We sat in a conference room with a dozen strangers. Every Saturday morning, this group of people met for prayer. My husband and I came to observe and see if we might fit with them. “Grab a copy of the prayer list,” the chaplain instructed. Someone picked up a paper and handed it to us. …
Searching for a lost list, I unexpectedly landed in a completely different world. I found my writings after Mother died of cancer in 2010. Their raw emotion, untidied by literary rules, transported me to bloody battles with me as the enemy on both sides. Mothers’ Day falls this coming weekend. That journal resurfacing now seems …
The long awaited Friday arrived for my first backpacking trip. The responsibility for our parents had passed into God’s hands. My gimp foot was repaired, and I built endurance by walking more each week. I borrowed or bought equipment, and Mike squinted over maps, adding miles and noting water sources. He reserved shelters. We …
I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus…. Let us keep living by that same standard to …
What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—what we have …
You’ll never believe what lay on my doorstep this morning. I might have stepped on her if not for the contrasting yellows and greens that she wore. It was Tina Turtle. Tina Turtle visits once or twice a year. She bushwhacks through the grass and bushes with lumbering steps. Last year she stretched her neck …
It’s the strangest thing to step out the back door with mowers thrumming in the neighborhood and motorcycles zipping on the interstate a mile away then to spot a dark speck circling overhead. The form is a red-tailed hawk unexpected in this environment, but there he is lazing in curves. His eyesight amazes me. He …
I relax into a beach chair while in the water my husband straddles a surfboard waiting for waves. The beach and the floor of the gulf in our region are formed with sand as white as snow, making the water an aqua hue worthy of a postcard. A squadron of five pelicans glide in a …
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 Tada! The last puzzle piece snapped into place and felt so satisfying. The puzzle didn’t start out with such fuzzy feelings. 1000 random …
Our government has taught me an important lesson the past few weeks. I’m putting it to better use. Beginning in February, we heard rumbles about a new coronavirus ripping across China. Soon we were told to wash our hands and stay home if we were sick (duh). Then new instructions started airing daily. Curtail travel, …
For the past eight years, during both democratic and republican presidencies, we’ve seen an increase in shootings, addictions, enmity between races and political parties, sexual immorality, gang crime, depravity in film and TV, denying life to babies, and contempt of God and Christians. I’ve also witnessed an increase in Christians praying for our country based …
Advent ponders Jesus first and second comings. Thinking about God coming as a babe makes me smile, but I rarely think about Jesus’ second coming. Usually that comes to mind when I’m weary of politics and violence or my failure to live faithfully. In those instances, I’m eager for “every knee to bow and every …