Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what it would feel like to hold hands with God, not metaphorically, but literally. Jesus grabbed Peter’s hand when he was sinking under water. Can’t you see Jesus’ grip with angled bones, muscles and tendons straining to pull his friend out of the dark deep into the boat? …
Do you remember playing hide and seek when you were a kid? We played it at night and called it murder-in-the-dark. All the neighborhood kids gang in our yard, milling around and doing cartwheels until someone yells, “Not it.” The last kid to say, “Not it,” becomes “it” or the seeker. The first person the …
Toes dug in the sand, the water laps at my feet, sending chills up my back. I shuffle forward until the water reaches my ankles and suck in my breath. The beach chair and library book beckon, but the last time I came to the beach, I promised myself that I would get into the water. …
Hello Friends, You saw “What Defines You” on Monday and are probably wondering why you’re getting another blog notice this week. Today is a special day. Today is Ash Wednesday. How appropriate that Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day, because both holi-days amplify love. Valentine’s Day celebrates love between people, and Ash Wednesday celebrates God’s …
Who Are You? What Defines You? Decades ago I could hold a toddler on my hip while I dragged wet clothes from the washer to the dryer, kept an eye on dinner, and supervised a son’s homework. Multi-tasking comprised daily life. Now, I’m smug if I make it out the door with my purse and …
Do you see king cakes and moon pies in the grocery store now? Parade floats line the streets and beads hang detangled, ready for tossing. We may or may not get into Mardi Gras, but it heralds Lent. Next week is Ash Wednesday and the official beginning of Lent. Many of us practice Advent, and …
I discussed fetal hearing with a Safe Harbor client. The curriculum includes an exercise where the mother plays different kinds of music from a phone or other device that she places on her swelling abdomen. The mom laughed when she told me that her baby likes music with a beat! Her baby rolled over, kicked …
We’re still in January, and we have the whole year ahead of us. Most of us, though, stumble down the trail, because we have rocks in our shoes. Reoccurring worry over that thing, wounds with scabs that keep coming off, grudges, and regret chafe and jab into our feet. We either won’t travel far or …
Matthew 2:1-12 Remember the magi, the scholars that saw a new star in the heavens marking the birth of a king? Stars hang in space in such exotic distances from us that we measure their distance to us in light years, which is how far light travels in one year, 5.87 trillion miles. The range …
Do you teeter between believing (A) God orchestrates a life-giving plan for you and (B) God orchestrates a life-giving plan for the world with you as a tiny thread in that plan? I struggle with this. Sometimes I feel that God works everything for the good of his overall plan, but it doesn’t look so …