On a recent trip to the garden center, I was hoping to select a flowering plant that would continue to produce beautiful blossoms throughout the entire summer. The clerk told me...

Visiting Ruth in the hospital, I realized I had seen her many times at worship services but did not really know her. “My brain has been scanned so many times,” she...

By late winter most of us have had enough of seeing bare, lifeless branches. Judging by the bigger picture, the color, warmth, and vibrance of spring seem far off. But if...

In my earliest ministry with the youth at a small church, I had to start from scratch with no resources. Although I had no idea what I was doing, I also...

Once again I couldn’t sleep. Unresolved fear and anxiety became magnified by the dark quiet. Praying only made me focus on my troubles even more and question if God really cared....

Hurricane Harvey, a Category Four storm, touched down on the Texas middle coast in August 2017. After four days of intense rains, some areas were deluged by more than 40 inches...

While I was in India staying with a woman named Nalini, a man named Kumar called round to help us organize a music workshop. Nalini invited him to stay for lunch....

My sister-in-law and I had great plans for our girls’ getaway, and we had traveled hundreds of miles to our destination. We were going to take lots of early morning walks,...

I was 89 years old when illness and depression forced me to enter a long-term care facility. There I faced the combined challenges of physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental exhaustion. Being...

When our grandsons were ages 4 and 6, my husband underwent chemotherapy. We wondered how the outward changes in him would affect them. After a momentary look of concern, four-year-old Seth...