In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. — Ephesians 1:11 When the night sky frays to day, smudged light coming up over fields, I wake Levi. Today’s our date with the city hospital, an operating table,…
Giving Thanks in the Small Things
Some days I pick up a camera and it’s a hammer. The lens is my ink, for cameras have sensor eyes, and pixels record. I slide it into a pocket, a thin point-and-shoot, and find another way to chronicle, to force the lids open; another way to receive the moment with thanks reverential. When he comes in from…
One Thousand Gifts: Attitude of Gratitude
Bible Study of the Week: Ann Voskamp’s a farm girl. That book she scratched out, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where YouAre, is about what you really want. Joy is possible. Right where you are. Really. This video Bible study based on her best-selling book ponders the question of finding joy in…
Graffiti Grace
Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine… Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. — Isaiah 43:1, 4 ESV When I find out what a teenager’s done,…
Why Love Is Worth Breaking Your Heart
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. ~ C. S. Lewis “I’ve got more than sixty years of evidence that every day looks better with bacon.” My pork-raising dad’s a streak of confidence on the other end of the phone. “And…
Be the Gift: Jesus Believes in You
Editor’s Note: Ann Voskamp, in One Thousand Gifts encouraged readers to live a life of thanksgiving and to chronicle the gifts from God in their everyday lives. In The Broken Way, she reminded us that freedom is not found beyond fear and pain, but within it. Now, in Be the Gift, she unpacks and chronicles the next step to…
Endless Grace, Endless Love
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness . . . and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. — Colossians 2:6-7, Colossians 2:10 Come Monday morning I forget. A…
First Flight
Editor’s note: It’s time to start seeing all of God’s blessings for what they really are — gifts. There are truly too many to count when you step back to see what gets you through an entire day. Ann Voskamp has an intricate eye for the detail in the smallest of blessings. Her poetic voice…
Full Bodied Grace
“Do you understand what I have done for you?” He asked them… “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” — John 13:12, John 13:14 Jesus is about to let flesh be broken with nail, heart be broken with rejection, chains be broken with bleeding…
The Opportunity for Great Joy
Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. — James 1:2 “What in the world were you thinking? How many times have we said no running? I am just…” I’m spewing and it’s ugly and the words are so frazzled with frustration they fray midstream. I can…