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…
What is a Praying Life?
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…
Hear the Voice of the Lord. And also, Obey.
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…
Running Toward Godliness
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:…
Ours is an Every Day Gospel
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…
More than Many Sparrows
“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…
Peter’s Saturday
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…
Good Friday’s Torn Curtain
“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…
There Will Be Joy
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…
The Bad News is Really Bad
“I’ve got bad news, kids. You’re terrible people.” That wasn’t my exact opener for my Wednesday night kid’s class at church, but it might as well have been. We’ve been going through Old Testament history for a few months and are currently working through the judges material. My synopsis of the book of Judges was…