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We Hung Our Harps (When Your Song is Silenced)
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” (Psalm 137:1-4, KJV) I want to weep for them. Their anguish is raw, palpable…heart-wrenching. A people once embraced by the favor of God and blessed before all nations. Now, they find themselves debased and enslaved by their enemy. Far from home.…
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Dear Starbucks Barista:
Dear Starbucks Barista: When I smiled at you over the cash register and gave you my drink order (along with an impulsive pastry purchase), I was honored that you asked what church I attend because you recognized that I always wear dresses when I drop in to work on my writing. You told me that you’re Pentecostal Apostolic too. How cool is that?! When I sat down and told my husband about our chat, he mentioned that the two of you have talked several times already about his favorite college football team: Ohio State Buckeyes (How did I miss these conversations?). I just died laughing when you walked over to…
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Showing Grace to Myself
I had set out the whole-wheat egg noodles and a container of broth in preparation for making a wholesome chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight. At 3:45 p.m., I sent a text to my husband, “Can you order pizza for dinner? Thin crust pepperoni with green pepper.” I wasn’t feeling the soup today after all. And I’m OK with that. I’m a goal-oriented gal—thriving on constructing lists complete with tidy little checkboxes to color in with the completion of each task. For example, during the #last90days of 2019, I have challenged myself to complete five top goals each day and—you guessed it—I color in those five squares every day with…
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When My Plans are Not God’s Plans
Our family loves music. We blast it while we work in the kitchen and while we’re getting ready for church, sing our hearts out on road trips, and I even have a special playlist for my prayer time. But there are certain songs that stand out to me because they represent times in my life when the lyrics spoke directly to a specific need and reminded me that God is in control of my destiny. I look back at when my husband was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The song was “Praise You in This Storm” by Casting Crowns. When our church family struggled through a deep valley, it was…
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Halloween at the Middle School
This Thursday is Halloween. And that always makes things interesting in middle school. The students where I work will show up decked out in an interesting assortment of Halloween costumes—some delightfully creative (like the girl who designed her “shadow” that followed her around all day) while others are…well, disturbing. It always makes me grin to see a kid who is too cool to handle the dead butterfly in science or mess up his hair in Phys Ed transform himself into a cube-shaped Enderman from Minecraft which, according to the general consensus here at school, is no longer “cool” to play. A few of the students announced today that they’ll be…