BLOG––Encouraged by Faith

  I was worshipping with family friends one Sunday when the youngest of their five children asked to be baptized. Afterwards, his sister (the only girl in the family) hugged him and said, “Oh, boy, am I ever looking forward to that new man you’re going to be.” I laughed...

More often than now and then, I get defensive about what I imagine someone else thinks of me. Usually, it is what I’m afraid they may have good reason to think of me. This situation arises before I’m aware of it and feelings have already been hurt. It is insulting to assume that...

Ever since my boys have been little, my husband has regaled them with stories from his own childhood. The “Uncle Eric” stories about his younger brother have always been the most popular, and now the eight-year-old repeats them to us as if they are fresh tales yet unheard by our...

A friend told me about an experience she had recently of hearing the voice of God. Not through reading His Word. Not in reflection through prayer. Not through godly counsel or the wisdom of the church. Not through life’s circumstances. No, she was in a movie theatre lobby when God told...

Most of us have probably been around a toddler that was in need of some sleep. Their cute little cherub faces can suddenly morph, tired eyes and petulant lips turning them into diminutive monsters, whose vocabulary is limited to the word “NO!” And while I like to think that I am...

Once upon a time, I lived in a place where the skies were not cloudy all day, or all year, usually. And it was HOT. This was a legendary desert in the Middle East where whole armies have been known to disappear in a single day, overwhelmed by rolling dunes in a driving sandstorm. Maybe...

And again, "I will put my trust in Him." Hebrews 2:13 As a kid I never had fingernails. I was a worrier. I tried to figure things out for myself to avoid trouble. Sometimes I made myself sick with worry. I thought God wouldn’t help those who didn’t help themselves by doing most of...

I watched an interview with David Gregory and Yossi Klein Halevi recently and was amazed at how the discussions going on with Judaism today have ancient roots.  So many of the issues are framed by the attitude toward land. Must a Jewish person today be a Zionist? In overly...

God’s work in the world today is a perpetual and glorious spectacle, but perception is highly susceptible to expectation. Do I “stand amazed in the presence of Jesus,” or overwhelmed by some natural phenomenon of earth and sky? O my God, will you strengthen my faith? I grew up...

Are you a catastrophic thinker? I am. Well, perhaps not in the clinical sense, but I certainly have the ability to ruminate endlessly about worst-case scenarios. For example, on the recent trip to Hawaii with my husband, I cleaned the house with extra care before we left “just in...