How long does it take your soul to realize that your life is full? The slower the living, the greater the sense of fullness and satisfaction.

Every day, with every word, we get to decide: Do we mar the world, or mark the world?

When your ethnicity is heaven, then all adversity offers the gift of intimacy, driving you into the home of His heart.

We can worship Christ in our sanctuaries and we can pray to God on our knees, but how we treat - or neglect - the person next door, the poor, every human being, this is how we truly speak to Christ and this is how we really treat Jesus.

In a storm of struggles, I have tried to control the elements, clasp the fist tight so as to protect self and happiness. But stress can be an addiction, and worry can be our lunge for control, and we forget the answer to this moment is always yes because of Christ.

The prayers we weave into the matching of socks, the stirring of oatmeal, the reading of stories, they survive fire.

I think God calls us to small things, to faithfulness right where we are, to just do the next thing. I was simply writing out our family stories in my online journal, scratching out what I want to remember, what I was wrestling out with God.