Yesterday I shared the first of three calls I know God put on my life. The first was this: “I want you to write for me” in 1986. Three years later God gave me a second calling . . . through the odd circumstance of a dream . . . or rather, a nightmare. Lest you think I’m weird, I just want to throw out there that Jesus’s earthly father, Joseph, was also directed to make dramatic changes in his and Mary’s lives because of dreams . . . THREE times, if I remember correctly. The f

We drove to church yesterday, with a black wall to our right half of the way to Reno. Wildfires licked up just about every spot of green from our place in the Sierra Valley last week almost all the way to the Nevada border. There were miracles of places and human and animal lives saved. Someone even posted a photo of a baby calf sitting in an unburned patch surrounded by burnt pasture. But so much black. While I know in my heart that grasses and even wildflowers will push the

I don’t know another time when I’ve felt I’ve lived just about every line of this famous piece of poetry written by King Solomon from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (ESV): For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to

I’ve been near-sighted since the sixth grade. That was not a good year. My school had a fire, so I had to walk even farther to another school that was next to the railroad tracks. My desk faced the window, and I would count railroad cars to keep myself awake. (It is not true that naps in school stop after kindergarten.) In fourth grade I remember being put in a special class to learn “new math,” which was actually algebra. In fifth grade poetry began to make sense. But sixth

Addicted to doing? Addicted to checking things off your list? I’m raising my hand. I own all that. Because I’m goal-oriented and achievement-driven, it’s been tough to cross things off my calendar, such as medical appointments, because I want them DONE. I do not want to think about them anymore. Now they’re floating out there in the great Somewhere/Sometime of life. Ahhhhh! How are you doing in this uncertainty? Cruising? Cursing? I decided that for a season I need a new kind

Years ago when I started prayerwalking, God showed me that wherever I am, there’s a need for prayer . . . so I began opening up my eyes and praying for what I saw. Businesses. Local government offices. Schools. Families. And more. I also became passionate about understanding more about prayer, and as I read through the Bible, I would mark any reference to pray that I noticed. I particularly focused on Jesus’s prayer life and the teachings on prayer in the New Testament. But t

“Take care,” she said at the end of our phone call. It was an everyday sort of remark, one you usually don’t think about . . . but that day I did. No one knew but I’d felt a lump and was feeling a bit of concern. I was also experiencing chronic digestive problems, joint aches, and shortness of breath. Take care. Truth was, I hadn’t been–instead living life willy-nilly and doing and eating what I felt like rather than being diligent about my health. So, I scheduled my overdue

What’s your favorite kind of party? Mine must be a Pity Party, because that’s the one I most often find myself attending. What’s so wonderful about a Pity Party is that it can go on and on and on. Right? My last one–about two weeks long–just ended this morning . . . but oh, what a mess that one created. I had to pick myself up from the Floor of Complaint. I had to clean up the Poor Me messes. I had to scrub up the Grumpies. Maybe you’ve had such a party yourself? Two things h

I was in a state of confusion years ago when I was laid off from my teaching job. The school district on the other side of my valley had big-time cutbacks, and at the bottom of the hiring list, I did not make the cut. I didn’t understand. God had called me to teach. I listened. I obeyed. I enrolled in grad school to get my credential. Less than a year later I was done and that district where I’d done my student teaching hired me. I worked hard mastering the curriculum and cha