I heard this song for the first time about a week ago at Andrew Peterson’s Light for the Lost Boy release concert, and it’s been in my mind ever since – not in the “stuck in my head” sense so much as the “stuck in my soul” sense. I’ve been washing it through my mind’s ear over and over again… I can’t […]
“There Will be Butterflies.”
I came across the line on the airplane. I had decided only days before the conference to read the book, and here I was, on my way, with half of it left to go. Ah, well, I’d thought. If I don’t finish, I don’t finish. No one will be upset with me. But then I started reading, and words and […]
Fare Forward, Voyagers
On the Sunday morning of Hutchmoot, my sister and I went to church with the friends we were staying with at Christ Presbyterian Church of Nashville. The minister, Scott Sauls, spoke from Philippians 2 on “The Humility of God.” In one of those “God-things” everything he said seemed to fit hand in glove with the content of the conference. He […]
Staking My Claim
Croatian Flag and Football Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net The Euro Cup begins in two days. In less than a month, the hopes and dreams of fifteen nations will be dashed, and one will be celebrating. I read an article today that pointed out that in 2010, Americans got on board with the World Cup with the exciting run of the […]
Grief and Birth
I’ve been trying to figure out if, and if so how, I should add my voice to the many speaking out regarding the proposed name change for Philadelphia Biblical University that was announced this week. On the one hand, everyone is hearing my voice, because I’ve been a part of the team crafting emails, blog posts, and responses to comments […]
A Bewildering Reality
Every few hours I find myself clicking this link, and staring at the page, thinking, “Is it really real?” As one of my coworkers put it today, we’re just dealing with her absence, not with the loss; it hasn’t sunk in yet. We keep expecting to see her. And while I don’t want it to be real, I don’t want […]
When change and tears are past
This past week or so have been difficult. My Grandma Givens was in the hospital. She’s out now, and back in the skilled care area of the village where she lives, but we know she’s not well and we don’t know if she’ll be with us ten more days or ten more years. There’s not much more wrong with her […]
Missing Uncle Sam
O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer Our spirits by Thine advent here; Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death’s dark shadows put to flight. “Christmas is a time of joy,” my boss said yesterday. “I have to keep reminding myself of that.” It is. A joy tinged with sorrow, as the Man of Sorrows left his throne and […]
Slow Burn
It’s been a long autumn this year. The colors have passed their peak (evidenced, if by nothing else, by the fact that I could barely see the lines in the parking lot at work this morning for the carpet of yellow that covered them), but only just, and they began weeks and weeks ago. I saw a flaming maple in […]
Nothing is Wasted
This has become a theme of my week – not because I’m going through anything particular, but simply the truth of it – and its applicability to past and future events. Its been, for lack of a more somber word, “refreshing” to remember that Christ redeems sorrow and pain. The hurt that broke your heartLeft you trembling in the darkFeeling […]