Flower of a prickly pear plant “Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music;” Psalm 98:4 NIV As I look around me, the desert seems to be bursting forth in song to the Lord, God its creator. Prickly pear cactus shout in brilliant yellow, while giant saguaros trumpet forth in white bursts that carefully quiet within at night. Strawberry hedgehogs and scraggly chollas display splashes of God’s pallete in … Continue reading →
Dear Amy, When the latest blow of pain sliced through my heart like a knife, you stood beside me with your ever-present gift of comfort and tender sensitivity to my words and hurt. But your face registered a look I’d never seen before, and it sent a wave of tremors through my insides. You looked Stunned. Shocked. Incredulous. Twenty minutes later as you moved around the room, you said, “Wow. I’m just having a hard time comprehending this. Two … Continue reading →
“… I tell you the truth whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40 NIV Last week, our church teamed up with AMOR Ministries and built three houses for families in Mexico. The families who are recipients of the new homes have been identified by a local Christian church as being in desperate need of a new dwelling. While living in leaky, clapboard houses, camper … Continue reading →
Questions Need Soul Answers-Psalm 131 I could feel the depression creep into my skin like an insidious attack of insects looking for a winter home in which to roost. I flipped my head to the other side on my soft pillow, hoping to rub out the feeling of invasion and a Saturday morning filled with dreariness. Only the morning’s grogginess filled my waking mind at first. But once the invasion began, my contemplation of the day ahead became sullied … Continue reading →
“Whatever is lovely…think about such things” “You worry too much,” my cousin wrote the words that so aptly describe the workings of my mind. Just a few weeks ago I was held captive by worry as I drove home from work, not an uncommon happening. Anxious thoughts crept into my mind and spiked on the Richter scale of patterns zigzagging across the internal screen. As I wound up the road home, the intensity of worrisome scenarios built for … Continue reading →
I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 11: 19. NIV When my mother was in the hospital more than 14 years ago, I listened to this song over and over again. I needed the Lord’s heart beating in my heart to endure the months long trial of her illness. I needed to know His … Continue reading →
Photos from our trip to Ground Zero in 2003 It was just two years after 9/11 and the reverence of Ground Zero reverberated in the silence on the lips of passersby. Honor for those who gave their lives to save the lives of thousands. Respect for the hallowed ground where heroes were buried on that day. Prayers for the families left behind. All spoken only by the heart. Ten years have passed since terror struck our nation, vengeance … Continue reading →
I’m looking heavenward again. My eye and heart are on the sky. I catch the rainbow pushing upward and I chase it, hoping to find its source and the depth of its color. But I only see a fraction of what lies ahead. Then like a shade, a curtain of clouds are pulled across the heavens and my heart sinks. The hope of seeing the rainbow in its glory is fading. Only darkness remains. I snap the cover … Continue reading →
Delicate purple flowers adorn our streets again as August blasts its torrid heat against our skin. Blistering temperatures, suffocating heat boils the air encased in one’s car. Windows rolled down, air-conditioning running full tilt to blow out the stifling contents, I pull out of the school’s parking lot and head for home. Then I see the desert bushes beckoning with their purple August dance. As intense as the sun that scorches one’s face like an oven, these purple … Continue reading →
Tucked between the bed and nightstand, I braced myself for what lay ahead in my morning devotions. Would there be more doubts and struggles or would I find the rest and peace I longed for? The darkness had engulfed me for months but the Lord was re-revealing Himself to me, Scripture by Scripture; whisper by whisper. I clung to the words I already knew He had infused into my weary spirit. Each morning I read those words I had … Continue reading →
