Devotionals

How Good It Is, Jason Silver https://youtu.be/0CN2V6rczYU Psalm 147 is really a doxology, a liturgical pattern of praise, opening with an imperative for us to praise, and closing with an imperative to praise. Our praise sandwiches God’s promises. Praise the Lord. Why? Because it is good to sing praises to our God; it is pleasant,… Continue reading Build

Rattle! Elevation Worship https://youtu.be/xrAdbH28gIg Megan is a dear friend who lived in our basement mother-in-law suite of our farmhouse-style home. She was a college student who really ended up being an integral part of our family, and she loved hanging around with our children. In those early days of motherhood, she was an intrinsic part… Continue reading Rattled

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9_rtzO3JfY We have all experienced them. A shattered business endeavor; a disappointed dream; a wayward child. Like a stillborn child, the dream is unable to be resuscitated. We are left wounded, devastated, hope deferred and our path deterred. When the rug is pulled out from under our feet; when we find ourselves on a detour… Continue reading Try

Remembrance, Hillsong Worship https://youtu.be/EDtT3UMHYBg In honor of this closing season of Lent, and as we look to Resurrection Sunday, I pause again to remember. We honor our memory when we put together a baby book for our new child, or when we compile pictures from our vacation, or when we ask an octogenarian to tell… Continue reading Remember

Anchor, Hillsong Worship https://youtu.be/87GYkLfQQ-8 Eye of the Storm, Ryan Stevenson https://youtu.be/X2FqFLKisys “The normal human ego is built on something besides God.”Søren Kierkegaard, paraphrased  A devastating passage, for those who do not have an anchor. Is it any wonder so many are without hope? Our culture builds security on seemingly everything and anything but God:  a… Continue reading Anchored

https://youtu.be/ZyfUdwGBjtk “Heal so that you can hear what is being said without the filter of your wounds.” Dr. Thema I wonder if Mary ever felt claustrophobic in the midst of her circumstances, an unwed pregnant teen, looking for a way out of a tight spot. No elbow room or give in the taut and tense… Continue reading Shaping Your Space

Hallelujah Even Here, Lydia Laird https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REZ5Z-FVus0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REZ5Z-FVus0 “So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe--people and things, animals and atoms--get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death,… Continue reading Space

Your Hand Upon Me, Eric Grover. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ipt5dShWik My precious mother is sentimental. The ping-pong table, which is in the basement of the farmhouse where I grew up, is her quilting workstation, at which she is surrounded by colorful stacks and luscious wardrobes of fabric. The old beloved Barbie house Dad built for my sister and… Continue reading Hemmed In

God, I Look to You/Hallelujah Even Here, Lydia Laird https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR5IoWH9OiI Jenn Johnson Overwhelmed, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6oxXwRWFTo Big Daddy Weave “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21 There’s no question that circumstances in my life were leaving me feeling overwhelmed. Happy, feel-good dreams I’d repeatedly had of moving to a new house… Continue reading Overwhelmed

In the Secret, Sonicflood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU4U8_wMdRs “In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.”  Isaiah 30:15 It is a personal victory when I can simply remain silent when what I really want to do is talk, complain, or rant. In my personal culture, my inner resolve is… Continue reading Quiet