She was my age, and also a nurse. She helped birth this place–a place where people could live out their last days in unforced rhythms of grace, where grief itself could cultivate good. I’m sure she never dreamed that she would be birthed to a new life from one of its beds. She was admitted the same […]
Ebola and the Gift of No-Touch
God created us to connect. To comfort with contact. He even designed our skin with 2000 to 3000 touch receptors in each of our fingertips that trigger a cascade of chemicals when they’re stimulated. Touch decreases stress and anxiety, increases trust, builds disease resistance, and helps us connect to those we care for. Infants deprived touch fail to […]
Sharing Your Faith When You Work at Home
It was one of those open-and-shut cases. The cancer sprawled through the belly. The surgeon had searched the cavity deep and wide and found no hope. He shook his head, took a few biopsies, and began the close. I’d dabbed the patient’s tears from the corners of her eyes and held her hand as […]
40 Words of Lent 2014: Day 28
My son helps educate children. He helps heal the sick. He helps run major companies. He helps ease transitions and changes. Yet he’s not a teacher, a doctor, a CEO, or a counselor. He’s an operations manager for a local . . . Continued over at The High Calling where they’re featuring this post as […]
what (or who) holds you back in your work?
A new position opened recently, and my husband was uber qualified to fill it. But it was out of state and involved a lot of travel. I wearied of weighing all the options of what life could look like should he apply and be accepted. Would I move with him? Or would I stay here? […]
scripture sunday: when you labor, remember…
When you labor, remember… There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens . . . What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity […]
when the work just seems fruitless
I got the green light for that article. Then there’s the interview request. Plus the friends’ books I want to read and write about. There’s this blog and the e-book I’m supposed to be working on. Not to mention a couple of other books–one of which I’d like to finish in my dad’s lifetime–and […]
in which my son wears the mask of God in his work
What else is all our work to God–whether in the fields, in the garden, in the city, in the house, in war, or in government–but just such a . . . [way] by which He wants to give His gifts in the fields, at home, and everywhere else? These are the masks of God, behind […]
the heart work of eviction
My in-laws finally realized their dream. They moved out of the old farmhouse into a smaller home built at the edge of Big Creek. Mom still had plenty of room in the new garage to set up her “museum” of old calendars, photos, farm implements, and antiques. Dad stacked stones in the creek so […]
musings on grace
Saturday I snapped pictures of the Grand River out the corner windows of our hotel room on the ninth floor. Then my husband donned his black tuxedo with the gray vest. I slipped into a little black dress and rhinestone-sparkle heels. We walked under two-ton crystal chandeliers that hung from a gold leaf ceiling, past […]
