I can pretend I was cultivating curiosity…but to be honest, the post I just released was accidental. While updating the pages on this website (by the way, check out the new pages), I  inadvertently sent out a new post.

However, I really do have a new release.  The Chicken truly has hit the fan. This is the third in my morning cup devotional series (new logo, yay!)and I’m excited to let it fly. Below is a sneak peek at excerpts from the introduction.

Let me know if you wish to reserve a copy!  I’ll be happy to sign and send.  The first 15 orders will receive a free copy of “My Morning Cup.”

No, I didn’t pull the title for this book out of a hat. I actually have a real-life story about a chicken hitting a fan. It happened like this . . .

One day I came across a young man whom I know well, and he had a black eye. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: How did you get the black eye?

Him: Because of the chicken.

Me: Because of the chicken?

Him: Yes, I had a friend over, and he brought his pet chicken.

Me, squinting in confusion: A pet chicken? So what does that have to do with your black eye?

Him: I didn’t appreciate him bringing a chicken into my apartment, so I asked him to leave, but he didn’t.

Me: And?

Him: So I took the chicken and threw it in the air . . . but it hit the fan.

Me, roaring: WHAT?! Was it okay?

Him: It lost some feathers, but it was okay . . . but the guy was mad that his chicken hit the fan.

Me: And so he punched you?

Him: Yes, he punched me. He’s not coming back.

Me: I guess not. Well, here’s a package of frozen peas. Put that on your eye and it will help the swelling to go down.

Which just goes to show that you just never know with life, and with people. Friends get in fights. Chickens show up for surprise visits. People sometimes throw chickens, and innocent birds collide with ceiling fans. pix

Do you ever feel like life plays tricks on you? There you are, minding your own business, when things around you spin out of control, quick as a blink. Your day starts out one way, and then—bam—the unexpected happens, and your entire day, maybe even your entire life, gets turned on its head. One moment, your path and plan feel solid and secure; the next moment, things “hit the fan.” Feathers fly.

Life changes like that: quickly, unexpectedly, unpredictably. I am so thankful that the word of God never changes, and that it applies to every situation we face, no matter how bizarre. The Bible always applies because it deals with the attitudes of our heart, not just our circumstances.

The Bible teaches us that we have a choice in how to respond when the chicken hits the fan. Our response to those difficult times depends upon how closely we walk with God, and upon our use of his word.

God has much to say about how he wants us to apply his word:…

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:3–4)

The chapters in this book were written in real time, as I experienced them. You’ll read stories of unexpected, humorous, and even chaotic moments in my own life, and how I used the Bible to help me grow through those times. My hope is that this collection of devotional thoughts will help you shed more of God’s light onto the ordinary (and not so ordinary!) happenings of life, and help you make sense of the mess when things “hit the fan.” I pray this book helps you find God, trust God, and glorify God in all situations—even the ones where feathers are flying.

On a day when a few parts of the world celebrate love, and a day when a warped, messed up distortion of a so called love story premieres…thought it would be encouraging to share “50 Vibrant Colors” of true love I’ve seen, experienced and felt this year. 
Feel free to add yours in the comments.

