Tag Archives: Faith

Today

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Outdated garage sale signs are one of my pet peeves. Not just any sale signs, but the ones that simply say “Garage Sale Today.”

If you put a date on your sale sign, you can leave it up for years, and it won’t bother me a bit. Leave it nailed to the telephone post until the poster is ripped and the corners are yellowed and curling with age—I won’t care.

But leave the date off your sign, lead me down a trail of undated signs to a two-week past garage sale, and I’m not a happy camper. So much so that while I love garage sales, I’m unlikely to follow undated signs. It doesn’t matter how fresh they look. Unless I see someone posting the sign, I’m assuming it’s old. Continue reading →

When Impossible Isn’t

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When I was growing up, we actually had “the Joneses” living next door. Only, it was just Mrs. Jones—a sweet, elderly widow who had cookies and Kool-Aid for the neighbor kids.

I didn’t know anything about the cookies and Kool-Aid, however, until the day that my sister Michele and I were riding our bikes near her house and ran over her yard decoration. It was a wooden cutout of a redbird on the top of a wooden stake painted red. One of us (I won’t say who because it might make Michele feel bad) ran over the cardinal, and the stake broke.

We quickly hopped off our bikes and examined the broken decoration, hoping there was some easy fix. Nope, the wood was unmistakably broken, and the splintered top half was too short to stick back in the ground. We propped it up against the bush and sadly rode home to tell Mom. Continue reading →

When Decisions Won’t Bend the Trail

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Seven years ago, I stood under a star-studded sky in central Texas and made a decision.  With a tinge of dramatic anticipation, I looked to Heaven and prayed my own paraphrase of Jeremiah 26:14: “Lord, do with me as seems good in Your sight.” And then I offered a particularly painful area to Him.

But the outcome of that decision wasn’t quite what I had hoped.

Turning Points

I learned early on that spiritual decisions make spiritual turning points. And turning points are usually exciting. There is a surge of joy in Holy Spirit-prompted surrender, and there can be a rush of anticipation in the biblically-rooted change sure to follow.

So seven years ago, when I knew that I needed this surge of joy and longed for a fresh sense of grace, I made a decision to surrender.

What happened next was…disappointing. Continue reading →

Larger than the Cloud

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Two years ago this week, I found myself in a craft store in Northern California waiting on some friends. As waiting is what I do best when others are shopping (no, I’m not much of a shopper), I searched for entertainment—anything to help pass time.

My eyes landed on an old book used as a display prop. I brushed aside whatever the book had been displaying and picked up the book. Its title was taken from a line of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem “Aurora Leigh.” I didn’t get to read much of the book, but I will forever remember the line of the poem: “The blue of heaven is larger than the cloud.”

God knew that at that very moment I had a large cloud hovering over my sky, blocking sunshine and, to a degree, concealing His presence. He also knew that another black cloud, heavy with painful news, was rolling in and would be further covering my sky in less than forty-eight hours. Continue reading →

Petes and Repeats

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When I was little enough to be dumb, my uncle (who is just three years older than me) asked me a riddle:

“Pete and Repeat went down to the lake. Pete fell in, so who was left?”

The answer seemed so obvious, I couldn’t believe Scott thought this was a riddle.

“Repeat.”

“Okay, Pete and….”

Would you believe, it took me about three rounds of this to figure out what was going on?! And once I caught on, I thought it was so clever that I tried it on others, too. Unfortunately, no one else ever fell for it. Continue reading →

Adventures I Wanted to Avoid

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I’m reopening a blog post draft that I began almost six months ago, which wouldn’t be so bad if the first post hadn’t been about transmission trouble.

I’m no mechanic, but I know more about a failing transmission now than before I began this post—either time. And I know that the loss of a transmission signals one of two events—days of misery or an unfolding adventure.

Thankfully, both times I got to experience the adventure.

Adventure 1

My brother Daniel, my friend Jill, and I were 627 miles into our 2,000 mile drive home for vacation when our transmission gave out. That left us stranded on the shoulder of the interstate at 5:30 p.m. on a Friday night. Not good. Continue reading →

The Difference

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Have you ever wanted to say, “Yes, Lord, but….”

I have. Just recently, actually.

I was faced with a difficulty with which I had no choice but to trust the Lord. I couldn’t control, change, or manipulate it if I wanted to. (And, frankly, I wanted to!)

When my fate of no control was confirmed, I gave it to the Lord with the words “Yes, Lord.” Yet, in my heart, I added “but….”

  • “…I don’t like it.”
  • “…it’s hard.”
  • “…only because I have no alternative.”

Even as I thought “but…” the Lord whispered a substitute word to my spirit—and. Continue reading →

Book Review: The Promise

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What would change in your life if you really believed Romans 8:28?

A friend recently gave me The Promise: God Works All Things Together for Your Good by Robert J. Morgan. I was surprised that someone could write a full-length book (210 pages) about one verse of Scripture, and I expected that it might be tedious reading. Based on my friend’s recommendation, however, I began, and immediately, I was thankful I did. In fact, I began underlining even before the table of contents!

This book is encouraging because it focuses attention on God’s infinite love for us and His sovereign power engaged on our behalf. It is also challenging because it reminds us that such love calls for a response of trust and reciprocated love.

The Promise is divided into two parts. The first covers each phrase in Romans 8:28, exploring in depth the richness of this promise. The second part briefly covers six other places in Scripture that echo the promise of Romans 8:28—either in living testimony or in a verse. These chapters are especially encouraging as they reveal just how God makes things work together for good and just what kinds of good He has in mind. Continue reading →

Short Nights=Bad Mornings

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I write this post after two virtually sleepless nights—both directly or indirectly related to a bad rash of poison ivy. (Ugh!) While concentrating on not scratching last night, I remembered a verse about long, painful nights that had been a help to me during my college days.

“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psalm 30:5b).

I remember one morning in particular reading this verse after an especially short night of sleep.

Of course, none of us like to experience the “night of weeping” referred to in this verse—a season of heartache or pain. These night seasons always feel too long.

But as I read the verse that morning through droopy, bloodshot eyes, I realized that the alternative isn’t any better. Short nights don’t make for happy mornings! Continue reading →

In the Words of Tech Support

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I’ve never enjoyed calling tech support—especially when it is outsourced to non-English speakers.  It seems to me that the problem is often as simple as replacing a part, yet they insist on walking me through the regulation diagnostic steps before confirming what I already knew and agreeing to send the part.

Yet, I’ll never forget the phrase one technician repeated during such a call. As soon as I realized that my call was being transferred across the ocean, I pulled some reading material nearby and and settled in for a long conversation with frequent holds.

The pleasant technician on the other end of the line began the session by asking me to describe my problem. I explained that my CD drive wasn’t working properly. Immediately, he responded, “Not to worry; I will surely help you.” I smiled at his arrangement of words, but I was thankful for his confidence. Continue reading →