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 […]
Christmas Joy in the Splash of a Cross
Two days before Christmas, I pull my hiking boots on and crisscross the laces, tying tightly. Misted sky is cold, dripping. No wished-for snow. I choose a different path today, the one to the east. Normally, I head west but the evergreens in the forest look so lovely in the mist. I will start there. As […]
Invisible Threats and Giving Thanks
It’s Thanksgiving week and in Wisconsin there’s a frenzy for bagging a buck, the more points the better. We live in the country. Men in orange (and some women) sit in tree stands, waiting. Some sit in camouflaged blinds, waiting, like my husband and youngest son. They haven’t fired their shotguns yet after two times out. But a huge […]
Running on Full
I hate running. It hurts. So why do I run? I run because I have a gazillion things to do every day. I run because everyone else seems to run and I get caught in the current of busy. Busy. Busy. Busy. We are all so busy. Sometimes I feel more machine than human. More like a factory […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]