I’m in desperate need of a new SUPER GIANT PRINT REFERENCE BIBLE, but my 40 year-old Thompson Chain reminds me of the manifold goodness of God. Recalling who I am and whose I am. It’s still surprising and revelatory. My handwritten margin notes reveal my journey from a young 17 year-old wide eyed Rhoda to 57 year-old Rhoda who can say with conviction: My shoes have not worn out. My clothing has not worn out. Manna has been on the ground.
Read MoreRevival has caught our attention in recent days. Not the gathering around name or brand or flash, but tipping points of the very presence of God. New tents and new soil. Because of our inheritance of rich revival history, my response is always: “Do it again, Lord!”
Read MoreDecember’s end always leads me to the reflecting pool. In this case, I am reflecting on the blurred combined time frame that is now known as March2020tothisday.
Read MoreMy youngest is getting married. May she always know the love of Jesus. May her home be a safe house of abundance, blessing, peace and belonging. May she be known for acts of generosity, love and kindness. May her kitchen be a space filled with extra love and some days, maybe, she can pull out her Hallmark store recipe book filled with her mama’s recipes and make a little something that tastes like her childhood. Especially during peach season.
Read MoreWedding number five is just around the corner. Our baby. She is serving donuts instead of a water fountained tiered cake. I just might tuck a small pink flower in my hair to honor this very last wedding and the very pink day in 1986. Our girl is marrying the most precious young man, raised in a similar garden.
Read MoreWhat if God is saving the best for last in this wild ride of a year? Like a small brown girl, hiding a bottle of grape soda, or a firework designer placing the big burst at the end. Or a gymnast saving her most impressive moves for the end of her routine.
Why does the climax come at the end of a piece of art, music or film, instead of the beginning? Why is dessert offered at the end of the meal, instead of the middle? Perhaps the best is saved for last because it takes time to work through the experience and have an experience work through you to be made ready for the best. Maybe we would never truly appreciate the best, the sweetest or the strongest too early in any given experience.
Read MoreIf you haven’t organized and reorganized every box, bin, cabinet and drawer in 2020, it’s safe to say you might never get to it. I’m not the best organizer, but I love organized things and I have a particular love for retrieving old family memorabilia and slowly sifting my way through the volume and breadth of memories in a distinct way. Running my hands over paper and returning it to it’s resting place, honoring the significance, is one of my delights.
Read MoreFor so many years I held a very specific view of this woman. I used to think of her like a character in a country music video. The one where she’s at a bar late at night with smoky eyeliner, a tight t-shirt and second hand jeans, played by Carrie Underwood, and she catches the eye of an innocent cowboy wearing a pearly snapped western shirt and crisp dark wrangler jeans.
Read MoreI learned 3 weddings ago that the whole point of fashioning arrows, the lifetime labor of laying foundations of faith, of truth, of purpose and belonging was to draw those arrows back and let them soar. Fashioning arrows. This thing I loved with every fiber of my being. This wrangling of kids and chaos and baseball games. The lifetime of clearing piano books and soccer balls and girl scout cookie sleeves littered in my big white conversion van. The figuring out of what to make for dinner for the 10,950th time.
Read MoreMy grandchildren might one day ask me about 2020. They might have a name assigned to this unique Awakening. This year of medical, cultural and spiritual crisis. The Great Shaking. The Great Disruption. The Uprooting.
The Great Revealing.
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