The year I turned eleven, my family packed up our belongings and left the neighborhood where the bulk of my childhood memories were held in a little yellow house with rose bushes growing against the backyard fence. After five years, we’d outgrown that yellow house and my parents had plans to build a larger home […]
It’s 2016. The scent of brewing coffee wafts through my home. The front door is open. My dining room table is ready with my favorite coffee mugs, sugar and cream, spoons, and extra chairs in case the numbers are better than I hoped. I’d been longing for some kind of regular meeting with the women […]
I grew up during an interesting era of American Christianity. I lived in the southern U.S. and attended a couple of different Southern Baptist churches throughout my upbringing.* In our Vacation Bible Schools and Sunday school classes, we were taught Old Testament stories with felt boards and puppet shows, always emphasizing moralisms and character traits […]
It was a hot Sunday afternoon, too hot for spring. I try to nap on Sundays after church but I can’t sleep while the sun is up, though come to think of it I can barely sleep when the sun is down, so though I put on my pajamas and lie down in my bed […]
I ironed your graduation clothes today. Khaki pants you’ve almost outgrown—you’ll wear them one more time before I move them to your little brother’s closet. A new button-down shirt, a tie you borrowed from your dad. You tried on everything to make sure it fit, and maybe what you saw in the mirror was simply […]
I have always loved the night sky. When I was fifteen, I saw a meteor shower forecasted on the news. The internet was in its infancy and social media did not exist, so when I glimpsed the headline on the evening news, I marked my calendar for the upcoming night when the sky was supposed […]
Growing up in the church and in a Christian home, I knew that studying the Bible was something Christians were supposed to do. My parents and grandparents had modeled faithful Bible reading to me my whole life. But, when I hit my young adult years and tried to put what I’d seen into practice, I […]
Most of us have likely discovered that screen usage is decreasing our attention span. These days, we have more trouble focusing while reading, holding conversations, waiting in line, and even watching movies with complicated plots. The increasing focus deficit can make prayer—a discipline that can already feel challenging—seem even harder. We’re not good at sitting […]
After a four-month absence, I went back to the gym this morning. I had a significant surgery on my hand in early December, and the recovery was slow, but truthfully? I quit going before the surgery, and I could have gone back weeks ago. I also could have made accommodations for my hand and found […]
I once heard Tim Keller say that when life is particularly difficult and you’re struggling with your emotions or you don’t know how to feel about suffering, one of the most helpful things you can do is to turn to inductive Bible study.[1] It’s interesting advice because we often feel the need to dissect our […]
