prayer
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A Prayer for Worshiping Peacefully

I’ve been sick this week, which is never fun—especially when I know I still have to get up early and work on Sunday. But perhaps now more than when I’m well, it’s important to focus my heart and pray over tomorrow’s worship. God of all comfort, encourage us as we gather tomorrow (2 Cor. 1:3). Continue reading
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Why I Moved to Iowa

I was asked today how I knew moving to Iowa was the right choice. This picture is the closest I can come to an answer. In June 2021, two weeks before our wedding, Billy and I visited Iowa for him to interview at Prairie Bible Church and it was one of the worst weekends of Continue reading
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Church Growth Prayer

Teach me, Lord, to number my daysInstead of counting sheep: To live as faithfully for the oneAs for the ninety-nine.May it be as I lay down to sleepThat I rest in the victory you’ve wonBeyond any success I’d claim as mine. Continue reading
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Be Thou My Breath

My favorite hymn is “Be Thou My Vision,” not merely because it is a beautiful Celtic melody but because I can use its verses to structure my day-to-day activities. When I rise and open my eyes, I can murmur, “Be Thou my vision.” As I drive to work in the soft morning light or home Continue reading
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Stick the Landing

Have you ever had one of those terrible, awful, no-good dreams where you are suddenly forced to do something you’ve never practiced in front of a very large audience? I’m sure it isn’t just me. I have a recurring nightmare in which I am expected to perform a dance solo or gymnastics routine in front Continue reading
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Pride and Purgation

As I expressed in an earlier post, I have come to love Dante’s Commedia more and more through rereading. In a manner almost scriptural, he manages to address every aspect of human life and, as a poet-theologian, particularly the artistic life. My favourite of canticle is Purgatorio, which is perhaps a humorous choice for a Continue reading
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Question and Answer: Anticipating Christ in the Book of Job

In rereading the Book of Job, I once more find it both wonderful and troubling. Job is, at its core, a terrifying book: a man is selected for the worst trials imaginable (loss of family, livelihood, and health) not because he is wicked but, indeed, because he is faithful. The Book of Job is, in Continue reading
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Poems and a Creek and Such (revisiting an old spot of time)

When I was a freshman in college, I had the not-uncommon experience of feeling 150682234% overwhelmed. It was honestly a feat of grace and strength that I stuck it out, but by the second semester, how happy I was that I did! As that terrified, homesick 18-year-old, I went on a choir retreat and nearly Continue reading
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