Once again we find ourselves raising support, a process designed to terrify the most hardy souls. But it's good, it really is, it's so good! What follows is nothing new if you've read my book, but it's a great reminder for me. (I find I need to preach the truth to myself time to time,... Continue Reading →
Thanksgiving Recipes to be Thankful For
Here's what I got: recipes that are good enough to make a mediocre cook look good. Y'all, I am not Julia Child. I am not my friend Lauren, who can whip up 5 star meals with an almost bare cupboard. Nope, I'm the one who thinks the free samples at Costco constitute a great meal... Continue Reading →
Replanting
They had been in decline for years—maybe decades. Finally, there were only about 30 people, grimly hanging on. One dear lady recalled weeping in an empty nursery. There was no strength left. There was little life at all. "How long until the money runs out?" they wondered. They calculated it was a matter of months. It... Continue Reading →
Dodgeball, Publishing, and the Writing Life
One of the great things about having a teenager is that they're like... people. It is so fun to share common interests with your big old grown up kid. My oldest son and I both like to geek out about writing, and he is making plans for NaNoWriMo this November (National Novel Writing Month, for... Continue Reading →
Sex, Love, and God
Whatever else gender is, it is always this: a shadow on the ultrasound. “There, do you see it?” The technician is excited. Mom and Dad scratch their heads and feign understanding. Some mystery has transpired under the smooth bowling ball of a young woman’s belly, and deep in this secret place, a person is taking... Continue Reading →
A Long Obedience in the Same Direction
I am not an expert on Eugene Peterson—don’t know him personally, haven’t read all of his many writings. But I’d be hard pressed to think of many people who have more shaped my thinking over the years, who have more consistently drawn my eyes to the glory of Christ. Peterson strikes me as a meteor,... Continue Reading →
Be Still to See: The Sabbath-Day Gift of Wendell Berry
This week I had the bittersweet pleasure of finishing a wonderful book. I’d read it slowly, savoring it in morsels, and it has taken up space on my bedside table for many moons. But I was near the end, and, having had a rather bad day, gave in to the guilty delight of finishing it... Continue Reading →
Tweetable Jesus
It's been a year since I got to join my husband on his first field trip to England. He's just gone again and returned, and of course, this meant pulling out old pictures and reminiscing (not at all jealous!) One of the funny moments we still laugh about was an afternoon in Oxford when we... Continue Reading →
How To Pray in a Hurricane
My home state is bracing for it today. Home Depot’s out of generators, and Harris Teeter’s shelves of bread are looking bare. All of the inland hotels are booked up, and flights west are full. There is a hurricane on the way, and not a little one. The summer I was 12, Hurricane Charley visited... Continue Reading →
They don’t write like this anymore.
Because it's just so good... Here's A.W. Tozer on dismissing what we don't understand. Thomas Carlyle, following Plato, pictures a man, a deep pagan thinker, who had grown to maturity in some hidden cave and is brought out suddenly to see the sun rise. “What would his wonder be,” exclaims Carlyle, “his rapt astonishment at... Continue Reading →
