Let me start this blog by saying it is neither my birthday nor the other half and mine’s anniversary yet. But I have been thinking about celebrations lately, especially after listening to a dear friend give a sermon on birthdays, since last Sunday was Pentecost, which traditionally is the birthday of the Christian church. And […]
Tag: hope
Rejoice with those who rejoice
Let me tell you a little story. I once celebrated an achievement of someone. I shared it with my circle of friends happily, making sure a wider circle got to hear about it. I was told by that someone that I had no achievements of my own, thus I had to make myself look better […]
The work is not yet done
Anyone who has spent any time reading anything that I have written knows that, while I am a church-going Christian, I don’t try to force my beliefs on others. I am a firm believer in living in faith, whatever that faith is for someone. But I also am a firm believer in hard work and […]
Renew
It was a humid spring morning, the air still holding a great deal of moisture from the storms that had rolled through the night before. There were clouds on the horizon, ones that threatened to bring rain. But I was outside nevertheless. I had gotten new hiking shoes a few day prior and wanted to […]
Cast Out the Nets Again
Fishing is sometimes a futile activity. Time and time again, you cast out, hoping for a catch. But the bait disappears, or the line breaks, or nothing wants to bite. You wait and wait and wait and nothing appears, or the catches are too small, or not the right fish. All you have is wasted […]
Just a little Saturday ramble
It’s dogeared and worn, the pages a rainbow of highlights. There are margins full of quickly jotted annotations and it’s full of sticky notes and index cards with connections and random notes. The cover is almost more tape than cardstock. But this book has been a part of my life for the past twenty some-odd […]
Locked Doors and Closed Minds
A friend of mine recently shared a saying his great-grandfather used to always say. It sounds similar to the sayings of all great-grandfathers, but it went something like this: “Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see.” ~ Everett Taylor Thomas was one of Jesus’ disciples, according to the accounts […]
The Negative and the Positive
Did you know that if one person says something negative, it can take between 3 and 40 positive comments to outweigh it? For every bad thing, it takes several more good things to counter it. The vast difference in that ratio seems to be because while scientists have studied the idea, they can’t agree on […]
Nature sings
As I type this on a Sunday April afternoon, listening to harp music by Kristan Toczko on Spotify, snow is falling outside my front room window. For awhile, my big black cat Inigo was watching it fall in between his more covert observances of the birds at the feeder outside the other window, though now […]
Why are you weeping?
Small bells, made for children’s hands, clamored joyously from the front of the sanctuary as the congregation sang a simple hymn about knowing Jesus loves them. The sound was effervescently exuberant, melding magically and shining brightly despite a bit of discord in the melody. The kids, ever hopeful, were making a joyful noise for those […]
K. S. Wood Writes 