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
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
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 …
Sometimes when I have heard a certain part of a Bible verse emphasized my whole life, I fail to notice the rest of the verse until it pops out and surprises me. I felt that jolt this week while reading 1 Corinthians 14. I had stumbled across an online article that deeply disturbed me. The …
WordPress dutifully screens the comments that come to my blog, and deposits spam into the trash folder. Sometimes I read over them for a good giggle before I hit the "Delete Permanently" button. How can I not laugh when I get instructions about how to build big muscles, or how to improve my English while …
Often when I make a mistake, I feel foolish and sick at heart, and apologize all over myself. I'm so sorry I did that! It was so dumb of me. I'm so stupid sometimes. I've done this repeatedly in awkward situations or difficult relationships. When tension arises, I often take the blame and retreat. But …
I did not think I was going to write another post on church rules, but as I read the comments and emails following my simple story, one piece of the whole subject kept peskily scratching at the door of my mind. My story left out important parts of the church rules discussion because I cannot …
On a Thursday morning about a year ago, I received one text after another saying a variation of the same message: "We won't be coming to small group tonight." The house was cleaned (no small feat with my little children), the shopping was done and the food was made, and Will had a lesson prepared. …
Growing up, I was mostly very compliant with rules of any sort. I didn't just accept everything at face value--I often turned things over in my mind and tried to make sense of them--but I didn't usually challenge those things even if I thought they might be wrong. For me, keeping peace and avoiding hurt …
I almost feel apologetic for the pensive nature of my last few posts; I say almost, because the reality is that life is not always easy, and sometimes the most powerful thing we can do for each other is to say "I identify with you." Still, last night as I was drifting off to sleep, …
