While other people are buying costumes to wear and going door-to-door in search of candy for Halloween, I think about other things when October 31st rolls around. For me, Killjoy Barbara, it’s Reformation Day. (Seriously?) Yup. (Zealot.) Yeah, it’s complicated. I’m back at the door giving out candy on the outside, but on the door […]
One of the things I really like about movies based upon books by John Grisham (like The Pelican Brief and The Firm) is the skilled way a compelling hero is uncertain to succeed until the very end. There’s a suspense that builds until the conclusion finally resolves the conflict and sets one’s heart and confidence […]
Here’s your sneak peek at the 2017 Advent Devotional Series: Still Christmas. Christmas always has its share of hustle-bustle, but this year, it seems more than that. More of a global angst mixed with frenzied activity like squirrels preparing for a long winter, or yellow jackets stinging everything in sight because the end is near. […]
Have you ever heard “Once saved; always saved?” Have you ever struggled to reconcile that with warnings against falling away? The Bible is filled—every bit as much—with reassurance as it is with warning. What is a Christian to make of that tension? We all have worries about wayward children, a drifting spouse or parent, siblings […]
I have piles of papers on every flat surface in my home, work that I’ve been up to my ears in doing instead of writing devotionals. Both are God’s calling, so balancing them is a daily art form. Then suddenly, Las Vegas. Like many of you, there’s an unspeakable shock, a deep abiding grief, and […]
We sure live in anxious times, don’t we? I know I haven’t been as routine about writing lately and it’s because being “a Neighbor” has meant ministering locally, doing my best to alleviate others’ anxiety through working hard, thinking hard, and yes, praying hard. How do I keep from letting anxiety get the better of […]
There are times that I feel like a lonely David in an all-Philistine-world (1 Samuel 17). There is Goliath. There’s the Philistine army. And there are even the people on your own team who stand ready to declare the battle “Over” right along with the Philistines. Just look at Goliath! Just look at that army! […]
When my son was young, I was a carpooling mother who thought she had convinced the kids that his mother had eyes in the back of her head. Pop my bubble, one day a friend of his shouted from right behind me, “Hey, I’m talking to you!” I don’t see everything and I guess I […]
Hurricane Harvey has been bearing down upon the Gulf Coast of Texas between Port Aransas and Port O’Connor, working its way inland, apparently missing the motto “Don’t mess with Texas.” Or oblivious to it. Such forces of nature strike fear in people’s hearts and rightfully so. They can cause untold damage to people’s lives and […]
Eclipse fever has come and is basically gone. This fever lasted a little longer than 4 hours the moon took to cover the sun (https://www.nasa.gov/eclipsephotos), and a lot longer, comparatively, to the maximum 2 min, 40 seconds of totality. But soon it will be a distant memory and display as “fake news” one reporter’s wishful […]
