God is good. And life can be hard. A favorite part of my high school years was cheerleading. I loved my school, my friends, the sports, the camaraderie and enthusiasm, and the whole small-town vibe of everybody showing up and cheering for our Climax Vikings hometown team. And … I know this. When life is hard, some cheerleader shouting and jumping up and down while yelling “Let’s go! You’ve got this!” is going to become annoying very quickly. You’ll probably just want to grab her pom poms and cut those little colorful streamers into Continue Reading
God is in This Moment
Where are you today? At home? At work? Shoveling? Walking the beach? Holding the hand of someone you love in the hospital room? In bed, wishing for the energy to get up? Pull in closer … there are some words of encouragement for you here. God is in every moment. Wherever you are, God is there. God is in this moment is a phrase I’m learning to whisper frequently throughout the day. Whether it’s a good moment or a horrible moment, God’s presence never leaves. He is there. I whispered it while I was out walking. Although the Continue Reading
He’s Got You Covered
Ever had one of those moments when life’s issues seem really, really big? Overwhelming, insurmountable, terrifying? And at the same time, you’re feeling really, really small? Unnoticed, insignificant, forgotten? When you’re feeling lost and unimportant, how can you know that God can still find you…that He hasn’t forgotten about you? You remember this. God can handle the BIG stuff … “Ah, Lord God, it is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” Continue Reading
Into the Messiness…Jesus
Do you find it difficult to celebrate when you look around and see a lot of trouble and hard things? Yeah, me too. And then I remember … Jesus told us there would be trouble (John 16:33) and He told us that he came to earth to give us a full, abundant life (John 10:10). We live in the both/and. We celebrate this week because Jesus came to us—in all our messiness—to give us peace. Joy. Restoration. Forgiveness. A full life. The pain that comes with life on earth does not stand alone. It is not everything. As we work and pray for Continue Reading
When the Plates Spin
A short chapter in the Bible that grounds me and gets my heart, soul and mind back in synch with the Sacred, is Psalm 117. (It’s also an easy one to memorize.) Open your Bible and read the words out loud – maybe more than once. It will change how your day feels. “The faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.” (That includes today.) Here’s why those words matter … On some days the plates are neatly stacked. Orderly, uneventful. Other days they spin…furiously. Watching the twirling, feeling the frantic, makes me dizzy. The tiny life Continue Reading
Getting Settled
I had a weird dream the other night. But then, I usually do when God is working on my heart. I’m grateful for how He graciously shows me how and where my heart and my thinking need to change, even though the dreams can be quite unsettling during those night hours. My recent nighttime mind swirls remind me of a couple other dreams that I wrote about a few years ago. As I type this note, I am praying that if you are feeling unsettled, you will receive hope and comfort from The One Who Settles Us. Lean into His peace and His Continue Reading
Hard Work vs Peaceful Trust
It is still my least favorite job in the history of the whole world. Standing in the back of dad’s 2-ton red truck during harvest, shoveling the grain down into the corners of the truck as fast as I could as it poured from our John Deere combine’s auger. It always seemed like it was 134˚ on those days. With no shade. And did I mention the crickets? Those horrible little creatures joined ugly old grasshoppers and took up considerable space in the back of that truck. And on me. They landed EVERYWHERE. No body part or piece of clothing Continue Reading
My Soft Place to Land
