Rethinking Challenges

“Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much.” -William Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing Words have been hard for me lately. Silence is easier. I wasn’t so full of joy I could not share like Claudio in the above quote. The big emotions – all of…

“There is another leak,” my husband looked up to the ceiling and back down to the floor near his feet. A drop of water ran down our yellow walls. He raced to turn the water off at the meter. I crutched after him and helped him dig through mulch and mud to find the shut-off…

It doesn’t make sense. At least not this side of heaven. Cancer stealing years from folks who live and love well while rapists continue their lust for power and flesh. Infertility leaving wombs and arms empty while others abandon and abuse their children. Addiction powerfully pulling its prey away from work, family, friends. A momentary…

For far too long I have allowed my inner editor to silence my writing. “I have nothing to say,” I would tell myself. Besides if you can’t keep your house clean, what right do you have to write words? My inner diatribe would chide. So I’ve been silenced under the pressure of the mundane… …under the…

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,    but he who hates reproof is stupid. Proverbs 12:1 Yes the Bible uses the “s” word as my kids say. (And I’m happy that is what they think the “s” word is for now.) Hates reproof…That bowing up I get when someone tells me I mis-spelled a word on my blog or that…

“Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the…

“Alright Ms Angela,” my instructor encouraged as he held out a red paddle shaped target. Last one is my best one, my mind whirled as I put my right foot forward prepared to kick. I twisted my torso and legs to my left, then lifted my left leg up to kick the target. The next thing I knew sharp pain…

“When? When will I stop having to fight this battle? I thought I already won,” her words dripped frustration, fatigue, maybe shame. We all have battles in different forms, but they wage war against our hearts and souls. I used to think that battles were either won or lost – a monument to success or…

“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’  And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went.  And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but…

“No, sir! If you want to be cured of your sin, do not back away from God but run to him with more confidence than ever, entreating him as if you had suddenly been struck with a physical malady.”   – Martin Luther Lent is a time to find joy in the midst of dark desert…