So Many Unanswered Questions Imagine with me that you are running a 5K race and 60 feet from the finish line, you are ordered to not move another step. Do not sit down and no way to finish. Just stop. Breathe and recover while you wait. Drink some water. Here's a towel. That's often how it feels when God holds you in a place of waiting. The finish line is within reach, and yet you are held back from completing what you know needs to be done. God is asking you--do you trust Me? Can you rely on My plan for your life? They are plans to prosper and not harm you. To go forward right now will ... Read the Post
Treasuring It Up: The Art of Being Still
"But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart." Luke 2:19...marveling in wonder with the shepherds. 12 Years Later... "And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart." Luke 2:51 I handed my joy away yesterday. It was effectively stolen really. And it took a good night's sleep and fresh mercies of a new day from the LORD to reclaim it. Then today, I received a gift of JOY in a message from one of my very first friends. A year ago, I had given her a gift. So she told me that today ... Read the Post
Margins
My first broken heart as a Believer came from a Believer and that didn’t make my new-found faith much fun. After moving to L.A. from the East Coast to begin “life,” God blessed me with a job at a prominent publishing company where I met Brenda, also an out-of-state transplant. Despite our religious differences, (she was Christian I was not), a friendship grew over a love for writing and experiencing life in L.A. as young, college graduates. Brenda often invited me to church and Bible studies, and though I was open to attending, interest in Jesus was closed; being Jewish made Jesus and I an ... Read the Post
Snapshots of Kaleidoscope Wonder
On July 11, 1979, when I was eight years old, Skylab fell to the earth. Debris showered Western Australia. This 170,000 pound space station had odds of 1 to 152 of hitting a human, 1 to 7 of hitting a major city. The news of the impending disaster must have filtered through our RCA television set, as the nightly news dramatized it all. My young heart pounded in fear. Of all the memories I have carried through the years, one of them is this--I went outside on my swingset that evening and I prayed, "Oh God, please don't let Skylab hit me and my family. Protect people, so they don't get hurt." ... Read the Post
The Stormy Sea and the Wolf in the Garage
Photo Cred: Diego Catto Every October, our next-door neighbors display a snarling, larger-than-life werewolf figure in their yard. Last year, at 18 months old, our little boy was clearly afraid of it, but wasn’t yet able to communicate. So we weren’t surprised when, a few weeks ago, he started asking about “the wolf in the neighbor’s goh-gahge.” (He’s caught glimpses of it lurking in the back of their garage over the summer.) My husband and I didn’t want him to feel ashamed for his fear, but we did want to reassure him using concepts he could understand. Of course, we know that the wolf ... Read the Post