In Gennesaret

I’ve written before about my jigsaw puzzle addiction. I spent all of Christmas break and a bit more than a month after doing the same puzzle over and over. It’s a ballerina in an attitude (that’s a bent-leg arabesque, not a bad mood). The thing about this puzzle is that once you’ve got the ballerina in place, the background is all the same color. And there’s a lot of it. So, I spent a lot of time looking closely at the shapes – some of which were very different and unique, which always adds pleasure to the puzzle. But a week ago, I decided it was time to move on and pulled out a different puzzle. This one is a huge maze on a solid background that flows from one shade of green through all the rainbow colors to another shade of green on the other end. Another one from my childhood. Another one I enjoy. But I made the most interesting discovery! Remember those oddly-shaped pieces in my ballerina puzzle? I found those same shapes here. Exactly the same shapes. And they seem to belong...

As I relax on my living room loveseat in the evenings, the background behind the book in my lap and my feet propped up on the arm of the sofa is sometimes a bit distracting. It’s lovely. At least, it’s lovely to me. There’s a big metal clock on the wall – just the circle outlines with Roman numerals in their places. It’s simple, but beautiful. In front of it is a scraggly little artificial tree that I’ve had for years and that is much the worse for wear, but it still adds a touch of "nature" to the spot. In this corner sits my family piano – a simple old instrument that could use a tuning. On the back of this, I have an ivory piece of faux pottery with a bunch of flowers in it. Fake flowers. With fake greenery. (My black thumb keeps me from attempting any live vegetation in the house.) But the colors are rich, and I love them. There are simple picture frames on each side of the flowerpot – a senior photo of each daughter and a black and white picture of my family when I w...

“Behold, I am making all things new!” So says our Lord in the book of Revelation. I originally concluded that last sentence with the phrase “at the end of time”. But the truth is, that moment will not by any means be the end of time. But all things will be new. That’s the promise. Everything we broke at the beginning will be restored. I was on the launch team for a book coming out this month by one of my favorite authors, Jordan Raynor. ( The Sacredness of Secular Work – it’s fantastic, people. Highly recommended by yours truly.) He talks a lot about what he calls the Abridged Gospel: that the church has taken the entire Good News story and narrowed it down to simply Jesus saving us from hell. And Lord knows, that is good news, friends. News that needs to be celebrated and spread! But we have often treated that as the end of the story . . . and it’s so not. Many people confess that they can’t get excited about heaven because it sounds boring. Sitting in a worship service s...

I made a rare trip to Costco yesterday. And it led to all sorts of self-examination. It was a rare trip because now that it’s just me in my little house, I don’t have much need to buy in bulk. I mean, I could , just to be thrifty. And thrifty I definitely am – as the progeny of parents who were children during the Depression, I think I come by it naturally. But I mainly keep the membership now because of my love affair with two Kirkland brand items: the granola bar and the chocolate chip. Is that weird? Store brand is supposed to be low quality, yes? And that's probably the case with the granola bars. I think my affinity for them is just a matter of familiarity; they’re what my taste buds are used to now. But the chocolate chips?? I mean, y’all . . . I don’t know what it is about that four-pound bag of goodness. I wonder sometimes if there are drugs in them. They are so stinkin’ delicious . They’re labeled semi-sweet, but they taste like darker chocolate, my favorite. They’...

It’s one of those things that you are embarrassed about later, even if you really shouldn’t be. When I got home from a play Saturday night, I went into my bathroom to get ready for bed and saw the door to my walk-in closet was shut. That may not seem weird to you, but it was to me. In fact, that was my exact thought: “That’s weird. Why did I shut the door?” Because I almost never have a reason to shut that closet door. It gets better. I reached out to open the door to put my shoes away, and the door was locked. Y’all, I didn’t even know that closet door could lock. “What the heck . . . how in the world did I . . .?” I looked the knob over and messed around with it for a while. There was one of those little pokey-hole things (forgive my limited mechanical vocabulary), and I started looking for a paper clip to poke in there and get the knob unlocked. All the while I’m thinking, “How in the world did I accidentally lock this door? I mean, I never even have a reason to touch the kno...

It’s one of those Bible stories that you’ve heard a million times if you grew up in the church. It’s at the end of Mark 4: Jesus calming the storm. But Alistair Begg preached on the story the other day on my way to work, and I was reminded once more that the Word is “living and active . . . discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” God has already used the calming the storm stories in a mighty way in my life (thus the name of this blog -- you can read about that  here ). So, I  was  listening to Brother Alistair with a calm smile. Yes, yes. He calms our storms. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. But then Alistair took a detour that was new to me. Although we may wonder, he said, why the Lord allowed this sudden storm, perhaps it is more profitable to ponder the things that we know are not reasons for the storm. For instance . . .  The storm did NOT happen because they were being disobedient. Jesus specifically told them, “Let’...

I post the following with great trepidation. And it saddens me that I have to be so afraid. How did we get to the place where we can’t disagree without being mean to each other? I have NO intention to use this blog as a political platform, but I am aware of the scope of my audience here. I may speak now and never speak on the matter again . . . but I’m not sure I’ll be able to live with myself if I don’t speak up at all. So . . . here we go. ----------------------------------------- Having lived in Sioux City for a few years, I have many friends in Iowa – people whom I love and respect. People who are very likely Republicans. People whom I expect to be voting in next week’s caucus. So, I’m making a passionate plea to you, my hawkeye friends: if you intend to caucus for Trump, please reconsider. Let me start here: You’re reading this post written by a friend whom you also love and respect (I hope). A friend who I would guess agrees with you on most policy issues and probably share...