Sometimes my head hurts with the clamor of the world around me. Social media is full of arguing--people are angry and opinionated and sure that everyone else is wrong. Families divide over differences, refusing to see how each generation has unique gifts to offer. Churches debate the Bible and get ugly over what should be …
Category: Inner Life
To Save His People
Last night I dreamed I was at one of our loud and happy Miller family gatherings. As the end of our weekend crept up, my cousins decided to put together a scrapbook for my grandparents. (My grandparents are long gone, but this was the dream.) We used a regular ruled notebook, and filled it with …
They came for him yesterday
The social worker came for him yesterday. She stepped inside our door, and our child ran crying into the kitchen. He cried and clung to Will, his two-year-old tears saying, "Don't let them take me away!" Will picked him up, held him close, then buckled him in the car seat, and they took him away. …
The Prophecy I Didn’t Want to Hear
I sat in the second row from the front at the Leaders Alive conference, my heart crying out to God for answers. "Talk to me, God!" I prayed. "I need to hear from You!" I was struggling with acute loneliness where God had placed our family. Even though I loved our small town, I had …
A Lesson from Bernard of Clairvaux
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 …
Justice or Revenge?
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 …
Fourteen Years, and Three Things I Am Learning
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
The waste of love
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 …
Giveaway winner and a prayer request
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 …
Hospitality and the Gospel
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 …
arabah rejoice 