Earthquakes, trauma – and silences that erase
Any eerie silence that minimizes or denies an earthquake - or any other trauma someone is facing - shouts to those willing to hear: Look deeper. Ask, Why?
A spirit like Caleb’s – fully following God
At a crucial moment in my life, Henry Blackaby and Caleb of old encouraged me: Regardless which way anyone else is rowing, you be filled with following God.
Dear wounded, grieving one, I pray you float
Was there grief in that ark? Yes! Was there tension? Absolutely. And anger. And fear. So many emotions; such great loss. Yet through it all, they were upheld.
The Lord who breaks open the way
“She cannot say that!” the woman yelled. Half a world from my home, she forbade me to invite the churched to repent. Then, we watched the Lord break through.
Celebrity culture in the church
It’s so enticing, and so much a part of evangelical church culture. Yet the lure of celebrity can deceive us into agreeing with much that is not God.
Tessa and the lion’s den
My finicky and beloved cat Tessa lived for 17 years. She inspired this post one night in 2004 – the year I first found myself in a den with lions that tear people apart.
The most unwanted assignment
Sitting in my car at that gas station on that winter afternoon, staring at Isaiah 58:1, I began to cry ... Oh. Lord. Not. This. Assignment.
When church leaders bully people and reject God
The day I realized what I had been seeing for years, it broke my heart: church leaders bullying people, rejecting God, leading their followers to do the same.
The flappable Deborah Bread
Something deep within me cries to be unflappable. But, as this incident from years ago reminds me, flapping can lead to laughing.
Cries of the shunned
In the middle of that dark-valley time, I often found myself alone with God, crying aloud and writing passionately in my journal. During that time too, I came to identify with David, the shepherd-poet-warrior-king, in ways I had not before. For David was also ostracized by people he trusted. And he cried out in distress - and in faith.