She moved her hand toward the plastered mess on her face. She discovered it was her hair. She gazed about stunned. Unbelievably the sun was shining as though nothing had just happened. Liar! LuAnn stared around at the once pristine beaches now waist-deep in water. She wasn’t sure how far the waves of the tsunami…
Category: Challenges
Waiting for Grace
Waiting. Forever. Or so it seemed. “God, it’s difficult to do the “right” thing, especially when I don’t see Your mighty hand sweeping away the sadness, the agony, sometimes found in this life.” Silence. Sheila huffed and reached for her beloved Bible. She picked it up tenderly, as the binding sometimes lost pages and the…
Held
“The Lord is my strength,” Stacy repeatedly murmured to herself as tears slid down her cheeks. Quickly brushing them away, she tried to focus on the task at hand, if nothing else, than to ensure the safety of her sweet daughter in the backseat. Crisis had hit her like a brick wall. But unlike other…
Always There
Pouncing, playing and protecting. That’s a very accurate description of our favorite furry family member. Minna, a one-year-old Rottweiler puppy, loves each member of our family with her whole heart. It’s evident in the way she lives: she sleeps lightly, springing to her feet at the slightest sound. She often detects things we never would…
His Creation Calls
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. The pebbles crunched under the weight of my hiking boots on the trail. The sky was beautifully blue. The leaves were gloriously green. The vivid colors captured my attention away from inside my head. The birds called to one another; a woodpecker fed nearby. Even a bunny hopped into the lavender flowers as…
Water Horse Revelation
Sometimes, our present pain can squelch our faith and unabashedly blind us to who God is. Recently, I watched a compelling movie, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. The main character, Agnes, a boy of about ten, finds an egg which eventually hatches to grow into a water horse, or Loch Ness Monster. He manages…
Fret No More
One glance at the week and I felt my blood pressure climbing. Two evaluations. Three deadlines. A conference. A trip. How did this all fall into one week? When would I sleep? When would I care for the kids, the puppy, the home? When would I make time for God? “Be still before the Lord…
Humbly Saved
Have you ever been condemned for telling the truth? “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet he did not sin.” Hebrews 4:15 In Mark 14:62 and Mark 15:31-32, we see Jesus telling the…
What’s on YOUR Lips?
When the sun is shining, the birds are singing and spring has definitely sprung, what are you saying? When it’s cold and dark, and horror of horrors, a snowstorm appears in April, what words are on your tongue? When the routine is predictable and everything is just, well, just normal, what are you uttering? Psalm…
Come
Are you weary? Are you tired of always being tired? Do you days last forever and the nights never seem long enough? When, when will this ever end? Noah was called to quite the task: build an ark, wait out a flood, and perpetuate a new, kinder humanity. God clearly called him, but God never…