A FAREWELL FOR JO (AND THE HOPE FOR US ALL)
My dear friend Nancy, my neighbor, lost her sister Jo Monday night. 62 years old. Vibrant wife, mother, grandmother, sister, friend. Heart attack. Alive in the morning. Gone by night. There’s agony here around this farm, this Holy Week, as we march to Maundy Thursday, the day our Lord wept in a garden as he […]
Storm Warning for a New Year
I watch the words scroll across the television screen . . . WINTER STORM WARNING National Weather Service says it’s supposed to start Monday at 11 AM and continue until Tuesday at 11 AM. Warning’s for all southeast Wisconsin. We’re to expect high winds reaching 40 mph. Four to six inches of snow. Freezing rain. […]
Running on Full
I hate running. It hurts. So why do I run? I run because I have a gazillion things to do every day. I run because everyone else seems to run and I get caught in the current of busy. Busy. Busy. Busy. We are all so busy. Sometimes I feel more machine than human. More like a factory […]
Some Thoughts on Dying When You Feel Like It and the Hope That Stops You
It is late September. The sugar maple is tinged with fire, a burning mix of orange and red and yellow, engulfing the green. Honking Vs of geese fly over the barn. One yellowed leaf curls on the grass. Three Sandhill cranes lift off alfalfa field, warbling their way into the air, a trinity created by […]
Can God Give Too Much?
This is the third and last in the series of my Alaskan ponderings. May you be blessed by the glory of God given to us, for us, that we might worship the One who created all and, in him alone, find our fulfillment. When I was a kid, my dad would tickle me in the […]
Do We DARE Ask God for ANYTHING?
Why do we have to go away—go into the wilderness—go where we are completely unplugged—to hear God? We don’t. But sometimes, I do. Maybe it’s because God whispers? Maybe it’s because God would rather not shout? Maybe it’s because I let myself get too busy—let my mind get so cluttered—let my life get so full […]
Good Friday—Our Hope
Reflecting on what Jesus did on this day brings me to a still, quiet place of awe and gratefulness. I can’t fathom His suffering, His love, His utter determination to not leave us as broken orphans in a broken world. He chose to heal us with his life—and death. His choice cost him everything. We […]
Spiritual Thoughts of a Dinosaur
She’s a voice for her generation, this dear friend of mine more than half my age. She’s wise. She’s passionate. She’s sincerely in love with Jesus and wants to serve Him with all her heart. So do many of her generation. They want to know their mission. They want to know their calling. They want […]
Finding Our Treasure
A.W. Tozer’s books in my library have more lines highlighted than not, so beautiful and true are his writings. Here is a choice morsel for your weekend meditation from The Pursuit of God . . . The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or […]
One Resolution
I asked him a simple question expecting a simple answer. . . “When do you talk with Jesus?” He stood in front of me and said . . . “Well, the first thing I do is get up. And then I go to the bathroom. And then I eat breakfast. Then I get dressed, brush […]
Greatest Expectations
My first memory from childhood was of myself in a seersucker jumpsuit my grandmother had sewn for me. I was four years old, laying on my stomach in our backyard, hunting for a four-leafed clover. My sister was ill. Very, very ill. I was looking for luck. Mom and Dad arranged for Dad’s mom to […]
God’s Not Dead
It’s June. High school graduation parties are in full swing. It’s summer. We have four weddings in two months coming up—one right here on our farm on June 28 with horses in the background and wildflowers on the tables, tucked into vintage blue Mason jars. Pinterest perfection with a Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice ambience. […]