“The Lord is not slow about his promises, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance” 2 Peter 3: 9 I am impatient, Lord. I want you and I want you now. Come, please come to me. Saying this prayer aloud makes me realize how ridiculous I sound. Me? Telling you? Not going to work is it, Lord? I sense you smiling, knowing my foolishness, my ineptitude, the silliness to assume I know better than you – the Lord of the Universe. What I see as slowness in your promises is perfect timing on your part, Lord. I have seen this truth in Bible history, friends’ stories and my own experience. Help me let go of my need to control and relax in trusting your fulfillment of every promise. Every promise. I have no reason to fear. To worry. To take over. To tap my fingers wondering if you will ever show. You will. I have your promise. I know you and believe. You know best. You see the whole plan. You shape the past, … [Read more...]

Does December seem noisy for you this year? More Christmas clamor than usual? I am hearing tons of holiday preparation holler over the internet and piles of buy-buy-buy in my mailbox, television and radio. Why do we have to go crazy, getting bigger and bigger, and expanding more more more? Isn’t this supposed to be a peaceful preparation time for Christmas? My inbox tings with another post about Advent. I don’t know if you noticed but many wonderful bloggers are writing about Advent this year. Great ideas. Seems like every one has something to say about Advent. Some with wonderful visuals and videos. Others with new music. Many with profound thoughts. All with the goal of opening my heart for this wonderful time of the year. I want to consume them all. Explore all of them.  Yes, I end up being distracted and not tuning in my inner spirit to listen to God but only outwardly to what others are saying. But like that overstuffed feeling you get after the Thanksgiving feast – I am too … [Read more...]

This is a series of reflections following my trip to the Holy Lands this fall. What a profound and life-changing experience to walk where Jesus lived. Visiting Israel opened my eyes and refreshed my heart on so many levels – historically, politically, biblically and spiritually.  Unexpected surprises filled the trip to the Holy Lands. I am discovering more of them now that I am at home – eagerly looking at photos, summarizing notes in my journal, talking with God about that sacred land. Ever noticed how we humans love to mark special places? We want to honor, remember locations of significance. We may erect simple cairns – a pile of rocks - to note this is a space where someone encountered God or we build huge cathedrals – often on top of older churches on top of other historical sites on top of a once simple location full of God’s presence. Since home I am realizing the places in the Holy Lands that have lingered most in my heart haven’t been the grand manmade churches, … [Read more...]

This is a series of reflections following my trip to the Holy Lands this fall. What a profound and life-changing experience to walk where Jesus lived. Visiting Israel opened my eyes and refreshed my heart on so many levels – historically, politically, biblically and spiritually. The hotels we stayed in in Israel exposed me to some new practices. One had a Shabbat elevator - from sundown on Friday until the sun sets on Saturday, many observant Jews refrain from certain activities, including pushing elevator buttons. So in some buildings, elevators are programmed to stop automatically on every floor during the Sabbath. That way, observant Jews can hop right in and eventually, get where they are going. But the practice I saw the most and really liked was the mezuzahs affixed to every room’s doorway in each hotel. The mezuzah is mounted on doorways in Israel. I had heard of this practice, but never before had seen them on every entrance in the hotels. To be honest at first I … [Read more...]

This is a series of reflections following my trip to the Holy Lands this fall. What a profound and life-changing experience to walk where Jesus lived. Visiting Israel opened my eyes and refreshed my heart on so many levels – historically, politically, biblically and spiritually. Olive trees thrive in the Holy Lands. Every meal we ate offered at least one form of olives. Olive oil and olive wood gifts decorated the shelves of stores we visited. We passed miles of olive tree groves. Olive trees don’t grow in NW Ohio, so this is a tree I wasn’t familiar with. I read and heard about the Mount of Olives. We visited the peaceful Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed among the olive trees. We watched workers harvesting the branches. But it was something our tour guide said that resonate within me and caused me to listen more closely to the lessons from the olive trees. George told us that olive trees could grow in any type of soil and had shallow roots. With this limited root … [Read more...]

This is a series of reflections following my trip to the Holy Lands this fall. What a profound and life-changing experience to walk where Jesus lived. Visiting Israel opened my eyes and refreshed my heart on so many levels – historically, politically, biblically and spiritually. Music marinated my soul on our trip to Israel. I didn’t realize how deeply the songs we heard and sang still rang within my heart until we were home. My memories anchored in Holy Lands harmonics in a land of not much harmony. "Music is well said to be the speech of angels; 
 in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man
is felt to be so divine. 
 It brings us near to the infinite."
 ~ Thomas Carlyle The Church of the Angels in Bethlehem’s Shepherds’ Field stands out first in my mind. This church is built in the shape of a shepherd’s tent in the place that could have been the site where the angels announced Jesus’ birth. Painted angels encircle the bright white ceiling, with words written in … [Read more...]

We have been traveling out of the country the last 12 days and man, does it feel good to be home. I will be writing about our amazing adventure to the Holy Lands a little bit later as I really need some time to process prayerfully everything I saw and experienced there. We had some wonderful worship moments on our journey yet the long 14 hours airplane ride home and the time differences really jarred my body and soul. I am tired, out of sorts and feel almost drugged with foggy thinking. I missed my regular morning devotions with God. I missed my family and longed to hear my kids’ voices and get those priceless hugs from grandkids. I missed the comfort of my own snuggling bed. One of the best things to do for physical jet lag is to rest and to drink more water. The same is true for spiritual jet lag – just rest in God’s arms, spend time with Him and drink in his wisdom and love. Benjamin Button said this about coming home: “It’s a funny thing about comin’ home. … [Read more...]