On a sticky, steamy night last summer, I sat on my back porch in the dark and stared at a gangly potted cactus. This Epiphyllum oxypetalum, commonly known as the “Queen of the Night” was a gift from an elderly gardener friend. He promised me that there would be spectacular, if short-lived, nocturnal flowers. “AndContinue reading “Stop Fighting and Stand Still”
Category Archives: testing and trials
Seasons Without Answers
This year, I’m learning to have a quiet hope. My eight-year-old daughter has Down syndrome. Her already winding path took an unexpected turn at just six months of age, when a relentless storm of seizures wreaked havoc on her brain and body. The disabilities and delays left in the wake of her seizures touched everyContinue reading “Seasons Without Answers”
Wandering in the Wilderness
Your soul may feel lost in the wilderness, but take heart, for it is also where His Presence can be found. When I was looking for God as a child, I stumbled upon His name while sitting in a hotel room during family vacation, watching a gospel movie on the television. Before that, I hadContinue reading “Wandering in the Wilderness”
I Still Trust Him
Recently I shared this on Facebook: In all my hardest times, God has been there. He’s been faithful to me when I had to resign as a pastor, had issues with church leaders, went through lawsuits and public scorn, was restricted to minimum wage, and faced disease and depression and the deaths of close friendsContinue reading “I Still Trust Him”
What the Gender Revolution Has Wrought
Seven years ago this month, National Geographic published an issue that they now refer to as “historic.” With a cover featuring a young boy with long pink hair and pink leggings, they announced a “Gender Revolution.” The newsstand edition featured a different cover, a child and a collection of hip young people with identifying labels, suchContinue reading “What the Gender Revolution Has Wrought”
The Joy in Trials
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. —James 1:2 The second word in the Greek text of verse 2, charan (“joy”), corresponds closely in sound to the last word of verse 1, chairein. Epistolary sections of James are often stitched together by similar-sounding words, pointing to the author’s skillContinue reading “The Joy in Trials”
Melancholia
On a spectrum from simple sadness to profound discouragement, then crossing a moral line into despair— melancholia marks nearly every life at some point. Sorrow even appears throughout Scripture, and the biblical evidence seems to run the gamut of mild sorrow (the rich young rule in Matthew 22, whose sorrow was induced by personal sin)Continue reading “Melancholia”
When Things Go Sideways
We tend to fret. It is a fact about creatures that we are derivative beings who can’t ultimately control the world around us. We have questions about whether we should do this or that, and about what might happen if we do this or that, which quickly turns into worries about how badly this orContinue reading “When Things Go Sideways”
The Test of Time
Exodus 16:1-36 Time has passed. If you read the previous passage in chapter 15 with a careful eye, you observe that it took them only three days to find the water they now enjoyed. But now it’s been a month and a half—more than forty days! I call that the test of time. There theyContinue reading “The Test of Time”
Intentional Faith 