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Monday 13th May 2013
Eleven Things I Want To Tell My Younger Self
Dear 18-year-old self, The gymnasium chairs will be hard, and the room will be too warm, and you’ll be readjusting the bobby-pins on your graduation cap. But pay attention, young lady. An older, seasoned version of yourself has the microphone up front right now, and she has a few things ...
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Thursday 24th January 2013
Lip-Synced Faith, Radical Christianity and What Really Fills
We step off the plane from Haiti, and the TV headline blares at us, with the “burning question” of our day: Did Beyonce lip-sync or did she not? I can only stare at the screen and blink. This? This is what consumes us in America? And somewhere in Haiti, a woman dries mud pies in... ...
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Tuesday 20th November 2012
The Hardest Thanks (On Being Broken Bread)
It was “Takk for Alt” this Sunday at our little country church. That’s Norwegian for “Thanks for Everything.” It’s long been the tradition at our 125-year-old church — where gray-haired farmers and glad grandmothers share pews with diapered princes and ...
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Saturday 17th November 2012
Can We Really Be Thankful in ALL Things? Even the Hard Things?
Be thankful in ALL things, God tells us. Not just the good things, the pretty things, the smiling things, the wished-for things. No. Be thankful in ALL things. All Things. Even the hard things, the grotesque things, the things never-wanted, the things of death and grief and pain and sorrow that ...
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Monday 6th February 2012
The God of “Immeasurably More”
She’s still tiny enough to fit on my lap, so I embrace her, warm and snug against me, on a cool Iowa morning. We look out the window, the window with the word PRAY on the sill. Overnight, our trees played dress up; they’re all wearing lacy-white robes and pearls. The winter air is ...
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Monday 29th August 2011
When You Get Caught in a Storm
I’m clearing away breakfast dishes when he tells me I better hurry. He’s clicking through screens. “Radar shows the rain is almost here. If we leave now, we can get there before it blows in.” The sky opens its mouth, and I hear it groaning – a gutteral churning ...
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Friday 19th February 2010
The Forever Stamp
I peel back one-inch-tall liberty bells and stick them in the corners of envelopes. And I remember the postmaster’s words when he first told me about these stamps called Forever. “Forever means forever,” he said. We buy Forever Stamps at one price and can use them, … ...
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Monday 1st June 2009
A Gift
Grace (gras) n. — 1. Getting what one doesn’t deserve; unmerited favor.2. A gift from God. Today, I received this gift of grace,a sweet surprise delivered by Christian Women Online. Humbled, I am, by your kindness,in being selected as June’s CWO Blog of the Month. ...
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Tuesday 26th May 2009
You’re welcome
Lights out, and I brush a good-night kiss across Anna’s forehead as she wraps arms tightly around my neck. “You’re so sweet, Anna. You give the best hugs EVER,” I whisper, then wait for her signature response. It’s never thank you. Never. It’s always this: ...
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