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…
Category: Challenges
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…
CPR for the Soul
As she steered into the street, her thoughts got away from her. It was a mess. A royal mess. She never intended for the white lie to grow as it had. Now what? she asked herself as she drove to the next errand. She sighed. She knew the answer. But knowing didn’t make it any…
He Never Forgets…
She stared down into her steaming mug, the implications of her revelation hitting her dead on. I got out of the habit. I was consumed by other things. Important things. But still, how had she abandoned the habit of praying for her girl? Her mind rewound the years. She prayed for her baby girl as…
“Where Are You?”
Frustrated, the realization set in. She had lost a bag. Not just any bag. It was her Sunday bag. The bag she carried to church. The bag which held her worn, pages-falling-out and cover-fading Bible. She searched inside her home. No bag. She searched inside her car. No bag. She even returned to search inside…
Stop The Burn
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” With maturity comes the revelation that familiar childhood chant just isn’t true. The sting of negative, hurtful words can scar a person and burn low self-esteem, negativity and despair into the very soul. When learning standard first aid protocol for physical burns,…