The most unwanted assignment
Sitting in my car at that gas station on that winter afternoon, staring at Isaiah 58:1, I began to cry ... Oh. Lord. Not. This. Assignment.
When Christian leaders reject God
I saw it for the first time in a meeting I called and led. No. Actually: I realized then what I had been seeing for years. It broke my heart. I’ve tried to tell the story twice before. Both times, I described what happened in that meeting, but did not include any backstory. Now it’s time to write the whole story. Bring honor to your name, holy Lord.
The flappable Deborah Bread
Something deep within me cries to be unflappable. But, as this incident from years ago reminds me, flapping can lead to laughing.
Cries of the shunned
In the middle of that dark-valley time, I often found myself alone with God, crying aloud and writing passionately in my journal. During that time too, I came to identify with David, the shepherd-poet-warrior-king, in ways I had not before. For David was also ostracized by people he trusted. And he cried out in distress - and in faith.
From the Black Sea to Red Square
Thirty years after I first heard this song - and visited these places - I'm listening again and crying and praying again for the peoples of Ukraine and Russia.
The blessing of rest
Real rest is so different from what I had thought. It’s so much more expansive, and desirable, and enjoyable. And it’s so very vital. Thing is, I desperately needed real rest long before I knew I needed it. I had no clue how rest-deprived I was.
Extraordinary! Russia, Ukraine, breakthrough, God
At times in this world, all eyes turn toward what seems most important, invincible, extraordinary. If we look further, the Lord will remind us what actually is.
When getting there is the battle
As we struggled to reach another hemisphere and to connect with the people of Russia and Ukraine, hindrances just kept coming. Then, the breakthroughs began.
An August coup and a promise of breakthrough: My story
The day I woke to news that tanks rolled through Moscow’s streets, I wrote, “I don’t plan to beat down any doors. But what God opens, I will walk through.”
Case of the battered boundaries
Why, in midlife, did I suddenly find my boundaries battered and my adulthood denied? The answer hinged on the skewed view of womanhood in my church culture.