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No sooner had we taken our pictures than dark clouds socked in the mountains and their valleys.

Eventually, Kathy would decide it was time to go to bed. She’d walk over to the couch and say to Soren, “Let’s go say good night to Derek.”

From where I stand, I can see a chicken farmer, an entrepreneur, someone who uses a wheelchair, a university professor, an elderly widow, and a homeschooling mom.

Sitting under a cloudless sky with an afternoon sun baking my skull and turning my balding head bright red didn’t sound like anything I wanted to do.

Social capital and the “good ol’ boys” network gave us power to float through people, doors, and walls.

A stone struck Paul so hard on the head that he was knocked unconscious.

Convicted of their past sin and consumed with the ensuing guilt, they experienced the same crushing concerns.

The phone was on speaker, so we all got to hear a bit of her friend’s attempts to console her.

Our server seemed disconnected and quite uninterested in doing her job.

God sings? Who knew? And he sings to us!

An eerie experience sparks curiosity

Sometimes we talk this way as if we’re discussing the weather. Sometimes we talk this way, and the emotional weight of our common mortality hits us.

She deeply regretted not saying “I love you.” It was something they always did. But she hadn’t done it that one time.

Helping refugees takes finesse, proper training, and certainly prayer. Above all, it comes with great blessing, for in this partnership we are finding friendship, kinship, and the body of Christ.

Eating that soup—it was as if God was inviting me to be part of the family. 

Our house isn’t really “ours.” We’re temporary caretakers of a home that will stand, Lord willing, long after we’re gone.

In prison he’d been tossed around like a rag doll, mistreated, abused. There’s no mercy for sex offenders in prison. He was terrified to return.

There’s nothing very remarkable about Sigsbee Street. It runs for just seven blocks through the near southeast side of Grand Rapids, Mich. Sigsbee School, an elementary school in the Grand Rapids Public School system, is its most notable feature. 

I do my best to breathe slowly in the midst of his onslaught. But more importantly, I reach within myself to source that helpful Spirit who empowers and guides.

As I walked into church that morning, George, our resident artist, was busy painting a scene of children at play on one of the doors in our Kid Zone. He had a whole tray full of small bottles, each with a different color of paint. Each shape, each area, each color he applied was different. 

What if we were able to find that delight in life again? How could we return to finding joy in the simple things that astonish little children?  

It is dawn. A lone figure is bending over a charcoal fire on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He looks up, scanning the horizon. When he catches sight of a boat heading for shore, he recognizes it as his disciples’ boat.

My Spotify playlists are organized by the seasons of the church calendar. There’s Lent, Advent, Epiphany, and Pentecost. My playlist “Common Time” happens to be almost exclusively made up of female artists.