Yesterday,  I cleaned out a bunch of crud out of my cedar chest. Because it was high time, and I had this whole stack of journals that I'd been keeping that was just taking up space. I'd been keeping them because they were full of prayers and thoughts and Scripture verses (mostly Scripture verses, actually, because I was trying to get the Word to sink right into me) and I felt bad just throwing the past away like that. So, I thought a little bit about it and took some time to read through my old stuff. As I was flipping through those pages, I started to feel that same confused feeling I used to have all the time, and that same depression that I used to struggle with and I was mad at some of the stuff I'd been through and floored by the thoughts I used to think. Now, not everything w[...]

Today I had this anxious heart. It was all tied up in knots and I knew that I could keep knocking out my to-do list at this frantic pace, or I could just come away and be with Jesus for a minute. I chose to come away and be with Jesus. I spilled out my guts to Him and then opened up His Word to Colossians 3 and I began to pray those things into my life. I let His Word make its home inside my heart and I praised my God. Then I sat still in His Presence and breathed deep and let Him calm and quiet my soul. God's perfect love flooded out all my fears. Then I sat on the couch and sang. This is what I sang: I don't know if you've got an anxious heart all tied up in knots, but if so, well, consider this me singing to you. Little heart, why are you troubled? Why do you walk aroun[...]

Dear Believer, I know you want to know your Maker. You’ve got that ache, deep down, to just sit still beside Him and hear what He has to say. And you’re tired of just gathering up a bunch of facts and instructions. You don’t want more knowledge, mere chapters and verses to stuff in your already information-overloaded head. You desperately want relationship. To somehow come to the words of God and meet with the Word Himself. But, you’ve got that check-list and it seems like you should just sit long enough to do your duty and cross it off and go on to the next thing. Your Bible has gotten boring. And it’s not exactly helping much. Before you give up, reach out and grab hold of my hand for a minute. I'd like to help if I can. Now, I grew up mostly Christian. I say mostly b[...]

Dear Jesus-following believer, Make it the aim of your life to know God. Not to know about Him, but to know Him. His Person. He tucked down deep into your heart this longing for Him. But, you may not have recognized it at first. You just know that daily you desire to set off on a beauty-hunt. You want to be ravished by wonder. There's something in you that wants to gather up all the glory. To hold it in your hands. To bring it in. God is there. And He's seeking relationship with you. He's not interested in your religion. He wants your friendship. But, He won't force that. He waits till you come looking and seeking and knocking. He wants to be found. We can be students of God, you and I. We've got this ability to be captivated by Him. But, our eyes are broken and so[...]

Do you ever get lost in your day? If you happen to be in the same season of life as I am, you might find yourself standing a little bewildered in the middle of your kitchen, as your five year old and nearly four year old are on their hands and knees on the linoleum, simultaneously wailing at the top of their lungs because of the wretched disappointment in which their lives have turned out. You know, because your boy doesn’t like the toast with “nuts” in it and your girl seriously needs her chocky milk “warmed up.” All the while, your eight month old is pulling all the cook-books off the shelf for the umpteenth time. A momma can feel so lost before 10 a.m. And if you’re not careful, everything will ream out of control from there and you’ll only get more lost-er. (No, that’s not a [...]

Hopey and I go for a walk in a cornfield. And as we trudge along, stepping between the puddles and bending down to pick up husks of last year's corn, I'm reminded of a story. So, I tell her one. Once upon a time there was this daddy and a son. And the son decided that he was tired of living at home. He'd had enough of curfews and family meals and sharing stuff with his brother, so he asked his dad for all his allowance so he could go away and see the world. His dad, being a good dad that he was, sat down with his boy and had a little chat. "Now son," he said, "You can have your allowance but I was hoping you'd save up so you could buy your own house or start your own business someday." "Nah, that's alright," replied the boy, "I don't need a house. I just need to get away f[...]

When you live in the north-country, snow becomes your way of life for about three months out of the year. I've enjoyed all the sparkle and the bright white out in the yard. But, there have been these moments when I've wondered what the snow is actually good for. So, the other day, I sat at the kitchen table as the kids munched on french toast and sipped their chocky milk and, out of curiosity, I opened up my Bible and looked for some verses about snow. I found a few. A few delightful verses. For one thing, I learned that God's word is like snow. Because when God sends snow, it goes down to the earth and accomplishes His purpose. It melts and waters the ground so that little green shoots push up from the dirt. And those little green shoots grow up and they provide seeds for th[...]

With pictures from my Daddy's Bible. Dear Jesus-following friend, It’s good to read your Bible.  I assume you’ve got one (or most likely, you’ve got at least five, if you live here in America) and since you follow Jesus, I assume you already believe the Bible is important and you believe that God somehow used imperfect humans to jot down His story and compile it for us so we could get to know Him and learn how to live. I’m not saying you don’t have your doubts, or that there’s some things in there that you just flat out don’t understand, but I do assume that you’ve tasted His words, so to speak, and found them nourishing and life-changing and good. It’s good to sit a spell, just a little bit each day if you can, and take His words in. For one thing, we’ve got all this freedom, you an[...]