When Life Crushes Your Heart
While walking along the Atlantic Ocean, I spot an auburn-haired beauty bending, kneeling, spreading her hand on the sand. Is she simply imprinting her palm? Or is she holding the hand of God? Maybe she’s doing both. Because the God who can bind the chains of the Pleiades and loosen Orion’s belt (Job 38:31) knows […]
Redemption of Mother’s Day: How to Heal Your Hurts
About two hours after Mother’s Day ended, my mother died in her bed of a massive heart attack. She was 65. Mom called her doctor, only hours after I talked with her the morning of that special day. He told her to get to the hospital ASAP after hearing her symptoms—profuse sweating, vomiting, shoulder pain. […]
Finding Meaning & Hope in Life’s Burns
On a sunny spring morning with nearly no breeze, I stood in the still-dormant grass of the ditch just a half-mile up from our home. I watched that old, white farmhouse burn. Flames swirled orange out of every window and door. I felt the heat on my face from across the street. Our 25-year-old son […]
I Didn’t Want a Different Dream
My friend and fellow author, Jolene Philo, runs a helpful website dedicated to special needs kids and their caretakers. I’ve read all her books and have found her knowledge extremely helpful on my own journey in caring for special needs kids that led to my own special needs. After 21 years (this month) of caring […]
When You’re Broadsided and Bewildered
At 6 PM, Saturday night, a middle-aged man with shoulder-length shaggy hair approached Nick with a question. “How many angel fish can I have in my 60-gallon tank?” Nick gave him the answer he learned from his PetSmart training staff. “For a 60-gallon tank, we recommend no more than 4 angelfish because they are territorial […]
The Pain of Self-Harm
Yesterday, I sat in a chair with my left arm propped up on the examining table. The orthopedic surgeon swabbed the injection site with iodine while I looked away and grabbed the nurse’s hand for support. The doctor warned me the injection would be painful. In went the needle, clear down to the bone. I […]
Animal Farm And Why We All Need To Know Our Weakness
In the context of trying to discover what a church believes about Scripture, I shared something I had heard from more than one. The man and woman looked at me quizzically. “That never happened here. We’re sure of it.” Perhaps I had misunderstood, I said. “Perhaps it was another church,” they replied. No, I was […]
Thoughts on Death and Life in a Cold and Frozen Forest
As part of the slide into slow this new year, I ran away. Actually, I drove away with my husband to Door County, the thumb of Wisconsin separating two bodies of water—Green Bay and Lake Michigan. We strapped on our cross-country skis and headed into the woods. Sun shining. Not a bit of breeze. Every […]
A Call To Rest for the Weary
Our rest lies in looking to the Lord, not to ourselves. Watchman Nee I have this tendency to cut through the crap of social superficiality pretty quickly. I make some uncomfortable, I know. I ask questions, based on my intuition in the moment. I don’t mean to make people uncomfortable. I mean to […]
What We All Need to Know About Respect and Servanthood
We rolled slowly along the street, meandering our way to what would soon be two new graves dug in Arlington National Cemetery—two of 400,000 already grassed green. Our vehicle stopped. Six men in crisp Army uniform stood in front of us, facing the awning where we would memorialize and pray for our friend’s father, Sgt. […]
Why We Need to Reach Out
There’s something ironic, even tragic, about feeling down-and-out. We don’t want to reach out. In fact, a common symptom of depression is isolation. Thinking we’re too much. Thinking we’re weird. Thinking we don’t want to burden anyone. Thinking we just need to get it together—pull ourselves up by our bootstraps—put on a happy face. Then […]
On the Edge: How Now Shall We Live?
Here is the world. You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time, you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you. Frederick Buechner Our float plane’s […]