Ooftah. It was one of those nightmares that you just can’t wake up from. That night, my really bad dream didn’t include falling off cliffs, nor were people chasing me with chainsaws. This nightmare seemed more “every day.” In my nightmare that never seemed to end, I was at a conference in a very large convention center. I had gotten separated from my group, and I was frantically wandering hallways and stairwells to try and find someone I knew. My purse had been stolen along with my cell phone. I just could not get my bearings. To Continue Reading
God is in Your Tomorrow
It’s the fear that stops my breathing and causes a very unattractive rash to start spreading on my neck… Being caught in a storm at sea. Or on a lake. Or even in a backyard pond. I have no intention of ever being in a situation where I have to whack seagulls on the head with a paddle for lunch while clinging to a strand of seaweed. Perhaps it’s past experiences that create this almost irrational fear of being lost in the middle of a body of water in a storm of It’s never been this bad proportion with the boat capsizing. …There Continue Reading
God is Greater Than our Needs
“I don’t want to look back on my life – my beautiful, wonder-filled, God-given life – and realize that I’ve mostly missed it while I was busy preparing for the worst.” I read those words and whispered out loud, Oh, Lord. Yes. So true. The awareness of what I could miss, and the hope in what I could experience, took my breath away. (Susie Larson included those words by Nicole Zasowski in her new book “Closer Than Your Next Breath: Where is God When You Need Him Most?” Oh, what a hope-filled book for these days!) You and I have Continue Reading
Make Room for the Moments
A personal reflection for you today … “Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves how to make room for them, to love them, and to live, really live.” (Emphasis mine.) Anna Quindlen wrote those words in “A Short Guide to a Happy Life.” This very short book is a gift to anyone wanting to live a full, rich life. Her words Continue Reading
Writing Your Memoir
I love to read. And memoirs are at the top of my list. My favorites are typically written by a not-so-young woman whose story reads something like this... Her life was filled with hope-filled dreams. Exciting expectations. Blue skies and sun-filled days. She had energy that made skipping in her summer slip-ons easy-peasy. Then life happened. Her skies got cloudy. Disappointment replaced those dreams. Skipping was totally out of the question. She just didn’t have the energy. The next section in her memoir shares a season in her Continue Reading
Losing a Tuesday
Sometimes – many times – I write these notes to remind myself of something important. And all of the time, I write to encourage you. This is my annual reminder to both of us to keep noticing. To experience life, not just observe it. And to remember that every day matters. It was seven years ago this month that I lost most of Tuesday. One moment I was doing lunges and burpees at the YMCA, and the next moment everything just got … lost. I have no memory of that afternoon. When I went into the locker room after my workout, Continue Reading
Don’t Give Up. Have Faith.
I wonder what kept some of our faith heroes from rolling their eyes at God. Like when God told Noah, “So make yourself an ark...” I think I would have muttered a quick, “Wait. What? You’ve got to be kidding me.” But “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” And when God appeared to Abram, who with his wife Sarai so badly wanted a child. God told him to “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them...So shall your offspring be.” (Abram was 99 years old; Sarai was 90.) I think I may have laughed Continue Reading
Peter – The Drama and the Hope
You know who one of my favorite Bible people is? Peter. He was passionate. Expressive. Emotional. And at times, a real mess. Not perfect. Not proper. Not the pretty box tied up with a pretty bow who has it all figured out. And he’s one of the 12 people Jesus chose to live and travel and work with as part of his inner circle – his disciples – his world-changers. Pretty cool group to be a part of, right? Peter makes me think, and he makes me smile. Do you find yourself, every once in a while, wondering if your mess is too big? Continue Reading
Sunday’s Coming. There is hope.
