Spit on. Struck. Slapped.

Listen HERE There’s an awkward part of Handel’s Messiah where the alto sings, “Despised. Rejected,” over and over. In that section, she also repeats, “He gave His back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair…” It is always a little uncomfortable to think about Jesus having hair on hisContinue reading “Spit on. Struck. Slapped.”

Dear Josephine

Find this article in its entirety right HERE at Story Warren. I am honored to be an ally in imagination. In Beatrix Potter’s imagination, Josephine Bunny was the hard-working single mother of Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-Tail, and Peter and was licensed to sell tea and tobacco. With a business to run and four little ones toContinue reading “Dear Josephine”

The Well-Worn Path

Listen HERE As my husband and I walked recently, I looked down in the grass and wondered what could have made the two-track trail there. It didn’t seem wide enough to have been the wheels of our golf cart, and just as I started suspecting someone of trespassing on a four-wheeler, it occurred to meContinue reading “The Well-Worn Path”

Rusty Repentance

Listen HERE Snirt is an old plow truck. My husband bought it, and my children named it after the substance that results from the mixing of snow and dirt. Neither the truck nor the mixture is very pretty. Snirt is a 1984 Ford 350, and I don’t know what color it used to be, butContinue reading “Rusty Repentance”

A Butterfly’s Path

Listen HERE Why don’t butterflies fly in a straight path? Today, I watched a yellow swallowtail butterfly dodge and flutter around the birds gathered at my birdfeeder. None were able to catch it, and it occurred to me that its haphazard flight path saves it from harm. As I watched, my teenage daughter was tellingContinue reading “A Butterfly’s Path”

Some Like it Hot

Listen HERE There’s a little one staying with us now who describes everything unpleasant as “hot!” Prickly pine needles, cold ice cubes, cat scratches, and the oven are all “hot.”  At least when I say, “Hot!” about the electric fence, she gets the picture and stays away.  I was thinking of her description of dangerContinue reading “Some Like it Hot”

Hang On

Though I love the icy North Dakota prairies I call home, my first home was the tropical Atlantic coast of south Florida. In the year before I was married, I rode out three hurricanes there with my family, standing in awe beside my brother at the stillness in the eye of the storm. The eyeContinue reading “Hang On”

Too Much Jesus

At what point do you become a fanatic? In the nineties, D.C. Talk sang about Jesus Freaks. In the 2000’s, medical missionary Kent Brantly contracted ebola while sharing the Gospel with patients in Liberia. Just this year, an entire North Korean family, including their two year old, was imprisoned for owning a Bible. These seemContinue reading “Too Much Jesus”

“The Hiding Place: A Stage Adaptation” Film Review

Musician Rich Mullins wrote, “I think life, by nature, is a struggle. You know, whether or not you believe in the health, wealth, and prosperity doctrine, the ideas of that have polluted almost all of our thinking about Christianity- where we think that a really great Christian is someone who does not struggle.” When youContinue reading ““The Hiding Place: A Stage Adaptation” Film Review”

Burdens the Lord Carries

At a funeral, the pallbearers carry the heavy burden of the casket, but the family and friends have the greater burden of the loss.  Watching a child mourn the loss of her mother, I contemplated that burden this week. It is too heavy. It made me think of my own five year old, who fiercelyContinue reading “Burdens the Lord Carries”