1000Gifts
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morewhen you’re seeking happiness
On Monday, September 12 th, 2011The hour drive it takes to get to the lake on a Sunday afternoon, I think of the Sunday morning sermon. The preacher preaching pure gospel, how to be born again. 25 years he’s been preaching it in our little country chapel, to the hog farmers, the corn-croppers, the mothers with babies in arms. How you can’t work for it, angle for it, or jockey for it – You can’t e...
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moreA Labour Day Reflection: Because the Work’s Done
On Monday, September 05 th, 2011The strength of a stiff neck and two sure hands can be hazardous to the soul. And when Amelie Farrar and Marian Hoth and Rachel Verbeek* stood at the edge of the water on Sunday night, ready to die, I don’t know if three women could have looked more broken and happy. Are souls safest in jars that know they’re shattered? ...
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more{Video Concert on the Farm}How the Poor & Rich Might find Release: The Release of a Third World Symphony
On Tuesday, August 30 th, 2011So it rains the day after he leaves. The day after he walks out of the wheat field, packs his guitar into that beat up, duct-taped case and heads south again, music on his mind. But Shaun Grove’s music, his songs stay behind. Playing loud on the stereo here the next morning, the washing machine spinning and the kids all singing words by heart. Can you li...
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moreThe problem of evil? The Greater Problem of Good?
On Monday, August 08 th, 2011So after dinner, she picks coneflowers in the garden. Cradles the long stems in her apron skirt, carries them up through the picket gate. And she turns to me on the top step of the porch, holds her apron out to me, all those purple petals — art in an apron. “Why is there all this loveliness?” She wants to know. I almos...
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morewhat came in the mail for you today…
On Monday, August 01 st, 2011The mailman won’t creak up the flag on the red mailbox at the end of the gravel lane here this morning — today, a civic holiday beckoning out the Canucks from sea to shining sea. But every day, everywhere — all our days these holy-days, God always sending package after package of grace… ...
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morefor whatever road you’re walking down
On Monday, July 25 th, 2011In a week with many roads, someone numbered the steps. On little steel plates, the digits engraved. There was this too: Very important boys hanging upside down and laughing hard and queen anne’s lace fringing July roads and there were roses along the way, so many friends. And maybe it’s crazy to hum hymns through airports and smile at strangers and keep counting the...
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morewhat to do on the hot & dry days
On Monday, July 18 th, 2011And when she walks through the garden at twilight, and the hollyhocks sway their scarlet bells out by the wheat field, I stand on the porch and wonder. What it would be like – to only have that in my life today — which I murmured thanks to God to last night? ...
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moreGod Glory in the Moments… {a giveaway}
On Thursday, July 14 th, 2011… will you come too? A little giveaway from the farm over in this corner of the web today… :: ::
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moreThe Gift We Can’t Afford to Refuse
On Monday, July 11 th, 2011Only an hour from the farm, a river runs through it. Straight through blonding wheat fields, meandering through a ragged gorge, untwining through time. We pitch a tent and drive in our pegs. Grinning boys swing an axe, chop wood, carry water. There is a light in the leaves. You never know, this could be a tent of meeting. ...
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moreHow to Prefer God over Goods
On Monday, July 04 th, 2011‘G od wills to know the actual, lived-out reality of our preference for Him over all things…” ~John Piper The tomatoes are blooming, gold trumpets heralding coming grace in the garden. The hens are pecking out by the wheat. We pull weeds. How do we live out the actual, lived-out reality of our preference of Him in all things? Is it that we only prefer God over...
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morethe beauty of living in glass houses
On Monday, June 27 th, 2011I sit before this screen like a held sparrow with her pulse pounding her whole body loud — so scared. Scared to unbutton a bit of my skin and bare this one beating heart. I used to fly; I remember this. How to unfold winged hope and enfold the wind in free-falling trust. I remember thinking the sky all empty space. This can make a sparrow brave. I re...
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morewhen it’s time to really look at the world…
On Monday, June 20 th, 2011There is just the three of us and the sand between our toes. And always the sky. She walks on one side of me, the woman who gave birth to me, and then her on the other, the girl I gave birth to, almost now a woman. They walk and watch and I don’t think of myself as a bridge, only that I am here, and the waves, that they are loud and in us, a witnessing. ...
