When victory is delayed

Yesterday, I stood beside some friends in church who are grieving a loss. It’s a loss that was prayed against, believed against, and yet still a devastating reality today. We ended the service singing a song about victory and the battle belonging to the Lord and I realized again how nuanced our lives and beliefs are. […]

Review of Deep Work

I borrowed Deep Work by Cal Newport from a friend and skimmed the first part of the book where he attempts to convince the reader that deep work is necessary. Work is changing and if you don’t cultivate the ability to do deep work, “you’re like to fall behind as technology advances.” (13) He’s referring […]

A help for reading the Old Testament

I’m nearing the end of Exodus in my morning Bible reading. I’ve decided to park in the Pentateuch for a while in my personal reading and right now I’m reading it one chapter at a time. I intend to read it in large chunks next because I’ve found that I see completely different things in […]

Musical bedrooms

Last night, everyone in our house slept in a new room. We’d been discussing a problem for a few months and had not been able to come up with a solution that would work until I had a brainstorm last week. We spent ten hours yesterday swapping all the bedrooms upstairs. We painted one room […]

The beauty of women writers

Last weekend, I listened to this delightful interview with Helena Sorensen. She is speaking specifically to women who are also writers and it is a thoughtful look at the reality of writing in the midst of other responsibilities. Apparently I am not the only one who gets tired of books about writing and productivity that […]

Our neighborhood invitation

I’ve been slowly reading through this large book about the Inklings before bed. It’s a fascinating look at how group collaboration complicates life and yet also makes work and life richer. C.S. Lewis was one of the best known Inklings and he was a famous apologist. However, at the height of that branch of his […]

Discovering Biblical Equality 6: 1 Corinthians 7

During discussions of marriage and how we believe marriage “should” be structured (which does not begin to address what marriages actually are),1 I have often directed attention to the fact that only one passage in the Bible speaks of authority in marriage. It’s here in 1 Corinthians 7 and it’s a shared authority. “For the […]