Death Defying Faith Finding ourselves walking through the final events of Holy Week, most of us prefer to vault from seeing Jesus around the table with his closest circle to the glory-filled, Sunday morning, resurrection. We opt to squeeze all the middle events into a little box in the corner of our minds, casting them a mere sideways glance. The box contains, in the least, dreadfulness. In the extreme, gruesome horror, depending on our willingness to recount all He suffered...
April 6, 2023
How to Experience Easter while Wrestling a Hard Celebrations and hards do not mingle well. Yet, just ahead, Resurrection Sunday, the greatest celebration of the redeemed. How do we consider Jesus’ difficult journey during Holy Week when we’re buried in our own? How do we celebrate Sunday when difficulty has stalled our hearts in Saturday? Perhaps we need a changed perspective of what it means to contemplate and celebrate. Contemplation doesn’t mean completely pushing our own experiences aside to examine...
February 16, 2023
When Your World Shifts As with most experiences in life, “hards” spread across a wide spectrum. Near one end of the gamut, we stack: Managing a family. Giving up sugar. Working with difficult personalities. But on the opposite end of the spectrum exist hards where things we hold as unshakeable, fall into pieces. Something we lean on, to keep stability in our life, vanishes. Coming from the depths, our world begins to rumble and quake. Things we have depended upon...
December 22, 2022
Handling Holiday Heartache Many have experienced this perplexing paradox: walking through glittering, cheerful holidays with a heart aching from a malady of flesh or soul. We try ignoring the pain of our reality. Stuffing down the ache. Striving to behave so others won’t see the implosion happening within. Attempting to unzip our hard like a heavy garment to hang in the corner, so we can get through to the other side without breaking under the weight. As if that were...
November 10, 2022
How to Release Our Hards into God’s Sovereign Hands The greatest treasure in our hards is the assurance we do not face them alone. Our Father is with us. Add the amazing truth that we are not just welcomed to His holy throne, but encouraged to approach His presence with confidence, “so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need”. (Hebrews 4:16) Incredible. Astounding. Humbling. As we abide in His presence, we release...
February 10, 2022
Is God’s Presence Real When You Don’t Feel? What does experiencing the presence of God feel like? What feeling should we wait for that assures us of His presence? Is there an unusual warmth? A sensation? Is there a manifestation? We often rely too heavily on how we feel, or don’t feel, to gauge the realness of something. In determining God’s presence, we will likely feel nothing. God’s presence is not a feeling. But a truth. We don’t tangibly feel...
December 16, 2021
Hope in the Hard “There will be no Christmas card this year.” The decision declared wandering through a shop in October, shelves heaped with box upon box of colorful artwork, warm scenes, and warmer phrases. None of the greetings made sense sent from the center of our surreal, difficult journey these past months. Nope. Not. Doing. It. (When Covid Crashes Through Your Front Door: 1879) Turning to bolt for the door, searching for air to breathe, my eyes fell on a card...
November 25, 2021
THANKFULNESS IN THE AFTERMATH Walking up to the door of this holiday season, we anticipated the difficulty before us. Working through loss and memories. Aching for a Bear-hug when he doesn’t come through the door. Our table full, yet groaning with an emptiness. The puzzle table missing his baritone laughter. Conversations lacking his dry humor and button-pushing banter. These things we anticipated. We worked to prepare ourselves for warm family gatherings, while hearts still ache and sorrows linger. But,...
September 16, 2021
Understanding the Peace that Passes Understanding The word peace displays many facets. Peace ranges from the absence of war and hostility, to personal relational harmony. The spectrum of peace sweeps from a sense of unbroken well-being and contentment, to freedom from disputes and conflict, to the Messianic peace where Christ has reconciled us to God. But, in a fiery hard, how do we experience peace? We offer genuine sentiment to others to encounter “the peace that passes understanding” as they...
June 17, 2021
When Father’s Day Casts Shadows Father’s Day. A wonderful occasion to celebrate very special men in our lives. A day to express our great love and deep appreciation for what they have sacrificed in their own lives to pour into ours. When life rolls out “as it should”, we cheer the opportunity and embrace the ability to share our love and gratitude for these cherished men. However, when loss, for one reason or another, takes any dad from us, we...