This Christmas mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone…
Pen Pals and Pinky Promises
I have never been great at long-distance relationships. I have no idea how my husband and I made it for two years apart at two different times in our dating life… except for the fact we made a really, really intentional effort to talk once a day on the phone and racked up a lot…
Expectations and Realities
Sermon based on Luke 1:39-55 and Matthew 11:2-6 About a year ago, I began working with Imagine No Malaria here in the Iowa Conference, and I have to tell you… since then, I can’t look at a pregnant woman the same way again. In our scripture this morning, we actually have two pregnant women –…
The praise of crickets
Today, I discovered this recording of crickets, overlayed with the same recording slowed down. Their song is a hymn… voices in harmony… like the sounds of a human chorus. It got me thinking about Luke 19: 37-40. Even if we don’t notice, the whole creation is lifting up a song of praise. Even if we…
The Side of the Road
I had an experience last week that deeply shook me. My dad asked me to come help him move farm equipment as he moved from one set of fields to another for harvest. In essence, I was a chauffeur and would follow the tractor or combine and then take him back to the farm to…
Turning It Off
The balance of self-care, Sabbath, and work is sometimes a tenuous one in my life so I try to set boundaries and guidelines for myself. They are: never work more than two blocks in a day (morning, afternoon, evening) take two days off every week take all of the vacation time allotted to me The easiest…
Where Have All the Young Girls (and Boys) Gone?
I’ve been taking guitar lessons at my local rec center. And with one of the simplest chord progressions – C, Am, F, G7 – the Pete Seeger song, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” is pretty easy to learn. In fact, I had been playing it the other afternoon before I discovered some really interesting…
We're Afraid to Ask
We don’t like to talk about money. Pastors hate to preach on it. Finance committees only do it because they have to. We keep our records quiet and avoid tough conversations about budgets. And when the time comes for mission work or important projects, we pass around the white buckets and pray someone gets inspired…