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The One, Two Punch: Choosing Not to Fear
Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. How is your heart today? Seared by that slow motion snuff-film video? Rattled by the riots? Don’t they feel like a one, two gut punch? On top of the virus threat that lurks out there as we begin to venture out? My heart is grieved and angry over that video. And I’ve been ambushed by fear several times in the last few days. Maybe you have too. If you read my April 7th post, you may remember that because of my failure to wholeheartedly trust God during the Great Recession crisis of 2008, I determined…
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Good Friday- Following Jesus into the Light
At the small, country church of my childhood, 3 crosses would be placed by the roadside shortly before the week of Easter. The crosses would be bare or draped in purple for a time and then early in the morning on Good Friday a black cloth would be placed around the middle cross. Black, to symbolize the light of Jesus being extinguished and the heaviness of the world’s sin. It’s not just a figurative darkness, it was a reality for those in the presence of Jesus at the time of his death, for as Luke records: “It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three,…
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Longing for Life After Corona
Last weekend I took to the streets, maintaining social distance, of course, to chat with perfect strangers about the corona situation. The responses were fascinating…
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God What in the World Are You Up To?
Like many of you, my family had church yesterday in our pajamas. The kids got a kick out of worshiping barefoot, however it was a bit unsettling to think this may be our new normal as we “shelter in place” due to Covid-19. I’ve got about one thousand questions about this new normal: Can I survive my children for 4 weeks in our house? When did I run out of topics to discuss with my husband? How do I keep from eating all of my quarantine supplies in one day? But among the surface-level questions, there is a deeper one brewing. I can’t be alone in asking, “God what in…
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Responding to COVID-19: God Already Had It Figured Out
As America grinds almost to a halt as we try to suppress the spread of the Corona Virus, governments are closing things up and shutting things down. As we are instructed to stay in our homes and keep our distance from other people, we are also being encouraged about how to think about these restrictions. We’re hearing pleas to younger people, especially, not to gather in bars and restaurants, because it speeds up the transmission of the virus. This will help protect the physically vulnerable—older folks [um, *wince*—somehow that now includes me] and those with compromised immunity. What strikes me about the messages we are receiving is that God came…
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Trusting God or Toilet Paper
Business Insider commented today about people’s response to COVID-19. In a series of tweets they described the panic buying of toilet paper and other household goods. In Hong Kong, panic-buying of toilet paper began last month. A fight broke out in Australia over toilet paper and in California a crowd grew unruly in Costco when they learned the store was out of toilet paper and other basic items. The BBC speculated that perhaps the most horrible thing we can imagine is being stranded with only one square left on the “loo roll.” Why in the world has Charmin become so important to us? It doesn’t cure any viruses. But when…
