"Strengthen the Feeble Hands, Steady the Knees That Give Way."
My Dissertation Defense
May 9th
It hardly seems real, but those years that once seemed so far out ahead are suddenly here. I remember being quite distraught at the thought of five years of PhD studies—it has been nearly seven. This journey through the desert has been an exercise in trust and an opportunity for God’s grace.
His pillar has been with me.
His cloud has guided me.
He has been my bread and meat.
He has watered me.
With a grateful heart I come to this place of rest (for the moment).
On April 20th I took up the herculean task of boiling 200+ pages down into 15 pages. I did my best. Come and join me in my joy. CLICK HERE to see the video of my dissertation defense.
When the Expected Arrives – Part 2
Mar 9th
I wonder what it’s like to be adrift at sea for months and then to see land.
I wonder what it’s like to stumble through a desert, dry and hot, and then to find water.
I wonder what it’s like to know hunger, true hunger, and to be given food to eat.
Whatever the sensation, it is understood through experienced not observation.
It is here that those who know a “longing like starvation” find themselves—when the expected arrives. Those thirsty souls can be seen running to the oasis, bucket in hand, and dreams in tow.
It is possible that the land is more solid once we have been adrift at sea for months but more likely that we have gained renewed appreciation for the earth beneath our feet. Perhaps water taste sweeter when we have been desiccated but it is more likely that we gain a deeper appreciation for what was once so scarce. And if food is not more flavorful it is certainly taken with a new appreciation.
When the waiting is over and the blessing for which you held your breath arrives, rejoice! Take what is yours, the best of what you have, and offer it to the Lord as thanks. This is the Continue Reading >>
When the Expected Arrives – Part 1
Mar 4th
It is possible for a journey to be so long and arduous that the traveler becomes most adept at traveling, at surviving while hardly expecting to arrive. We find this same condition with those who long for loved ones to be saved, who harbor a desire year after year. I remember laboring for ten years before seeing fruit in my father and then—when the Lord lit the fuse—Anthony Leslie Davis became a great man of God and a hero to me. While I labored in prayer and words to my father it was, in the end, the Lord’s work.
Our hearts might expect but we dare not presume.
Our tongues may cry out but we dare not demand.
Our hearts may hope for but we dare not hope in.
We live by faith and not by sight. We live with a desire not a realization. We pursue what we have not yet attained and sometimes after the long period of expectation—an occasion of realization—the expected arrives. Then that traveler, so familiar with the roughed landscape through the wilderness of loneliness must exchange what sustained out there for those things that sustain a marriage.
Life is lived just where we are with the hope and expectation Continue Reading >>
The Quite Understated Way
Dec 29th
We all sat wondering why the choir had not returned from the break until the sound of their voices rose from behind the tall white walls. “Silent night. Holy night,” they sang, and the thick walls swallowed the sound of the ninety-person choir. From outside we heard only their muffled whispers. “Round yon Virgin mother and child.” And we all sat silent.
I wondered who had conceived that great illustration of the Silent Night. The power of the choir was not in their volume, but in their very understated position behind the wall—isolated, hidden, and yet still with us.
“Understated!” I thought, “That’s what it is! Understated.”
Understated describes God sending His Son to be born, not in a castle, or a mansion, not alongside the famous who might claim him as their own, but in a manger where he went unnoticed.
Understated describes God choosing a poor carpenter to surrogate The Son.
Understated describes the Father choosing a confused Jewish girl to birth The Son.
Understated describes The Son born in ignoble Bethlehem, not Jerusalem.
Understated describes The Son, for what it was worth, homeless at His birth.
Understated describes Mary giving birth in the cold stable, no nurse, no doctor, no sedative.
Understated describes the visitation of Continue Reading >>
