Back in May, I asked my Facebook friends to share songs that celebrated the little joys of life. I asked because I was scared. The frailty and finitude of life was right there, right in front of my face in the form of microcalcifications in my right breast. I waited a month for answers. InContinue reading “Little Joys—Advent”
Tag Archives: Jesus
Sifted As Wheat
Sometime around 2005, the “everything happens for a reason,” feel-good faith of my college years shattered. I had had two miscarriages and health complications that accompanied those losses, and to tell you the truth, God did not feel real close, or real good, or real loving. In fact, I didn’t feel anything for God exceptContinue reading “Sifted As Wheat”
Enter Through the Narrow Gate
“Enter through the narrow gate,” Jesus told his disciples. I’ve been thinking about this narrow gate for a long time, bewildered that God would make a small entrance into his kingdom on purpose to keep people out. Jesus says the only way to the Father is through the Son, that the Son is the Way,Continue reading “Enter Through the Narrow Gate”
What Happens to Suffering When We Pray
This week, my daughter, Lydia, broke one of her arms for the fourth time in six years. There’s never a great time to break a bone, but in my opinion, the start of the summer is the worst time. As I scurried down to church camp to pick her up the day after dropping herContinue reading “What Happens to Suffering When We Pray”
Advent Day 3: Find Bright
I’ve been writing these advent posts knowing my mom will be in treatments for a cancer that is near impossible to cure and a hard one to fight throughout this advent season. There is a child who cries loudly across the hall from my mom’s room where she waits for her next dose and theContinue reading “Advent Day 3: Find Bright”
Advent Day 2: The Advocate
We recently got a new puppy, Isabelle (Izzy for short), a schnauzer/westie mix that weighs just over six pounds right now, a white, wiry haired, wriggling little girl who is the size of a cat with the tendencies of a canine. When I open the utility room door in the morning, she cannons outContinue reading “Advent Day 2: The Advocate”
Advent Day 1: God With Us
Today begins the first of a series of advent posts that consider the coming of Emmanuel, God with us, and what that means to those of us who came over 2,000 years after the Son of God was born in Bethlehem. In one of my favorite Hollywood prayers, Ricky Bobby begins his family meal, “DearContinue reading “Advent Day 1: God With Us”
Facing the Waves
Thursday we learned about my mom’s treatment options. Saturday I attended a funeral for a former colleague. Then another gun violence story in my news feed. Then another friend’s friend’s diagnosis. Then France. One time at the ocean I wanted to get beyond the breaking waves to where the water rolls, deep and even. The waves swelled andContinue reading “Facing the Waves”
Sarah Marie Wells 