Saturday joys
Despite the rain, the Palatine Farmer’s Market is fairly busy this morning. In early summer, the offerings are sometimes slim, but this morning in late July, each table (carefully tented with makeshift tarps) is piled [...]
Self-discovery through service
When my son Aaron had to write an essay in school this year about a difficult experience in his life, he chose to write about having to go to a Christian summer camp for a [...]
Book give-away winners
Three lucky blog readers have won a free copy of Deeper into the Word ! they all participated by simply answering the question, what gets in the way of reading your bible? Like many of [...]
What gets in the way?
Spoiler alert: Giving away free books. Leave a comment to enter the drawing! I grew up in a church that taught me to love God’s word. That was the up side. The down side was [...]
Living a missional life
I haven't posted for a few days because I've been enjoying having my daughter back home. She's quite jet-lagged and experiencing a bit of what I call "culture dissonance," but home. She had a marvelous [...]
What are you giving up, and what are you taking up?
So often we reduce the season of Lent, if we acknowledge it at all, to giving up some indulgence. But this "spiritual spring" is also a season of "taking up." We take up our cross, [...]
Spring Cleaning for the Soul
Ash Wednesday, 2011 The horizon—the color of ashes—promises a storm. The muddled snow, which had been melting, is arrested by the returning cold. Lent, a somber season, seems the practice even of my leafless gray [...]
How to study Scripture
If you received my newsletter this week, here’s the free article mentioned there. If you’d like to reprint this article elsewhere, just contact me for permission. If you just want to share the link, go [...]
Choosing to trust
Living with teenagers is like sailing a small ship on a rolling ocean. You have to constantly adjust to keep your balance. It’s full of surprises: like last week, when my daughter asked if I’d [...]
The Simple Compassion Challenge
This month, we're asking readers to perform one act of Simple compassion each week, and to tell us about it. You can watch my YouTube video explaining the challenge here. Each week, you pray, asking [...]