My friend died on Monday. The end came after two long years of chemotherapy, low platelets, a stem cell transplant, multiple hospitalizations, and something called Graft Versus Host Disease that had whittled her body down to the barest vestige of life. The end was a long goodbye, weeks of preparing for what we hoped would…
No Bitter Root
A few Sundays ago, I sat in the church pew, holding the individualized, pre-packaged communion elements we’ve all grown accustomed to over the past year, and listened as one of my pastors fenced the table. Our pastors each do this a little differently, but there’s always a caution and an invitation to the believing as…
Reading or Reveling?
A few days ago, I threw a book in the trash. I love to read fiction—I always have. I’m not much of a TV watcher, but I spend most evenings winding down with a novel after my kids go to bed. As a non-fiction writer, I find that reading fiction helps me improve my own…
I Need Every Story
I’m reading a book about a man I’ve never met. But, deep down, I feel like I know him, you know? I keep reading his story and parsing it for meaning. There’s definitely something there. He led a nation after their first real leader died. And this nation he led? Nomadic. No country of their…
The Onliest Way
I get stuck sometimes when I talk about Jesus to people who don’t know Him. Well, let me back that up a little and be frank. I get stuck sometimes when I think about talking about Jesus to people who don’t know Him. When I’m standing on the sidewalk in front of my house and…
Sometimes, I See the Stars
I was baking cookies for my neighbors when my mother-in-law texted me. “Don’t forget to look at the star tonight!” she wrote. Elbow-deep in cookie dough for peanut butter blossoms and linzer cookies with strawberry jam, I watched the clock and the sunset and waited for the right time. When the last lights of the…
4 Questions for Your Bible Reading in 2021
Every year, in the days following Christmas, I make promises to myself. Weary of traveling for most of the holidays, sleeping little, and eating one Christmas dinner after another, I spend the last days of December mapping out a healthier life plan for the new year that includes more vegetables, earlier bed times, and less screen…
The Book I Needed in 2020
Last December, I decided to memorize the book of James. I’m not a goal-oriented person. I don’t like setting expectations for myself. New Year’s resolutions are not something I make or stick to. I have never chosen a “word of the year,” and I get anxious just thinking about those yearly planners that encourage you…
Maybe We Knock on the Door
I pulled a loaf of sourdough bread from the oven and popped it onto the cooling rack before getting out a blank greeting card and pondering what to write in it. I didn’t know my new neighbors’ names, so after jotting down our names and phone numbers on the inside of the card, I simply…
Daylight Savings and Spiritual Disciplines
I’ve long used January 1st as the day I’m going to get my life together. New diet? Clean slate starts January 1st. Exercise plan? I’ll begin on the first of the year. Keep the Tupperware cabinet from throwing plastic containers at me every time I open it? Organization will commence on the first day of…