Categories
Crossing Cultures Making Disciples

Keep singing

The wilderness soundtrack sounds like desert thirst. Barren field. Little fruit. 

We sit in a conference with workers from some of those fields. Where the gospel has been sung. Refrain after refrain. 

To no response.

Their voices strain at the chords. Lament in the place of veiled hearts. Where darkness is palpable. 

I remember. The struggle to keep singing in the land where captives remained captive. Hearts closed to the One and Only.

Keep singing. Photo by John Price, Unsplash
Categories
Crossing Cultures Making Disciples Memoir

The long obedience

My parents are cleaning out cabinets. And bookshelves. 

They’ve done this before. Purging. For moves across states and across the world.

But this is different. A time for downsizing. Studying space. Deciding what will fit in the next spot. 

They’ll move to a smaller place. One of these days. So now they are paring down. Letting go. 

They push things into my hands when I express interest in a painting. A book. “Take it.”

Faithful. Mom and Dad, 2019.
Categories
Devotional Making Disciples

God speaks

We walk. Blue-skied afternoon. Fallen leaves swirling on the path. Picked up and scattered by the wind. 

An after-Thanksgiving-dinner tradition, this walk takes us through shade and cold. To places in the sun. Beside the lake. Where water moves, reflecting rays.

The after-Thanksgiving-dinner walk through the neighborhood.

Conversations and laughter accompany this walk. As we breathe cool air in the shifting light.  

The evidence of God’s creation and Presence is all around us on that restful stroll through the neighborhood. And I think about the ways God speaks. Breathes. And moves.