1. I’ve watched numerous lives transformed because they have come to understand that they are deeply valued and loved by the Creator of the universe … and responded to that love, turning their lives over to Him… becoming new.
2. I’ve seen those with friends who’ve lost loved ones drop everything to pray with, comfort and give to their hurting friends.
3. I’ve seen those who have lost loved ones keep on giving and loving others amidst their pain.
4. I’ve seen neighbors shoveling out other neighbors and offering small acts of kindness.
5. I’ve seen mothers and fathers plead, pray and act on behalf of their wandering teens.
6. I’ve seen Russians and Ukranians praying for each other and refusing to fight each other.
7. I’ve seen men, women and children sacrificing significant hard-earned money to help missions around the world.
8. I’ve seen them give money for camp to kids and scholarships to those in need.
9. I’ve watched the poor give out of their own needs to help those around them.
10. I’ve seen families sell their belonging and move to mission fields…just because they love God and love people and believe they can make a difference.
11. I’ve seen young men and women pack their bags at Christmas time to serve the poor in developing countries.
12. I’ve seen women who were addicted to abusive substances break free by the power of God and the help of loving Christian sisters.
13. I’ve seen women who experienced years of abusive relationships come to realize our Spiritual Father is loving and trustworthy…and find true healing and wholeness.
14. I’ve seen relationships that once were filled with conflict find peace by following God’s plans for reconciliation.
15. I’ve seen spouses ask for forgiveness and watched in tears as forgiveness was given.
16. I’ve watched young men and women fall in love , remain pure and then marry each other with a purpose in their marriage higher than just being happily married…but to give and serve….(which will bring happiness).
17. I’ve seen teenagers standing up for a God they love and the words he spoke when it wasn’t the popular thing to do…all because they care about their friends and they love God and his word.
18. I’ve seen college students care enough for their fellow students to see through the crazy partying and lifestyles…and see someone who is really looking for love. They care enough to listen to them and share God’s love and plan for their lives with them.
19. I’ve seen men and women–young and old, feed the hungry in shelters, give clothes and toys… and find numerous ways to serve the poor and needy.
20. I’ve seen friends field calls from the emotionally distraught…then pray with them, comfort them…and get them further help.
21. And I’ve watched as people go into nursing homes to talk or sing to someone who will never remember they were there.
22. I’ve watched as friends give others rides every week to church, to do errands…and just seek to meet their needs in various ways.
23. I’ve seen men and women step out on faith and out of their comfort zone to initiate in words or actions when they have felt shy and insecure.
24. I’ve celebrated 40 years of marriage to a husband who loves God first…and thus I can trust him completely…and thus experience a most amazing relationship of love and purpose.
25. I’ve celebrated my 60^th birthday with family and friends…realizing that every blessing comes from God and he has never, ever failed on one of his promises.
26. I’ve experienced the love of my children and their spouses, who because they put God first in their lives, experience a depth of assurance, purpose and joy unattainable any other way.
27. I’ve watched orphans become successful in their lives because someone took them in or cared for them in other ways.
28. I’ve watched children who are making poor choices experience unconditional love, grace and truth–through parents who love them and desire their children’s eternal well-being above their own lives.
29. I’ve watched as people have loved enough to practice “tough love” …all the while longing for the best for their loved one.
30. I’ve watched children as they learn to serve others experience a joy and maturity far beyond their years.
31. I’ve seen men and women get up early and stay up late, just to pray or read the Bible with someone.
32. I’ve gone to bed each night with a clear conscience, simply because I strive to follow God… and his love continually reassures and forgives me.
33. I’ve seen disciples of Jesus in other parts of the world invite me and many others into their homes and lives, all because they love God and his family…of which I’m a part
34. I’ve seen men and women be vulnerable when it was hard… and ask for help…knowing they are loved and safe.
35. I’ve watched as people put others needs above their own, going out of their way to help.
36. I’ve seen others love someone else enough to be honest with them and speak the truth in love, instead of being too afraid to speak up.
37. I’ve seen others cheering others on, when someone felt they wanted to quit.
38. I’ve watched as others have cried tears of joy for someone’s accomplishment, even if it was something they desired.
39. I’ve watched as new babies came into the world and their parents, knowing our world is broken, realize they still have something wonderful and eternal to offer their children.
40. I’ve watched as families and friends stood vigil at the deathbed of loved ones.
41. I’ve watched cards and calls of encouragement lift the souls of the weary.
42. I’ve watched as people weep with those who weep….and rejoice with those who rejoice, even if they don’t feel they have “had it as good.”
43. I’ve seen the anxiety that ill health produces overcome by the transformation in thinking that God’s word provides…and the comfort knowing that God cares about everything we go through.
44. I’ve watched sunrises and sunsets, oceans and mountains…realizing that the beauty around me is because of God’s love and glory…and a gift to us.
45. I’ve witnessed God bring beauty out of pain….because he loves.
46. I’ve seen natural disasters bring out compassion and new levels of kindness…because any and all good in this world is because of God and his example.
47. I’ve watched faithful Christians die…full of hope and assurance that on the other side of eternity lies something not even comparable to this short and physical life…and that God will welcome them home.
48. I have felt love as I read God’s love letter to me, convincing me that I have value and purpose.
49. I have felt love from the family of God all over the world, knowing that the same God and the same Bible is the guide and standard for their life.
50. I’ve felt loved, fulfilled and full of hope…through good times and difficult times because I have a perfect Valentine. A father who loves me and gave me his very best…his son.

Now that is love…in VIBRANT COLOR.  It’s all because of God…and what his love and word produces.   Nothing grey about that.

What would Christmas be without children?  I am often amazed, softened and challenged by thoughts that go through their minds and out of their mouths.

Micah’s dad, Justin (or Gus…he goes by both), shared about a conversation with Micah (4) that took place earlier this week during a family devotional.   Justin shared:

 We were discussing the birth of Jesus – naturally – and I asked him, “Buddy, you know how Jesus is a king?”  He nodded. 

