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.

Joy and pain, they are but two arteries of the one heart that pumps through all those who don't numb themselves to really living.

When we lay the soil of our hard lives open to the rain of grace and let joy penetrate our cracked and dry places, let joy soak into our broken skin and deep crevices, life grows. How can this not be the best thing for the world? For us?

Thanksgiving-giving thanks in everything-prepares the way that God might show us His fullest salvation in Christ.

If trust must be earned, hasn't God unequivocally earned our trust with the bark on the raw wounds, the thorns pressed into the brow, your name on the cracked lips.

Hurry always empties a soul.

You, who were made by Love, made for love-- be still and know and watch love come down.