Being married to a pilot comes with a lot of perks, the most significant being the ability to get around! We try to make the most of our travel benefits, a great blessing given to airlines employees, and often find ourselves in places we are not expecting!  My husband’s past time is reading travel magazines.  If he reads an article and sees a picture of someplace he has not been before, he finds a way to get us there!    Last week, we found ourselves on a plane headed across the Atlantic to a beautiful city in Croatia. We had very limited time there, so we came out of the plane running.  We needed a ride, so we called an Uber and headed to our hotel.  As we drove toward our destination, our Uber driver told us about the architecture of the city, the old buildings and how they had been damaged by the civil war in the 1990’s.  It was all very interesting and amazing to see …

I watched a Ted Talk the other day and saw the most amazing video.  It began with a park full of people seated on picnic blankets enjoying a beautiful day.   In the middle of the park, right in the middle of all of the people and blankets, a man stood up and started to dance!  This dance was no ordinary dance.  With everything this man had he was flailing his arms and kicking his legs.  He was dancing a dance completely uninhibited and unconcerned about who was seated around him.  This man was dancing hisdance and he was all in!   The people on the picnic blankets around him noticed the dancing man, but most glanced up and then went back to what they were doing before the dance began, back to their conversations, back to their picnic lunch.  But not one man.  One man in the crowd saw the dance, found it irresistible, got up from his blanket, and joined the dancing man.   Two people were now dancing in the …

Cabo San Lucas is a popular vacation destination at the tip of the Mexican Baja peninsula.  People travel great distances to spend time in this place that is very predictable. The weather is predicable, it’s always sunny and warm.  The food is predictable, it’s always fresh and delicious.  The people are predictable, too.  They are always kind and gracious; folks you enjoy being around.  Cabo is not just a place full of predictable, it’s also a place full of pleasant.   Gorgeous sunrises and sunsets draw your eyes to the colorful sky at dawn and at dusk. The sound of the waves crashing on the beach is a backdrop to your day and lulls you to sleep at night.   Trees with vibrant flowers and graceful palms sway in the breeze creating a beautiful display of color on the horizon.  Just a few days in Cabo and you start to think that this is the place on earth where everything is predictable, everything is pleasant.  Nothing could possibly go wrong.   But just …

Procrastination.  It’s not a pretty word.  To procrastinate means to delay.  It is the act of delaying something we know we are supposed to do.  We know what life looks like when we delay.  Around the house it looks like a sink full of dishes and a pile of dirty clothes.  At work, delaying what we are to do leads to assignments that lacking punctuality and excellence.  Delaying in our relationships leads to half-hearted friendships and empty spaces. But what does it look like when we procrastinate with God?  What does it look like when we delay doing what He has called us to do? Rebekah’s story begins in Genesis 24.  A beautiful young woman, she has been to the well too many times to count.  Her assignment has always been to get water for her family and on this day, she was doing just that. At the very same time Rebekah approached the well, so did a servant.  This …

Maybe I should begin by saying I am not a runner.  Around this time last year my husband told me to block particular dates on my calendar so we could head out of town for a long weekend.  As the date approached, I asked him where we were headed and what I should pack.  His reply was simple.  ‘It’s a surprise.  Pack casual….and bring your sneakers.’  Now, I really do trust my husband!  He has never steered me wrong before, so I didn’t question it.   I just packed my bag and off we went.  A few hours later, however, I found myself in Nashville, standing in a crowd, wearing my sneakers, a number pinned to my shirt, registered for a race I had not planned to run. Finding myself in a race I had not planned on running shed some amazing new light for me on a very familiar passage in the Word of God.  This new perspective has shaped …

Ever had a run in with a monkey? Not too long ago, my husband and I traveled with friends to Bali, Indonesia to escape the cold and enjoy the sun!  After a few days of rest and relaxation, we decided it was time to see the sites so we hired a guide to take us to one of Bali’s most historic spots. As we neared our destination, our guide shared with us some of what we could expect.  He said there would be a very long walk, about a half hour uphill and then a half hour down.  He told us that the view of the Indian Ocean was amazing on the path and he shared with us the cultural events that are held at this place.  He went on and on, speaking about the history and the beauty, but as we neared the path, his tone changed.  He held up his finger as if pointing out a warning. Our …

I tell this story often.  It’s a love story.  It may be a different kind of love story than what you might think when you hear that phrase, but I think you will understand. For years, my husband, Dan and I struggled to have a family.  If you have lived through the valley of infertility, you know the pain, the loss, the emptiness that road can take, the stress it can put on a marriage. It was a valley, a very long, empty valley.  After several years of trying to make it happen on our own, we did what we so often do when we can do nothing else.  We surrendered to God.  We gave Him our hopes, our dreams, our desires and wow…when we gave Him our desires, He gave us His. We got off our path and we stepped onto His.  God put adoption on our hearts and with everything we had, we went after it.  Rather than feeling defeated, we …

Dunkin Donuts was always our destination on Sunday evenings when I was a young girl visiting my grandfather.  After evening church service, we would excitedly pile into the car on our way to what I had anticipated all day! I remember so clearly the many times my grandfather and I stood in line as I tried to decide which donut would be mine!  Waiting patiently for our turn to order, my eyes were fixed ahead, taking in the colorful sprinkles and icings in front of me.   My grandfather, however, wasn’t looking ahead at the selection of sweets.  He was looking behind.  Without fail, while I was choosing a donut, he was starting a conversation with whoever was behind him in line.  I was always aware of the conversation, I just never focused on the content. A few years ago while visiting my grandfather again, I found myself standing in the same line, in the same Dunkin Donuts on another Sunday evening …