The first year after my husband died, I wasn’t prepared for how hard Easter would be. We’d always lived in colder climates, so I didn’t grieve a soggy egg hunt or bemoan wearing a winter coat over my dress that year. It didn’t even bother me much that church had shifted online because of theContinue reading “Only One Empty Tomb?”
Category Archives: hope
Desperately Sad Day
A single mother has lost the latest round in her legal challenge to stop life support treatment for her brain-damaged daughter being ended. In a judgment on Friday, the Court of Appeal upheld an earlier High Court ruling that said 5-year-old Pippa Knight should be allowed to die. Pippa suffers from acute necrotising encephalopathy and hasContinue reading “Desperately Sad Day”
When Flesh and Heart Fail
“My flesh and my heart may fail,but God is the strength of my heart,my portion forever” (Ps 73:26). This is what I like to call a “Psalmist classic.” It’s the kind of verse you find written on a coffee mug or t-shirt, maybe even tattooed on someone’s arm. It’s a verse that, apart from anyContinue reading “When Flesh and Heart Fail”
A Healthy Loneliness
Nearly half of Americans always or sometimes feel alone. Nearly half of Britons over 65 consider the television or a pet their main source of company. Scientists have long known that loneliness is emotionally painful and can lead to psychiatric disorders like depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia. But recently they’ve also discovered how bad it is for the body.Continue reading “A Healthy Loneliness”
20 Quotes from Tim Keller on Resurrection Hope
I recently read Tim Keller’s stirring new book Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter (Viking, 2021) [interview]. Here are 20 quotes that caught my attention. The greatest threat to our hope for a better world is not the natural environment but the various evils that continually spring from the human heart.Continue reading “20 Quotes from Tim Keller on Resurrection Hope”
Christians Cannot Be Pessimists
Years ago I heard a saying that I thought was profound. It was, “Live simply that others may simply live.” I assumed that it meant that we should live off the land rather than be materialistic. As an unkempt hippy, that appealed to me. But one day I learned about real life, and how anContinue reading “Christians Cannot Be Pessimists”
Even the Stones Would Speak
Isaiah looks at the sin-bearing servant of the Lord and has one thing to say to us: “Break forth into singing and cry aloud” (54:1). In other words, “Let joyful song explode out of you!” We resist that. Isaiah 54:1 may be one of the most disobeyed commands in the Bible. Our exaggerated sense ofContinue reading “Even the Stones Would Speak”
Spring Is Coming
A few years ago, I traveled to Nashville for Audrey Assad and Andrew Peterson’s “The Burning Edge Of Dawn Tour.” Beloved voices joined with mine to sing of God’s beauty and sovereignty. With the green of blooming earth glowing in our eyes and lungs full of fresh spring air, the promises we sang were easyContinue reading “Spring Is Coming”
A Father’s Letter to His Son in Heaven
Happy birthday, my boy! You’re 21 today! Or you would be. Do you celebrate birthdays in heaven? Do you even mark days, months, and years? I confess, I have only just begun to realize how little I know about the place you have gone to be. I’ve got many questions, but few answers. Then again,Continue reading “A Father’s Letter to His Son in Heaven”
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
I never stay up until midnight on New Year’s Eve. I’m not a party person; my child rises pre-dawn; fireworks are a waste of money; the calendar is an arbitrary human construct. However, it’s been such a blah ten months that even I can’t help but nurse a flicker of hope that adding a 1Continue reading “The Light at the End of the Tunnel”
