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 […]
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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 […]
DO YOU LOVE JESUS … OR ONLY LUV HIM?
How do you get from LUV to LOVE? How do you move from “sure, I love Jesus” to “Lord, I love you!” That’s the question Jesus asked Peter in their post-breakfast heart-to-heart on the shore of the Sea of Galilee: do you (really) love me? Jesus had risen from the dead, and he had just […]
LOST YOUR JOY? HERE’S HOW TO GET IT BACK
Another dull gray day, another day of self-isolation, and it’s getting harder to keep the spirits up. Whatever happened to joy? Jesus wants our joy to be full (see John 15:11). And it’s one of the fruits of the Spirit. Joy should be the hallmark of a Christian: a kind of identifying aura that others […]
TAKING IN THE RESURRECTION: The Easter Octave
There’s always such a push to Easter, and then … what? I’m grateful to the ongoing pulse of the season, that reminds me there is more. In the liturgical cycle, Easter is a day and also an “octave.” Eight days of celebration, eight days of re-absorbing the message of the Resurrection: that because Jesus is […]
JESUS WAS TROUBLED … SO YOU NEED NOT BE
I woke up this morning troubled by many things: some are just wisps of bad dreams in the night, but others I must face. I turned, as is my habit, to the Scriptures of Morning Prayer[1] “Jesus was deeply troubled” jumped out at me. What does it mean to be troubled? The word is tarássō […]
WITHOUT A DEATH, THERE CAN’T BE A RESURRECTION
It gets me every time I read it: “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that [Lazarus] was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.” What?! Jesus loved them, so he stayed away. He waited, in fact, until Lazarus was well and truly dead. […]
WHAT TO DO WHEN THERE’S NO EUCHARIST: Thirsting for Jesus during COVID-19
I don’t know about you, but I’m thirsty for Jesus. I’m hungry for the Eucharist. I want him. Physically, tangibly. Less than 10 days into coronavirus-prompted deprivation, I have a longing I’ve never experienced before. It’s a longing I never thought I’d have, given 30 years of experiencing his presence spiritually as a Protestant, ignorant […]
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