The Ice Storm
One month ago, a colossal ice storm swept through the southern states, snapping branches that, in turn, snapped powerlines and exploded transformers, knocking millions of people off the grid and forcing them to live as they’d reverted to the nineteenth
Reacting to Fear in a Healthy Way
“The light’s green, you retard!” Stunned, I looked up from my computer into the street. A guy in a gold Chevy 4x4 with its windows down revved his engine again while waiting at the green light. Two political flags blazed from
Catching the Wind
"God provides the wind, Man must raise the sail." St. Augustine I rebel against instructions of every type, so I was quite proud of myself for reading the pamphlet long enough to put my daughter’s butterfly kite together. It was close to
It’s About Pursuit, Not About Perfection
"Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus." - Philippians 3:12 A novel typically
Goodness and Mercy Shall Pursue Me
"Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever." ~ Psalm 23:6 On Friday, my best friend and I took a walk around Vanderbilt
Follow the Light
My girls and I had spent most of the day cooped up in the house. Attitudes were fraying around the edges—including mine. Then I had an epiphany: a pajama hike! I told the girls to put on their pajamas, since it
Evergreen: What I Want to Be This Year
ev·er·green/ˈevərˌɡrēn/adjective 1. of or denoting a plant that retains green leaves throughout the year. "They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are
The Upside Down Kingdom
Ten at night on a university campus. My feet hurt. I shivered in my thin sweater. My bag weighed about a thousand pounds. I had asked three students for directions, but I still couldn’t find the parking garage where my
God in the Dark
The setting sun poured down the seams of the mountains as I drove the same route I had taken for four years in college. But this time was different. My six-year-old daughter now sat in the back, and she was
Let Your Light Shine
This spring, at a conference in Ontario, I prayed for a woman who was entering a new, challenging phase of her ministry. Afterward, she held my shoulders—her short, dark brown curls bobbing—and looked into my eyes. “You are a firefly,”