My body groans this morning, acutely I feel it crumbling, as Kevin and I head out for an early run, searching for renewal, and not just of muscles and tissues and cells.  Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, the apostle Paul wrote, and as our feet begin to tap staccato, I remember the […]

About a mile out, the runner begins to hear the finish. When all he can see is still just road–that sunlit glint in the asphalt, those weather-worn and faded lines, the gravel and litter and patches of grass, the bib pinned to another runner’s shirt–he begins to hear first the music with its dull boom. […]

Saturday morning, Adam walks downstairs wearing his football jersey, which is blue like the crisp Fall sky, blue like his eyes.  I say walk, but his steps have a certain bounce that matches his wide smile. Maybe autism steals away my son’s words, but Adam’s body has always found its own ways to convey what […]

So maybe today–maybe in this—it’s time to press on, even though it’s hard, and it hurts, and you want to give up. “But I’m dying,” she says to me, gasping, sweat gathering like a halo along her hairline.  She’s waiting for me to say she can quit, but I am not so easily convinced. “You’re […]

It’s an old cliché, but true:  Life is a marathon. And this, also, is true:  When I woke up on marathon morning, I didn’t want to run the race. And since transparency happens to be my Call, I should also say that most of my living happens exactly this way.  I am not very good […]

Okay, listen:  whatever you feel like doing, do the opposite. It’s a war strategy, really.  It’s your secret weapon when the taunts come sharp and deadly, when your enemy thunders toward you, when the ground trembles with the assault.  It’s what I’m learning to do when I face defeat, weariness, complaint, anger, bitterness, pride, fear; […]

First light.  I sit on the porch facing the street, salt glaze on my finger tips, the house silent behind me. I peel back the skin of a banana, staring at the collection of water bottles at my feet.  For a moment, I feel jealous of everyone inside, sheets laying lightly on their skin, sleep […]

Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ~Galatians 6:9 Sometimes I feel so weary.  These are the days when I feel the truth of my inadequacy, and also the best days for acknowledging the reality of God’s tremendous […]