Imagine for a moment that you’re in a workout class. You probably know the feeling — a hot room, a big whiteboard listing every brutal exercise you’re about to endure, and maybe a group of people beside you, sweating it out on the same journey. The intensity is high. Your strength is fading with each passing rep. You feel like you’ve given it all you’ve got, and you’re ready to call it quits and head home for the day.
The season brought warmth, birds, and flowers, but I barely noticed the beauty and life around me. I was caught in a funk darker than the bleakest winter day. Physically, I had been sick with an infection I couldn’t shake. Spiritually, the enemy was assailing me through the bitter words of another. Emotionally, I was in turmoil because of the failing health of my husband.
Golden leaves, warm sweaters, and crisp air. There are few things I anticipate as much as the arrival of fall each year…
The room was completely dark — shades drawn, no sound, no movement — and it had been like that for weeks…
To this day I can still vividly remember all the details of a darling vintage painting my mom hung in my girlhood room…
Am I useless? Will pain be my companion for life? Will I ever be able to live a normal life?
Once I was smuggling Bibles and medicine into Iraq when we were stopped and searched at the border…
The Gospel came through love and humility…
It all started one blustery autumn day in late October…