“You be the lookout,” I told my little brother. “Yell the second you see the car!” My parents had gone for the day, leaving me in charge. And now we were scrambling to finish our chores and get the house in order before they returned, bringing our cousins with them. Only when the last thing […]
A PSALM FOR GIVING THANKS
The signs are everywhere right now: “Grateful”, the word spelled out in fancy type, embellished with flowers, sparkles, or even gold leaf. I almost hit one with my grocery cart this morning, rounding the corner past a woman who, like me, had left her Thanksgiving shopping to the last minute. “Grateful … hmmpf!” she said, […]
PATIENCE: A VIRTUE WORTH PRACTICING
“Patience is a virtue . . . you get it from your kids.” “God give me patience . . . and I want it now!” We laugh about patience, joke about it even, but how many of us work at getting it? We treat it as though it’s something one is born with, and […]
PRAYER IN DESPERATE TIMES
“Desperate times call for desperate measures. Would you consider prayer a desperate measure?” I wasn’t expecting that question at the start of this interview on “prayer in desperate times”! Ben Akers, who is Director of Formed at the Augustine Institute in Denver, invited me to talk on Formed Now! about how the Psalms teach us to pray when times are rough. The […]
HAVE FAITH IN THE FIRE: Take a Lesson from Job
“Hope in God.” “Have Faith.” “Hang in there — God’s got this!” For real? Are these phrases (which I hear so often now, with so much distress in the streets) — are these pious phrases just “opium for the masses,” as Karl Marx famously declared of religion? When I can’t get a break; when my […]
ROSH HASHANAH, A CALL TO REPENTANCE
I’ve heard it said that the shofar (ram’s horn trumpet), with its curving shape, represents the way a repentant heart “bends” before the Lord in supplication. When it’s blown, it has a unique sound that can trumpet victory or a mournful wail. In the liturgy of Rosh Hashanah, today’s Jewish “Feast of Trumpets,” three types […]
WHEN THERE’S NOT ENOUGH OF YOU TO GO AROUND
Sometimes there’s not enough of me to go around. The kids need help. A loved one dies. The dryer breaks, or the car. Taxes are due and a deadline zooms and no, I can’t possibly help you today. My own needs are too great … I’m stretched as far as I can go. Sometimes there’s […]
IS YOUR BIRTHDAY A MILESTONE OR A MILLSTONE? 5 Reasons to Celebrate Another Year
I sat on the bed while my Great-Grandma braided her waist-length, snowy white hair and piled it like a crown on her head. She turned to me, twinkling: “Now what does today have in store for us?” Later, as we talked, she turned and patted my knee. “It’s so nice to be with someone my own […]
OUR GOD CARES: Listen for His Still, Small Voice
Talk about final. There was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention. (I Kings 18:29, ESV.) The prophets of Baal had been at it all morning and most of the afternoon, hopping around the altar, calling on their god, slashing and cutting themselves into a frenzy. They begged their god of lightning to […]
WHO IS IN CHARGE OF THE STORMS OF YOUR LIFE?
A line of thunderstorms crashed through our area two nights ago. Eighty-mile-an-hour winds ripped trees out of the ground, took down power lines and severely damaged several nearby homes. As I picked my way through the debris that covered our driveway, I kept thinking, “Lord — this could be broken glass and twisted metal, bits […]
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