Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” —Mark 8:34-37 NLT (emphasis mine) It’s Memorial Day here in the United States. A day we set apart to honor the brave men and women who have fought and died in various battles on […] Read more »

And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey …” —Exodus 3:7-8a (NKJV) “I have seen. I have heard. I know. I have come.” Not just months. Not years, but centuries. That’s how long the Israelites had been in Egypt. Centuries of slavery, torture, abuse, need, and calling out to God for deliverance. Centuries of Divine Silence! This particular cry the Israelites hurled up to God […] Read more »

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. — Philippians 3:10-12 NIV (emphasis mine) The paint spread like butter on warm toast as I slid the light blue hue over the textured canvas panel with a flat brush. The clouds emerged bigger and bolder with every stroke. “Start from the top and work your way down,” my instructor told me. “That way, you have a place to rest […] Read more »

The birds were noisy this morning. And I don’t mean just a little bit. They were loud and raucous and excitable and continuous in the dawn of a new day. From the excited little twitters of the tiny birds to the staccato notes of the bigger ones to longer two-toned cries, the whole sky was filled with a symphony of praise—and I reveled in it as I walked my little dog around the block. As I write, it’s late April here in New Hampshire, and the trees still have no leaves. The word that best describes our current landscape is drab with splashes of yellow. Yes, the trees are bare, but the forsythia is out in full force, and the daffodils are bobbing in the […] Read more »