Hey, friend, it’ll be alright
I was streaming a playlist when a phrase I’d heard a million times hit me like a cool breeze on a hot day. And then the phrase repeated, providing the exclamation point I needed. “It’ll be alright.” Did you hear that? “It’ll be alright.” Headlines scream and rhetoric whirls and chaos keeps those of us […]
The problem with coping mechanisms
Each day seems to bring a new announcement or policy concerning the pandemic that challenges our normal way of life. At the church where I serve, we are constantly making changes. First, we had to move worship online. Then, we partially reopened for in-person services. And now we are requiring masks in our facility. What […]
Spring in our steps with God
The groundhog never saw this one coming. Longest. Winter. Ever. I live in Wisconsin; we Midwesterners are used to being stuck inside over the winter months, but the emergence of warm weather is usually our time to come out of hibernation, stretch our legs, enjoy the beautiful sunshine, dig in the dirt, grill out, and […]
Daylight savings
We lost a full hour this month. In the middle of the night on March 8, we skipped right over the 2 o’clock hour and woke up sometime later a bit groggy and late for church. This practice of daylight savings was put into place to conserve energy and make full use of the daylight […]
Exercise your faith!
Every year around this time of year, people come out of their food- and Christmas celebration-induced haze and realize their pants don’t fit quite right. So the owners of said pants make resolutions to exercise more. While I think that kind of exercise is important, I also believe this is the perfect time of year […]
Do not be afraid!
Do not be afraid! Mary, you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a Son, and you will name him Jesus (Luke 1:30,31). This will not be an easy time for you, Mary. There will be talk in Nazareth; though you have done nothing wrong, people will try to make […]
Don’t let God rest
So there I was, wide awake at 3:57 a.m. (Thanks a lot, time change.) I quietly got out of bed, went to the main room in the house, and turned on our Christmas lights. (No, I didn’t put them up early; I just hadn’t taken them down from the previous year.) I opened my Bible. […]
Come as you are
The photo at the bottom of this blog is what I looked like after 30 minutes with a makeup artist who used not one but two tackle boxes of makeup to make me look “natural.” To be honest, as someone who usually wears a ponytail and no makeup, it was fun to cover up my […]