I look toward the horizon. I see the storm coming, I feel winds of change across my soul.  I've been here before.  I smell the enemy, waiting to shred lessons unfurled.  I sense from deep within, to watch darkening clouds, to flee the pelting rain, Is to fail to learn the lesson; to stand soaking in unnecessary pain. From the past I have learned few storms are outrun, tattering unfurling sails.  The lessons that come in the storm, the sun soon reveals.  When the storm has passed, it is then more gentle winds carry me along;  And the sails unfurled, the lessons learned, take me to where I belong. 

Yet God so loved... that He said no to His own most beloved son's request,  "Father, if there is any other way..." We are the recipients of that most famous, "No" And aren't we forever grateful....

70 Days. 70 days that feel like 70 years. 70 days a fisherman’s Widow, a title unbefitting a 24 year-old. 70 days of   gut-wrenching tears, unwanted change, rage, and depression.   Seeking a few hours away, a few hours to forget, I step out of the building on Table Bluff.   Across the small field of grass, I see a stand of trees clumped together, like a group of gossiping church ladies after Sunday service.    Behind me I hear the hum of fifty chattering voices bustling about, preparing to share a common meal. The crisp ocean breeze stings my cheek and wisps my hair. The salty smell simultaneously consoles and depresses me, binding me to this sacred place.    The bright sun high overhead invites me from the shadow of the doorway. The distant lapping of ocean waves calls me to traverse the short jaunt from the cold, protective building to the mystery beyond the trees. Like a teenager hesitant to break into a new crowd, anxiety rises within me a...

Oswald Chambers Challenged me today to take no thought for my life; what I will eat or drink, or what I will wear. It is easy to think that God doesn't understand, or that my cares are not really concerns or worries . Am I truly to take no thought at all? How literally should I take this instruction: Take no thought for your life... Not too literally, I should think. I have to take some thought. I have discovered poor planning costs me more money, time and stress. Responsibility means considering in advance what I am feeding my family. I do not think this is what is meant. Jesus, when he was preparing for the last supper, instructed his disciples where and how to find the room and the meal they were to share. Once again I turn to my children to learn these lessons. It is said that unless we have the faith of a child we cannot enter the Kingdom of God. So I watch them, and they rarely give much advanced thought to what the next meal is going to be. Only when their little tummies a...

I have to confess: my spiritual life has been somewhat lackluster lately. There just didn't seem to be the passion there to keep going. I was being smothered by daily life. Sinking in the quicksand of indecision, I was losing day after day as laundry and dishes and children sank deeper and deeper with me... I wanted God to be my Mary Poppins, to pop in and sing me a song and quickly make it all right and whisk me away somewhere lovely and happy. But that is not His way. He is faithful, even when we are not, and hears our deep sighs.... Without fanfare or umbrella He did arrive one day; in His own fashion He arrived in my inbox. It was right before New Years and Ann Voskamp wrote a piece on the grace of God as he fills in the old tracks we have laid for ourselves and she gave some very prudent advice on how to proceed to lay down new tracks for the new year. Grace covering yesterday's mistakes (yes I like that) and 5 steps to lay new tracks for the new year. No New Year's ...