I stare out my window at the orange-tinted smoke-choked landscape. Ash from the nearby wildfire falls lightly like snow and covers my deck with debris. I check my phone. In one week, Oregon wildfires have already burned one million acres and five towns. The Air Quality Index remains fixed at “hazardous,” rivaling even India’s worst days. Not good. I inhale...
I park my car at the beach, then open the door against a strong headwind. My thin sweatshirt is no match for this gale, and trekking the sea-grass lined path leading to shore, I hug it tightly to myself . The brightness of the sun makes it difficult to decipher details on the horizon, but something unusual is happening on...
“I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land” ( Psalm 143:6 ). When my 95-year-old father suffered a stroke, the brain damage caused him to cry out in terror every few minutes. To cope with this uncontrollable urge, he redirected his shouts to praise, thanksgiving, singing, reciting scriptures, and intercessory prayer for...
The tide was coming in that morning as I strolled the Cabo San Jose beach. I followed a popular path along the water’s edge, the dry, rumpled sand cool to my feet. Suddenly a large wave surged ashore. When it receded, I stood still and marveled at the transformation. An unspoiled, pristine beach now stretched before me, as if I’d...
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vine, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my...
My parents met in Switzerland on a blind date. Six weeks later they got engaged, and my father returned to America. As a German refugee, my mother had lost everything. The thought of leaving her new life and starting over again was overwhelming, but she navigated the one-year immigration process and then traveled alone to the United States. She trusted...
It was dusk as I stood mesmerized at the kitchen window earlier this month. What was that black shadow moving against the horizon in constantly shifting shapes? It has to be a large flock of birds, I thought, though as a born-and-raised Oregonian I had never seen this phenomenon before. The fluttering dark specks looked like a school of fish...
Have you struggled against spiritual sleepiness, aware of an unexplained urgency? As I’ve talked with people, urgency feels like an underlying theme. It makes me wonder if the wind of the Spirit is blowing through the church saying, “Wake up! Get yourself ready for what is to come!” WARNING Luke 21:34-36 says about the last days, “Be careful, or your...
It seems that every year at Christmas my mother laments, “What can I give you? You have everything.” She loves to give and feels sad that I have no pressing material needs. In her mind, how can her gift delight, surprise, and overwhelm me with joy if there is little need? I try to reassure her how much her gifts...
What does your name mean? Do you like your name? On the simplest level, names are labels to distinguish one person from another. But names mean so much more than that; they also connect to identity. Essence In Judaism, your given name is considered prophetic to some extent, defining your essence; it’s seen as the key to your soul. Thus,...
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