Spiritual Practice
The disciplines which connect us to God.
Related topics: Christian Music, Creativity and Art, For Reflection, Life of Worship
LATEST POSTS
lament: a perspective on sadness in the bible
Wanna know something that drives me crazy? Happiness. Not all happiness. I’m very pro-happiness. I just don’t like fake happiness. You know, the kind people show you at church when you ask them how they’re doing. People put on the smile, and tell you, “I’m doing...
on re-learning how to pray
Sitting there in the darkened room while the book study DVD rolled on the screen to my right, I experienced the most jarring realization. We've been doing it all wrong. Since my children were babies, we've practiced the folding of hands for prayers--tucking...
lessons mom never shared
Storm clouds roll in thick, billowy and dark, blowing small branches and leaves across the field of wildflowers where butterflies make their habitat, laying flat the flowers and thicket on which they find their life and breath. One butterfly frail and tattered lays...
when our prayers don’t add up
“The words started out comforting enough,” Cheryl told me. “My friend told me how sorry she was that I’d lost my job. But then she proceeded to tell me that I must be praying wrong. And that if I was praying in faith and trusting God to provide for us, I’d have a...
craving desperation
When’s the last time you've been truly desperate for something? A love returned, a paycheck to provide food for your family, or maybe for God to return a wayward child? You can hardly breathe due to the tension wrapping its gnarly fingers around you. You find...
breath by breath
I am wound too tight by schedules and piles these days while quiet lingers always out of grasp, and so many bodies in tight spaces can overwhelm a heart longing for reverberation. His voice, it seems, comes to me like pond ripples, such a subtle vibration that I’m...
rainy day resistance
Wearing her pink and green pajama pants and an overcoat, she scuffs through the kitchen into the garage. Kicks off her fuzzy slippers and pushes her feet into dirty garden shoes; balancing one foot at a time while holding her camera inside a plastic grocery bag....
does gratitude drip from your lips?
All moments funnel into one, swirl faster in eye-blurring fury and collide, shatter in slow motion. Metal against metal. I see the bike spin and slide across the concrete. D slams the car to a stop in the middle of the road and leaps out. I freeze in my...
the flip side of sadness
Last night I had some company. First to show up in my dream was my cousin John with the crazy staccato laugh, huge heart and endless pranks. He and his brother George were always up to something. When they were little, they asked my Aunt Esther if they could...
and the heavens declare
Thunder trembles the ground. There isn’t a response from my soul other than to shiver. I am safely inside, but my respectful fear keeps me in agreement that thunder is still scary. It’s like hearing the throne room of God. A low rumbling that reminds one that she...
an archer’s surrender
Be it my camera or my husband’s .22 rifle, I want my aim to be right on target, bulls-eye center. I’m drawn to hobbies that run parallel with my talents. Similar to you, I imagine, I like to do things that I am good at, things that I already have some sort of...
a different kind of workout
I go to the gym five days a week to torture myself. Why? Well 15 years ago it was about having the sculpted body for all the ladies to swoon over me, not that it ever happened, but it was a goal nonetheless. When I realized that I was getting nowhere with that...
for those who walk in darkness
It shatters my slumber, the voice through the monitor. "Gramma. Gramma!" It's still dark. Sigh. Why can't she pull her own blanket up or reach the pillow from the floor? I scootch up high and swing legs over and around the cat. I palm the walls, slide heel-toe down...