"Construct a calendar of grace, Genesis days and moon-marked months." Eugene Peterson I still can't believe I did it. I lost Mike's car key. You know, the key fob original to the car that is dumb expensive to replace. Mike was gracious. After a few days and still no key, he simply ordered a new one. But I found I was fussing at myself on the inside about it. What a dork! How could you lose his keys? How hard could it have been to put the keys in the drawer right away? Stop what you're doing right Continue Reading

Each of us has a tale to tell if only we would tell it. Frederick Buechner But first I must listen to my story for I am not telling it alone. My story needs reflection to understand itself, its undercurrents and flow. This is a brief pause to look back at what we've been up to (me and Jesus) and then finding any connections to what's happening right now, under my nose, in my own life. It seems as though it should be so obvious; it's so close. But life is fast moving, a blur really, so it helps me Continue Reading

I thought I had found the perfect spot for the young magnolia tree. I planted her in our front yard at the end of the white split-rail fence underneath the old elm that had been there when we bought the property. I tucked her into the hillside right at the turn into my driveway so I could enjoy her saucy blooms everytime I came home. Springtime rolled around right on the heels of Lent as she always does. The world was waking up in the first blooms after winter. But my little magnolia only had one tiny bud that remained Continue Reading

Making decisions are some of the hardest things we do. And we do it a million times a day. Some decisions are small: what time to get up, what to eat, what not to eat, what to make for dinner, what to wear, what to do today, what to do first, what can wait until tomorrow? The list goes on. Then there are the less frequent, yet bigger decisions: where to live, what to study in school, what job to apply for, what job to take, who to make friends with, who to marry, what church to call home, where Continue Reading

You don't have to have snow to learn a few things in the winter season, but sometimes it crystalizes the lessons. There are lessons to be learned in the quiet snowfall, the ice crystals, and warming your toes by the fire. Here are a few of mine this winter - just three. Icicles are formed with patience and time. When I saw the icicles, I felt like a kid again. I wanted to sit at the window and watch them form against a clear, cold sky. Drip, drip, drip. They were three, four, even five feet long, hanging in icy Continue Reading