Today we begin an eight-week series from the Gospel of Mark. This series will lead up to and beyond Easter. The first four lessons emphasize following Jesus. The last four lessons emphasize trusting Jesus. Since we cast a vote in our salvation, what better words than “following” and “trusting” can we use to describe our […]
When she was in her 80s, my mother bought some balls of yarn and started crocheting six-inch squares. She intended to sew them together into a large afghan, but she never finished the project. After Mother died last year, my daughter Michelle took her leftover yarn and started crocheting and sewing to carry on the […]
Authority. It’s one of those words we love and hate. We love it in relation to others: “When the neighbors kept lighting fireworks past 11 p.m., thank goodness the authorities ordered them to stop.” But we hate it in relation to ourselves: “When I turned my front yard into an alpaca farm, the authorities ordered […]
Heart pounding, the woman tentatively stepped into the small house knowing she was about to do something completely unheard of, something everyone else in the room, except Jesus, wouldn’t understand. Perhaps they would even throw her out of the house, or at the very least, ridicule her. But she didn’t care, not really; it wasn’t […]
“When deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive. . . . Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future” (Mary Karen Read, last journal entry before being shot to death in the Virginia Tech shootings, April 16, 2007). Lack of granting forgiveness is a major hindrance […]
