Blog
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Weekly devotional: An Advent reflection
How do you mark the season leading up to Christmas? It can be a mad and crazy time of parties, shopping, church services and baking. So much so, that we lose the reason for the season, to use that slightly cringey American phrase. One Advent, in my quest to consider the season’s true meaning, I…
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Five Minute Friday: The God who is Near
I love teaching about prayer, and a favorite session is practicing the presence of God. You may be familiar with Brother Lawrence, he the seventeenth-century French monk who intentionally kept God near throughout the day as he prayed, worked in the kitchen, and so on. To emphasize how God is near to his people, I…
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Watercolor Wednesday: Castle in the Mist
As the news has been filled with fairytale stories of a commoner from the former Colonies marrying a prince, it seemed fitting this week to showcase my dad’s abstract of a castle by the water. You can picture this as Windsor, where the wedding will be next May, or perhaps a fortress in the North…
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Watercolor Wednesday: An autumnal farm scene
Growing up in Minnesota, I’d often go with my family to visit my grandparents, both sets of which lived on farms. I took for granted the beauty of the fall colors and the picturesque farms dotted along the way as we drove to Southern Minnesota or Iowa. Now, however, I can bring forth those memories…
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Devotional of the week: Give thanks
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6–7 (NIV) The Pilgrims, devout in their faith, left England in 1608 for Amsterdam in search of religious freedom.…
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Five Minute Friday: Pointing the Finger
You know that spine-shrinking feeling you have when you’ve been caught out at something? They have seen your wrongdoing, named it, and there’s no place to run and no place to hide. You feel exposed, ashamed. You have no excuse. I’ve experienced that sensation, and also the great gift of forgiveness extended to me afterward.…
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Weekly devotional: A joy and an ache
How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young – a place near your…
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Five Minute Friday: Silence (#FMF)
A pregnant pause. A companionable silence. An awkward pause. The sound of silence. Silence – It can be deafening It can be rich Or a source of strength Or a drain of energy Some crave it Others run from it I love a good block of silence in my days. When Mondays come around, I’m…
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Watercolor Wednesday: Days Gone By
This autumn scene speaks to me of an age gone by. A time before electronic devices and everyday mass shootings. A time for reading, gardening, and talking to the neighbors while delivering a homemade cake. But those days had their own challenges, such as people in a minority not having a voice, or cultural expectations…
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Devotional of the Week: Fenced In
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. (Psalm 16) When taking a walk in Minnesota, I noticed a sign: “Dog protected by invisible fence.” Though no barking canine rushed toward me, I knew had there been one, I would have been safe – contrary to the ironic sign. As I considered this…
