It was a lot of spilled milk, really. A turned-over bowl of oatmeal, a pile of laundry that had not been put away despite a dozen reminders to do so, an argument over which shoes to wear. It was a sharp word here, a contentious dripping there. Little by little, every occurrence of frustration fed […]
We were sitting in a circle on a Wednesday night in the part of the church building called the parlor. If you grew up in a Southern Baptist church there’s a good chance you know which room it is. It’s got mauve wallpaper and darker mauve carpet and chairs made to appear Victorian but that […]
It was summertime when it happened. I remember that because my grandmother’s second story bedroom had a big window where warm summer sun poured into her room, making her collection of succulent plants happy, I’m sure. I used to break off a tiny piece of her aloe plant to squeeze out some of the sticky […]
I’d been running behind all day, and on this particular Monday afternoon, I found myself racing through the grocery store near dinnertime. I wasn’t even sure what we were having yet but knew I needed to finish my shopping quickly to get home to my hungry family. While speeding through the frozen food section, I […]
I used to be a runner. I ran almost every day and planned my Saturdays around higher mileage long runs. I cross-trained on my days off and organized my family’s evening meals around what kind of run was on my schedule the next morning. I had all the weird accouterments that runners like to collect: […]
I tried to ignore the gospel this morning. My alarm sounded rudely at 5 am, and I spent fifteen minutes trying to convince myself that the world might look a little brighter if I turned my back on it for another two hours. But the discouragement that weighed down my heart, my bones, my eyes […]
“Is the Lord enough for you?” he asked me. It was late, nearing midnight, and rather than sleeping, my husband and I were sitting in the living room discussing some current challenges in our life. And by “discussing,” I mean that I was loudly airing my frustrations and expressing the awful truth that I did not […]
There is no New Testament person I identify with more than Peter. Impulsive, short-tempered, driven by emotion, the pre-resurrection Peter reminds me a lot of the face I see in the mirror every morning. He is given to fear, even in the presence of Jesus. Remember him on the water, in the garden, in the […]
“Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was split in two from top to bottom; the earth quakes and the rocks were split.” Matthew 27:51 “Then the curtain of the sanctuary was split in two from top to bottom.” Mark 15:38 “…The curtain of the sanctuary was split down the middle.” Luke 23:45 I remember the […]
Every morning at 6 a.m. you can find me sitting cross legged and bleary eyed on the tan couch in my living room. Outside, the sun rises with reliable regularity, its pink morning glow filtered between the tulip trees in our backyard. I’ve been looking at the same view for more than ten years of […]
