for William The first time he wrote a sonnet for me, I was finishing my senior year of college and struggling through a Shakespeare class. This was after he bought a book of the bard’s sonnets and tore a page from it every time he wanted to tell me he loved me. Sonnet 116 was […]
One night last week, I awoke abruptly out of deep sleep around 2 a.m. I listened in the dark, ears straining for what brought me out of my dreams. I heard my three-year-old cough, the sound amplified overmuch through the baby monitor on my bedside table. Satisfied it was nothing more, I turned the volume […]
The church of my childhood boasted a tiny prayer chapel some twenty yards away from the sanctuary. It couldn’t hold more than a handful of people, and there was a rotation of regularly scheduled “intercessors” who occupied the chapel during all of the church’s services. It wasn’t a place children were permitted to go, but […]
I’ve been trying to post a bit of poetry around here lately. Admittedly, I write lyrics for songs far more than for poetry, but sometimes the words come across better read aloud rather than sung. Lately I’ve been thinking through Psalm 1 and the caution given in the way we approach sin. First we see […]
Last summer we traveled to the home of my husband’s aunt in Tennessee. Her house is nestled in what we southerners call a “holler,” a term that technically refers to a small valley between mountains but which we use for a place that’s tucked down in the woods somewhere and hard to find without precise […]
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 eating plan for the new year that includes more vegetables, earlier bed times, and less […]
With Advent, we can wrangle the power of nostalgia by looking backward and pressing forward with our eyes fixed on Jesus in either direction.
Crude shelter, dirty manger. Wrapped up tightly in His mother’s swaddling clothes, He left His kingdom to begin His kingdom, He left the riches of His father’s right hand. A baby needs everything. He was helplessness but deity. He left His golden, kingly seat to be wrapped in frailest frailty. Poor teacher, humble healer, gentle […]
The newlyweds from Korea began visiting our church during the summer. He came to the U.S. a couple of years ago to begin his Ph.D. work, and she followed him this summer. The first time we invited them over for dinner, we all had to work a bit to understand one another. He’s had more […]
It’s a bitterly cold night for December. My kids are in bed, the house is warm and quiet, the lights are turned out except for the twinkle lights which I’ll miss come January. It’s the kind of night that I love. Everything in me should feel content. Some long-awaited answers to years of hard praying […]
