Tag: bible
-
Life without the Force
“Life without using force.” Sounds very Star Wars, doesn’t it? But this is essentially what I answered when someone asked me what I’ve been learning in a hard, limiting season. I’ve always been a doer with a fairly high capacity. The planner. The organizer. The host. The follow-upper. Lately, I haven’t been able to *make*…
-
For the Joy Set Before Him
Imagine you can have everything you’ve ever truly wanted. Deep, perfect relationships with everyone you love. Life with God, seeing Him face to face without any cause to doubt that you are fully known and fully loved. Freedom from fear, want, and pain. Access to every answer, every good opportunity, every wonderful place and experience….
-
God is Sufficient for Your False Guilt
“I feel bad about…” I began. My husband joked it was time for my daily list of “things I feel guilty about that I probably have no control over anyway.” If only he wasn’t right! Too often, I find myself stuck replaying all the ways I could have done better, loved more, anticipated and therefore…
-
3 Laws of Change
Her wrinkled hand clasped my arm for stability as we took a slight step down. “I need help ever since it happened,” she said apologetically. “Since what?” I asked, unsure if she had an injury I hadn’t heard about and ought to be aware of. Playfully, she shot back, “since I got old!” The sweet…
-
The Grace of Choices
“It’s no big deal,” I told myself and others when I failed to make edible bread- again. On the one hand, it wasn’t that big a deal. Whether I’m an excellent bread-baker or not doesn’t affect much in my daily life. But on the other hand…I stopped trying to bake bread. A handful of failed…
-
Why I Don’t Want to Be Full
“What are we arguing about again?” my husband asked. After some discussion, we came to the conclusion. We were arguing because I was bored. Being bored makes me rather grumpy. How about you? Some of us Type A people believe relaxation involves a checklist. Doers tend to associate a full schedule with a full heart….
-
Paradox of Perfection Book Review
“Umm…” My husband said hesitantly as he reviewed a recent work project of mine, “Did you want me to give feedback on this?” Taking a deep breath, I braced myself and nodded. I had expected, “oh cool,” not the implication there was a problem. “The word ‘success’ is spelled wrong,” he grimaced. So it was….
-
The Who, Why, and What of “God Works Everything for Good”
Before I knew Christ as my Savior, I was familiar with the phrase “everything will work out for good.” The more familiar I became with evangelical Christianity, the more I learned similar phrases like “God won’t give you more than you can handle,” and “God helps those who help themselves.” As a determined optimist, I…
-
God Erases Our Regrets
I’m a know-needer. It’s not that I think I know it all, but that I want to know it all. The “what-ifs” of life are maddening to me. When they come up, I tend to identify every possibility and follow it to its end. At least that way I feel that I’ll know what to…
-
Grow in Grace
As a new mom, a friend of mine regularly reported sleeplessness. Sipping hot drinks while her infant alternated between fussing and sleeping, she told me how it had occurred to her one late, loud night that her baby was doing his job: He was growing. The sweet little guy didn’t understand what was happening as…