family room’s south-facing windows. Now it’s time to harden them off, expose them to the sun and outside warmth. When the temperature drops at the end of each day, I carry each one into the garage […]
Who Guides You When You’re Anxious?
The Lord is MY shepherd . . . Psalm 23:1 Sometimes the fog rolls in on this farm covering pasture like cotton plucked and pulled thin. Sometimes anxiety rolls in over me too, shrouding me. Sometimes I just shake for lack of vision, for need of compassion, for someone to reach out and touch […]
When The God We Believe is Righteous Doesn’t Seem to Be Delivering
The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods. Psalm 16:4 Really, Jesus? I don’t see the sorrows of those who run after other gods increasing. I don’t even see any sorrow. In fact, we seem happy, rejoicing, running through vibrant green fields of self-seeking pleasure, free. In fact, I see us showing […]
Arizona Jesus
In Wisconsin, where I live, we never contend with intense sun and dry. Not like where I walked yesterday. At least not on the outside. We all have known some extremes on the inside, haven’t we? Where we feel the force of something much larger than we can control looming, beating down on us hard. […]
The Power of Three
Three deaths. Three funerals. Three weeks. A trinity of holy. 35 years old. Husband. Father of three. Killed in a car crash. 62 years old. Friend. Sister of one of my best friends. Heart attack. 88 years old. Ministry partner for years. So how can such suffering, so close together, be holy? All are grieving, […]
A FAREWELL FOR JO (AND THE HOPE FOR US ALL)
My dear friend Nancy, my neighbor, lost her sister Jo Monday night. 62 years old. Vibrant wife, mother, grandmother, sister, friend. Heart attack. Alive in the morning. Gone by night. There’s agony here around this farm, this Holy Week, as we march to Maundy Thursday, the day our Lord wept in a garden as he […]
Wait a Minute!
I worked out hard yesterday because soon I’ll have to shimmy into my shorts. Time to shred the winter belly I swear looks like it was inflated with a tire pump. So I started the DVD. Thought I might die, right there on the family room floor. There was this trainer on the screen, her […]
Why You Need to Change Your Point of View
The familiar brown truck rolls up our farm’s gravel drive and the man who loves to play tug with our rambunctious yellow lab hands her a biscuit before handing me my box. She jumps and nearly gets him in the face with her enthusiastic expectation and her wet tongue. Yeah, and so it goes. We […]
Some Scenes of the Seen
She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” Genesis 16:13-14 SCENE ONE: It goes like this . . . Years ago I sat on the kitchen floor in front of an […]
Driving Home
What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. Philippians 1:12 Driving home in the dark last night, angled arrows of head-lighted sleet pelted my windshield, hypnotizing. Wipers on high could not keep up. White-knuckled fingers gripped the steering wheel and my whole body leaned forward, concentrating, praying . . . Please […]