This season has been difficult for many people and challenging for us in ways we were not expecting. There is fear, worry, and so much unknown. We’ve lost many things and opportunities. It feels as if the world had come to a grinding halt, like so much has ended and we sit, holding our breath, waiting for the wheels to start turning again and for life to begin to return to “normal.”
The other day, I was re-watching some of my favorite episodes of the TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender. Some of you may be familiar with this show and some of its featured characters. Uncle Iroh is a character…
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"Anka is a six-year-old Roma girl, whose whimsical smile and toothless grin immediately win you over. But Anka is at a disadvantage- she does not attend preschool and will be starting first grade this fall. She doesn’t know how to hold a pencil; when asked to color, she produces a scribbled page. She only speaks Roma, unable to understand more than basic Bulgarian sentences.” Anka’s situation is not unique- many Roma families lack resources to send their children to preschool. But what if there was a play group Anka could attend, led by other Roma women, who could introduce her to…
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One of my favorite passages in all of literature is the scene in “The Horse and His Boy” where Shasta is going over the mountains between Archenland and Narnia. He’s weary, he’s alone, he feels like he has been left behind. And as he travels through the fog and clouds something begins to walk alongside him. The reader, of course, knows this is Aslan. Shasta begins to talk to him and tell all his troubles. Finally he says, “Don’t you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?” (158). Aslan goes on to tell Shasta that there was only one lion. One lion throughout all his life and every…
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As I enter my fifth week of support raising, I find myself struggling to stay motivated. This is a long and tough process so I must be consistently reminding myself to be patient and wait upon the Lord’s timing. On Sunday, my pastor was preaching on patience. His sermon hit me right between the eyes. He described patience as “active resilience.” Our patience and waiting upon the Lord is not sitting by and doing nothing. My pastor talked through a cycle that helps us learn patience. Memory leads us into reflection and our reflection leads us into this active resilience. Meaning, that by…
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Watch the orange fade to yellow
Then blue, each foot a faintly
Darker hue as the sun drops
Down behind the peaks. You close your
Eyes and, listen, the Lord speaks.
His voice is but a whisper
The words are often strange
But we know his will is good
The path is dim, we cannot see.
And Yet We Trust.
For several years, I have had the image of a series of stepping stones across a wide river in my mind. But the way ahead is shrouded in fog, and usually I can’t see the next stone on the path. I’ve realized that this is an image for my journey with the…
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