We’ve Lost Community

But We Can Build It Back I don’t think anyone would disagree that our society in the last few years has gone crazy. So many factors are involved, but I think one of the keys is that we’ve lost our sense of community. This is not “just” an American problem. But the situation in the …

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Christian Nationalism Isn’t Christian

We Have a Much Higher Calling Christian Nationalism is simply nationalism and nothing more. How else could churches in both Ukraine and Russia celebrate Easter while calling themselves right and their opponent wrong? Yes, that is a form of Christian Nationalism, albeit not what we usually mean in the U.S.A. We have forgotten what the …

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Renewal

We all need renewal and refreshing from time to time. Missy and I walked in the rain today. The kind of drizzle we called a “dry rain” when I was growing up in Seattle. Enough to spot your glasses and cling to clothes and hair, yet not enough to penetrate through to skin or scalp. …

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Priorities

Priorities are something we have to work at; you can’t just assume you have them in place. But often we ignore priorities as if the word itself is somehow dirty. I was brought up short this last week by an incident that reminded me of this reality. My husband decided that he wanted to buy …

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Words & Responsibility

We have the responsibility to stop and consider what we say and write, especially on social media. Jonas Ellison, in his article The Pundit Impulse and the Power of Revision: Bringing humanity back to our published words (links below), talks about how social media has made us all pundits. The ease with which we can push …

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Grace and Routine in Daily Life

A reader asked how Grace fit into daily life after reading my post What is Grace? Part 1. “I am just so hard on myself if I miss a day of reading the Bible and would love to understand how His grace is sufficient for me!” Then she followed up with:  “I would love to …

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Faith and Foxholes

The adage says there are no atheists in foxholes. I don’t know about that, but I do know that when we are at the end of what we can do, that is when we seek something more. According to history and archaeology, humans have sought favor from gods since long before monotheism came to be. …

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It’s The Little Things

What are the things that get to you? For me, it’s the little things. But it’s also little things that can get me back where I need to be. I’m one of those who, when faced with an emergency, tends to think calmly and logically, not reacting emotionally until everything is done and it’s “safe” …

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Grace Isn’t Natural But Necessary

Grace isn’t natural. We aren’t born with it, and it isn’t easy to understand. But it is necessary to grow and thrive. Laws we understand. Laws and rules make it possible for large numbers of people to live together and cooperate for the common good. Even at the family level, there are rules — spoken …

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Who is Telling Your Story?

We all have a story: who we are, what we’ve done, what we dream. But often we let that story be told by others, instead of telling it ourselves. When I was young, I was: Clumsy A brat Too small to do things Too young to understand Always in trouble Stupid Mean These were all …

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