I just returned from the Wednesday afternoon farmer’s market with: Dead ripe tomatoes (my addiction) Bi-color sweet corn Imperfectly shaped green peppers Peaches so ripe they exploded out of their skin when I bit into one Homemade pasta Asiago breadsticks Mixed olives in anise olive oil Locally bottled white Sangria Garlic-dill jack cheese made by a small WI dairy I am very aware that this is what blessing tastes like. And I’m grateful… * * * * * * *... Read more

Make it stop. When stuff in our lives goes through a radical rearrangement – meaning, we’re forced into some sort of change – more than anything, we want the discombobulation to stop. We want the old normal. Or the new normal. Anything but this horrible confusion that leaves us feeling like we’re bobbing around in the middle of a stormy ocean wearing only a Looney Toons inflatable swim ring. Make it stop. One of the most helpful books I ever... Read more

Harry Jerome Marks July 19, 1933-July 19, 1997 Ten years ago today, my father died on his 64th birthday, losing his 17-month battle with leukemia. There were so many events I would have love to have shared with him, so many funny stories he would have loved to have shared, and moments from my kids’ lives he would have relished. He was a pretty simple guy – he loved a good steak, Johnny Carson, fixing stuff and telling stories. And... Read more

Where are they? Where are the 18-30 year olds? We know they’re not attending standard-issue church. And they’re mostly not attending the alternative churches developed to “reach” them. This issue has been analyzed and analyzed some more, by people way smarter than I. That’s not the purpose of this post. The Good Shepherd leaves the 99 (who are sitting in pews, slick auditoriums, and rented elementary school gyms) to find the 1. He doesn’t chase down that renegade sheep in... Read more

Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in His wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace This is my prayer for my children, my son-in-law and grandson…and for my husband and myself. What else is there to ask for? Read more

A near-perfect grandma day: Sitting in those butt-numbing chairs in an 76 db McDonald’s Playland, watching your almost four-year-old grandson run and laugh, then going to the grocery store and letting said grandson sit in the front of one of those mutant shopping carts that looks like a fire engine while you shop, then watching some hideous cartoons on TV (when did newer cartoons become so visually ugly? And why?), then going to church with grandpa where the child hated... Read more

When I was about to turn six, I really wanted a Barbie house for my birthday. When I sixteen going on seventeen, I remember crushing on a pair of Frye boots, and insisting that they would be the birthday gift of my dreams. When I was twenty-nine (for the first time, as I often joke about being 29 again every year), I am pretty sure my birthday list included major appliances. Sitting on the bubble of turning 48, all I... Read more

Because my husband was preaching this morning, I had an opportunity to mediate on Luke 8:28-39 this week. Those thoughts became a reading he used to introduce the story of the text. I’m sharing it because I wondered if some of you might find this creative recounting of the story an encouragement. * * * * * * * He terrified them. They were all relieved when he “relocated” from town to live in his own personal ghetto – the... Read more

“I’m fed up with Christians these days,” my friend said on the phone last night. She’s spent the last few years living in very intense, intentional discipleship and faith community settings. She’s put her own heart and attitudes both under a microscrope, simultaneously allowing them to be projected onto a big screen in the name of transparency, healing and spiritual growth. She’s experienced the kind of kingdom-radical transformation most of us can only dream of. She was a poster girl... Read more