Living Between the Lines

I’ve got a quote from Liz Curtis Higgs running through my mind today and I can’t get my mind off of it.  It goes like this: “Jesus wants us to grow in faith, and we grow only when we come to the end of ourselves.”  The first example I thought of was how hard it [...]

”Did you see Nightline on Thursday night?” Chrissy sat across the table from me last Saturday afternoon helping count out 25,000 adult multivitamins into packets of 30 for an upcoming mission trip.   I shook my head and glanced at her to let her know that I was listening as I tried not to lose count. [...]

Lately, I’ve gotten a lot of emails and comments from people (especially women) telling me how they feel like they’re alone in the world.  That they feel like there’s nobody who understands them.  That they feel like they can’t be real—even with their husbands and families—because they feel like they have to be the strong [...]

When I was very young, I had a strong desire to do mission work.  I didn’t think that I’d ever be a strong enough Christian for God to use me.  I managed to spend a week at a teen missions camp when I was about 15, but then I put the dream away.  Then, when [...]

I was fourteen the first time I remember wanting to die.  Lying in bed one night I just had an almost overwhelming desire to die.  I couldn’t explain it or make it go away, so I tried to ignore it.  I never told anyone.  But by the time I was seventeen, wanting to die was [...]

I’ve always been captivated by hands.  They tell so much of a person’s story.  When I was a little girl, I would sit in my grandmother’s lap and study her beautiful hands.  I’ve always wanted to have those hands—dainty, feminine hands with long, perfect fingernails—a lady’s hands. But last night when I looked down at [...]

I’ve never been a half-way kind of person.  I see things in black and white.  I either love something (like the beach) or hate it (like okra).  When I’m happy, I’m ecstatic.  When I’m sad, I’m bereft.  When I’m angry, I’m irate.  That’s the way I am. I suppose that in some ways, that’s a [...]

  I know that most of my readers have come to expect to see a serious, insightful post.  But in anticipation of Summer Youth Camp (which begins in 30 days!!) I have decided to go a slightly different direction…   I’m sure that when a lot of adults think back on their summer youth camp experiences, [...]

I had company this weekend.  My mother decided that instead of me coming to visit her for Mother’s Day, she wanted to come visit me.  Friday evening found her and my Dad and Ruby—the sweet, little lady that my mother has adopted as her best friend and surrogate mother—visiting my house.  When some folks have [...]

Folks that haven’t known me real long will probably be surprised by this, but I promise it’s true.  I haven’t always had a backbone. I’m pretty sure that I was born with one.  My parents tell me that I, the youngest child, was the screamer in the house.  I knew what I wanted and wasn’t [...]