I didn’t learn how to ride a bike without training wheels until second or third grade. On Saturday mornings, my dad took me a few blocks away from the busy street in Tokyo where we lived to practice. He would hold onto the back of my bike, running alongside me as I gained speed. I had a beautiful, cherry red, Japanese bike. It had a sturdy basket ...
“Can you come pick me up? I don’t feel safe.” A few weeks ago, my phone rang as a familiar name filled the screen. My day was just beginning, filled to the brim with deadlines and meetings. Twenty minutes away, my roommate was just over halfway down the nature trail, enjoying an early morning walk on her day off. Tennis shoes laced up and ...
Why, my soul, are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God. I am deeply depressed; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your billows have ...
Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. Whey they saw him, they worshipped him — but some of them doubted! Matthew 28:16-17 (NLT) Up to this point, life had been a roller coaster ride for the disciples. The Word of God they knew showed up in a different form than they had expected. God ...
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who ...
For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. Hebrews 10:14 (CSB) Here I am on my couch, crying again. I will never get it together. I am such a failure. I am just so tired of making plans and lists and self-help do-overs that end right back where I started. I just can't do it. I can't fix myself. It's been five years ...
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:5 (NKJV) "You'll never get pregnant again." Our hearts broke as my fertility doctor dropped those cold words on me and my husband when our daughter was two and a half, several months after experiencing a ...
As an early adopter of social media, it has always intrigued me that the conversations I listen to online don't always mirror the conversations I'm having in real life. I can't say for sure why that is, but I'm thankful for the courageous voices that teach, inspire, and challenge me to think really hard about really hard things. It is a ...
It’s still dark out, not quite dawn, so I stir. Then rising, I sit for a beat or two on my side of the bed. “Read to me,” my husband mumbles. I hear him. I love him. I’m grateful for his request. But can I be honest? I don’t want to read to him right now – not even to read our devotion, which is what he’s asking from me. First, the sun’s ...
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I told you about: ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ I didn’t know him, but I came baptizing with water so he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the ...
