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 […]
Silver Hair and Wisdom Hard-Won
“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.” Jeremiah 29:11 NIV I sit across from him at our favorite Italian restaurant, waiting for our pizza to come out of the wood-fired oven behind […]
How to Consume Life-Giving Lamb
I ate the lamb shank—the lamb I ordered—Sunday night. For those of you who are vegetarians, I’ll try to be sensitive. Truth is, I found that shank extremely tender and tasty. Still, I wonder if I ought to partake of an animal that was “sacrificed” for my sake. Why can’t I even eat a tasty […]
Dog Gone [When You’re Lost and Need to Know You’re Sought After Still]
She flew out the door with her friend at dusk on Friday night before Christmas. They had places to go, things to do. Two hours later, I began to worry. Darkness had enveloped the farm but they hadn’t come home. No sign of them. I whistled and called. Nothing. A silent night. I could feel […]
My Second Best Christmas Gift of All Time
Of course, the best Christmas gift of all time is Christ himself. On Christmas morning, I received my second best Christmas gift of all time. We’d been to church on Christmas Eve and seen and heard all the kids dressed up as Mary, Joseph, wise men, shepherds and a bunch of shaggy, smelly sheep. We’d […]
How Can We Turn Away from Such a Great Love?
Leslie Leyland Fields is a multi-faceted, precious jewel—brilliant, wise, accomplished, humble, and generous. She has been part of her family’s Alaskan commercial salmon fishing operation for decades on the edge of a continent. For the past four years, she has welcomed writers to her Alaskan wilderness fish camp each summer, teaching how to create beauty with words and […]
Simply Grateful
We went to our “happy place”, as our youngest son calls it, for a family vacation from Saturday until Wednesday. Door County is the “thumb” of Wisconsin and what some refer to as “the Cape Cod of the Midwest”—a peninsula that juts out separating the waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan. Highway 42 meanders […]
What To Do When You’re Overwhelmed
Ever felt like your life is flying by so fast that everything’s a blur and you can’t remember what you did two hours ago, let alone two days ago? When your days are stuck in fast forward and you’re trying to pack more and more in like a suitcase you simply MUST sit on to […]
Through Thick and Thin
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Hebrews 12:2 Hayfield came down the other day. At least part of it. We split the harvest with the farmer up the road who has his cows. He’s got the equipment. We’ve got the grass. His cows and our horses need […]
Flowering Fields
As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s […]
Make Every Day a Memorial Day
Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his […]
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. […]