Easing the Burden

He walked into the floral shop with a dual agenda. The outward one was to find a memorial wreath in the favorite color of his late wife. The hidden one was to find a way to unload his burden. His story was long, sad and filled with bitterness. He talked without pausing and finally requested that […]

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Finding Wholeness

It seemed too obvious a question to even ask. For thirty-eight years the man sat among the sick, blind, lame and paralyzed at the pool called Bethesda.  This was a gathering place of hope, for the Lord sent an angel to stir up the water from time to time and the first to step in […]

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The Not-So-Funny Slip

For some reason, slips and falls make us laugh. In fact, it’s been the subject of entertainment since the days of silent movies. Some time back, the once-popular TV show “America’s Funniest Home Videos” regularly aired clips of people falling. They received these snippets from contestants anxious to win a cash prize for the weekly […]

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The Promise

What are the desires of your heart? In the stillness of the morning hours I had been reading familiar words from Psalm 37:4 “Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  I had to stop. Did I really understand what was being said? Without question, my delight is in […]

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The God Who Is For Us

The Word of God. It is a treasure without equal; the foundation of knowledge and wisdom ~ a lamp to our feet and light to our path.  It is living and active, speaking truth of our beginning, our purpose, our bent, our need, our hope and our future.  It is the revelation of life and […]

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Choosing Your Emoji

Expressing our feelings can be a challenge. We try, but often words fail to convey the depth of the heart. Think about it. How do you adequately express the joy of fulfillment or weight of disappointment; the happiness of love or sorrow of separation; the peace of contentment or frustration of injustice? There is a […]

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Friends I’ve Never Met

I collect books. My intent, of course, is to read them, but I have to admit that sometimes … well maybe a little more often than sometimes … many of them remain nestled in the bookcase with my good intentions. Stories await my time and one day, while dusting the covers, I came to terms […]

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The Antonym for Mockery

The opportunity for good or evil has always been with us and certainly finds fertile ground in the social media of our day.  Whether one is right or left, for or against a cause, the manner in which we express our point of view has pretty much taken a tailspin.  While claiming to stand for […]

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The Words of a Sigh

There is something about a familiar story that causes us to pass over details.  I discovered that recently while reading from the Gospel of Mark. Having read this Book numerous times, I was surprised that two words suddenly stood out, as though I was discovering them for the first time.  What were they?  “He sighed.”  […]

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Places in Time

I was in a melancholy mood to say the least.  Sitting in a box truck filled with belongings of a dear friend, the two-day journey provided plenty of time for thought. The cargo my late husband and I were hauling was on its way to a storage barn. After months of unemployment, our young friend […]

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