“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” -C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Compelled to cross boundaries, some like David with his slingshot ready to face a giant, and […]
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“Thar’ she blows,” a friend quipped of his late wife. A sweet soul and my dear friend, she apparently hid a temper under her skin, not easily aroused but impressive to its recipients. He spoke of it with a twinkle in his eye, love in his laugh, and loss deep in his heart. Her spunky […]
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Asaph, King David’s talented musician had issues. He agonized over life’s inequality and unfairness and fell prey to a common problem. “For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” Ps. 73:3 (NKJV). Comparison. Everything from likes to houses, families to stuff, comparison invades my life. Maybe that’s why […]
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“Is there wildlife?” she asked over the phone. After moving from the midwest where deer and antelope play and seldom is heard a discouraging word, I paused just a moment to consider. Well, there is my husband, I thought. “Deer,” I replied. We are supposedly retired here in the east. Wildlife no more. But, my […]
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“TANSTAAFL,” the text read. That crazy duck quack my husband has on his phone announcing incoming texts sometimes drives me crazy. At almost 1:00 a.m., it’s enough for a heart attack. “What is it?” I ask, a breathless panic sounded in my voice. The phone is already in his hand. He is sitting on the […]
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“What?” he asks. Only it’s not so much a question as a two-year-old’s bold reaction to just about everything. His forehead draws together, his questioning mouth opens and his head jerks around. His spreads his legs. His little man hand stretches upright like a policeman stopping traffic. “What?” “Wait for me.” “What?” My kids did […]
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“We are ill prepared for living here,” I told my husband on the third day of a power outage. He’d been shoveling the driveway, bringing wood into the fireplace and fire burning stove, and generally working like a crazy man to keep us safe and warm in a cold dark house. When we first arrived […]
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“And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.” 1 Sam. 5:3 ESV Snow is falling thick outside our Virginia home. It is beautiful in the way […]
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The last week of December always feels a little like an in-between to me. It’s between holidays, months and years. Akin to adolescent years, somewhere between child and teenager, life has a lot of uncomfortable in-betweens, like the “uberty” one of my young nieces recently admitted to being in. “Uberty” is not a good […]
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In the sweat and grime of one contraction bursting upon another, I concentrated on a child yet unknown, but one already knit with my own heart. Birth in that moment was all about bringing into a hospital room a living breathing little being. The focus was laser pointed on a baby, and nothing else mattered. […]
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