The latest from my blog
I write on all sorts of topics such as Celebration & Wonder, Community & Discipleship, Intimacy with Christ, and Redemption & Grace. I share my random thoughts in Miscellaneous Musings.
I’m glad you’ve joined me!
A Poem For the Igniting And Ignited
I have known too many people, afraid to trust the goodness of God because of suffering. They have never tasted the goodness of God IN their suffering! I have known too many, who doubt and deny the supremacy of Scripture. They have never creased the Spine and felt the...
The Mind-Numbing and the Soul-Satisfying
I've been feeling convicted lately that my coping mechanisms for overwhelm are not actually helping me. They are mind-numbing rather than restful. Oftentimes, after a long work day, or a mentally exhausting day, my body is worn out, my mind is worn out, but I'm not...
The Sight of Ramsina
The day I gave birth to our second son, I met a blind lady named Ramsina. She came to our church for the first and last time that day, and spent the entire afternoon, from the close of service until around 8 pm (when he breathed oxygen for the first time) praying...
The God Who Disciplines and Delights in Us.
I have been thinking a lot about parenting. And about God. Because God is in everything, and my mind loves to fly to Him. I have been contemplating how good parenting is a symbiotic relationship between discipline and delight. Because God is a God who disciplines...
Solomon’s Wisdom
One of the deep tap-roots of Solomon’s wisdom is that he was keenly aware of how finite he was, and how eternal and omnipotent God is.
Suicide Prevention
Suicide struck close to home last week. It's not only my story to tell, and I'm not even sure I am ready to tell it even if it was, but if you are a pray-er, please lift us up, along with a host of our loved ones. This agonizing death has caused me to ponder my own...
The Grace of Knowing Our Poverty
The older I get, the more keenly aware I become of my own weakness, need, and inability to be faithful to Jesus even for one day. Yet the more I also become aware that He is keeping me, cherishing me (despite all my moment-by-moment failures), and tethering me to...
On the Eve of Thanksgiving
I plunked my elbows on the counter with a thud and leaned into my hands, covering the better part of my face, fighting to maintain the joy that has been so graciously given and required such fervor to maintain. I could hear that still, small voice. “Fight for your...
God’s Money and Stuff
I think most young Christians struggle with the idea of the tithe. We feel a little like God is prying our clutched fingers off our stuff, or like the church is bleeding us for money. Eventually, we may decide that tithing is a matter of trusting, and ultimately God...
Lye Or Hyssop?
We tend to translate the world and the Word through the lens of who we are. In my case, I am both a soap-maker and a backwoodsy-sort-of herbalist. In one realm, I am a professional, and in the other, I have an extensive library and an insatiable curiosity. I am...
On Overcoming Bitterness
Do you remember the play/movie “Little Shop of Horrors”? If I remember correctly (it’s been a few decades since I’ve seen it), there was a man who owned a Venus Fly Trap, and had to keep murdering people to keep his plant fed. The plant consumed his life and all his...
The Infamous Paw Paw Wreck
I stood on the outside of my soap table, crying out for God's mercy with a friend, who had come to my booth for refuge from the turmoil in her soul. She, among many others, had just witnessed the unmistakable sound of a massive car accident just outside the Paw Paw...