Know-Love-Obey God

The High Calling book club:
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die,
by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Laura Boggess leads our Oct. 25 discussion on the “Sticy Advice” section. (Since my copy of the book doesn’t have this section, I decided to post on Chapter 6.)
When circuit designers talk shop, they talk power [...]

(In consideration of Matthew 5:23-24, and in preparation for a worship conference I’m praying for and attending this weekend.)
It has happened in the past
that I have caused pain
or offense with
my words
or lack of words
or the way I have spoken
or . . . ?
Yet I was ignorant
of the deed.
You whom I have called
friend, have I
caused you
pain?
Have [...]

I had a fear of hydrogen peroxide. The pain from a knife cut or a knee leaving behind skin on a gravelly asphalt road was bad enough, but the injury was just the beginning. There was still the cleaning to endure: a wet cloth wiping off dirt and dried blood, or tweezers plucking [...]

High Calling Blogs Book Club:
The Right to Write:
An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life,
by Julia Cameron
Visit High Calling Blogs where Laura Boggess leads our discussion (and links to other posts).
**********
I know that when it comes down, it stays there for good. When the ink makes its mark guided by my own hand, I [...]

The color of morning coming
through big windows behind me

The color of morning
on a door ajar

And on the other side of the door
a crack of black
unknown

I love the light on this side
of the door
I know what is here in the morning
light
But what if He calls me to open
that door to the dark and step
to the other [...]

If I say
“I’m sorry,
but . . .”
will I hear
“I forgive you,
except . . .”?
If I don’t stop
at
“I’m sorry”
but continue
with
“I’m sorry,
but . . .”
am I,
really?
Adding the qualifier
subtracts
from the penitence
and the simple
truth
that I
have
sinned.

This Wednesday Ann Voskamp is hosting a community of those who share about “Sinners Repenting.” Stop by.

High Calling Blogs Book Club:
The Wisdom of Wilderness, by Gerald G. May
Chapter Six: “Violence at Smith’s Inlet”
Who can read this chapter without cringing? Such detestable, vile acts. Such violence from humans and animals, to humans and animals.
May said in a previous chapter that fear leads to gratitude. Violence, too, led me to [...]

(A High Calling Blogs Random Act of Poetry)
The words of my mouth
reading a story aloud
to the child on my lap
but though I read
every word perfectly
I do not know
the storyline,
my mind on less
important thoughts
though the child
is on my lap.
The words of my mouth
asking “How are you?”
to the friend on the phone
but though she pours
out the real [...]

The ache comes and goes so regularly that I can count on it. I called it “loneliness,” but perhaps that was a misnomer. Perhaps a more accurate diagnosis is “homesickness”—an increasing desire for and anticipation of heaven, like the Psalm 84 yearning and longing. In that case, it would be a healthy [...]