healing

Choices

Even the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow can’t buy contentment. It is illusive. Culture is abstract yet often dictates our lives in concrete measures. Choice is concrete yet seems abstract as we begin choosing how to live. The secrets of contentment, which transcend the content of our culture, is rooted in…

Language

Lofty thoughts, which become ideals and hopefully–actions like forgiveness, freedom, liberty, holiness, purity, redemption, atonement, justice, retribution, love, kindness, patience, or equality begin as seeds planted in the souls of mankind by the Spirit of God hovering upon the treasure of the universe. As we mature to grapple–chew and swallow these, they break through concrete barriers with rapid force and power like…

Shelter

She moves with stealth behind the scenes of autumn, steadily edging toward the razor cold and lacy veil of ice and crystal. Then quietly she falls, winter’s glorious mystique reveals in a day. In layers, it descends and deeper it penetrates, much more than surface. The chill and snow seeps below. But not to spurn. It’s the season of fireside reflections,…

Searching for the Light Switch

This is part 2 from the post below, “See Jesus in the Flames.” Update on Julia…Thank you so much for your prayers. We got the biopsy report that Julia did have renal cell carcinoma as the doctors suspected, but it was stage 2 and grade 2. Stage 2 is because of the size (8.5 cm,…

The river of disappointment and sorrow—the one that catches in your throat and you swallow back, the one that stings your eyes hot with betraying tears—if you release that pain to stream freely, it will push out, out to empty itself into the vast deep of the salty ocean brine that scrubs clean the wound….

Sadness with Pause

Most Christians in the Charismatic movement across the United States are aware of the recent passing of Beni Johnson, wife of Pastor Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding, California. This journey for Ps Bill and Beni was a difficult one that included the whole community (Truly that is what church is—community). The family, pastoral…

What Happened to that Little Girl?

Last evening, we ate dinner with a lovely Italian family from our church. I especially say Italian, because they are proud of their ethnicity; and I am fascinated by it as well. We have known them for many years. They have five bright children; and their parents, in their 80’s, live with them a few months…

haiku: soaring

Last week we had a meeting in the Anatole Hilton. My soul feasted on the view from the 29th floor. The sky, clouds, buildings, maze of highways, and landscape took my breath away. Perspective makes all the difference. Everything looked completely different and new from that vantage point. The view mesmerized me. But it was the birds that…