...a word from Kathy

T he new year dawns but not before we finish 2021.  As with any year of life, the past year offered each of us joy, sadness, worry, laughter, tears, and life itself.  We can all point to days or dates that were life changing, life giving, life taking, life challenging.  I wonder what I learned from 2021?  What have you learned in the last 12 months? I learned and continue to be reminded that: In my greatest days, God walked with me. In my days of laughter, God laughed with me. In my days of great heartbreak, God was beside me holding me. In my continuous darkness, I heard Him whisper my name. In the joy of health, He provided the healing. There was never a time this past year that God was not hemming me in.  And being hemmed-in is a slow, precise process.  Hemming requires a delicate touch. Hemming requires hands that are gentle. He is the one constant of love and acceptance for me in 2021.  I learned that it is only in Him that I can fully trust and l...

T he beach: where two worlds meet, and the waves never stop. Waves vary in size and strength day to day but never cease to roll.  They crash loudly and retreat silently.  Many are drawn to this world, wanting to bask, wanting to explore and understand.  People experience the waves differently.  Some dive in, surf, float, parasail, some sit at the edge and watch.  But all are intrigued.  All are amazed.  Those who love mountain ranges experience the same wonder, majesty, and beauty.  What are these places speaking?  What is the message of such beauty? I recently read the book, Prayer in the Night , by Tish Harrison Warren.  In this book she tells a story that has changed me.  Below is an excerpt: "When my eldest daughter was very little, she would get stuck on certain questions.  She'd ask the same thing for weeks, sometimes months, over and over again.  He dad and I would try to answer her as patiently as we could, for the...

T his week is about life after death.  It's about new life after the desert.  It's about the joy and celebration of new life given and offered.  And many celebrate and rejoice in the miracle in the unfathomable...Life after death. But after Sunday, how does one live?  The world after the desert, after the new life of Easter Sunday, feels much like the world before the desert.  The life after that Sunday long ago still held problems, pitfalls, pain and distress and persecution.  How did they live?  How does one truly live? A foreign friend asked me several years ago, is the Easter Bunny the same as Jesus?  From her U.S. experience the two seemed similar.  She thought faith was a hop-along, candy-eating event.  For me to truly live, I need much more than the bunny can offer.   What about you?  What do you need to truly live?  In all of life, is Jesus enough?  Or do we still seek? Are we searching for more?  Are we ...

W hat is worship?  Some describe worship as an activity that occurs on Sunday.  Some of us have found ourselves in worship of our children, our spouses or even our football teams!  We seek to worship. In the desert, Jesus said, "Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only." Matthew 4:10b C. S. Lewis also pondered questions of worship.  Lewis asked, Why does God want to be praised?  In his writings, C. S. Lewis revealed the answer he found.. .in the process of being worshipped God communicates His presence to men...and by their so doing [worship] God gave Himself to men * This is the answer I seek.  I need the balance worship offers me.  I like to be my own ruler but I often fall off that throne and it's painful. There is only one Throne and I do not sit on it.  The divine balance of worship offers presence, freedom and settles my unrest, my need to worship.  I'm learning that when we worship, we give God His "worthship".  This is ...

  G ood job!  You're so very talented!  What a gift you have!  I love praise, don't you?  Or maybe I should say, Who doesn't love and need praise?  I remember job evaluations at the end of each year; waiting for my boss to say good job, keep improving here, work on this or that, and yes, you have a earned a giant raise.  Well, that part never happened but a small percentage raise would come and I would feel praised!  Someone had given me a stamp-of-approval. This yearning is a characteristic we each share.  We long for the praise of our parents, our spouses, our friends.  But then we tend to take it all a step further...the praise that comes from the world sneaks in the back of our minds.  We crave popularity.  We look for acceptance and wonder if our public works will lead to respect and praise from those we don't even know.  How many 'Likes' we get on FaceBook or Instagram is a measure of success we crave.  Somehow ...

I can hear my two-year old telling me, "I can do it"!  I remember stepping back and letting her "do it" her way.  I also remember the baby years when she could not do anything for herself and I was her source for everything.  Her food, her water, her comfort, her protector, her playmate, her soulmate. This is the natural world.  We are born vulnerable and needy and grow to be able to care for ourselves. And then perhaps we take it to another level.  A level that says to people, I don't need your help for I can rely on my own ability.  I know what I need.  I know how to help myself.  I'm able.  I'm capable.   What a trap for me when I wander into the desert of me of my ability.  What a danger for me to think my own ability will get me through this life.  What a temptation to rely on myself and the power I have in my tiny home kingdom called life.  I can sit at the top of my world and have a false sense of control. Are we t...

D o you recognize the voice? This year, this month, this week, this day may have led us into difficult desert places.  Places where we find ourselves hungry for people, for food, for water, for answers, for hope, for a way to peace of mind.  We read in Matthew that Jesus was on such a journey.  He was hungry and when presented with false words of hope somehow resisted the insatiable need he felt. His words were, ' Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God .' Matthew 4:4 Oh, that I could be this strong. Oh, that I could lean on a love so strong and fulfilling. Instead, I listen to words of the world. I listen to the words of influencers, be they family, friend or foe. These voices speak loudly in my daily life and continue in my brain while I sleep.  Oh, let me live not on bread, or success, or the popularity of this world BUT on the Words and Voice that come from God. Those words that He speaks over me and you... Fear ...

  T he cries of a baby says she is hungry.  The gurgling of a stomach indicates hunger.  The faces of people in Texas last week showed hunger and thirst.  We cannot live without food and water.  It is a primary need.  So eat and drink, we must.   But I ponder, where is the life-fulfilling food we require? I wonder, am I eating sustaining bread? What bread are you eating?  Who are you trusting to turn the stones in your life into fulfilling bread.  Bread that gives life.  Bread that re-creates life. Could it be that we eat to try and fill a different type of hunger?  We eat material goods to quench our hunger for acceptance.  We eat busy lives to fulfill our need for recognition.  We eat social media to watch and compare us with them.  We eat news to complain and demand instead of serve, solve and pray. How hungry are you for new life?  Do you recognize your own hunger? After fasting forty days and forty night...

I n the world of Christianity, Lent starts today.   Every Wednesday I'd like to share ONE word for your  consideration. LED.  We read that Jesus was led into the wilderness for a specific reason...to be tempted.   I confess that I'm often led.  And I'm often tempted.  However, I tend to lead myself as I often need no help getting to the wilderness and into a place of temptation. So I ask today, what is leading you?  Are you in the wilderness of your own accord?  Are there things to learn in the wilderness?  According to the example of Jesus, the wilderness has much to teach.  Can we dare be lead into our wilderness in these next 40 days?  What might He be saying to you and me?  What might we be able to learn, be able to declare, what truth might we be able to see? "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil ."  Matt. 4:1