"buuuzzzz, buzzz." "Who's that?" I ask. It's not my business. I don't especially care. I'm just being nosy (usually because I'm bored.) My husband's reply is often, "It's Jesus." I roll my eyes. He smirks. It's our bit. But sometimes when we play that little game, I think about how nice it would be to get a text from Jesus. He doesn't need to say anything in particular. It'd just be nice to be reminded that Jesus is thinking of me. That's He's with me and wants to talk. Anytime. Continue Reading
Seeing People as People {Recharge Wednesday LINKUP}
They didn’t see a man. They didn’t see his pain. They didn’t notice his need. They didn’t care that he was in the house of the Lord. What they cared about was entrapping their perceived enemy, the one who threatened long-held traditions and the law that elevated them to a pious, powerful place. They wanted to defend what they thought they understood. Their goal was to prove their point. So what they saw was an opportunity. “He went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled Continue Reading
Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys (Recharge Wednesday Linkup)
I was taking a month-long class in Ecuador. We traveled around the beautiful country- even into the Amazon rainforest. There, a few monkeys determined to do what non-cartoon monkeys in tourist traps do: harass people. The agile creatures stole anything loose they could grab. We tried to ask how to get our stuff back. A tour guide laughed. No one owned those monkeys. No one controlled them. He suggested we try trading goods with the animals. In the end, he might as well have said this Continue Reading
How Heroes Recharge {Recharge Wednesday LINKUP}
The name of this linkup is Recharge Wednesday. I don’t know about you, but by the middle of the week, I’m starting to wane. I need to refuel because I’m human. Our heroes in the faith were also human, and they needed to recharge too. Here’s how they did it when they were running on empty: NOAH After the flood dried up and everyone exited the ark, Noah sacrificed to the Lord. He built an altar. Then he took some of ALL the clean animals and birds and sacrificed them (presumably the Continue Reading
Recipe for a Wisdom Sandwich {Recharge Wednesday LINKUP}
Did you learn to write using the sandwich strategy? Although I’m sure Saul of Tarsus didn’t know this strategy, he did follow the pattern in the famous passage found in Philippians 3:12-14: Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what Continue Reading
God’s Glory in the Little {Recharge Wednesday LINKUP}
It’s the season of small. Tiny lights twinkle. Cookies substitute entrees at parties. Our song selection shrinks as we delete in repeating the same tunes. Little things make us nostalgic and remind us to appreciate what we usually overlook. Miniature figures remind us of the quaint scene in history that changed eternity. God has a history of making much of little. We see this in the celebration of the birth of our Savior. Jesus incarnate was once the size of a poppy Continue Reading
