Through it all, I am rejoicing today in the proven truth of these lines from What a Friend We Have in Jesus by Joseph Scriven: What a friend we have in JesusAll our sins and griefs to bearAnd what a privilege to carryEverything to God in prayer I love this version of Aretha Franklin singing it with a choir in 1972: I made this screensaver to remind you to “take it to the Lord in prayer” each day, whatever...
I don’t know what you’re going through. I don’t know what hopes have been dashed in your heart. I don’t know how desperate and confused you may feel. I don’t know how thin is the hope you’re clinging to or how obscured your view of God has become. Maybe you have forgotten what it feels like to experience peace. Maybe the tide always seems too high. And I’m so sorry. But I am confident of a few things for...
I’ve been thinking on these verses for months now. They nudge me, convict me, and give me a vision for how to navigate a divisive political and religious landscape here in the US, a landscape that desperately needs the work of peacemakers. “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”...
There are moments when all of us feel alone and forsaken, burdened “beyond our ability to endure” (2 Corinthians 1:8). Life can feel like way too much fo us. We cry out with the Psalmist: “Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.” (Psa 22:11 ESV) In this Psalm, David goes on to vividly describe how he feels surrounded by attackers, how his “heart is like wax,” and his strength is dried...
My sweet neighbor and friend, Lila, died from complications from lung cancer this week. She was in her late seventies. She read this blog, encouraged me, and told me stories about her life and her grandchildren. She even came to my art opening last month at a little local shop. The first week we moved into the neighborhood, she came over with some roses she and her husband had grown in their backyard. She was a beautiful person and...
Today was the last day of school for my girls! They’ve both grown so much this year, and now I’m excited to spend the summer going to the city pool and being off our routine. I also plan to work on a series of watercolor paintings for a First Friday art show at a local shop downtown in August (The Lady Jane if you’re local). If I get really productive, I may offer some paintings in the shop, too!...
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...
As some of us celebrate Lent and as Easter Sunday approaches, I want to meditate on a few verses and share a screensaver image for your phone. “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the...
I don’t know the season you’re facing today. When it’s not one thing, it’s another, right? Waiting. Despairing. Doubting. All the various kinds of suffering possible, and there are many. The gospel writers don’t skip around this reality: “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Cor. 1:5 ESV). We may not be able to sort out all the intricacies of God’s plans in our suffering, but we do know...