I continued, “Well most kings in Jesus’ time were born in big castles and they had real beds and lots of people helping them when they were born.” 

He nodded again and I said, “Well, if God can do anything – which he can – why wouldn’t he have made it so his son was born in a big castle like other kings instead of in a barn with animals and without even a bed?”

Micah thought about it for half a second and then he said, “Well castles are far away from the people and Jesus needed to be down near the people so he could see them and so he could know who he needed to rescue because that is why he was born, to rescue people”

As I wrapped gifts in the kitchen this evening I kept this  in my heart as I listened to Christmas carols. Two of my favorites played.  One, entitled “Welcome to Our World,” expresses well Micah’s observations.

I pondered what it must have felt like for Jesus to leave heaven’s perfection and arrive in a (too often) war-torn, hate filled, and messed up world.  Consider these lyrics:

Welcome to Our World, by Chris Rice:

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from god
You’ve been promised, we’ve been waiting
Welcome holy child
Welcome holy child

Hope that you don’t mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long awaited holy stranger
Make yourself at home
Please make yourself at home
Bring your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
World now breaking heaven’s silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world

Fragile finger sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born
So wrap our injured flesh around you
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect son of God
Perfect son of God
Welcome to our world

The next song brought tears to my eyes—“O Holy Night” written by Adolphe Adams.

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
‘Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn’
Fall on your knees, O hear the angels’ voices
O night divine, O night when Christ was born

Because Jesus was willing to come and live among the people, he knows us—he know me.

Because he came…

Our souls can finally feel their worth.  They are worth his birth and his death. Amazing.

What a thrill of hope—and reason to celebrate this brings.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas.

May we “fall on our knees” in wonder and gratitude.

Forty years ago today I had just completed my last college final.  It had been a crazy time…finishing school, packing my life belongings in a few boxes and planning our wedding while my fiancé lived in another state.  He had begun a job as a campus minister five months prior. We dated in the days before computers and in the time when phone calls from state to state cost more than we had–so we relied on near-daily old fashioned letter writing (with real pen and paper and stamps.)  And yes, I still have the letters we wrote.

On the morning of this day forty years ago, our wedding day, I finished a few last minute errands with friends while Wyndham played football with his buddies from church.  That afternoon, we became husband and wife. 

I am thrilled to celebrate forty years with such an amazing man.  In honor of this day I wrote out forty reasons why I fell in love with my husband…and forty reasons why I’m even more in love with him forty years later. 

When I think of some of the reasons why I fell in love with my husband I am overwhelmed with gratitude to God, and to my husband.   It took me all of five minutes to list forty things. Here is a sampling:

1. He treated me as someone significant.
2. The guys on his dorm floor (where he was an RA) respected him.
3. He thought for himself, but listened to others as well.
4. He had an arm that could throw a football a long way-accurately.
5. When we were just friends, and he hurt my feelings one day…he walked 30 minutes across campus to my dorm lobby and called me to come down so he could apologize. I think that is the moment I began to fall in love with him.
6. He had many deep friendships. His friends knew he sincerely cared.
7. He had deep convictions.
8. He was an excellent thinker and very wise.
9. He treated me with absolute purity.
10. I walked past his car (old, old Chevrolet) one day and he didn’t see me. No one was around.  He was inside, praying passionately.  I kept walking…not wanting to interrupt. That scene was stamped in my mind. I could see the “realness” of his communication with God.

I could go on and on.  Forty years later, those reasons are still there….but the depth of that first love has exponentially grown.  We have experienced so much life together as we have raised our family, traveled to the poorest parts of the earth, seen amazing wonders of God’s creation, built treasured friendships, loved and served in the church, seen lives changed, prayed and prayed—often with tears, laughed deeply, cried, stood at bedsides of loved ones as they breathed their last breath, held each other’s hands, walked dogs, rejoiced in weddings and births, played with grandchildren,….all the while building  precious memories. 

Unequivocally, God is the reason…the only reason we have been able to experience this wonderful love—as he continually shows us what love means.

Today I am especially thankful for the gift of forty years of marriage to my best friend and companion—a man full of integrity.  I relate to the chorus lyrics of an old hymn:

It gets sweeter as the days go by

It gets sweeter as the days go by

It gets sweeter as the moments fly

His love is richer, deeper, fuller, sweeter

Sweeter, sweeter, sweeter as the days go by

First love is special—but continual, seasoned love is even sweeter.