Life is made up of changes. Whether your transition is exciting or difficult, chosen or forced upon you, change brings stress. I’m in the middle of an ongoing transition that I didn’t choose, would never choose, and had no choice but to accept. I am a caregiver. To cope with all the adjustments called for…
Fifteen-year-old Adriana Nicu lives in the sheltered world of Bucharest, Romania, in the year 1987. Under the rule of Communist president Nicolae Ceaușescu, citizens of Bucharest live with the eyes and ears of the government ever present. Adriana’s future, which will involve becoming an engineer, is locked in against her will. During a visit to…
The Holy Spirit is the member of the Triune God whose role is hardest to define. Can it be that part of his job description includes creating art? He convicts us of sin, guides us into truth, draws us toward Christ, transforms us, and hides the Word in our hearts. He is our comforter, strengthener,…
The women who were Jesus’ great-great-great-ancestors had issues. Their problems might not necessarily qualify them as bad (as in Liz Curtis Higgs’ Bad Girls of the Bible) or even lost (Lost Women of the Bible by Carolyn Custis James), but they had their shortcomings. Only five women are mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew 1:1-16….
Before I moved overseas as a missionary, I learned a phrase guaranteed to help with those inevitable collisions with my new culture and the way they did things. “It’s not wrong. It’s just different.” That one-size-fits-all saying worked for everything. I whipped it out when I wondered what my adopted country had against nice, orderly…
I sat at my laptop, thinking about the many ways I’ve changed by looking at the world through cultural lenses. One thing’s for sure: I couldn’t remain the same. I’ve experienced love from people who valued relationship over agenda, who wouldn’t hesitate to give up their plans for the day to spend time with me….
Balance has always been important to me. I thrive on variety and fear being one-dimensional, so I dabble in a host of things, contorting myself as I try to keep them all suspended mid-air. Until just recently, I felt almost cocky when it came to balance. I thought I had it down. That’s when the…
Every fall, I choose one Christmas decoration to add to my stash. This year, I bought a brass menorah, and I’m not even Jewish. My menorah sits proudly in the middle of my dining room table, a reminder of the Old Testament heritage I share as a Christ-follower. I’ve long wanted to understand more about…
“It was the Sunday I hated most of the whole year,” writes Marlo Schalesky in Empty Womb, Aching Heart. “There was a huge vase at the front of the church filled with dozens of beautiful long-stemmed pink roses. . . One rose for each mother in the congregation. Of course, I wouldn’t receive one because…
Women’s lives are busy. You came to this website because you suspect God has called you to write. But what if you work 40+ hours per week? How do you squeeze one more thing into your already-bursting schedule? We fantasize our best-seller enabling us to hire a housecleaner and write full-time, but that’s not usually…