Encouraging Deep Roots

The past few years I have put together prayer stations  for Good Friday for our church. This is a time when people can come and visit the different stations which will be set up around our sanctuary. It's a time of reflection and prayer. There is usually some sort of activity at each one. As I work on the stations this year and am  reading the account of Jesus' death and resurrection, I am amazed at how rich these passages are.  This year's prayer stations will walk the congregation Jesus' time in the Garden of Gethsamene and tie it to Psalm 23. I always enjoy working on these type of activities because it also speaks to me as I prepare. Some beautiful preliminary observations as I work through this: Jesus, the Good Shepherd, faced his darkest valley and is with us when we go through our darkest valley.  The disciples struggled to stay awake and kept falling asleep and we are told the Good Shepherd gives us sweet rest. Jesus was the living water sand the Shepherd lea...

It took a long time, but the snow has melted from my front lawn. The temperatures have been warm and wonderful the past week and I've been able to get back out at our local Audubon center and walk a few times during the week. The sun has been shining and my energy levels are up. It's been great! My activities have ramped up over the past few weeks as well. This is always a busy time of the year and it seems as if everything is happening all at once this year. I'm leading a leadership webinar next month so am working on that. I'm working on a program for this Friday night, prayer stations for our Good Friday service and getting ready for our district women's conference next month. I have a couple of articles to write. Whew! These are all enjoyable activities, but I also am taking time each day to sit and reflect, to get outside and do the things I love such as walking, hiking and photography. I have been trying to take time to do fun activities so that I'm not ju...

I awoke at 2 a.m. and lay there unable to go back to sleep. There was no good reason for being awake. I hadn't eaten anything different, I didn't fall asleep watching television, and I didn't have caffeine. But I was wide awake! So after tossing and turning for a bit, I used it as an opportunity to pray. I prayed for safety for a few different friends I have that are stuck in the Middle East at the moment and unable to get home.  I prayed for my family, immediate and extended. I prayed for wisdom as I'm juggling many things. I prayed about a webinar I will be leading next month and a conference I am putting together.  At times, I wonder if God really hears my small requests when there are bigger and harder things in the world. I mean my little problems really pale in comparison with the big picture. And our finite minds really cannot comprehend how God can hear all of the prayers of everyone at the same time. However, I had a revelation about this yesterday morning. I w...

  I've been able to get out and hike the past few days and that has made my heart sing. March came in like a lion with more snow and colder temperatures, but there are signs that spring is on the way.  One of the main signs is that animals are starting to make an appearance.  When it does snow it is quick to melt and there is a different feel to the sun.  The rythm of the seasons is a good reminder that no matter what we are going through and how bleak a situation may feel, we will come out the other side. The sun will shine again and we will emerge stronger. It's easy to forget that when we are bogged down in moment. I am thankful for tangible reminders of those truths. There is still some winter to get through, but spring is on the way.  I am thankful.

I've been blogging since 2008 and have written at least 3 times a week during those 18 years. I've had times here or there where I struggled to find inspiration in writing, but for the most part writing has come easy for me.  But this winter has been something else! I think some of my lack of inspiration comes from the fact that it has done nothing but snow since November. A lot of my writing ideas come to me as I walk and hike in nature and take photographs. When I walk I think, pray and meditate and often a thought or prayer or even a picture will turn into writing inspiration.  I'm not opposed to walking in the snow, but because we are down to one car and Dan's schedule is all over the place, my walking has been limited to my neighborhood with the same scenery every day. And it just leaves me with a lack of creative inspiration. Which is why there has been a lack of consistency in my blogging.  I had the terrible thought last night that since my cataract surgery I...

  I was asked to write an article for a women's ministry recently and was given the verses and the topic to write on. I was looking forward to doing this until I pulled out my bible and read the scriptures and discovered they really had nothing to do with the topic. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people cherry pick verses out of the Bible to make them mean what they want them to mean. Good exegesis is the critical, systematic interpretation of a text to discover its original, intended meaning, rather than imposing your own personal biases onto it. The seminary I attended hammered that home to me and yet, I see people doing the opposite all of the time.  Some activities and questions to ask yourself as you read a passage are the following: Read the entire passage. Keep in mind that the the headings, chapter numbers, and verse divisions in modern Bibles are not original to the text. Sometimes you have to read more than the chapter. You can use the following categ...