I wrote these lines in August of 2007, when Penny was 20 months old: When Penny was born, among the hundreds of gifts we received was an orchid. And this orchid was like no other orchid we had ever seen. It was beautiful, with dozens of fuchsia blooms. I was intimidated enough by the thought of taking ...

I returned last night from Calvin College's Festival of Faith and Writing. And I'm marking my calendar for 2012. It's a wonderful conference. I heard great speakers, including Scott Cairns, Mary Carr, Eugene Peterson, Sara Miles, and Donna Freitas. They disagree with each other and represent a large ...

"A God you understand would be less than yourself." - Flannery O'Connor (The Habit of Being, 354)

I was in church a few weeks ago, and during communion heard the following hymn (and I wish I could figure out how to let you hear it, but I'm not that technologically adept. Click here to hear a portion, ...

"Almost any spiritual writer ought to wear thin for you. It's like reading criticism of poetry all the time and not reading the poetry. Spiritual writers have a limited purpose and can be very dangerous, I suppose." –Flannery O'Connor, The Habit of Being

I'm headed off this morning to Grand Rapids, Michigan, ...

"Has your book been successful?"

It's a question I get asked regularly these days when I tell strangers that I am a writer। And I'm never quite sure how to respond. I could say, "No. It has sold less than 2,000 copies," and that would be a true (although a bit of a conversation stopping) response. Numbers ...

The Easter bunny didn't visit our house yesterday, but we did eat chocolate eggs and drink some champagne. I have a new post at Christianity Today thinking through my responses to "American Easter" and "Christian Easter". It's called "Caught Between the Easter Bunny and the Empty Grave," and it begins: ...

It's a day of waiting. A day between the cross and the resurrection. The place many of us live most of the time.

My friend Ellen Painter Dollar has written a beautiful and profound essay exploring the reality of Easter hope in the midst of reasons to despair. I recommend it highly, and hope you'll read ...

"...faith comes and goes. It rises and falls like the tides of an invisible ocean. If it is presumptuous to think that faith will stay with you forever, it is just as presumptuous to think that unbelief will..." (Flannery O'Connor, The Habit of Being, 452).

Whenever people ask me my denominational affiliation, ...

I was asked to participate in another "Theoblogger challenge" on the website Patheos. The question I needed to answer, in 100 words or less, was "Why I Need the Resurrection."

Here's my answer:

Shower, breakfast, kids to school, myself to work, go running, make dinner, kids to bed, check email, sleep. ...

It's such a mundane decision. Such a paltry "sacrifice." Don't drink alcohol, except on Sundays, for the next seven weeks. What on earth does that have to do with Jesus' death and resurrection? With sin and salvation? With fullness of life and God's glory?

I remember reading the Exodus account of the ...

Somewhat related to today's earlier post, I have a new post on 843 Acres: What do your neighbors think about Christianity?

It begins:

"They will know we are Christians by our love." At least in my neck of the woods, Christianity is seen as oppressive, intolerant, anti-intellectual and against science. ...

What do a Jewish bisexual woman and a born-again Christian man living on a farm in Alaska have in common? They're brother and sister. Brother Born Again (available on Netflix) is the documentary film that Julia makes as she tries to understand her brother Marc and his decision to leave his culture and ...

On Ash Wednesday, we knew that March would bring with it vacation. Nearly two weeks of vacation, in fact. A week in Virginia with old friends, and then a long weekend in California. And on Ash Wednesday, we made the decision to abstain from alcohol as a Lenten discipline, including those vacation days ...

I met a Wycliffe Bible translator a few years ago. He described the cultural differences he encountered upon living on an island in the Philippines. In a community meeting, people argued vociferously and passionately against one another. The room seemed split almost down the middle on opposing sides. ...

A few years back, I came across a passage in which God instructs the Israelites to set apart six cities as "cities of refuge," places where people may flee if they unintentionally kill another person. (See Deuteronomy 19 for a fuller explanation.) And it struck me then that I also need cities of refuge, ...

First, I have a new post on 843 Acres discussing euthanasia: "Euthanasia and the Right to be a Burden." 

Second, two years ago, I went out to Calvin College's Festival of Faith and Writing, and I'm headed back in April. I'll be leading a "circle" on Writing as Ministry, and I want to invite any and all ...

As readers of this blog know, my husband and I have given up alcohol for Lent. In my initial post on the topic ("Considering Lent: Disruptive Grace"), I wrote about my hope that deliberately changing a habit would open my eyes to see more of God's work in the world. I hoped it would make me more attentive ...

I have a new post on The Park Forum: "Work: A Curse or a Blessing?"

When my husband was in college, he and his roommates were captivated by Christian asceticism. "Beat my body and make it my own," was one of their mottos. This discipline mostly translated into not sleeping much and fasting from meals on a regular basis. It seemed a bit silly to me at the time. "Honor ...

I have a new post on The Park Forum: "When's the last time you visited a prisoner?" about the declining crime and murder rate in America and the subsequent increase in people behind bars.