A few weeks ago, someone asked how I was doing with all the upheaval, pandemic-ly speaking. Travel halted. Speaking events evaporated, and with them, income. “Safe” meant distancing myself from my own children and grandchildren. We had doubled-up on our Sam’s Club purchases before the shelter-at-home advisories, so we were flush—if you’ll pardon the expression—with…
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34 NIV) I am going to be completely honest with you and say I am struggling today. It is hard to think about the months to come and envision how they will look. A…
On a cold evening in late February, after a long day of teaching, I opened a letter from our son’s school. I assumed it would be another routine letter about this or that school event or meeting. What I found instead was a truancy letter. Our family doesn’t get truancy letters! Except we just had….
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within my breast. O Israel,…
We live in a noisy world. Traffic. Restaurants. Workplaces. Schools. Churches. Shopping malls. Playgrounds. All can be filled with noise. Even our own homes are rarely quiet places. Noise isn’t necessarily bad. It means others are around to offer companionship or, at least, the sense that we are not alone. Our enemy wants us to…
“Am I being led by love or pushed by fear?” Emily P. Freeman asks in one episode of her podcast. One of my children instantly comes to mind. He has a tendency to forcefully nudge people out of the way when he wants to get to where everyone else is going. Though this is slightly…