FEELING THE NEED for a concentrated time of prayer one morning, I stepped onto the patio with Bible in hand. I felt unsettled and discouraged. Things were not going as I thought they should, and I felt my heart tugging in several directions. The needs in my life seemed numerous. I longed for direction, but my prayers seemed to hang suspended…
THERE’S SOMETHING SCARY and surreal about entering a new year when your life is in upheaval—kind of like looking ahead into a vast unknown. You don’t know if you want to step out into it, but you know you have no choice. Time propels you forward. Whether you choose to take that step or not, you will be there. The…
SITTING BENEATH THE STARS at a Christmas concert in the park, I listened to the familiar strains of “We Three Kings” soaring sweetly into the air. As I lifted my eyes to gaze through the interplay of branches above me, my mind drifted with the words of the song. I thought about those three kings and the star they followed. …
SO HERE WE ARE in the midst of this messy political season– accusations, half-truths and, contradictory statements swirling around us from everywhere. How do we navigate through the confusion to land on the truth of where God would lead us? In the last few weeks my Bible study has been studying Jesus’ letters to the seven churches in Revelation. In…
STANDING AT THE FRONT of the church, I gazed into my husband’s eyes and repeated our wedding vows—promises that would join our lives together in marriage. “I Linda take thee, Marvin, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love…
WHEN YOU KNOW LOSS IS COMING, when does grief begin? Afterwards? Or before? And how do you work through it? Tracy K. Pratt’s book, Anticipatory Grief: The Journey of a Thousand Losses and Endless Grace, is a book I shared three years ago on Heart Talk but want to share again because I believe this book is so important in…
“TREAT HIM LIKE SILVER AND GOLD, LINDA. Treat him like silver and gold.” Jean sat forlornly on the couch, relating to me the bizarre set of circumstances she had recently experienced when her husband collapsed from a heart attack and she was unable to give him the required mouth-to-mouth resuscitation because she had a broken jaw and the doctors had…
WHEN I TRY TO PICTURE my husband entering Heaven, I imagine him surrounded by lots of family members and friends who’ve gone before as they greet him and welcome him to his new home. Occasionally, I also wonder if among the crowd there might be a rambunctious Akita, a fluffy, tail wagging Peek-a-poo, a white cat with the shape of…
THE FLOWERS SENT by my publisher after the death of my husband were beautiful. The red and white roses, settled amidst the drama of orchids and the soft gracefulness of blue hydrangeas blended together in a stunning Christmas arrangement that lifted my spirits in the sad days following my husband’s death. Now the flowers were dying. As I gathered the…
I SEARCH THE HEAVENS, looking for what is unseen by human eyes, wondering where you are, what you’re doing, longing to touch you again, longing to hear your voice. The partition between heaven and earth is vast and is not to be traversed by the living. You are on one side of this vast chasm, I am on the other….