More Than You Bargained For
If eternal salvation is a gift from God through Jesus, it means that the only thing required to receive it is either asking for it or “holding out your hands to take hold of it.” If anything more than that—weekly…
Those Damn Questions
I realized today that questions make people uncomfortable, and the askers of those questions are not so great, either. I don’t know, however, if I should call it a breakthrough. Maybe it’d be better characterized as a memory. Do you…
When Clarity is Needed
In The Power and the Glory, considered by many to be Graham Greene’s masterpiece, the whisky priest is on the run in Tabasco, a state in Mexico where Catholicism was outlawed in the 1930s. Priests are being rounded up and…
The Silent Treatment
I wake up in the morning and, after figuring out what day it is, think, “Hey, I get to write today. I wonder what I’ll say.” It’s a nice thought. For more than a year, I was in the habit…
Out of Captivity
I feel like, after a lifetime behind bars, someone has opened the door of my cell (and yes, it was locked by others) and let me walk free. I turn to look back, and I finally get to see my…
Bring It
I spent my life not speaking up for myself. More regrettably, the last 25 years have included way too many instances of me not speaking up for my six children. I learned this reticence from my parents. My mother’s life…
Confession
After a Lifetime of Lies, It’s Time to Face the Truth I have been avoiding this post, but doing so is taking a physical toll, and I can’t put it off. A small, shivering wave of anxiety comes over me…
Pattern Recognition
I face an important decision each morning when I get downstairs and lift the blind on the window behind my desk: do I awaken my computer and check in with the world or live in blissful ignorance for a little…
Which Words?
I could fill your inbox with words, day after day. Most of the posts I write and publish now end up at about half the length at which they begin: and that’s just counting the words that I type. The…
Just Read the Book
Well, I must say that I was surprised to find a (Collecting Thoughts Press) post from The Before Times (March 2019: remember what the world was like then?) that made me smile and made me think, Yup. Still applies. Since…
Being Honest with a Friend Should Not Require Courage
When my fourth child was almost a year old, I had an important conversation with a friend, but I had no idea, at the time, how important it would be. Perhaps I should look her up and reach out again,…
Are You Threatening Me?
The husband of a sister-in-law wore a t-shirt emblazoned with a vintage political “pairing” to the most recent family Christmas gathering: “Reagan/Bush 84.” This fellow and I were standing in the kitchen, where the conversation was lagging. Therefore, I decided…