Hi. Scoot your chair in a little closer. And if you’re sitting in a comfy arm chair and scooting isn‘t an option, lean in a little closer. There’s something I’d like to tell you. Imagine that I’m talking softly - almost whispering. The kind of whisper that a mama uses with her baby when she’s trying to soothe her tears. Stroking her head. Patting her back. Hushing her, telling her everything is going to be OK. That she is loved, and she is beautiful, and she is precious. I’ve got a message of HOPE for you. Imagine that I’m looking Continue Reading
My Anchor Holds
I know that God is faithful. He is loving. Gracious. I know that He promises me peace. And, there are still some days when swirling comes knocking and I open the door, invite her in, and offer her a place to hang out. My swirling looks like this … I wander around the house. Aimlessly. Up and down, room to room, opening and closing the fridge door, flipping through books, scrolling through my phone. There is work to be done, but my mind doesn’t get focused. My thoughts feel like the little steel ball that flies around a pinball Continue Reading
In a Rut? Try Something New
Tired and gloomy are horrible roommates. They should not be permitted to settle in our hearts, hang curtains, and make themselves at home. Here’s the deal … It’s the middle of March and we Minnesotans are expecting yet another blizzard, with wind that whips sideways, icy streets, and temperatures that are … cold. Really, really cold. During the days that feel gloomy and life feels harder, it’s easy to start to feel listless. Tired. And when we feel listless and tired, it’s easy to get into a rut. We become very comfortable doing Continue Reading
When Loneliness Settles
It was like watching a room with Jack-in-the-Boxes lying quietly dormant, waiting for their chance to Pop goes the weasel! Sunday morning church… The children’s message had just ended, and the little ones were rearranging themselves up front to sing about how much they loved Jesus. And as if a conductor had lifted his baton to signal It’s time… Parents and grandparents popped up from their seats and moved to the side aisles and front pews. They wanted to capture the moment. Some tried to move quietly. Some hunched their Continue Reading
Life is good and God is faithful
Life is good and God is faithful. And … ooftah. Sometimes I whisper, Really? Is life good and is God faithful? Then I say out loud, Yes. Really. It is and He is. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. (Psalm 117:2) One of the really cool things about this amazing God is that how we feel doesn’t change who He is. Because He is God, He is faithful. And because He is faithful, life is good. But I bet you’ll agree with me here … some days it’s just tough to stay in synch, right? It’s Continue Reading
A New Chapter
Oooooh! Encouraging words for you here! When your life starts to look unrecognizable, When you press your hands against your closed eyes and whisper, “How did we even get here?” When you feel like you’re the only one who can’t get her ducks in a row, Remember this … Nobody has their act together all the time. Everybody’s got somethin’. We all have chapters in our story that we don’t share or post or read aloud. Most of us are still trying to find our ducks—getting them in a row is for another day. And … We are loved by a Continue Reading
You Can Stop Struggling
Do you remember that time you started a new workout program? (It’s OK to giggle here. Or even laugh out loud. I get it.) Whether it was years ago or just last week, perhaps your experience was similar to mine. It is, unfortunately, a group of moments that cannot be removed from my memory bank. First of all. Have mercy. The new routine involves a lot of fancy steps and it moves faaaaast. I spend most of the time trying to stay on my feet, watch the online trainer, listen to the instructions, and breathe. There is nothing pretty about my Continue Reading
Time for Dreaming
So, this was weird. A few nights ago, I dreamed that I was the pianist (AKA the entire music pit) for a stage show called NCIS: The Musical. For real. We were performing in a church that had a large raised, front platform. I sat in a center pew with an electric keyboard on my lap, feet up on the kneeling pad to balance the keyboard, the music score on a makeshift stand to my left, and a small light attached to the back of my pew so I could read the music when the church lights went down. And sitting next to me? Jethro Gibbs and Agent Continue Reading
My Personal Hallmark Movie
The season is here, my friend. And there’s no turning back. It’s the season of … Hallmark. Holiday. Specials. Now I like a good sappy, cry-til-your-eyes-are-puffy and your face-is-blotchy movie like everyone else. (“Everyone else” wouldn’t include my husband Steve, though. He would rather read a book. Or shovel the snow. Or do almost anything else.) But sometimes, these shows are just a bit too much. Everything always seems so…Good. Nice. Not real. In the movies, the young woman who is surrounded by clutter and can’t clean Continue Reading
If God Sent You a Note
God’s Word consistently tells you how much He cares about you. That He is with you. I think if He sent you a note today, it would look like this … Good morning, my precious daughter. It’s a new day today. I created it for you! I painted the sunrise and lifted it over the horizon to remind you that there are good things waiting for you, and I will be with you every single moment. I want to give you everything you need to experience joy and hope and peace. Let’s experience today together, OK? When good things happen to you, I will Continue Reading
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