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Not so long ago there was a young woman who was invited to a retreat by Someone she knew. She accepted the invitation and arrived in a peaceful destination high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. She was familiar with the mountains, for she had visited them many times. She was always in awe, but somehow she knew this time would be different for He had chosen this place. This was a new mountain experience and after getting settled, she was ready to explore. With hiking boots

When you reach your 70s, and are honest, you realize that you have more years behind you than in front of you. When you happily admit that you’re responsible for the existence of four generations in your family, you know there is a new beginning, and you are near the end. It’s an acknowledgement that we celebrate with joy and gratitude. There is only one fact we can be utterly certain of in this life. Everyone dies. There are many signs of this reality. We have been looking a

“Never Stop Improving”. This was Lowe’s marketing slogan from 2011 – 2019. This was so ubiquitous that many of you may think it’s still their slogan. I know I did until I heard their new slogan recently. This is not an advertisement for Lowe’s so I’ll spare you from hearing their current slogan from me! During the years that Lowe’s used that slogan, we lived in 3 different homes. it became the unofficial description of what Lainey and I did in every home we owned. Every time

Many years ago I had an argument with God. Ok…I’ve had a few during my lifetime but this one was the argument of arguments. I’m sure that anyone who saw my frantic pacing in a public parking lot might have thought I was a few bricks short of a full load. They would have been correct. I was in the middle of an argument with God. I don’t recommend it because if you are serious about the Truth, you will always lose. If you hang in there though, you’ll find that in losi

Throughout the history of mankind this question has wreaked more havoc, destroyed more lives and set the course of more rebellion in human beings than any other question ever asked. It is a lie spoken by the father of lies. We find the first use of that question in the book of Genesis. And if you don’t believe in the Creation and the Creator, you are a victim of this ancient lie in the worst way. When we understand the fact of Creation, we know we have all been duped ove

Pain is not a popular subject, but one we are all aware of and experience often. It is not something that we choose, and if we must choose it, we do it reluctantly. Pain is a part of the human experience. One of our favorite movies is “The Princess Bride.” It is a parody of fairy tales and ‘happily ever after’ stories, but through it’s comedic delivery, it is full of quotable lines and nonsensical moments delivered by good acting. One of those lines we quote often is “

This was almost entitled “When You Realize You Are Old.” An appropriate choice because growing old requires a whole lot of amazing grace, but that is not where we want to focus. The appreciation of today’s amazing grace is centered around the covenant we made to each other and our God 54 years ago when we were married. August 19, 1972 was another hot, humid summer day, but we did not care. We were young and in love. The amazing grace part is realizing that we are now old

We enjoy watching a YouTube aviation channel, Pilot Debrief. The channel creator, who is incognito and uses the name Hoover, is a former F-15 fighter pilot, currently flying for a major airline. On his channel he reviews aviation accidents, most of them are fatal. Using his personal experience, simulations, ATC audio and photos, he describes what happened and why. He tells the stories of the plan, the equipment, the passengers, the pilots and the weather. As he relates the se

“The mountains are calling and I must answer…” The mountains are calling us to their beauty and many have answered by vacationing or moving here. The Appalachian Mountains truly are beautiful. However, as with most beautiful things, the allure hides the reality of what it takes to focus on the beauty and ignore what lies in the shade. I am not referring to Sasquatch! No, it is the smaller and very real creatures which lurk in the shade. They are also a part of the beaut

When we see those two letters together we will likely assume they mean “rest and relaxation.” Rest and relaxation together make us smile, and the tension we feel miraculously leaves us in anticipation of something good. We like rest and relaxation. We deserve it. We seek it, and we find it. That would be an easy thing to write about. A popular subject but a short one. The R & R we will consider in this post is ‘reconciliation and restoration.’ This is not a popular subject

One Sunday morning in 1980 my uncle was the guest teacher at a Sunday School class in a church some distance from his home. Being unfamiliar with the time allotted for teaching, after some time had passed, he paused, looked at his watch and asked the class, “How much time do I have?” Those were the last words he ever spoke as a massive heart attack at that very moment sent him into eternity with his Savior, Jesus Christ. He was 57. “How much time do I have?” The men on my fat

In the back of a cabinet down in our basement, in a room I call my studio, I recently found a bin full of treasures. A lifetime of writings. The following excerpt was written on November 19, 1980. At that time I was 27 years old. Luke and I had been married 8 years, and we had three young children, 7, 5, and 3. We were living in a Chicago suburb and were very active in our church, the church we were married in. In the backyard of our home was a very large garden which w

In the last few months we have heard of two people in our community who have ended their lives. Both in their fifties. A woman and a man who, seemingly, had many reasons to stay alive. They had families, businesses, wealth and what appeared to be a bright future. At least outwardly. It is sad and distressing to hear news like this. Even though we did not know either of them, we grieve their decision and wonder what caused them to make such an irreversible decision. I’ve

This poem was written in April of 1988. We moved from Illinois to Indiana in June of 1988 with our three children, ages 10, 13, and 15 . We had no jobs. We had a house we would rent from Luke’s parents. And we had a plan to take our family on a three week vacation across the country in a mini van, pulling a pop-up camper shortly after we got settled. After that amazing trip, Luke would take classes at the Christian College in the town we moved to, we would both work full

“This world is not my home…I’m just a-passin’ through… And I can’t feel at home in this world any more.” This old song says what many of us are feeling these days. There is a common questioning and bewilderment over what we hear and see on the news, social media and podcasts. Weather related disasters are becoming frequent occurrences. Our populations are diminishing due to low birth rates and high diagnoses of lethal and deadly disease. And there is war. War domi

We used to say, “There are more questions than there are answers.” Today it’s more like, “There are more answers than there are questions.” We accept things without questioning and spend way too much time thinking about solutions to problems we don’t even know we have! We are told what to buy and where to shop. We are given remedies for ailments we never heard of. Our vacations are planned out for us with dire warnings about what to avoid. We read reviews by strangers