The Dangerous Lie of “That’s Just How I Am” (And How to Break Old Habits)
When the work quiets and we have a moment to ourselves, old habits sometimes stir. They lie low in the grass, just beyond our sight, waiting for a familiar thought to bring us close. Following that thought home feels natural. We lived there a long time.…
When the Past Returns Uninvited: Why Remembering Isn’t the Same as Remaining
There are moments when the past returns without being invited. A song.The smell of rain on warm pavement.A particular kind of afternoon light.A voice remembered so clearly that for a second the years between seem unreasonable. Memory does that. It does…
Finding Peace in the Delays: How God Teaches Us Through Life’s Smallest Moments
For years, I expected biblical lessons to arrive with thunder. I suppose Scripture trained my imagination that way. The sea parts. The mountain shakes. Fire falls from heaven. Walls collapse. A voice comes booming out of somewhere that would make even…
The Weight of Distance: How Memories Bridge Time, Loss, and Family Legacy
Distance is a fascinating word. We usually think of it in miles. How far from here to there. How many hours on the road. How many feet across a room. But distance can also be measured in years. It can be fifty years ago. A hundred. A thousand. It can…
The Gift of Time: Why Right Now Matters More Than Tomorrow
Who knows what tomorrow brings? Well, that is an interesting way to start. Just one sentence, yet it does two things. It brings back thoughts of a song, and it asks a question: What was left undone that needs my attention? Nope. I have no idea what that…
Love At Its Hardest
We have made love too pretty. A heart. A rainbow. A little winged child with a bow who really should have had better supervision. We turned love into decoration. But love is not decoration. Love is work. Love is sacrifice. Love is protection. Imagine the…
What Do You Need? Rethinking Compassion, Convenience, and Real Love
Sometimes we hear thunder in the distance. It may never reach us. The storm can roll along the horizon, close enough that we feel the vibration, close enough that the books on the shelves seem to rattle just a little, and then the clouds move on. The sky…
The Sound of the Midnight Train: Reflections on Melancholy, Memory, and Growing Older
Melancholy. What a strange word. It can mean longing, reflection, sadness, the memory of times past. In living my life, it is not a word I have given much thought. Yet here I am, in the midst of what I suppose would be called melancholy. There is a train…
The Covered Wagon in 1931: How My Grandmother’s Journey Bridged Two Different Worlds
One small brush with mortality can pull open the drawers of the mind and shove every hidden emotion into the room. So here we go. Driving today, looking at the view rising ahead along the highway, I found my thoughts coming fast and furious. No, I was…
You Can’t Outrun the Truth: Why Repentance Changes Everything
“In the beginning was the Word.” Before the universe moved, before light broke across the darkness, before water gathered and land rose, the Word was already there. John begins his Gospel with language that reaches behind Genesis itself: John 1:1–3 In…