Then at last, as they stood for a moment looking out toward the sea and Cair Paravel (which they could just now make out) the red turned to gold along the line where the sea and sky met and very slowly up came the sun. At that moment, they heard from behind them a loud … Continue reading “And There Was No Aslan”
April 5 Life is fleeting, I read in Ecclesiastes. Make us aware of our end, the Psalmist asks. We came from dust and to dust we’re returning, God says. And yet there are gifts under the sun. Like Sunday afternoons picking guitars on the patio, dangling bare feet off the dock, reading Narnia, visiting neighbors, … Continue reading Something New Under the Son
March 22 Today’s been strange. I didn’t go to church, didn’t talk to my friends or take notes or play on worship team. I didn’t leave my house. I’m tired of hearing about the coronavirus, but it isn’t something I can ignore. Or should. But that also doesn’t make it my focus. God is. And … Continue reading Two Reasons to Thank God Today
I brush my teeth at a window that overlooks our side yard, where we’ve got tarps stretched under the evergreen trees and anchored by cement blocks. Each morning looks like the last— drab skies and winter wind over the tarped ground, my elbows on the windowsill. It’s barely March and I’m achy under spring fever. … Continue reading Spring Fever and Our Longing for Something New
In C. S. Lewis’s Prince Caspian, Lucy Pevensie shakes awake her siblings to announce she’s seen the lion, Aslan. “I can’t see anything,” said Peter after he had stared his eyes sore. “Can you, Susan?” “No, of course I can’t,” snapped Susan. “Because there isn’t anything to see. She’s been dreaming.”[i] But Susan later admits … Continue reading A Pevensie, a Pharisee, and the Imagination to See Reality
February 2 Do you remember my Sunday Afternoon Snippet at January’s start— The "Why" Behind Our Resolutions? One of my resolutions for 2020 is to build an online platform from which my writing can be shared and spread. But why? That’s a question I’ve been grilling myself with. Because I joined Instagram this week. In … Continue reading I’m on Instagram! Here’s Why
January 5 I’m going to be honest. New Year’s resolutions are often a way I scramble for control— over my health, my schedule, my dreams, my relationships, my life. At the root can be a self-consumed motive to be better, do better, look better. God is unmasking that sin inside me and piloting me on … Continue reading The “Why” Behind Our Resolutions
Something stopped me from full-throttle resolution-writing this week. I realized the last 365 days have been some of the most pivotal in my life. I don’t want to leap into a new year—much less the next ten—without stopping, looking over my shoulder, and saying, “God, you’ve done lovely, mighty things.” Before we speed into January … Continue reading Look Back Before You Look Ahead: 6 Lessons from 2019
December 8 I’m a no-Christmas-music-before-Thanksgiving stickler. But this year, I broke my own rule in October because Andrew Peterson released his first recorded album of Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb is a collaborative Christmas production that’s been in the works for twenty years. Every December, Christian artists join at the Ryman Auditorium … Continue reading Behold the Lamb of God
Christmas is closing in and I’ve been thinking about Jesus’s grandfathers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David. These were men with staffs in their hands and wool in their beards. Centuries before sheep and herdsmen welcomed Jesus into the world, shepherding personified Israel. Then came the age of kings and “shepherd” took on a new, royal … Continue reading The Shepherd of all Shepherds
