Order Through Imagination
I want to have written the story that changes peoples’ lives, not write it! Oh, it’s not about the fame and fortune, nor about the accolades and acclaim. I just want people to read what I write and see themselves in it, only better. I want them to see their family members in a new […]
The Discipline that Wasn’t
Dear Friends, Give something up for Lent. This is the challenge to us. Not so we can feel deprived or empty, but so we can draw near to the one who thought up this whole Lenten thing. In recent years, I have adopted, rather than subtracted, during Lent. This year, I engaged the blank cyber-pages […]
Without Doubt
I will. What powerful words. A promise, an intention, a commitment. If I say I will do it, I will. I am reluctant to say this to God. ‘I will follow you all the days of my life.’ Because I know I won’t. I will trip and fall. I will stumble or swerve or slam […]
From Black and White to Living Color
So, we wait. We don’t rush to the finish. We don’t turn to the back of the book for the answers or the last chapter to see how it comes out. We don’t take the short cut through the peppermint forest if we roll doubles. We don’t jump to the front of the line. We […]
How (Not) to Raise a Narcissist
We are raising narcissists, or so a new study reports. The study, authored by Brad J. Bushman, PhD, professor of communication and psychology at the Ohio State University, asked 565 children aged 7 to 11 years – the years when kids start to compare themselves with other children – and their parents about self-esteem, parental warmth, […]
Who is Watching the Sheep?
No one can blame the hired hands. They’re contractors. We’ve paid them to come and watch the sheep, to teach them to frolic and play and to keep an eye out for wolves. But we really can’t expect the hired hands who have charge of so many sheep to pay special attention to OURs, even […]
Are You Finished Yet?
What is our perfect number of days? Before we are who our families meet, and our friends know, and our partners embrace, we are complete. Completely made ready by the One who was and is and ever will be. Always. Can the end of our days ever be welcome? A just dessert, a welcome respite, a final […]
1+1 Somehow = Infinitely More
There are so many ordinary people leading extraordinary lives out there and they don’t even know it. I got to spend a couple precious hours with one yesterday. By day, he worked in human resources and was happily married to his beautiful college sweetheart, and afternoons he spent with his soccer teams. Well, not now, […]
Expectant
How brave the mother cardinal, perched atop the feeder, not feeding, but performing, not performing, but calling. With words I do not know, but a voice I dearly do. I am here! I have a message for you! Come! She calls out and waits, calls out and waits, for the answering call in a pitch and rhythm […]
What We Give Away Lasts
What will I have when I come to the end of myself? Nothing, except all I’ve given away. Not, tossed to the four winds for others to scrape off the sidewalk, pluck out of the trees, or dig out from under. No, what will be is what I have left with others. Given to those […]