I can feel it even now. The busyness creeping in as my day planner pages run out: Christmas plays, parties, the gift lists I need to make, the pretty new wreath I imagine for my front door to let everyone know there’s joy inside. My brain begins to spin and it’s so tempting to absorb and manage every bit of information at my fingertips. This, combined with a tendency towards gloom in the winter months, is my recipe for...
My son is three and half now, very verbal, and asking big questions: How did I get out of your belly when I was a baby? (“God made a way, buddy.”) Who’s your mom? (“Mamo.”) Why do I have to take a nap? (“Because Mommy needs a nap too.”) Where is God? He asks the last question strapped into his carseat behind me as I drive. I answer, “Well, God is in heaven.” “Where is heaven?” “Heaven is...
I was reading Psalm 109 this week and thought, “Wow, David sounds kind of dramatic here.” Most of the Psalm is David pleading for God to punish his enemies harshly, cut off their posterity, blot our their names and their memory from the earth, etc. The usual. He laments: “For I am poor and needy, and my heart is stricken within me. I am gone like a shadow of evening; I am shaken off like a locust.” Psalm 109:22-23...
When you think of God, do you think of His infinite joy, and the delight he takes in his good creation, including you? I’m slowly reading through Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy.** You’ll probably be hearing a lot about it here as I work through it. I was reading this week about how God is characterized by joy. Willard writes, “Undoubtedly, is the most joyous being in the universe. The abundance of his love and generosity is inseparable from his infinite...
Sometimes, I think it’s important to take a big step back out of the busyness of life, and ask the big picture questions. What is God doing here? What am I doing here? When we frame life in God’s big picture, then the day-to-day takes on a different color, a deeper joy, and a rediscovered purpose–without changing our actual circumstances one little bit. Here’s a big picture truth: God has a kingdom and he’s calling you and me to...
“Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.” (Psalm 66:16 ESV) Each year around my anniversary since I started blogging, I have written something here about our marriage and what God has been doing in our lives the past year. I almost skipped this year. It’s been the hardest year (our 11th) I can remember, but God is taking what seemed to be crumbling in our hands and...
