This week at our house: Me: What do you want for breakfast? Preschooler: Peanut butter pancakes. Me [fifteen minutes later]: Here’s your breakfast! Preschooler: WHAT IS THIS?! I HAAAATE PEANUT BUTTER PANCAKES!!! Me: [silently Googling how old a child has to be to go to boarding school overseas] Kidding. Mostly. Pre-kid, I sometimes felt at … More What’s at the End of Your Rope? * 10 Minute Devotional
Back when I trained as a hospice chaplain, I was often surprised at how much our team–doctors, nurses, social workers, chaplains–laughed together. It wasn’t that we didn’t cry, too. We cried a lot. We cried plenty. Watching people die, supporting them at the end of life, ministering to their families and friends, it made each of us … More A Gospel Paradox * 10 Minute Devotion
A man stopped by my church a few months ago ago. We didn’t know him and he didn’t know us. He came in and simply said, “I’m a Christian and I don’t need anything from you except this: would you pray for me?” I offered to pray with him right then and there, but he said he … More Why Not Ask? * 10 Minute Devotional
My childhood pastor once told our congregation the story of a man walking down a beach tossing starfish back into the water. If they stayed washed up on the beach they would dry out and die, so he tossed them back as he strolled along the ocean’s edge. The problem was that there were thousands of … More It Matters to This One * 10 Minute Devotional
What is one thing about your life you wish you could change? I grew up reading missionary stories. Hudson Taylor. Jim and Elisabeth Elliot. David Livingston. Missionaries spoke at my rural childhood church often, and I always found myself stuck between horror and awe. What would it be like to leave everything and go to … More Brown-Eyed Girl * 10 Minute Devotional
As told with a little help from the brilliant 1996 movie That Thing You Do… When you first announce you’re headed to seminary, your friends are like, “Well, if you want to make a lot of money, you probably shouldn’t be a pastor.” 2. You spend your seminary years in a library and you’re all: 3. Then … More 10 Gifs That Perfectly Sum Up Being a Pastor
We went to the park last week and I totally forgot to bring snacks. Rule #1 of parenting is always have enough snacks. Always, always, alwaysalwaysalways. My firstborn asked for a snack and I suddenly realized I’d left the bag in our entryway at home. “I’m so sorry,” I told him. “The snacks are at … More Again Tomorrow * 10 Minute Devotional
Denise Levertov wrote a poem called “The Ache of Marriage.” When I studied it in college I wanted to throw it in the garbage. Marriage achy? Pfffft. Another example of a poet writing silly nonsense. Then I got married. That Levertov? She knew some things. Daryl finished his PhD this September. In many ways, his dissertation became a third … More The Ache of Marriage
I just got back from ten days in northern Wisconsin (folks from northern Wisconsin always specify the northern because southern Wisconsin is cities and farmland, while the north is woods and lakes and white-tailed deer and air so fresh your lungs practically say “thank you” with each exhale). I grew up there, and my parents still live … More Top 10 Signs You’re at Your Childhood Home
1. Eat Less Sugar Yeah. I have a sweet tooth. Or maybe I have only sweet teeth. Since Diabetes runs in my family, it’s high time I got a bit of a handle on my Icees-and-Swedish-Fish obsession. (I have the palate of an eight-year-old. Don’t judge.) But here’s the thing: choosing to restrict something usually just makes me … More 5 New Years’ Resolutions I’m Not Making (and What I’m Doing Instead)
Courtney Ellis 