Are you working too hard?

A spiritual search

Abraham and Sarah: What to expect when you’re not expecting

So many couples, trying to conceive, are traveling a modern version of the tear-muddied route through infertility that Abraham and Sarah knew: Trust. Hope. Wait. Tears. Meanwhile, babies are born to crack addicts who have no desire for them, to women who already have eighteen children and a reality show. Nichole asks, What if the lesson from Abraham and Sarah’s story is not about the delivery room? What if the real work of faith – the real point of faith – happens in the waiting room, where most of our lives are lived? It’s there, in that dreadful space between dream and delivery, longing and fulfillment that we’re most willing to let somebody hold our trembling hands. It’s there that we’re most attentive and vulnerable to God’s voice.

A spiritual search

Joseph: Eyes that Look for God’s Goodness

Studying the story of Joseph, Nichole struggled to understand how anyone could choose to set aside his brothers’ abuse and return their cruelty with kindness. The turning point came as she remembered a pastor’s request, years earlier, to incorporate “gender-neutral” songs into the music she used as worship leader. The pastor reminded her of worshipers who, like Joseph, had suffered abuse and cruelty at the hands of a family member. The experience helped her recognize the power of Joseph’s choice: rather than being disabled by life’s scars, choosing instead to see life through eyes that sought out the good and beautiful things of God.

A spiritual search

Moses: Poetry in Parenting

Nichole compares Moses to a stay-at-home mother, admiring his devoted faithfulness while enduring the monotonous whines of the children of Israel: “We’re hunnnngry.” “We’re thirrrrsty.” “We’re tiiiired.” “We should have stayed in Egypt where at least we had fooood.” It’s like Moses was running an Israeli preschool for decades in the world’s largest sandbox! And yet he crawled out of his tent to face his flock again each morning, weary and bruised but doing what had to be done. She sees in Moses’ devotion, his obedience, his faithfulness a life well lived. A holy life. A poem whose Author has hidden meaning and beauty deep the lines.