A Billion Prayers

What do a billion prayers sound like to God? Do they ring, like bells? Do they rush, like water? Do they sing, like melody? Do they echo, like canyons? Or do they shudder, like fear? Shout, like panic, Whisper, like despair, Rasp, like profanity? Do they run for their lives? Huddle in hope, Gasp, in […]

Caution: Stillness May Be Dangerous

Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.* Except I hide my sitting in moving. But trust me, I’m sitting on the inside. Oh, not lounging-on-the-couch-with-a-soda-and-popcorn-in-front-of-a-movie kind of sitting. No, I mean myself, the part of me who knows she is me, is seated and stilled. I must disguise this as moving because, were […]

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 […]

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, […]

Good words inspired by the Good Word

Dear friends, As we turn the page to a new year, here are a few sentiments that held special meaning for me from the pages of my copy of the Upper Room devotional booklet. Happy New Year! “While living the Christian life is difficult – even risky – what it means to be a Christian […]

Looking Our Best

There I am, in all His glory. Funny, when the book needed an author photo, I thought, really, who would want to see me on the cover of this thing? But it’s a coaching and fitness book, and don’t you want to know who you’re taking advice from? Does she look like she practices what […]

Order in Chaos: can’t you see it?

As I look down this tunnel of books packed floor to ceiling, I hear… du-doo, du-doo, du-doo, du-doo. I am pretty sure Rod Serling is about to tell me I have crossed over into … “The Twilight zone.” I am standing in the back of a small bookstore in Lake Junaluska, NC. On entering, I […]

What would Jesus Tweet?

“Your words were a blessing.” It may have been the timing or the delivery or the situation, I don’t know. They were just words, my words, on a card or letter. Not flowery or lovely or well-heeled, but offered sincerely whenever I felt the nudge to write. After I had heard this blessing-thing from a […]

Burqa Baby

The woman sitting near me is a mother. I know because she is carrying a child with beautiful dark eyes. The eyes are all I can see.   Tiny hands wrap around mother’s waist. Tiny toes spread as far as they can, brushing against each other in their suspension. This gaze somehow haunts me. Burqa baby’s […]

The Lake and I played today

The Lake and I played today. We played peek-a-boo. We played hide and seek. We played with crayons, mostly orange.   We played red light, green light.   We played follow the leader. Which started me singing. Step by step, you lead me. I will follow you all of my days. So touched, was I […]