Month: June 2017

You never really know how many people you do not like or wish to forget until you try to come up with a name for a baby. Old flames are immediately eliminated even if they had really cool names like Dash or Blaire. You find a name you adore but when you run it by your spouse, he/she frowns; “Yeah, no. That was the name of a teacher who made sixth grade a living hell for me.” Even the names of respected relatives present you with untenable choices. My maternal grandfather was named Olive. Lisa’s paternal grandfather was named Volley. … Read more…

Everywhere we ever lived, my father planted a garden. And when he had the acreage for it, it was more like a G-a-r-d – BY GUM – e-n! He sowed rows and rows of corn, peas, potatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries and tomatoes. Early on, he plowed behind a horse named Mollie. She was as enthusiastic about his passion as were his children. Which is to say not at all. Later, he bought a tractor and put Mollie out to pasture. We children, however, were irreplaceable. While Mollie peacefully grazed, we pulled weeds, hoed roes and harvested “the crop.” I think … Read more…

In the last two weeks, Manchester, Portland, London and Tehran have all witnessed deadly terrorist attacks. I have a friend, years younger than I, who is enduring chemotherapy, highly invasive surgery and a severely limited quality of life. I sat with a new couple at church last Wednesday night who told me about their developmentally disabled daughter. She lived years longer than doctors expected but not long enough for the parents who loved her. I told them about my late sister, Jean. We traded stories through tears. Many folks firmly believe that the earth is slowly but inexorably heating up … Read more…

Last week, I shared three ways to kiss regret goodbye. You can read about confession, restitution and taking God’s promises of forgiveness seriously here. But the Bible has much more to say about how to evict a past that is living rent free in your head. I hate it when authors tell me to do this, but read that last sentence again. The very fact that regret is a recurring theme in scripture suggests that you are not the first to wish you could get a do-over or two. Or three. In fact, just this week, I passed a church … Read more…