Dear God, I Don’t Know What to Pray
I think I’ll give up on watching the news. It’s just too hard. There is war and sickness, violence, fear and hate on display in high-definition, wide-screen color. It’s devastating. As a child of God, my response to the pain in the world should be to pray, taking the concerns of my heart to the Throne of God. But there comes a point when the pain is overwhelming, and I can’t even find the words to pray.
Continue ReadingOn Endurance and Letting Go
As a young man, my dad had a large original oil painting hanging in his apartment. It depicts a vase full of cheerful, daisy-like flowers painted in the hallmark colors and character of the early 70s: loud, gaudy and stylized; it’s a fitting tribute to the culture of that era. Years later the painting found a prominent place on our family room wall.
Continue ReadingTender Loving Church
In recent weeks, a horrible virus swept through some of my family. It was one of those times you are sick where there’s not a name like strep, where you can easily pop some meds, and it will all fade away quickly.
Continue ReadingStruggle
When I was largely pregnant with my first son, we had a chimney fire in our house. Something had gone wrong in the night with our oil furnace, the chimney clogged up, and it caught fire. We were awakened by a pet that was upset about the smoke filling the house (the smoke detectors went off a minute later). My husband, a volunteer firefighter at the time, ran to see what was happening and to call 911. I wrapped our toddler daughter in a blanket and ran to the neighbor’s house.
Continue ReadingSing to the Lord
When I was very young, my family lived in a house heated by a coal furnace. In the evenings, my father would bank the fire in the furnace; i.e., he would cover the hot coals with a layer of ash. This would keep the fire burning all night and would make it easier to get fresh coal burning in the morning.
Continue ReadingThink About These Things
Philippians 4:8-9 provides a framework for what we ought to stay our minds on. Things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, praiseworthy—these things pour back into our mental energy.
Continue ReadingTake Heart
Recently I was feeling bad about feeling bad. As in, I noticed myself really hurting about a few things, feeling stressed, but I felt guilty about it. I thought that if I truly was content in God, I wouldn’t be as bothered and pained by those circumstances as I was.
Continue ReadingAn Unexpected Resting Place
This morning as I was throwing hay to the horses and filling up the water trough, I took this picture of my little house in the woods. It’s a great house. I love the tin roof, the wrap-around porch, the brick walls, and the huge windows that overlook beautiful wooded pastures.
Continue ReadingCommitment
Many people today do not like the thought of commitment. Whether it’s to a spouse, a job, or just a goal, the thought of committing for a period of time seems to scare people. Perhaps it’s the instability of a pandemic, uncertainty of the future, or any number of other reasons that frightens them. But God calls on us to commit, not to a cause or a job, but to Him.
Continue ReadingPlans
It can be really hard when we have our heart set on gathering with loved ones and it doesn’t happen. Sometimes it’s just disappointing and difficult; surely God will teach us something through it, but at the time we can’t see it yet.
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