One Sunday morning when our son, Bobby, was six, he left our pew and walked straight to the front of the church, up the steps onto the platform, right in the middle of our worship. Pastor Nathan was sitting in a chair off to the side, putting the finishing touches on his sermon notes. Bobby...

As shared at the Internet Café today. Hope—such a beautiful thing. It’s the perfect take-away as we leave the Easter season behind because everything that happened in the crucifixion—all the pain and injustice and sorrow and mockery and loss—all of it gave way to hope. We’ve messed up. We’ve failed. Lost. Hurt. Been broken. But we have Jesus, and...

Calling all prayer warriors! I’m talking to you — yes, you, the one who knows what she’s doing. Hey, where did everyone go? I used to think I knew how to pray. I had some glorious times, late at night while my husband worked a second shift and my kids slumbered upstairs. I could pass...

I don’t know about you, but my favorite way to pray is upside down. I’m in good company. Jesus constantly surprised his followers—and critics—with His unexpected answers. Jesus always challenged the status quo. He looked beyond the surface and wasn’t afraid to flip things around. One Sunday morning when my son, Bobby, was six, he left...

Poor me. All I’ve talked about for weeks is my elbow. I’ve spent the last week with my right arm immobilized in a brace. Most of the time has been spent half-snoozing, system full of pain-killers. Mindless Netflix episodes. A couple frivolous books. Trying not to criticize my husband for not doing all of my...

[Also posted at Internet Café today] Lord, I am so tired. Yes, of course I love my children. I adore them. I’m grateful for them, for their own unique quirks and personalities, for the ways they make me laugh, for the joys they’ve brought into my life. I sometimes look at them in wonder—usually as they sleep—amazed by Your creation....

For this month’s Branch Out Reading Challenge, the category was a classic Christian voice. I didn’t hesitate to pick C.S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed. It was already sitting on my shelf because a good friend bought it for me, but when I started it back then (a year or two ago), I only made it a couple...

It hurts. God, do you have any idea how much this hurts? I know that Christianity teaches that Jesus took on all our sin, pains, and sorrows when He died on the cross. I’ve been told that You’ve experienced it all—felt love and joy, grief and sorrow. There is nothing I can feel that You...

Sharing with you the prayer I shared today at the Internet Café… God, it’s too much. No matter how hard I try, how good my intentions, how little I sleep and how much I work, I can’t hold it together. Why do I feel like I have to? Why do I expect myself to be able...

Lord, my life is pretty good. Things are where they’re supposed to be. I have my family and friends. Good relationships. Steady work. I know—more or less—who I am and what you made me to do. Don’t think I’m not grateful, because I am. But there’s a part of me that feels restless. Dissatisfied. I...