Prodigal Cat
Oh, how I wish we had a film crew to capture the ridiculously funny scene from yesterday! One of my BFFs (best friends forever) came up for the afternoon to talk and walk our trails with me. Last I saw her was two weeks ago, on Easter Sunday, when she and her family came for […]
Where is Hope?
“Have you ever been hopeless?” The question spilled straight out of heart through mouth. And there the heart-words gushed, hung heavy, waiting—pleading. How do you respond when the hope-starved beg for a crumb, eyes looking straight into yours, begging for just one little crumb of open-hearted self-disclosure? In these moments of desperation, do we […]
A Pair of Pears
We had a death on the farm last fall—one of our two young pear trees left the other standing all by itself. It’s alive but it won’t grow fruit. The poor lonely pear needs a companion. It needs a different companion, similar to itself in kind, but different in variety. That’s how pear trees grow […]
Flooded
Skies open and Spring pours. Farm fields and low-lying forests flood. We wait for earth to absorb excess and bring forth new life. Absorb. How do we absorb Jesus when we are so flooded? Flooded with worry. Flooded with doubt. Flooded with guilt. Flooded with grief. Flooded with anger. Flooded with fear. Flooded […]
Love Means Having to Say You’re Sorry
Storm warning! High winds coming! I can feel the front moving in and I might just be ready to blow. I heard it on the radio yesterday—a study from some of my clinical psychology colleagues . . . . Apologizing lowers self-esteem. Therefore, we shouldn’t apologize. Ever. Honestly?! Some in the psychology world have taken insanity […]
Prepare the Way
I am at my normal pre-dawn perch and the cacophony has begun. Chirping birds telling the world to wake up. Morning and Spring are here! Prepare for the new day! Prepare for the new season! I think about this house—how one bird has flown north a few miles and is living in her […]
New Beginnings
Sometimes it takes Easter for the blind to see. Sometimes it takes a fresh encounter with the risen Jesus, even when we know Him well. Our pastor gave a heartfelt and brilliant sermon about hope yesterday—about how Jesus finishes the sentences we start in life—about how not to give up because WE don’t finish our […]
Against the Grain
It is Easter morn . . . Oh my soul can hardly contain such joy! He has done it! Jesus, our Jesus has conquered the grave and rolled the death curse away! As the massive stone rolled uphill–impossible for any human to accomplish–so our Saviour rolled the death curse uphill and away from us forever! […]
As the Rooster Crows
It’s dawn. Good Friday. I am in my own little corner of the world, facing east. Horizontal swath of peachy-orange hangs at the horizon over Lake Michigan, just visible from my perch. Across the road on another farm . . . . The rooster crows. The rooster crows like that every morning at dawn. […]
A Pressing Post for Maundy Thursday
Oh, dear friend! I am so sorry that your day was one of such pain. The enemy of our souls had a terrific time ripping you to shreds just as he did to Jesus so many years ago with whip and thorns and nails. You have endured so much suffering. Thankfully, you KNOW our Savior […]
Jesus Still Resurrects
When I gave my life to Jesus at 16, I had just witnessed a miracle. I saw Him resurrect someone from the dead—almost. My piano teacher—a surrogate mother to me—had been diagnosed with stage four breast cancer when I was 13. By the time I was 16, the cancer had metasticized to her bones, her brain, […]
One Step Towards Glory
Two weeks before my tenth birthday, humanity took its first step on the moon. As I gazed at its full face in the vast night sky, I took my first step toward the One who created both man and moon. And though I had not been in a church since my infant baptism, I decided […]