“Where you go, I will go… your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” — Ruth 1:16I remember sitting at a kitchen table one afternoon, watching a woman I knew, not my mother, though she might as well have been, move around the room as if she had always belonged there. She wasn’t loud, and she didn’t make speeches. Instead, she simply showed up. She cooked, checked in, and asked the questi...

“He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”— John 10:3–4 (NIV)I have a phrase I come back to when life gets uncertain. When the path isn't clear and I don't know what's next, I remind myself to just do the next right thing.Not the whole plan. Not the five-year vision. Just ...

“If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”The other day, something happened at home that stayed with me longer than I expected. For a few weeks now, my husband Ed has kept saying, “I need to go to the eye doctor. I need new glasses.” Now, this man has several pairs of glasses, and somehow he keeps losing them. One day at work, he forgot the pair he need...

Colossians 3:17Next month will mark the 16th year since I retired from parish ministry. It was not because I was too old, or ineffective in doing what I was tasked to do as a Pastor. In fact, I retired much prematurely per United Methodism standards. Very often people are afraid to retire because they do not know what they are going to do when the usual daily activities are no longer required of t...

I was all alone in the house with my thoughts last Wednesday, sitting behind my desk remembering about our son Philip. You see, last Wednesday, March 11, was his birthday. He would have been 42 years old were it not for the untimely drowning accident that took him away from us on March 27, 2004, just sixteen days after his 20th birthday. He was a Sophomore at the George Washington University worki...

Life has a way of feeling like a long race. Some mornings, we wake up ready to move with strength and hope. Other days, we feel out of breath before we even begin. Yet the Apostle Paul reminds us that faith is not meant to drift. Faith is meant to move. He invites us to run in such a way that our lives reflect purpose, direction, and holy determination.When we think about athletes, we see discipli...

“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” — Psalm 23:4If you live long enough, you learn that faith is not only about where God is taking you. Much of faith is about how God keeps you while you are on the way. The road of life does not always move in straight lines. Some days feel like green pastures and still waters. Other days feel like valleys wh...

The Roman philosopher Seneca once wrote, “Difficulties strengthen the mind as labor strengthens the body.” Though he was a Roman philosopher, far removed from the world of ancient Israel, his observation rings with a truth the Bible affirms again and again: God allows challenges, not to break us, but to form us, mature us, and draw us closer to his heart.In scripture, trials are never meaningless....

Every Saturday morning, I take part in a Bible study. Last Saturday, our scripture was Mat.5:13-20. “You are the light of the world”, Jesus said. He continued by saying: “A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that the...

Inspired by Rev. Dubuisson’s “SEASON OF REST” preaching series, I have been spending some time thinking about the meaning of REST for the believer. One thing that becomes clear is that looking at REST in the spiritual realm is quite different from looking at it in just the physical realm, even though that is usually where we start.Browsing through the Bible, we first find REST in the book of Genes...