Walk with Him
-
morewhen it’s hard to still keep on hoping
On Wednesday, September 21 st, 2011The earth’s cold under the finger nails. I dig holes with a wedge of steel and around fringes of the domed sky, the clouds scud gray. Dad had called first thing in the morning: if I had anything to do outside, today looked like the last day. Might be the last warm day to dig in bulbs, before autumn begins her blustery, muddy wrestle. I’d nodded. Yes, Dad. Bulbs, to...
-
morewhen you’re broken
On Wednesday, August 24 th, 2011Christ comes to us in the only way any of us can recognize — with a body right broken. Who of us isn’t busted? On a Sunday, the pastor breaks the loaves, three of them, are broken right down the center. Lays them white faced on silver platters, then takes them in hand and tur...
-
moreregardless of the temperature of your heart…
On Wednesday, August 17 th, 2011…so slipping in here late, the internet blinking out on the farm since last weekend… and today all went still as the service provider replaced internet equipment out on the tower… and way out here in the country, we really try not to take that little internet signal for granted ~smile~ All is Grace… so just snippets of thoughts I’m thinking about t...
-
morefiguring out how to forgive {your parents}
On Wednesday, August 10 th, 2011When I carry our first babe home from the hospital, I carry him home alone. The Farmer can’t get off work. He works for my Dad. There were reasons why – there was a crop of corn to get in the ground. I understood that. Understanding though didn’t mean that some of the sadness didn’t spill. I did keep brushing it back, all the way out to t...
-
morewhere love comes from
On Wednesday, August 03 rd, 2011‘Each wheat head is full this year —- large. Like that year when you were in France.” He pulls out a long, slender stalk — shows me the wheat kernels filled out right to the end. France? The wheat, out past the barn and to the north, it sways in mid-summer’s wind. Heads bowed, the fields sing like a hymn. We’ll roll in the combine today, let the streams of wheat...
-
morewhen you’re finding it hard to be patient
On Wednesday, July 20 th, 2011When we pour pancake batter into a griddle, they shape up like battered, misshapen hearts that sizzle and pop. A little one looms dangerously close to heat. A boy anxiously slops more batter. A lanky one flips prematurely, batter oozing, dripping. The sensitive child bursts into tears that the hearts are all smeared, the rings mashed. Oldest, with egg poised to crack, asks if I...
-
morewhen you get to the root of some of the fears
On Wednesday, July 13 th, 2011Who said courage wears a Red Badge? It’s just khaki capris, a black tee, I pull out of the closet for a day dawning summer, me leaving the house for the heat, appointment and errands. I have no red badge of courage, but I’m trying to wear prayer, the murmur of the weak made strong in the breaking. Fear can snap the brave bones… stiff twigs underfoot. I keep fumbling p...
-
morewhen you’re praying to live more like Jesus
On Wednesday, June 15 th, 2011When I first read her story on the screen, I want to drive a for sale sign into the front lawn and sell all the pigs. Mainly because I don’t think I can shoe horn a few hundred hogs into a suitcase — and there’s now way around it: my heart’s already left on a jet plane for Africa. Because here I am with the clean and the climbing in North Ameri...
-
moreOne Habit that Radically Changes a Family
On Wednesday, June 08 th, 2011Words are always dessert. I was sixteen when I first I ate dinner at his house. And when the plates were cleaned, forks laid down, when it’d seem commonplace to nod thanks to the cook and push back the chairs, his family bowed their heads and his Father opened a Bible. It was thick and tattered, had a multitude of bookmarks sticking out from all the page...
-
more“There is but one cure…”
On Thursday, June 02 nd, 2011It’s long after I turn the last light out. Long after that I hear the back door open and close. That I hear the footsteps. “Hey…” Who comes in through the door, comes in from the dark? “‘Night, Mom.” Ah… his voice. Firstborn. “You okay?” I can hear him lean against the railing at the top of the stairs. “Yeah…” He can’t know that M...
-
moreHow Do We Really Treat Jesus?
On Wednesday, May 18 th, 2011In front of Mrs. Gillie’s entire grade six classroom, Kadie Miller* said I was butt-ugly. Did you pick out your own get-up today or did your butt-ugly mama dress you? Sandy Goetz* laughed. That afternoon when the bus doors cranked open and I was finally free, I ran up our gravel lane, and Lissa Turscott* slid down her bus window and whipped a baseball at me, smacking me ...
-
morewhen you’re burying all your hopes and dreams
On Wednesday, May 11 th, 2011He’s only had three hours sleep, and no sleep the 24 hours before that, and he’s dead tired but he’s rising again before light because he believes in resurrection. “You okay?” I touch his back at the edge of the bed as he pulls on his shirt. “Gotta keep going.” He smiles gentle. Wrinkles make fence lines across his brow. This land, it is making us old. It is maki...
