making sense of life in the details
Each year between Christmas and New Year’s, I lean in close to discover my word for the year ahead. Last year a scripture caught hold of me hard and I thought for sure that my word was embedded within it. It was Isaiah 43:19, and I scribbled it on an index card and affixed it to... Continue Reading →
I was listening to a podcast which addressed the huge drop in church attendance in America this year. There was a pastor on who explained some of the statistics and the reasons why people aren’t returning to church: fear of getting sick during a pandemic, a break in spiritual habits and patterns, anger at the losses... Continue Reading →
I was praying for a particular person recently and felt an image of a bucket of light being poured out at their feet like paint from a can. The light spread like paint, slowly, into a puddle and it was just enough to step in, just enough to give direction but not nearly enough for a... Continue Reading →
I’ve had a few doors closed on me lately. If I’m honest, it’s more than a few, and it’s caused me to look out for new ones: new doors, new windows, new possibilities. I’m training my eyes up and out to see if I can recover the plan, if there is such a thing, and I’ve had... Continue Reading →
For the past several years on New Year’s Eve, our sweet hosts have pulled out a sheet of cardboard on which everyone writes their goals for the year ahead in permanent sharpie. One year I wrote that I would find our dog, Bailey, and I did. Another year I wrote that I would run a... Continue Reading →
I’ve had some weird dreams lately. I dreamt that Lin-Manuel Miranda and I had coffee and we danced in the street and he brought me into a ticket booth and got me on-stage seating for Les Miserables that night. I dreamt that Jose Andres and Tina Fey almost came to fisticuffs in the street, but... Continue Reading →
During the quiet, still time of a yoga class known as savasana, I often experience a picture or clarity that helps me make sense of where I am in life. For a long time, savasana brought me a picture of myself in the deep water, and showed me the ways God was revealing Himself and... Continue Reading →
Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. Isaiah 35:6 I read this passage from Isaiah in one of my devotionals last night. I’d heard it proclaimed before, of course, probably we all have, but last night the good... Continue Reading →
I had a great plan to celebrate my husband’s fiftieth birthday. He’s an outdoors kind of guy, and I love a metaphor, so the plan came together quickly. Go for a hike symbolic of life-so-far with the family in a nearby park, have friends surprise him on the path at various points, finish the day... Continue Reading →
After a busy couple of days of Christmas church singing, merrymaking, eating, and cleaning, I needed to clear my head, so I bundled up to walk in the sunny but frigid twenty-degree day. Podcast in my ears and eyes to the sky, I headed out. It was an icy, winding path, but the sun was... Continue Reading →
