For the Joy Set Before Us
Joy to the world! The LORD has come! Let Earth receive her King! JOY? Fact is, some are sad right now. Like the loved ones of the twelve mowed down by ISIS in the Christmas market on Monday in Germany. While we’re singing peace on Earth, some are creating chaos and spreading terror and grief. […]
The Presence of Peace in the Midst of Grief
The second week of Advent, we light that second candle. The peace candle. Peace. I want that flame to touch every wicked thing around the world this Christmas. I want peace on earth and goodwill to spread towards all. This is what we sing this season, isn’t it? Peace? Goodwill? And yet, Aleppo’s without water […]
How Can We Turn Away from Such a Great Love?
Leslie Leyland Fields is a multi-faceted, precious jewel—brilliant, wise, accomplished, humble, and generous. She has been part of her family’s Alaskan commercial salmon fishing operation for decades on the edge of a continent. For the past four years, she has welcomed writers to her Alaskan wilderness fish camp each summer, teaching how to create beauty with words and […]
When You Need Lasting Peace and Solid Hope
Which one should I choose? Back and forth I went on Sunday night, wondering. Who would get my vote? Who would win? Who would lose? I was kind of beside myself with the choice set before me. I could choose only one! So, I chose to watch the debate instead of the Packers. Nearly […]
If You Need Some Love To Set You Free
I hired a prisoner yesterday. Well, actually, a former prisoner. Just out of the slammer. Spent two years behind bars and that wasn’t his first stint—in prison, that is. $150 to his name. Rent due September 1. No job yet but he’s hunting hard. Anyone want to hire a prisoner set free? Yeah, he’s made […]
When Darkness Engulfs
I’m not going to get political in this piece. I’m going to get personal. And spiritual. Because the spiritual should affect the personal and the personal should affect the political. What I’ve witnessed these past few days is the reverse order of God’s order and all hell has broken loose. Now, the creeping darkness has […]
What To Do When You’re Overwhelmed
Ever felt like your life is flying by so fast that everything’s a blur and you can’t remember what you did two hours ago, let alone two days ago? When your days are stuck in fast forward and you’re trying to pack more and more in like a suitcase you simply MUST sit on to […]
Let the Bullets Fly!
Like many, I have been grieving over all the bullets flying. Bullets made with lead. Bullets made with words. Both wounding, maiming, destroying. Seems to be increasing. The murders. The hate. The protests. The terror. What’s one to do? I say, act like a dog . . . Yesterday morning as I lay in bed […]
Character Matters
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8 That storm rolled in like a freight train yesterday. Saw the dark, ominous locomotive rumbling fast from the west. Ran to […]
What are We Waiting For?
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 A continuation from Monday’s post . . . Back to Benghazi, which is just a reflection of reality, now . . . Hate spreading hate. Violence spreading violence. I’m not trying to […]
Massacres and Scepters
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and […]
Sudden Storm
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper. Psalm 107:28-29 The weather was near perfect all day Sunday. Sunny blue skies dappled with puffy white clouds. Early evening, we were enjoying an al fresco dinner on our […]