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 […]
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 […]
Elephants
I’ve always admired elephants. It’s a little complicated to explain to people (they always jump to “that’s weird” before they hear the whole reason), but if I were able to choose an animal to be, it would be an elephant. I love that they remember things; that they commemorate them. I do that as much as I can, but I’m […]
On a quiet road in Maryland
Written 28 November 2010 Dear Aimee – I went to your grave today. You weren’t there. I didn’t expect you to be; you left your earthsuit almost a year ago. I stood quietly for a moment. It was cold, but not nearly so cold as the day we buried you. February’s chill hasn’t yet come. Then I read a part […]
Lamentations
He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunk with wormwood. He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust.My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness.So I say, “My strength has perished, And so has my hope from the LORD.” Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood […]
Spaghetti in the Pensieve
In one of the Harry Potter books, when Harry and Dumbledore are examining memories in the Pensieve, there’s one memory that Dumbledore has trouble getting out of its little bottle into the Pensieve. It clings to the glass, and stretches into strings as he forces it out…I think all memories are like that, in a way. They all cling, typically […]
Resurrection
28 March 2010Palm Sunday I am again in a part of the world where Spring flourishes. Though today’s weather is chilly and grey, the flowers have been bursting forth for weeks now. The crocuses and snowdrops are already being replaced by daffodils and columbine. The forsythia glows along the sides of the road and the edges of fields and yards. […]