The day COVID-19 shut life down became my best day of 2020. But it sure didn’t feel like it in the moment. We silently gathered for a hushed emergency faculty meeting: “Prepare for an imminent, sudden shut down.” I walked down the hall, swallowing tears, to bravely face a class Read more…
I felt anything but a healing peace in my problems. I was “wearied by the length of [my] way” (Is. 57:10 ESV) and I felt down, low, and weak. My frustration and anxiety over unwanted problems produced exhaustion. No wonder I felt no peace. I needed to look away from my desperate Read more…
Going back to school in a pandemic brings up all the feels, doesn’t it? Uncertain, weary, sad, hopeful, scared, excited, overwhelmed…simultaneously. We bravely want to transition well for our kids and health of all. On top of this, we continue to live with our financial, relational, and health challenges. We Read more…
We’re living in masks, hiding, covering up, protecting ourselves and others from an unseen virus. Emotions are running high. But what infects us from day one? Our inborn sin pervades everything (Rom. 5:12). No wonder our fallen world is infected with a pandemic and chaos. We wear masks with each Read more…
Are you experiencing a new, even desperate, yearning for intimacy with God? Maybe it’s just me, but this pandemic has given me a deeper longing. Written for those experiencing discouragement, attack, and loneliness in exile, Isaiah 35 describes my longing well…maybe it will encourage you too. Five S’s leap from Read more…
Singing Christ’s hope into suffering includes singing of heaven as He releases our grip on this world. Before the Lord graciously drew us to Himself in Christ, we had no hope and were without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, we have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:13 ESV)! Read more…
I’ve realized that we teachers continually gaze to future. We create broad learning outcomes for students in our care and then artistically sculpt logical and detailed plans for every month, week and day. We become creators, molders, shapers, and potters who can visualize future beauty in each student as we Read more…
Crisis threatened once again. Frightened, she prayed, “I am so scared. Lord, show me how to pray. I need You. I need Your guidance and wisdom. I need Your rescue. Please help me. Comfort me.” I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning Read more…
In this world broken by sin, are you feeling particularly shattered and weak? Suffering and sin are a born-into-this-world given (Genesis 3)…but these days? They seem a specially appointed, global, weighty, exponential hard. A prayer for today Oh Lord, we need Your strength in our weakness. We ponder Read more…
Watching the radar, we knew it was coming. Time to inventory TP, bread, milk, canned goods. The storm bled red all over the screen. Hunker down in our basement. Exhausting, stay-up-all-night fear. Immense interruption of normal life. Storms are chaotic, noise-filled, demanding constant attention and threatening our minds with imagined Read more…