I feel a sense of desperate panic as Christmas approaches and my body struggles to bounce back from a few bad days. Christmas is supposed to be perfect. No one should feel sick, sad or isolated. Do you know the story of Peter Pan? Have you seen Tinker Bell’s light […]

Where is heaven? Someone asked me this last week. I had no answer, but he did. With ease he traced mentions of heaven through the scriptures, and after twenty minutes, I was convinced. Heaven is God’s space. It’s not north or south. It’s not a geographical location we can navigate […]

The night is black outside. Inside, candles are lit. Tealights glow in mason jars and one candle in a circle of tapers flickers. I sit in a hard pew with seven strangers in a tiny, old church. The drive here was harrowing. Country roads. No lights. Gusty wind. Inside, all […]

Someone very close to me is struggling. Please pray for her. It’s your turn to minister to me. Everything in me is caught up in concern for my loved one, so I can’t write more than this for you this week. I believe God hears when we call to Him. […]

In recent decades, a new tradition has sprung up called “Blue Christmas.” Have you heard of it? Hospitals, funeral homes and churches sometimes offer a seasonal service of worship that is especially designed for those who grieve at a time when all the world seems to be celebrating. Or that’s […]

Blackness. I cannot see far. It’s scary. I feel alone. Me and my heart. Symptoms raging inside. My spirit reaches out – out – beyond this room. Are You there? Are You here? Can You see me? Can You find me in this darkness? That is my midnight. What is […]

When I was young, I felt like the heroine of every story I read. Now, older, disabled, living a life of routine, the distance between me and her seems wider. In a book I just finished, the heroine stole my heart and healed it a bit, too. I loved that […]

Are you easily distracted? I am. One moment my gaze is fixed on The Goal and the next my head is swimming with paintings I want to create, clothing I’d like to wear, groceries I want to buy, relationships that need sorting out. Is there a Goal for this life […]

This broken moment. How did I end up here, like this? Where are YOU right now? What are the conversations and feelings and actions and reactions that brought you to where you are right now? There are tear stains on my face and I am tired. Usually I bounce through […]

What do you do when the world crashes down, horribly and unfairly, around you? Ginny Owens asks this question in her book Singing in the Dark. She notes: Instead of giving our pain over to God, we shut out the noise of what is wrong and broken. We turn to […]