As the wife of a music pastor, the words “praise and worship” carry a lot of connotations and ideas with them that I don’t have time to go into here. But one of the things about being involved in leading church music is this: Sometimes I have to praise God when I don’t feel like it. And I have to do it in front of people. Now, I know that may sound like I’m saying that I sometimes I’m being fake and just putting on a show. But no. Actually, the truth is that when I get up to sing with…
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There are so many “how” questions I could write on. I had trouble deciding which direction to go with this one. But in the spirit of the theme of community, I settled on exploring the question “How are you doing?” These days we commonly ask “How are you?” as a greeting, not an actual question to which we expect an open and honest answer. But I think we also long to have someone look us in the eye and really care about the truth. How are you really doing, friend? How is your health? How is your walk with the…
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I have been contemplating the idea of comfort often of late. There are many ways we seek comfort in life: comfort food, comfy clothes, a cozy blanket on the couch, hot tea on a chilly morning. And those are just examples of physical comfort. As modern Americans, we do not like to be uncomfortable. We like to be happy and healthy. And when we are uncomfortable we want to fix it. I’m not saying being comfortable is all bad. We need some level of peace and rest in life to recover. But this life is not free of pain, discomfort…
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I took a little liberty with the timer on this one today because I wanted to try something different. It has been many years since I have tried writing any poetry, and this is a rather sorry attempt. But in the spirit of the “creativity” part of my theme this month, I decided to give it a shot anyway! Enjoy! When Hope Breaks Through When hope breaks through, The darkness flees. When hope breaks through, My heart soars free. Amidst the dark and stormy nights, I find a deep and lasting peace, When hope breaks through. When hope breaks through…
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When I first saw today’s prompt of “share” I thought I would go in the obvious direction of community, friendship, etc. Thus the photo I chose to today’s graphic. But this morning my devotional contemplations led me in a different vein of thought, so here goes nothing! Timer on… This morning my devotional meditation was about feeling pain but not acting out of pain. As I meditated on that idea, I was also thinking about why we are supposed to feel pain and suffering. The Bible says that we are to share Christ’s sufferings so that we may rejoice all…