Sometimes love is in bedtime prayers. When you're plumb worn out at the end of the day, but you go ahead and cuddle next to your boy anyway and stumble out some prayers. Then you let him have a turn and you watch him fold his hands and rest them on his forehead and ask God for tractors and help to grow up and be strong so he can march in a hip-parade and blow a trumpet.Sometimes love is when your husband pitches a tent in the backyard. And he's up for adventure and asks you to spend the night with him under stars but you've become this sissy britches in your old age and you like the feel of your cool sheets and you're not getting up to go out there and be awake all night. And the two of you get in an argument the next day over whether or not you disappointed him and you both spill your gut[...]

Lord, forgive us. For we presumed that we could hold You, the God of the universe, inside our box and stack You neatly on the shelf to get You out on Sunday. But You don't live in walls, for the world is Your cathedral and all this space is Your space. You gave us this day and every other day and the next breath that fills our lungs so that we could keep living and moving and You have every right to enter into our everyday mundane. And somehow we keep forgetting You. It's preposterous that we would, but we do. You who keep giving us all the moments that make up our life so that at this very second we can say that You are here and always You are here and that makes all of life sacred. And have mercy, Lord, because we have thought that You would be impressed with our goodness and all the tim[...]

Sometimes I wonder how to have a praying life. I'm not trying to sound super-spiritual here. It's just that I believe that I was made by a Maker and I've read in His book that He made us to be close to Him. And one way that we become close to Him is just by talking. You know, like you're close to your husband or your best friend? You talk to them. You talk to them a lot. And you listen. Sometimes I really want to be more that way with God.I read this today:"You don't create intimacy, you make room for it." --Paul MillerI think I know what that means. It means that if I want to be close, if I want to really know someone with that deep kind of knowing, I have to carve out space for them. I need a place where there's no agenda, no striving to be efficient. None of this multi-tasking and busy [...]

Today I felt the winter blues, in a big way. I looked out my window and only saw shades of gray. Gray and lots of white. Empty gray limbs. Lifeless gray sky. Mean old crow. And a yard full of snow. (Wow...I wasn't actually trying to rhyme there.) Anyways, it's not that I don't like snow, it's just that I've seen an awful lot of it here lately. And I'm starting to forget what the world looks like in shades of green. Northern winters do have a way of making you feel as if they'll last forever. I started thinking that I need to get out of here! I need to go back to that beach and soak up some sun. I actually started to cry a little. And pray..."Lord, please help. I've really been missing the spring. But I know there's people out there that feel this kind of barrenness in their soul. They[...]