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Devotional Memoir

Prodigal, part 1

“How did he turn out that way?” my teenaged son asks. We’re standing at the kitchen table. On summer vacation in Arizona. 

He’s distressed. Witnessing up close the rage and deceit of someone he’s trusted and admired. The downhill slide is shocking.

“It probably started with one lie,” I say. “Then another. And another. Until finally he was living a lie.” 

What I do not know at the time of that conversation will come to light a month later. The fact that our son has been lying to us. For a while.

And has moved to “a far country” of deceit fueled by anxiety. Even as he lives within the four walls of our home. 

Prodigal.

The father of lies is after his very soul. 

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Crossing Cultures Making Disciples Memoir

Parenting in the spiritual battle

The journals come in all sizes. Most have survived extremes. Dust and drought. Mold and humidity. It shows. 

They hold my life records. The common, daily occurrences of a cross-cultural life. The ongoing spiritual battle. 

And the struggles of our children in the midst of it all.

Constant illnesses. Anxieties. Hurt. Fears.

In dust and drought. Mold and humidity.

A few journals from the collection.
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Crossing Cultures Devotional

Entering the land

“What’s it like entering a new country and culture. How do you prepare?” Her questions take me back to the early days. Of crossing borders and dwelling in the land. 

My mother’s passport in the 1960s. Vintage. It includes my photograph and lists me as an accompanying minor.

My reading the next day is Joshua 1-4. God’s people are leaving their wilderness wanderings and entering the promised land. 

The context and purpose differs, but in the preparation of God’s people, I find strategic practices.  For entering the land. 

Whether that land is across the river, across the street or across the ocean.