simply me and jeans

Sun – Moon Spring – Winter Day – Night Joy – Pain It’s all life. It’s all yours. It’s all good. There’s not one without the other. No power in love without the possibility of losing it… Someday…Someway… Even when it’s too early and even when it doesn’t make sense and everything seems like insanity. […]

My desk sits in front of our homes’ largest window. My front porch swing, two towering live oaks, my front flower bed and the livestock roaming in my neighbor’s pasture seem to be extra comforting as sunshine melts the evidence of this week’s snowstorm. Five days ago I sat here under layers of blankets watching […]

I try not to dwell on the fact that I’m getting older.  It’s hard to ignore when I can’t hold my tea without wincing at the stab of arthritis pain in my thumb or when my joints are stiff as I get out of bed in the morning. It’s hard to ignore when I scroll through […]

The idea of walking through a wilderness has been running around in my mind for about 4 years. Throughout my life, I’ve heard messages, songs and testimonies about people who prayed to be free of “wilderness experiences” and people who taught that we should do all we can to avoid them all together. The terms […]

My daughter sat with a look of wonder on her face as she watched the flames turn colors in the small bowl.  A torn-up check turned to ash in less than a minute. That minute was enough to make her say, “Anyone who thinks fire isn’t beautiful is crazy.” I could easily fall under her […]

A few days ago, one of my best friends said that I should write about this experience we’re all having with Covid-19. Her encouragement blessed me but my immediate reaction was, “I have nothing to say.”   I either write in my journal to process my emotions and what God is teaching me or I write […]

“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”  Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based […]

As I was praying this morning I couldn’t help but think about this past year and wonder about what this next year held.  It’s hard to describe the feelings I have about this past year but the first sentence of “A Tale of Two Cities” seems to describe it well. “It was the best of times, […]

I was at Starbucks for 2 hours today trying to make progress on this book we’re writing. That didn’t happen. Instead, I spent an hour talking to a young man about college, how tired he was, trying to encourage him and another hour trying to get my computer to work. Because I’d lost all focus, […]

I can’t sleep. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve become accustomed to little sleep over the last 4 weeks or if it’s something else. I grab my headphones and turn on some worship music as I lie in the dark.  Surely I’ll fade into rest soon enough. But I don’t. There hasn’t been a […]