Re-entry is hard, in many ways even harder than living overseas. In re-entry, you are trying to sort out a massive change in identity,...

“Let Love clasp Grief lest both be drown’d” –“In Memoriam A.H.H.” stanza 1, Lord Alfred Tennyson Love clasping grief as I said goodbye to...

A couple of years ago, I arrived back in Beijing on about March 17. A few days later, I noticed that the lilac bushes in my apartment...

“When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.” John 19:30 As I look back over the season of Lent, these words are helping...

Back in December, I learned about a new (to me) band called Eine Blume on the Velvet Ashes blog.  Their newest album is called Farewell...

During Advent, I spent time with two of my favorite Biblical characters: Zechariah and Elizabeth.  This was an ordinary Israelite couple...

“Reverence may take all kinds of forms, depending on what it is that awakens awe in you by reminding you of your true size.” —An Altar in...

I was talking to a friend and apologized for the grief that my decision to go overseas is causing everyone. She said, “grief is a strong...

Today’s prayer is inspired by the concept of the transition bridge and Psalm 46. You are my “refuge and strength, an ever-present help in...

Today, 50 days after Easter, the church celebrates Pentecost.  We remember God sending the Holy Spirit to the disciples, the beginnings...

Faithful God, I’m waiting, wondering, hoping, working. When life seems foggy, and I can’t se through the haze, Help me to wait hopefully,...

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders,...

I don’t think I have ever been this ready to celebrate Easter.  So much of the last 18 months of my life has been questions, longing,...

Writers pay attention; they notice things.  This was one of my takeaways from Calvin College’s Festival of Faith and Writing.  I want to...