We run in that space just before the sunlight bursts new born, obliterating darkness; in that space where apart from the faithfulness of day, we’d not expect the arrival of Light at all. This is the parenthesis between rain showers, the tar-dark, murky stillness before another downpour, somehow carved for us like a silent pause. […]

For a moment, just breathe. Morning run under bluest skies, and the warmth of the sun splits apart the crisp, cool evidence of a night safely passed.  The trees, red and swollen, change the tone of the landscape, pregnant now with possibility.  Spring comes suddenly, like a first breath, a startled gasp exhaled as relief; […]

Just as the morning becomes, we run together beneath the sun.  A light breeze wraps our shoulders.  I glance up at the sky—blue, the color rich like Morpho wings, with wisps of sea foam cloud.  I stare hard, gasping.  Day after day, the heavens pour forth speech.  “They have no speech, they use no words; […]

The minute I see the buses, my throat gets thick, before I’ve even spotted my son in the crowds of children clotting the walkways. I’ve come to cheer him on, to acknowledge that he works hard and pushes through.  I want him to see me there waiting, watching.  “Run, Adam.  Run!”  I will shout his […]

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; […]

Quarter till midnight on New Year’s Eve, the night dark and chilly, and somehow the stars that always twinkle just there, where He placed them, look like other-worldly confetti, like polished sterling fresh from the Refiner’s fire, scattered wide, celebrating glory.  I glance up and I know deep: this new year is all His too. […]

Five o’clock and the day gasping, my children hang on me like satellites in orbit.  I stand at the sink, rubbing green beans between my fingers in a colander, the water rushing over, warm.  For a breath—just one—I wonder about where these beans grew–what close field, the color of the soil, the smell.  I wonder whose […]

Adam has a crush on a beautiful little girl—the fine-boned, blue-eyed daughter of one of my best friends. They arrived at the beach on a Wednesday afternoon, and we stood on the front porch to receive them, wrapped in the thick heat and humidity of the island.  The screen door snapped shut against the frame, […]

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 […]

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us (Hebrews 12:1). The night before my first half marathon, I had a dream: Twenty minutes late, and […]