If You Can Only Do Two Things at Lent

Dear YOU, Sometime today, you might find yourself hearing these words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3.19) as an officiant traces ashes on your brow, made from burning last year’s palm branches. On Ash Wednesday, the church begins the 40-day season of Lent by reminding us of our mortality. While that may sound morbid, this holy practice can actually become a catalyst to pursue a deeper, more significant…

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When You Need the Great Physician

Dear YOU, Is it just me, or are there way too many friends and loved ones currently struggling with medical challenges? I so often feel helpless to make their situation better, to offer hope, to find provision for their needs, even though I would do anything to heal them if I could. One day some friends of a paraplegic man tried desperately to get him close to Jesus for healing, but were prevented by the…

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My Word for the Year is in Hebrew

Dear YOU, Hope you have unthawed after the low temperatures and are now warm and cozy reading this letter by the fireplace with a mug of hot tea or strong coffee. Yes, I know I’m late to the party… It’s already mid-February and I’ve only just now chosen my “word for the year.” This year the answer to both of those questions appeared as one word. In Hebrew, no less! HINENI (pronounced hee-nay-nee) Hebrew for…

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I’d Rather Write You a Short Letter

Dear YOU, Hello. My name is Lucinda and I am a Letter and Card Writer. In the midst of these musings I was studying Paul’s many letters in the Bible! Here is what he wrote to the people of Corinth: “Your very lives are a LETTER that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it – not with ink, but with God’s loving spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into…

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When the Christchild Comes for You

With Christmas only a few days away, the emotions are building, the memories invading, and the anticipation fluctuating somewhere between tentative dread and utter delight. What will Christmas be like this year? Will extended family all be standing on the porch for the Christmas dinner gathering when a positive C-test sends everyone home (this happened to us in 2021)? Or, (as a single man just confided in me) will you scramble to find an open…

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Nothing Can Keep Christmas from Coming

There will be Christmas this year. Can’t you sense it? Despite outward circumstances, (and having to learn a new word - tripledemic) there is also something in the air, the music, the stars in the dark sky, the delicious smells, the flickering firelight, the silence even. Friend, Christmas will come alright. Because Christ came in that most improbable first Christmas story, and because He is still so close, a breath away, dwelling deep within. Today…

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The God Who Transforms “Mess” into “Messiah”

Christmas is coming and your house is a mess. Maybe even your whole life feels like a mess right about now. Honey, you are so not alone! George was a mess. One night in 1741, as this bent old man shuffled listlessly down a dark London street. he was starting out on one of the aimless, despondent wanderings that had become a nightly ritual for him. His mind was a battleground between hope based on…

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12 Significant Books to Me in 2022

I read 100+ books a year, both fiction and non-fiction, and I love to feature some of them on my #BooksOnTuesday socials. There are so many wonderful books out there! This year I was juggling a myriad of situations, and these are a dozen of the books that spoke deep to my soul and kept me going. I could easily list a dozen more, but blogs are supposed to be short. So, rather than give…

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Because Sometimes We Don’t Actually Feel Thankful

In the season of Thanksgiving (which, in my humble opinion, should be every day), let’s be honest – sometimes it’s hard to muster up gratitude. But, friend, our choices make our lives. It actually can be as simple as looking at your situation, naming your feelings, and then remembering the reality of God in the midst of your life, thus CHOOSING a path of Gratitude. May I challenge you (and myself, of course) to CHOOSE…

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3 Words We All Long to Hear

A few years ago, a nationwide poll asked, “What word or phrase would you most like to hear uttered to you, sincerely?” The third answer might surprise you: 1. “I love you.” 2. “You are forgiven.” 3. “Supper is ready. Sometimes grace looks a whole lot like supper. At someone else’s table. But before we can sit down, we must first be Acknowledged, Known, and Invited. Not overlooked. My eldest son, born with intellectual disabilities,…

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When God Spoke to Me through a Stranger in the Ladies’ Room

She was waiting by the sink in the Ladies Room as I began washing my hands. “Excuse me,” she interrupted, “But the Lord has given me a word for you.” What? More than 20 years ago, I was in Colorado Springs for a meeting with my literary agent and publishers. Honestly, it wasn’t going very well and I had escaped our dinner table at the restaurant to have a moment alone. And now this. The…

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One Woman I Can’t Wait to Meet in Heaven

On this day — every year on October 26th — I think about someone I never met.Forty-one years ago today my husband’s first wife died from liver cancer, leaving  three small children ages 5, 4 and 1, and a young 36-year-old widower. One day I suspect we will have a grand time together in heaven since we love all the same people!  I will first tell Inka how grateful I am that she was able to willingly surrender her…

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