I wish I had called my parents more often during those busy years of raising our two girls. Mom and Dad didn’t often call me; they waited to hear from me first. They said they knew we had a lot going on and didn’t want to bother us when it
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Our culture suffers from a pervasive feeling that we are never enough, that our work is never enough. We are weary, not just from lack of physical rest, but even more so from a lack of spiritual rest. Judith Shulevitz, in a New York Times article, described our need for
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Being a person of integrity. It’s simple but it’s hard. When we think of what it means to be a person of integrity, most of us think of it as being honest and morally upright. Doing the “right thing.” But if you look the word up in the dictionary, you
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We recently returned to attending the 1115 worship service in person. Although our ministers, church staff, audio visual staff, music staff and singers, bell ringers, etc. (and no doubt many others operating behind the scene) did an outstanding job and made on-line worship into a meaningful experience over the past
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Sometimes God astonishes us with the miracles He works in our presence, and at other times He chooses to work miracles more quietly through us. He lets us struggle a little bit, and we have to work through our circumstances with Him. In the gospel lesson from Sunday’s worship service,
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This week's lay devotion was written by Kim Wu: I wanted to have a beautiful cutting garden for flowers this summer. My sister has had one in her yard for several years, and all summer long she creates beautiful bouquets with the assortment of flowers she grows. She shared some
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Fans of the Doctor Who television series are familiar with the TARDIS, the time machine and spacecraft that looks like a small blue telephone booth, but is bigger on the inside than it is from the outside. The main character enters through a small opening, only to find himself in
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One of the mental images that have endured from my reading of The Shack by William P. Young, is of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a joyful dance together, and they are inviting Mack to join them in that dance. Some take exception to the theology in the
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Although I was raised in the Methodist church, I quit attending once I went away to college. I think that sometimes happens because we haven’t really taken the step to fully claim our parents’ faith as our own. In my case, the seeds had been planted, and if asked, I
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Mom was out in the garden picking green beans the morning of Dad’s funeral. It was late July, and the garden was in full swing, with vegetables ripe for the picking every day. Dad was a prolific gardener; he loved it. Growing up, I often heard him proudly naming each
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