Small prayers

Today is a day of small prayers.   Some spoken with a smile. An old friend who lives in another country has been staying with us this week. Thank you, Lord, for long chats and honesty.   Where she lives they only have electricity a few hours a day. Thank you, Lord, for a refrigerator… Continue reading Small prayers

Published
Categorized as pondering

Faithful in a little (Or, Thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s garden)

My home here is not really all that different than what you might see in America. We live in a decently-sized, two bedroom apartment. It’s actually quite nice. I don’t have a dryer or a car, but that just puts me on par with the majority of Europeans. (And I do have one little American… Continue reading Faithful in a little (Or, Thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s garden)

Published
Categorized as pondering

Eternal finiteness

One of my friends is a convinced atheist, the kind that reads everything Richard Dawkins writes. In one of our conversations some years ago he suggested that eternal life would eventually get incredibly boring because you would have done everything possible. I think that a standard and theologically sound answer is that God is infinite… Continue reading Eternal finiteness

Published
Categorized as pondering

A higher love

Возлюбить (vahz-lyoo-beet). We learned this word in Russian the other day, and at first I was quite confused. The definition given was “to love,” but we already knew the verb “to love.” It’s just любить (lyoo-beet). How was this word different? Our teacher explained that this is a bigger love, a greater love, the love… Continue reading A higher love

Published
Categorized as pondering

What is Disney teaching us?

We recently rewatched the fox Disney Robin Hood because we talked about the word “alms” in language lessons and that led to the phrase “alms, alms for the poor” and on to Robin Hood. During that and at the end I was musing on the things it teaches; today we were playing some music from… Continue reading What is Disney teaching us?

Published
Categorized as pondering

God our servant

This year we are doing some advent readings – today’s was one of the most powerful things I’ve read all year. It’s worth posting entire. Get the book here. He Came to Serve Whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. – Mark 10:44 Jesus expects his disciples to be radically different from the… Continue reading God our servant

Published
Categorized as pondering

On missing things:

Thursday was the first time in my life I’ve ever missed Thanksgiving with my family. Over the past decade it’s been hit or miss which of my siblings would be there, but I always made it, because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It’s the holiday where my family all goes somewhere together, somewhere away from… Continue reading On missing things:

Published
Categorized as pondering

God is in control

Recently we had to do some child safety training for our job, Tim Challies shared that he doesn’t allow sleepovers, and I’ve seen a lot of discussion on pedophiles on Facebook. All of this has made me realize and think about a number of things. First, I’m very thankful for the environment in which I… Continue reading God is in control

Turning the other cheek

Last week as we were road-tripping to Colorado we stopped for gas and I choose gas stations very poorly. If you pulled up so the gas pump was next to your tank, the station didn’t have enough room between the front of your car and the end of the parking lot for anyone to your right… Continue reading Turning the other cheek

Published
Categorized as pondering