While I in bed sick a few weeks ago, I watched a lot of YouTube videos. The algorithm that knows I like thrifting and vintage reseller videos, (this channel and this channel are my favorites) so it started feeding me furniture flipper videos. I watched a skilled furniture flipper who sands and then repaints old furniture. Then I moved on to videos of a more skilled hobbyist woodworker who does repair and refinishing. Finally, I came to videos of a master woodworker...
Hello and happy April . . . and Holy Week! I have a bunch of happy plant babies growing in my dining room and all kinds of plants waking up in the yard. It’s always a joy to see them faithfully returning each year. My two back-to-in-person-school kids are doing well and adjusting to the new routine. I have even had some mental space to start sketching on the iPad for new coloring pages and cards sets. I’ve been...
I have two big folders of artwork from college that I’ve never thrown away. I was in college at Gardner-Webb University (a wonderful small Baptist college in North Carolina) from 1996-2000. I recently remembered two charcoal sketches I did in drawing class. They were of Mary and Joseph, with words from Christmas hymns scrawled in the background. These are very similar to the image I created for the poem about the woman at the well a few weeks ago...
One practice that has been helpful in my spiritual life in the past few years is to increasingly pause in the multitude of my thoughts and anxieties, and ask, “God, what do you want to say to me right now?” “Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.” (Isa 55:3 ESV) It’s a discipline that I’m growing in. It...
Occasionally, Facebook will let me know that a friend has marked his or herself “safe” after an earthquake, a terrorist attack, or a hurricane. As we face a new year, can I encourage to mark yourself “safe” in all the ways that matter? Sometimes I face the new year with a bit of fear. Will God be there as He has been in the past? Sometimes I face it with some cynicism. God, you didn’t really fix...
I’m turning 39 (wow!) this Saturday and yet it’s my very first time observing the season of Lent. I grew up in a Baptist-ish tradition. My dad was a Southern Baptist pastor who joined the Navy as a chaplain. We attended some Southern Baptist churches growing up, but because we were often part of military chapels, my upbringing was rather ecumenical: “The hanging of the greens,” advent candles, stations of the cross, dunkings, sprinklings, wafers, and loaves of bread–a denominational...
“And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'” And he said...
I don’t always feel like I fit in as an artist. I don’t watercolor, do calligraphy, paint, or make anything classy, sophisticated or fancy. I draw cute illustrations and write about the Word, but sometimes that feels very small. Maybe that sounds silly, but I’m guessing you feel the same way about some area of your life. The lane you’re in feels narrow and somewhat cramped. You look across to friends speeding by in their own lanes, doing their things, and...
As I wade through various circumstances in my life, this verse comes to mind, so I’m sharing this artwork with you today! It takes courage to wait on the LORD to move in us, to move in others, and to move in our world. “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And...
