Something About The Joy

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A Risky Business

- July 07, 2023

My life seems to be a constant growth cycle. I go from an initial place of trusting in God, to an insurmountable problem, to worry and anxiety, to remembering His faithfulness in the past, to choosing to believe once again, to one small encouraging sign of His love—a sign that grows the faith even before I see the answer, to praise for Who He is and what He is going to do, and then, finally, to the miracle. Then we begin again, with a slightly more insurmountable problem. This faith walk is like following stepping stones across a raging river. I step out, jump onto the next three stones that are nearby, then look around for another foothold. I see none at first, then one that is close but requires a bit of a stretch, then another that is no bigger than the size of my foot. This one seems too far to hazard a leap but there is no other option. I cannot go back. So I leap, and then keep on going as far as I can, taking chances, and a

Holiness Lost

- February 07, 2023

The Bible tells stories about people who “experience” the actual presence of God, and in all cases, they fall down. They can’t help it. It’s not that God knocks them down. He doesn’t do that to innocent people. They fall down because He is holy. The Bible says that one day everyone who has ever lived will fall down before Jesus Christ. For some, it will come as a real shock. As Dallas Willard puts it, “Reality is what hits you when you’re wrong.” None of us is completely right in our view of God, and we are perhaps most wrong in our mis-understanding of his holiness. We human beings lost our view of what holiness is in the beginning when our first parents decided to turn away from Him and take His place of authority in their lives. And we, as their individual offspring, have affirmed their decision, making ourselves our own gods, bowing to our own self-interest in place of the One who deserves worship—the one Who is the source of life. In a comment o

Holiness and the F-Word

- January 28, 2023

This morning I’ve been thinking about the word ‘holy’ for some reason. I started this train of thought by remembering a conversation I had with some girls at school yesterday. I overheard one of them use the word ‘fucking’ and, since we were just standing around waiting for another P.E. class we were joining to get organized, I decided to give a mini-lesson on how and why that word—the F-word—sounds so offensive to people. Today, as I think about it, I am realizing that the word can only be offensive if there is really a God. Atheists and agnostics also often find the word offensive, but if they were asked why, I think they might have a hard time coming up with an explanation. The F-word is the epitome of whatever is the opposite of the word ‘holy,’ and the word ‘holy’ only has meaning in the context of God. Not just god as an impersonal force either. Holy defines a personal God—a God who can be wronged, defied, treated with

On the Unbelievability of the Christian Message

- July 14, 2022

The other night I was thinking about how unbelievable—incredible—ridiculously impossible the Christian message is. It’s preposterous. Am I imagining all this? How could any rational person fall for the idea of a good God creating a good world, then creating human beings, and then giving them the freedom to choose whether or not to listen to Him when He tells them how they should live in that world? Preposterous that a good God would give the persons He created the ability to destroy themselves and others and the good world around them. That he would allow them to be selfish, greedy and so dangerously careless as to refuse to choose to live by the owner’s manual He gave them? And speaking of the Bible, that’s another ridiculous idea: that He would write a book, over a period of roughly 1500 years, using the minds and fingers of at least 40 of the very human creatures who messed things up in the first place—a book full of information about Himself, and about us.

For All the Grads: What Life is About!

- June 21, 2022

Looking for help as you step out into the scary new world? Here's a Grandma's advice: Wow! So many places! Directions to go! Which path should you follow? How do you know? You could go south, or go north, east or west. How can you be sure which direction is best? South could be sending you too far away. North might lead someplace you don’t want to stay. East might go nowhere and west be too tough. How do you pick when you don’t know enough? Your head's in a whirl! There are too many ways! Yet you have to decide how to plan for your days. It's too big a problem. You're not fit to choose. It's too big a decision. There’s too much to lose! But, wait. Here's the answer: You don't need to know. There's Someone else planning which way you should go. Someone Who’s smarter—Who’s been there before. And His plans for your path will give you much more Than anything you could dream up on your own. You jus

Dedicated to the Church Bells in Ukraine Tonight

- March 08, 2022

I was deeply moved by the response to the tribute I wrote about my mother on Facebook today on International Women’s Day. Some of my friends said they’d like more of the story of my mother’s time in Shanghai after Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, so I looked up some notes I had written about her for my cousin, who was compiling some family records a few years ago. I edited my notes, added some more details, and am posting here for anyone who would appreciate a little personal insight into this bit of history from 80 years ago. Mary Smiley sailed from Seattle to China in August in 1940. She taught English to Chinese children in Shanghai for a little over a year with a small mission organization called The Faith Fellowship. In December, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and soon afterwards moved into China. The Japanese occupied Shanghai and ex-pat missionaries were cut off from their sponsors in the States. For many months contact was lost. Mary spent most of her time

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