Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. (Prov. 27:1 ESV) Last spring, my family took an extended vacation and visited many national parks. The trip is a wonderful memory we will all hold onto forever. On April 29, 2021, we visited Petrified Forest National Park. I’ll be…
Recently, while reading through 1 Corinthians, I came to a full stop at chapter 3, verse 5. Paul was talking about how he had heard the Corinthian believers were dividing into factions. They seemed to have been bragging about who were the better Christians. “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” or “I…
My relationship with God has suffered during the last two years. My family moved, leaving behind a church we loved. We lost thirteen years of friendships, shared experiences, and our sense of belonging. Finding a church was a top priority, and we visited a new church every week in search of one that might feel…
Over the last year, I’ve had a revelation. It’s something I knew before, but I think I forgot: pastors are people. You see, prior to this past year, I attended rather large churches—eleven years at a megachurch and about another four at a not-as-big-but-still-pretty-big church. When I moved to Michigan seventeen years ago, freshly married,…
When cruising on a big ship in the Caribbean Sea in the middle of a pandemic, it all comes down to getting a table for dinner by yourself. I know! This doesn’t sound very social or all that nice, but for my husband and me, it’s kind of the truth. I’m not sure how it…
We all want peace, from our homes and workplaces to the halls of state and national governments around the world. We want to live in harmony with others. We want the absence of conflict. We want to end fighting and destruction. What does it take to have peace? In our homes, a short-term peace might…