I wrote a letter to my friend, Sarah, last week and told her I’m suffering from Gardening Shame. There are weeds in every box, and I haven’t re-mulched the paths, so black tarp shows through like the garden’s underwear. My tomato plants won't take to the soil and stand limp. Zoysia grass creeps in and … Continue reading Gardening Shame
I wrap a blanket around my cold shoulders every morning and sit to read a book that feels just as warm-- Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers. Dane Ortlund writes: “What elicits tenderness from Jesus is not the severity of the sin but whether the sinner comes to him.”[i] If … Continue reading Good but Unsafe
Read: Matthew 10:34-36 & Luke 2:13-14 At the end of a year marked by war, when people have swung swords at each other, I've discovered something (surprising) about division in Scripture: It isn't a political party or mask mandate that ultimately divides people. It’s Jesus and his salvation. “Do not think I have come to … Continue reading Jesus With A Sword
August 23 We were made for another world and until Jesus returns, we can’t help but ache for it. C.S. Lewis called that longing sehnsucht (and I write a lot about it). But there’s another part of us that longs for this world, and it’s why James had to write: What causes quarrels and what … Continue reading The Opposite of Sehnsucht
Good writers are good pruners. They know when to pick up the shears and how much to chop. William Zinsser taught me that. “Be grateful for everything you can throw away. Reexamine every word you put on paper. Is every word doing new work? …Is anything pompous or pretentious or faddish? Are you hanging onto … Continue reading On Writing, Weeding, and Walking in the Light
July 19 Jesus stands as our example of holy anger that loves, restores, and worships. Cain's anger hated and killed. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at … Continue reading Let Jesus In and Be Like Him
July 5 Angry, Cain slaughtered his brother (Gen. 4:8). Furious, Herod killed every Bethlehemite boy (Matt. 2:16). Filled with resentment, Hitler obliterated six million Jews.[i] When hatred fuels anger, it sheds blood and sets fire. It’s a Boeing aircraft in the side of a burning, crumbling World Trade Center. It destroys. And it doesn’t have … Continue reading Jesus’ Anger Restores
June 28 Note: This is the second post in a mini-series on Jesus’s righteous anger, and how we can respond to evil like him. Holding my brother’s hand was the very last thing I wanted to do when I was angry at him. But as eight- and ten-year-olds, that was our punishment for fighting. My anger … Continue reading Jesus’ Anger Makes Room
June 14 Note: This is the first post in a mini-series on Jesus's righteous anger, and how we can respond to evil the way he did. Masked people held cardboard signs on my newsfeed this morning: “White counterprotesters mock Floyd’s killing.”[i] I clicked on the picture to read about people calling good evil and evil … Continue reading Be Angry Like Jesus
June 7 “Adam had no idea one bite could cause all of this.” Jackie Hill Perry’s latest Instagram photos have exposed the violence, hatred, fire, and war ravaging America right now. Her caption stung me. Violence and hatred and fire and war wouldn’t be ravaging us if Adam hadn’t stooped to join Eve in her … Continue reading “It Will Not Be So in the Mended Wood”
