Who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  1 Peter 1:5 (NASB) My doors get locked. I wear a seatbelt. Sunscreen is a must. I even set an alarm for security. I watch my surroundings when out and about. If the dogs bark outside, I look out the window with caution and a pounding heart. None of these things protect me.  Not really. The seatbelt may have held tight if that young man on the phone would have rear-ended me last week.  I saw him miles back…

I grew up in Greenville, Florida.  It is a small town that you could easily miss if you blink as driving through.  It has my roots.  It holds my memories of childhood. I can’t imagine growing up anywhere else.  And as I remember, I remember the people I really wanted to be friends with and those that never treated me as an outcast.  I remember hurt from the ones that I really wanted to be friends with.  I remember isolation and ugly attitudes.  Bad memories for a childhood, huh? But those that never treated me as an outcast.  They always…

The call came at an unexpected time and certainly from an unexpected person.  It was a call that screamed she cared.  And in the midst of a self-centered pity party that has gone on way too long, she shook me. She made me think of just one year prior when we all went on retreat.  And we spoke of being shaken.  “Give, and it will be given to you.  They will pour into your lap a good measure – pressed down, shaken together, and running over.  For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.” …

I drape a blanket over my shoulders.  It brings comfort from the cool morning air.  I wake and rise to click keys.  It brings comfort from the jumbled thoughts in my brain. I pray to God.  He brings comfort to a troubled soul. And as I pray, I list Who He Is. Shelter.  Thinking of this old blanket bringing warmth.  This old thing can’t hold a candle to His Shelter. Provider.  It goes much farther than physical provisions.  He is the Provider of my salvation. Resident.  Ah-ha.  Yes.  R.E.S.I.D.E.N.T.  His Holy Spirit is a resident inside me.  I like a…

So many of these posts seem incomplete. As I read back over my heart and mind and thoughts poured out in letters and words and pictures, many feel unfinished. Like reading one chapter of a book and not continuing to chapter two. What happens next?  There is no way to know unless you continue. But what importance does that continuing hold. At times it seems completely useless and a silly waste of time. And then other times it seems life depends on it. Like air for my lungs, it is necessary to keep living.  Which of these words may be…

He wanted to know how many t-shirts could be made from that field.  His growing mind always wondering.  Good question, I thought.  I have no clue.  But that white… Bursting white amidst the still green foliage.  The tender purity of the contents erupting from such a sturdy stalk.  The thick, hard walls of the boll no longer able to contain the pure white begging to be seen.  So much light has been poured into that boll and that purity will not be contained any longer. Weren’t his words bursting from a place of purity?  He doesn’t yet have the weight…

God has plans for each of us.  Paul knew that God wanted to use him to further His Kingdom.  He accepted the plan and made good on the purpose God placed in him.  We are no different.  Sometimes we may fail to fully recognize His purpose and plan for us.  We may decide His plan is not the path we want to take and completely ignore His calling.  We may dibble-dabble in it at times and find enormous peace about doing His will only to slip away and let fear consume us. But the calling never leaves.  It sits there…

Did I hear what I think I heard?  Did he say those words that disturbed my mind and heart and soul?  Those words shook me.   And then did I just sit there and say nothing?  Even though I wanted to get up and leave and never look back. I did nothing.  My youngest enjoys playing baseball. He is  one member of a team that had an all-day tournament yesterday. A day full of heat. Boys playing hard and adults mouthing off. What was the reason for the play?  For the boys or for the adults? And just what is…

She has this way of presenting questions that stir the soul to look below the surface.  And it doesn’t take many words.  “Are you picking up your pen?”  That’s all it took to shake me. Peeling back layers of the unnecessary and swimming through murky waters of confusion that lie between the surface and that place where the soul finds peace.  Situations do not remove that peace, only the one that allows situations to bombard and discombobulate allows the peace to be removed.  Salvation attention deficit disorder.  SADD. The sacred begs for attention but the world pulls and tugs and…

Today I have no tears for her.  I have complete confidence and assurance that she is experiencing a rest so great that all I can think is how selfish it would be of me to want her back.  It doesn’t make me miss her any less but she is where she should be.  And I am just thankful for the time I had her here.  She was my mama!  So Happy Mother’s Day in heaven! But there are three reasons that made me mama.  Such precious gifts from God. Such enormous responsibility.  Such wonderful memories. She came around 10:20 on…