I jerked awake, heart pounding. Men’s voices came from the deep darkness outside my window. My husband gone that night, I mentally ran through my options. A call to the sheriff would be routed to a city 30 minutes away. I didn't own a weapon outside of a softball bat. Our house backed up to … Continue reading Climb the Hill
I live in the Middle of Nowhere. Well, kind of—depending on where you're from, I guess. I live in the land of lakes and forests on the far northern edge of America, far from everything that makes the nightly news. Our newspaper is filled with high school sports and fishing reports rather than shootings and … Continue reading The Middle of Somewhere
Here we are in 2025. Are you as surprised as I am? And truthfully, are you afraid of what’s coming our way in this next year? The dawning of a new year used to bring hope. Determination to do better. Plans to make it our best year yet. But ever since Covid-19 upended the world, … Continue reading You Never Know
We lean across the table, straining to hear each other. "What are your prayer requests?" the leader asks, pen poised above her notebook. We speak hesitantly into the holiness of being heard. A hurting relative. A wayward child. Relational struggles. Fears. Change. Outside, we manage. We persevere. But here, around this table, our vulnerability weaves … Continue reading Prayer Requests
When I was a teenager I worked at a local camp, running the snack bar and helping in the kitchen. One of the tasks was drying and sorting the silverware. After a large tray of knives, forks and spoons came out of the industrial dishwasher it was dumped onto a counter lined with towels, where … Continue reading Sorting the Silver
[Apostle Paul, c. 1633, Rembrandt, oil on canvas, Kunsthistorisches Museum [Public domain] / Wikimedia] “You're Bill’s wife!” she exclaimed, holding out her hand. “And what do you do?” “I stay home,” I replied, mentally kicking myself for feeling foolish. “That’s the hardest work of all!” she chirped, scanning the room for someone more interesting. “I'm … Continue reading A Mother to Me, Too
Under the eaves I sit, watching the rain wash the darkness. Knowing it breaks and nourishes the ground it fills, cleansing in its course. A breeze cools, fingers my hair. Vanishes. I breathe in the sweet, damp air while the rain falls down, flows down, always down its way, its design, refreshing and softening the … Continue reading Under the Eaves
If you ranked all the gifts that the Holy Spirit distributes to His people, which ones would come out on top? If you listed all the people serving in your church, who do you admire most? If you could have any skill or talent to leverage for blessing others, what would you choose? We admire … Continue reading The Ones Who Cook
It arrived in my mailbox last month, a small yellow envelope containing words of affection and encouragement. The person who sent it, I knew, had precious little time to compose and mail it to me. And yet, she did. A sacrifice of friendship that sank deep into my soul. The world can be a hard … Continue reading It’s So Easy
A View of the Lake 