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Leave Fine Behind; Letting Go of the Fine Facade
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gently and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:28-29 ESV I’m fine. We’re fine. Everything’s fine. Only we’re not. Not only our default answer to the dreaded inquiry but secretly the response we are hoping to receive when asking a fellow human how they are, how their family is, and how their life is progressing. A global lot of fines walking and breathing through a world that’s gone amuck. We maintain our fineness even when the…
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Expect the Unexpected; When God Doesn’t Fit in Your Box
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV It is a tidy thing to put God in a box, limit his grace, his mercy and his love not just for us, but also for others, by our own understanding. We pray tiny whisper prayers, with specific outcomes in mind, and find ourselves fumbling in the land of disappointment because our prayers have not been answered. Again. Well, what if they have been answered but our thoughts…
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Heartache and Hope; Opening the Box of Remembrance, A Single Momma’s Perspective
We sit on the carpeted floor, surrounded by boxes holding treasures manifested as paintings, drawings made with markers, papers penciled with misspelled letters, stories, and construction paper cards cut out and pasted for holidays. Each creation is marked by a child’s name and a date. We count backwards to bridge the year, with the teacher, an age, and a pre-divorce, post-divorce designation. The dog interrupts, wanting to plant herself in the middle, asserting her belief that floor time signals play time. I remember my own childhood, sorting through similar treasures, printed photographs, wanting to remember and touch the tangible evidence of my own existence. It’s like this with my girl.…
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When we Cannot Trace His Hand, Trust His Heart
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Genesis 22:1-2 Let’s take a walk with Abraham. He has the legs and the spine of an elderly man, and moves cautiously up the mountain. His son Isaac is with him, carrying the wood for the offering upon his young back. This son, Abraham and Sarah’s delight, a gift of youth given in the last years of…
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Engaging in a Prickly World
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 ESV It seems the world is a bit prickly lately. Perhaps this is my observation and it only applies to southwest Michigan, but for some reason, I’m thinking it’s endemic. Plenty of confounding reasons for humans to be wound a little tighter than days past, so many in fact, I am not even going to list them. You can find them for yourself by typing the letters “Daily News” into your favorite search engine. It is possible to avoid…
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When Your World has Shifted; Is Restoration Possible?
I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, and the great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. Joel 2:25-26 Like a student waiting out a tornado warning in the dark hallway of a school building, there are times when it is safer to pull in tight, cover your head with your own hands, and be still while the ties that bind your world snap one at a time. Life is not very tidy. And quite…
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Maintaining A Perspective of Hope; Multi-Generational Sowing
“For here the saying holds true, One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered their labor.” John 4:37-38 Inhabitants of the free world stopped and gasped this week, breathing through their social media outlets with a call for prayer. A shattered republic standing in a pool of blood, blood from centuries of humans battling for the right to rule and the blood of foreign men and women dressed in battle fatigues, fighting for something. Something sometimes defined, sometimes not. My heart broke for strong, intelligent, steadfast women, children, a generation of young people who…
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Bloom Where You are Planted; Living Your Best Life Now
“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” John 15:11 He keeps shaping and reshaping us from glory to glory, and when living becomes nearly the death of us, He leans over our clay bodies and breathes fresh life into our lungs. Sometimes I can reason like this – peacefully, sensibly, with wonder and awe and even tearful gratitude that God would be kind to entrust me with difficulties. Other times all I can say is “What the heck?” Beth Moore – Chasing Vines What the heck? We’ve all been there. Planted firmly in an extended season…
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Praying; When the Rain Comes Down
I do not know much about God and prayer, but I have come to believe, over the past twenty-five years, that there’s something to be said about keeping prayer simple. Help. Thanks. Wow. Anne Lamott – Help. Thanks. Wow. The Three Essential Prayers Help. Thanks. Wow. That’s all I’ve got. Turns out it’s enough. Anne Lamott happens to be one of my favorites. Eclectic, authentic, raw, and true, she gives it to us straight. Somedays all we’ve got is help, thanks, wow. It is raining in West Michigan. Raining, not just today, but what seems to be everyday, for a long run of days. The weather forecast hints this will…
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Sustainable Shoes; Longing for a New Pair
The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the LORD your God you must follow, and Him you must revere. Keep His commands and obey Him; serve Him and hold fast to Him. Deuteronomy 13:4-5 Time stretches and flies simultaneously. Hazy, it seems I have lived this day before, this pattern. Seems like these feet have been walking this same dusty path for days that have run into years, counting steps and turning over miles. Circling. They wore the same shoes for forty years. A commentary on the quality of God’s provision? Or…
