Q. Whom would you trade places with for a day? A.  Nobody. Why would I want somebody else’s life?  —Barbara Corcoran, INC. magazine, April 2013. Maybe right now you wouldn’t answer that question the same way Ms. Corcoran did. Maybe you need some words of encouragement. Maybe you could use words like these:  “I know the plans I have…

  Q. Whom would you trade places with for a day? A.  Nobody. Why would I want somebody else’s life?  —Barbara Corcoran, INC. magazine, April 2013. From that same interview with Barbara Corcoran comes another great comment: “I used to think the Corcoran Group was my golden goose. Once I sold it, I realized I was the golden…

I was glad when they said, “Let’s go to the house of the Lord!” —  Psalm 122:1 I still am, and hope and pray you still are, too.

“Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets,” wrote Arthur Miller. I think I understand that. “Forgive us for the things we have said and done,” says a Prayer of Confession, “and for the things we have left unsaid and undone when we should have stepped up and spoken up.” I’m afraid I understand…

I am fearfully and wonderfully made — Psalm 139:14 First, a classic story: One Christmas a parent announced that the days of hounding her kids to write Thank You notes were over. Their grandmother never received one word of gratitude for the generous checks she had given as gifts that year. Things were different the next year. “Every…

I am fearfully and wonderfully made — Psalm 139:14 Need a haircut? Need to trim your nails? It’s because you’re still growing. Maybe that’s a hint that the parts of us we can’t see are to be growing as well. You know, the parts like our minds and our spirits. Or as a friend likes…

I am fearfully and wonderfully made — Psalm 139:14 I had officiated at the wedding of our nephew and his bride. Patty and I had been dancing at the reception. She had sat down, but I was still carrying on out on the dance floor with a bunch of guys.  They were all under the age of…

I am fearfully and wonderfully made — Psalm 139:14 Remember skinning your knees? Remember those scabs? Remember how all that healed? Remember how fearfully and wonderfully made you are, and be thankful.

I am fearfully and wonderfully made — Psalm 139:14 I was a student chaplain at a teaching hospital. Walking briskly to a meeting, I said something to the kidney transplant surgeon who had befriended me about the long list of medical issues many patients seem to have brought with them. He laughed, slowed down long…

Two verses for your consideration:   Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. — Psalm 43:5   I was glad when they said to me, “Let’s go to the house of the Lord.”   — Psalm…