I don’t know what I was expecting. World peace? The end of poverty?
But when I asked the six felons at the table around me what they wanted for Christmas, they responded in unison. “Papers!”
“Papers?” I naively asked.
“Yeah. Parole papers,” the one closest to me explained. “We want to be home for Christmas.”
Half of the men at my table were in the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary prison ministry degree program. (Yeah, I know. It’s a mouth-full.) I questioned those three again. “But what about your degree? If you got out on parole-” They stopped me before I could continue.
Continue Reading »
Though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand. Psalm 37:24 NIV
“Spencer! Spencer!” Amy called around the house looking for her son. Hearing stumbling from above, she walked to the stairs. On the top stair was Spencer – seizing. In distress, he had been searching for his mother. He knew she would help him through this storm. Like a dance they rehearsed, each knew their parts – neither chose them. His head drawn, voice gone, and arm jerking; he tried to take a step.
And fell – into the arms of his mother.
Continue Reading »
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. – 1 Timothy 6:6-7
“If only we lived near ski slopes again, then I could be a professional skier,” said my son, presenting a fair argument for packing up and moving back to the cold.
I didn’t want to dash his hopes by being utterly logical; instead, I explained that this is the location where God currently has our family. The best place to be, no matter if it goes against your wishes, is where God puts you.
Continue Reading »
Buhfai Tham means a ‘handful of rice’. It’s a ministry started in Mizoram, India one hundred years ago. The ladies, though they have not much more to give, set aside a handful of rice each meal to give to the church as their tithe. The church then sells the rice in order to sustain her ministry. Millions of dollars have been earned and thousands of people have been reached through this sacrificial giving.
I can’t wait until I get to heaven to see this parade of women, who by monetary standards have nothing, come before God. I want to see the rich rewards they’ll have for all eternity.
Continue Reading »
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” ~ Hans Hofmann
“Hey!” Kendall walked into the kitchen. It was the twinkle in her eyes more than her excited tone that captured my attention. “Can you come here for a minute?”
I dried my hands on a towel and then followed her into the living room. She walked to the hutch which now housed the collection of salt and pepper shakers I had inherited from my grandmother. I thought for sure she must have more questions about them. She reached one tiny hand out but – instead of fingering one of the sets in fascination like she had earlier – she pointed to the round tin with the letters S I M P L I F Y stenciled on the side that sat tucked out of the way on the bottom shelf.
Continue Reading »
The smell was so bad he was embarrassed to take friends to lunch.
My husband drove a burgundy Saturn in the early days of our marriage. And it stunk. For a male, a little stink in a car is like a trophy. What guy wants his wheels to smell of strawberries and roses?
But over time, the smell was more than he could bear. He tried scented pine trees fresheners. When that didn’t work, he put oil of wintergreen on cotton balls under the seats.
No matter how he tried to mask the terrible odor, it remained. When co-workers suggested lunch outings, Alan cringed at the thought of shuttling friends in the stink-mobile, and rolled down the windows to blow the stench away.
Continue Reading »
Sometimes we wonder if anyone is really paying any attention to our
words; if there’s any value in getting them down. There are times Solomon’s words echo through my head, “Of the making of many books, there is no end.” And I wonder if it is a worthy effort to add my own volumes–whether bound with pages or online–to the multitudes still and coming into existence.
God had Moses write down his words to the Israelites. Jesus used stories to communicate God’s truth to his disciples and to the masses who followed Him. And when all was said and done, God gave us a book to remember what He’d done and to reveal Himself to we who live thousands of years later.
Continue Reading »
With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26 NIV
photo © 2005 Luca Masters | more info (via: Wylio)
Have you ever thought about the power of the conjunction? A conjunction connects words, phrases, or clauses. It builds bridges between words, pathways linking words that may have otherwise never been united. One of my favorite popular and powerful conjunctions is but. A sentence can skip along in one direction, then with the addition of one little conjunction, the meaning can stop and march the other way.
Really. It’s that powerful. Here is an example.
Continue Reading »
