Your Road Home

In this season we are all celebrating the birth of Christ. Gifts, songs, beautiful lights and decorations, being with others. All...

“A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”  Isaiah 53:3a (NASB) We all have or will experience grief in some way in our lives. Our...

One fall, when our children were young, we went on a trip to the Northeast to visit family and friends. One phase of our trip involved riding the Amtrak train from Boston to New York. As it was October, we had hoped to see some of the famously beautiful fall colors. To our great disappointment, the windows were so dirty that we could hardly see anything. In the Scriptures we read, “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shal

Several years ago, a popular Christian song aptly referred to this very important warning. Here are the lyrics to “I Wish We’d All Been Ready”, by Larry Norman.                   Life was filled with guns and war 
                  And everyone got trampled on the floor. 
                  I wish we'd all been ready.                   Children died, the days grew cold
                   A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold 
                  I wish we'd all been ready....

Jesus said, “Come to Me and learn of Me…My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”                      (Matthew 11:28-30)                In my previous entry, I wrote about the “burden” we share or help others to carry, and the “load” that each of us needs to carry. (Galatians 6: 2,5) This picture made me smile, because it reminded me of myself. In the summer after graduating from college, I went on a trip for several weeks. I chose to use a backpack, rather than a rolling sui

Life is hard. Tragedies. Disease. Loss. Grief. Despair. Loneliness. All of these bring to mind a mixture of deep and hard emotions. We all will experience some or many of these situations, what is the right way to handle these situations? What would Jesus do?  What does the Bible teach us? Bearing/sharing a burden Some people may be prone to never ask for, nor accept help when the “burden” is definitely too much to bear alone.  However, the Apostle Paul writes in his letter t

“Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” Proverbs 31:25, 26 (NASB) When I think of my mother, I think of so many of the “fruits of the Spirit” that she demonstrated to me and to so many others.  One that I especially love is kindness. The verses I quoted from Proverbs are perhaps very familiar ones,  but should never be overlooked because of their familiarity.  When I p

As we celebrate and remember all that happened on that first Holy Week, it is important to see the progression. On “Palm Sunday”, Jesus rode into Jerusalem to the praises of the people calling out, “Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”. (Matt. 21:9) Jesus may have come into Jerusalem humbly riding on a donkey, but He soon showed His strength and purpose for coming, by the way He overturned the money changers in the Temple. Jesus accused them of greed and

Recently many celebrated “St. Patrick’s Day”, as a day when those of Irish descent remember a person who was very important to the history of that country. I am not of Irish descent, but I was curious about the story of this man.   He was actually born in England, (around 386 AD, although this is not definite) and given the name Maewyn Succat. At the age of 16, Irish raiders captured him and kidnapped him away from his parents’ home,  and enslaved him in Ireland.  He wrote i

We just had a month that is symbolized by “love”. Hearts, flowers and/or chocolates, and “Valentine’s Day” cards are given out to those we love (or to other classmates for those in grade school). But, underneath the commercialized items that are heavily promoted, what if you are experiencing anything but love? Underneath what others may think is a “happy, loving home”, there may be anger, frustration, resentment, or bitterness; unmet expectations and deep disappointments, or

No one is ever completely shielded from the presence of chaos to some degree. Even the most intentionally organized person will experience the discomfort of undesired stress and chaos. It is a basic, existential reality of the world we live in. Loss, disease, disappointments, fear… are all like pieces of a massive puzzle that has suddenly been overturned and mixed up. The busy-ness and pressures of life can feel like the overwhelming noise and chaos of being stuck in a traffi

Many people often start the New Year with resolutions, or goals to achieve in the upcoming months. However, more often than not, it becomes a common joke to see how quickly those goals are abandoned.  As I thought about how I wanted to start this year with these blog entries, I immediately thought of 2 very important people in my life and how this month of the year is significant! Those 2 people are my parents. They were married on January 2, 1949 and before my Dad passed awa