The disciples fascinate me. For the first time, I’ve read straight through from Matthew to John and they are intriguing characters when seen in one fell swoop. One thing that stuck out to me was how many times Jesus explicitly told them that He was going to (a) die and (b) rise again. Seriously. So many […]
Read More Where’s Your Focus?Our puppy, Everest, has finished her training with our wonderful trainer, and she’s honestly made a lot of progress. She is still disobedient sometimes (much to my dismay), but she’s made leaps and bounds. Where she used to try to run after every motorcycle within 100 yards of her, she now ignores them unless they […]
Read More How I’m Learning to Not Be Like My PuppyThe Biblical passage spanning the details of Amnon and Tamar (and Absalom and David…) is a heart-wrenching story. I have to mentally prepare myself before reading it, to be honest. As I read through it this time, I paid more attention to a “supporting actor,” as it were: Jonadab. Both Amnon’s friend and cousin (2 […]
Read More Friends like JonadabI think I first saw the idea from Ann Voskamp, author of One Thousand Gifts. This first book centers on listing things you’re thankful for as an expression of praise and a focus of the mind on those things. I appreciated her focus on specificity: zoom in on the details of what you’re thankful for, […]
Read More Just BecauseJust a few days ago, my favorite human had a birthday. Though he seems desperate to say that we’re “basically 30” now, we are decidedly not 30 yet. Almost. But not yet! It’s the second time we’ve celebrated his birthday as a married couple, and I’ve gotta say that I’m just as obsessed with him as […]
Read More Lessons from DavidYesterday was a really bad day. It might have been a combination of different factors (little sleep, lots of projects), but even the culmination of everything I can think of doesn’t usually hit me so hard. Such is the mystery of anxiety I suppose. Through the gritted teeth and scattered tears, I still prayed. I […]
Read More Emotions & PrayerWe’d been talking about it throughout our time in the US. Distance helped us think about it slightly more objectively. It would be an investment to be sure, and we were slightly worried it wouldn’t work. But other people had had so much success with it, didn’t it have to work? We were both even getting ads for it.
Read More Not in ChargeI’d been feeling off for, I don’t know, a week or three? It was a familiar patterned progression, but it didn’t diminish the discomfort or the oppressive weight of it. There was a lot going on — with family, work, and school. I’d dealt with worse, though, so what was going on? I knew before […]
Read More DroughtOne of my favorite hikes is a mere 40 minute drive from my dad’s house. I was fortunate to do it twice when recently visiting family, although I still dream of doing it once a week. The one, the only, the Billy Goat Trail. Reminiscent of musings from an Old Rag hike about three years […]
Read More What We Learned from Hiking a (not) MountainA few weeks ago, I was preparing to speak for a Study Week at my software engineering school. For those of you who know my word of the year, this was a commitment I made before the new year : ) I was thankful to be able to take part. But I was struggling. I’d […]
Read More In Which I Avoid Asking for Help
