Solacetree

Did you feel trapped in your tomb,
wrapped up in my insolence?
Dead to sin, dead to me,
just plain dead.
You surely dreaded God’s abandonment,
and I haven’t been there for you, either.
I love you, but am so inconsistent
in showing what I say.

Why do you still believe in me?
Still stay when I lie,
and lie down in my own tomb,
avoiding your offer
to leap at Easter
into dazzling light and life?

You said I can’t go ...

“Hey Bud, what’s my name?”

I worked at a coffee shop for many years, and made it a point to learn my regular customer’s names and drinks.  Many of them told me how much that meant to them, which delighted me.  But for the last two years I’ve worked from my office at home, and remembering people’s names has become difficult.   Sometimes I don’t think to ask.  Other times I’ve asked and forgotten their name so many times I’m embarrassed ...

Being single is not alone.
Whether by choice, or force,
or no other option,
times of solitude aren’t isolated.
We all have – in fact, need –
times in our lives
where solo is “what is” –
chances to reinvent,
or reverse what’s wrong,
re-fill our “giving well”.

But restoration never happens
when we buy the lie of isolation:
no one else is there.
Not only is God ever with us,
but other hearts are eternally intertwined
with ours, with laces ...

“Don’t believe anything Joy says.  She lies,” Mama would tell people throughout my childhood, whether they listened or not.  For Evangelical Christians in the 1950’s and ‘60’s, what you did defined who you were.  Maybe that’s still true today.  I don’t know.  But it certainly was the “truth” then.  Good Christians behaved; bad Christians probably weren’t Christians at all.  Paul wrote,

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature  2 Corinthians 5:17 (NAS).

Real Christians were new creatures; apparently ...

Most Christians focus on every word and incident in Jesus’ life as recorded in the four Gospels.  But I’m also drawn to the people involved.  How did they relate to Jesus?  What was their story?

Being the mother of three children, there is an event in the Bible I totally understand from Mary’s point of view.  She was Jesus’ mom and caught him teaching the religious teachers in the Temple in Jerusalem at the age of 12 after he had been ...

In Matthew 4:19, Jesus said, “Follow Me.”  “Follow” means to pursue the one in front of you.  But later in John 15:26, Jesus said he would send us the Helper, the Spirit of Truth once he ascended to the Father.  The name “Helper” is translated from the Greek word “Paracletos” which means “one called alongside to help”.  Here’s a poem about my sidecar travels with God.

Road Trip

You always take me out of my comfort zone.
Do I take you out ...

I work as a volunteer at Mark Luttrell Correctional Center, a state penitentiary for women in Memphis, TN.  One of my favorite opportunities to serve is with Grace Place Ministries, a United Methodist congregation planted in the prison. Grace Place Ministries empowers incarcerated women to become disciples of Jesus Christ and experience what it means to be a part of the Body of Christ not only through worship, but service to people in the free world.

Here are women with almost ...

Does it really matter what we do in the world?  I mean, what difference can one person make?  What if the only reason we are on the planet is to help one other person?  Think about someone who made a significant difference in your life….

Here is an excerpt from my newest article in Provoketive Magazine:

Each of us has a unique place in God’s universe.  We are made in His/Her image to fulfill a special part for the redemption of us ...

I frequently write for Provoketive Magazine, an on-line publication designed to engage authors and readers in conversation.  Here is an excerpt from my most recent post.  I encourage you to read it, then leave a comment.

Because there is at least one sin that trips us up on a regular basis, we tend to think God is disappointed in us.  I know at times when I’ve been giving into a particular sin on a regular basis, I’ve thought of starting the ...