finding God in the wasteland (Isaiah 35:1)
While I was teaching history to my second and fourth grade boys last year, I ran into the story of Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153 AD). Bernard was a Cistercian monk who lived in France, and his life is a mix of complicated and interesting history and theology. Perhaps the best effort of his life was …
Continue reading A Lesson from Bernard of Clairvaux
This is the story of one of my friends. Due to the sensitive nature of this story, I am publishing it anonymously for her. The experience of sexual abuse and the church's failure to protect is sickeningly common. What are we doing to bring about redemptive change? While working for that change, are we motivated …
Last weekend I came home from a long shift at the hospital to find Will bent over the toilet with a cleaning brush. My heart jumped. "I don't deserve a husband like him," I thought. Will has always been a willing participant of household chores, and while I am home more than he is thus …
Continue reading Fourteen Years, and Three Things I Am Learning
I wake up with a dark hole of emptiness eating through my chest, and it takes me a second to realize why. My little girl is gone. The child that I loved from the minute I set eyes on her is gone. I still remember how she felt sleeping heavily in my arms that first …
Your comments on my hospitality post were delightful and well worth reading! You all are so honest and sensible and thoughtful, and I connected with every single comment. Thank you for all the ideas and sympathizings! 🙂 I'm learning that hospitality ought to be shaped by what God has given us to share rather than …
Several months ago, a friend whom I had not seen in years emailed me. "My friends and I are taking a road-trip to Colorado," she wrote, "and would like to see you. Could we stop by your house for an evening and overnight?" I was delighted at the idea--I hadn't forgotten my bright and interesting …
After my extended silence (has it really been that close to a month?!) I feel the need to check in and give a brief update about what is happening in my life right now. I want to write and write and write, about things like a Christian's rights and responsibilities and women in the church …
"The Peter Rabbit movie you returned was two months overdue," the librarian announces. "When we finally got the movie, it no longer worked," she says, "so you will need to pay for a new one. In the future, please do not keep movies so long. We had a list of people waiting for Peter Rabbit …
I woke up around 12:30 this morning with a familiar pain in my knees. With no mother to look after them, I got up and crept out to the kitchen to find the Tylenol. Downing a couple pills with a cup of water, I realized I wouldn't be able to go to sleep until the …
In Joel Osteen's popular book Your Best Life Now, he details how to go about securing the best life possible for yourself, mostly through positive thinking and believing that God will give you everything you want. I thought about this "best life" while struggling through wondering if our family was truly living the life that God …
