Rendezvous with Red
How is it that sometimes we women meet another woman who feels like a twin? That’s my friend Kathy. Our “coming together” was quite in line with our personalities. We met camping. Todd, our young kids, our yellow lab, and I sailed on the U.S.S. Badger car ferry across Lake Michigan and drove north to […]
Warmth for the Frozen
While in the flesh, Jesus said . . . Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. Matthew 24:12 Risen from the dead, in resurrected flesh, Jesus said . . . I know your deeds, that you are neither cold not hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, […]
Advent Hope
I don’t have great pictures to tantalize today. I have words. Words with meaning so deep—so fished from the depths of my heart that I hope just one can visualize and absorb and praise our great God. This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, the celebration of Hope. Don’t we all need hope? […]
Beyond Words
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 119:29 Today I have no words of my own that can adequately express my thanks to God for who He is. And one of my favorites from ages past thought the same. Yet, his words live on and have ushered multitudes into […]
Dear Hunter,
And there it is! Standing in my white terrycloth robe with a mug of Kenyan coffee in my hand, delightful aroma wafting its way to my nostrils, I look out my second-story bedroom window. Blazing orange fills my sight on this perfectly beautiful, November Sunday morning at dawn. Wait a minute! I’m facing NORTH! That […]
Keeping It Real
So do I write spiritual platitudes today or real life story delineating the purpose of pain? It would be so much easier and safer to stick with platitudes—some vague spiritual truth far removed from the trenches where I find myself fighting for life with Christ this day. I will choose to speak of the trench […]
Adopt an Attitude
I’ve been adopting the needy since I was eleven years old. Really. My first was a rose-breasted grosbeak hatchling fallen from the nest, knocked out by a vicious red squirrel who ate his three siblings and must have forgotten about the one on the ground. I saw the whole bloody mess on the edge of […]
Have Mercy
A dreary Monday followed a bright Sunday on which I made a pot of chili, baked some cornbread, and rode my horse with John Wayne (a.k.a. husband, Todd Johnson) on our farm trails. What is it about sunny days that create a sense of well-being in some of us and overcast days usher emotions as […]
The Harvester Tree
I have never written a poem. There is my disclaimer. But I can’t get the image of a particular tree in Alaska out of my mind. And so I wrote words—words that tumbled out of my mind and onto a page. Perhaps you might find some meaning, some hope, from these few words spilled, even if […]
Wild and Raw, Vast and Vulnerable
We have been transported into new territory unlike anything we have ever seen. Wild and raw, vast and vulnerable, Alaska is a magnificent wonder. Celebrating twenty years of married life that has taken us on a journey of faith through similar wild and raw, vast and vulnerable, Todd and I have experienced much in a […]
Unexpected
ALASKA! We are here! Our packed 757 descended through clouds and drizzle, over ocean carved with black beach and pine, first sight of land never seen by either of us. The craft’s wheels lowered, locked in, and gentle as the rain on the wings, we touched earth. I lifted prayer of thanks to God of […]
For Just One
I asked him yesterday a question I have dared to ask myself, many times over through the years . . . “If just one were to be saved because of your depression, would you choose to carry this cross?” No hesitation between question and answer, his weakened voice answered affirmatively. “Yes.” And there I heard […]