Blog
Summer Sampler: Unexpected to Unbelievable!
I love living in New England, and I welcome the diversity of all four seasons. The new birth of buds blossoming, the splash of salted waters, painted crisp fall leaves, and a fresh snow blanket descending from the sky.
Not so welcome are the unexpected seasons/storms that abruptly knock at our doorstep. Yet we all have those uninvited visitors barging in. For some it may be a …
Summer Sampler: Persevering in Our Suffering
Forty years ago, I began my journey of growing in the knowledge of God’s gracious provision of persevering endurance through my health challenges. In the spring of 1983 – my sophomore year in college – my kidneys began failing. I began dialysis in July of ’85, and after six months I received my first cadaveric transplant. Nine years later when…
Summer Sampler: Persevering with Perspective
Wars. Protests. Rebel takeovers. Tornadoes. Floods. World leaders denying wrongdoing. Innocent people suffering. Lives and homes destroyed. All these events and their repercussions are just one day’s news.
We can be alarmed and anxious, and say, “Surely Jesus must come back soon!” But we also want to know the best way to live each day when such horrible things are going on in the world.
One thing I’ve learned from living in big cities like New York City and London, where worrying events make headlines on a regular basis, is …
Summer Sampler: A Shattered Faith
In the mid-1980s, “Stress Test Biofeedback Cards” were all the rage. They were plastic cards with a colored scale and a testing square – you held the card with your thumb lightly pressing on the square and counted to 10. The color of the square told your stress score.
I think my stress square might be stuck on black based on the last 10 years of my life.
Summer Sampler: Gratitude in the Midst
In the mid-1980s, “Stress Test Biofeedback Cards” were all the rage. They were plastic cards with a colored scale and a testing square – you held the card with your thumb lightly pressing on the square and counted to 10. The color of the square told your stress score.
I think my stress square might be stuck on black based on the last 10 years of my life.
Summer Sampler: Journey to the Summit
“I would rather die.”
People asked, was I serious? Totally. When the surgeon told me I had a ruptured bowel and I needed a colostomy bag, I refused. The hospital staff said they would make me comfortable until the end. That’s when my family came over the top.
They took my hands, begging me to continue fighting. I thought, “What’s the point?” I had stage 4 metastatic colorectal cancer with not long to live. Finally, …
Summer Sampler: In His Grip While in the “In Between”
Celebrate the seasons –– a time for everything! Solomon trumpets this theme in Ecclesiastes, championing that each season will be made beautiful in its time with God as its designer.
There are only a few people in scripture for whom we have the privilege of celebrating their seasons over a lifetime: Moses, Joshua, David, and Mary, to name a few.
But we have seasons of our lives as well! Seasons come and seasons go. Some arrive suddenly –– with the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, a sudden move to a new city –– the plot twists of life we never see coming. Other seasons arrive so gradually that we barely notice we’ve entered a new season. When did…
Summer Sampler: Why I Stopped Hiding My Pain
Keep a stiff upper lip. Grin and bear it. You may be familiar with these idioms to “soldier on” and put a lid on suffering and pain. I certainly am. Recently, I’ve been convicted of how that kept me from glorifying God by showing the reason for – and hope in – my suffering.
I was a “perfect attendance” child. I didn’t even get colds. Then in 1986, at age 23, I woke up one day unable to …
Summer Sampler: Persevering in a Troubling and Ever-Changing World
The dictionary definition for the word “perseverance” says this: continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition : the action or condition or an instance of persevering : STEADFASTNESS.
Perseverance is a word that I don’t necessarily enjoy talking or thinking about. Like, who wants to persevere when things are messy and hard?
Get Into the Boat: Fostering Emotional Health
Jesus felt stress?!? Really. As humans we’re no strangers to stress. The stress of an overfull day, a lengthy to-do list, responsibilities for family, work, friends. The stress and mess of relationships. The stress and frustrations throughout the day as we try to complete our to-dos. But Jesus? Stressed?
A Time of Lament
Do you find yourself in a season of loss? Maybe you’ve lost a loved one, a job, or a friendship, or your expectations have been disappointed in some area of your life. Loss is an inevitable experience in this life.
What are we to do with the loss? Our culture would tell us to keep busy, move on to plan B or C, seek the next goal, and move forward. In contrast, if we look to scripture, we see Psalms expressing anguish, disappointment, and despair. At Bible study, we recently …
In Christ Alone
In 2018, my grandpa passed away. I remember him sitting down with us a few months prior as he explained the rapid effects of ALS and his acceptance that he’d be with the Lord very soon. It was very difficult to grasp – listening to someone I loved so dearly talk with my siblings and me about death. And yet, his words exemplified contentedness and peace. Though we all felt incredible sadness, he made…
Drawing Closer to Our Shepherd: A Meditation on Psalm 23
Guided meditation is helpful in quieting our hearts, refocusing our attention on Jesus, and putting our feet on the path of being more like Jesus Christ. Recently, we have been encouraged, challenged and strengthened by the study of and meditation on Psalm 23. May God's goodness continue to lead us back to the living waters and peace that He alone provides.
Support Your Local Pastor (and Their Family!) PART 3
The following is the gist of a conversation between Gail and Linda Moore, director of by design and herself a pastor’s wife. PART 3
Support Your Local Pastor (and Their Family!) PART 2
The following is the gist of a conversation between Gail MacDonald and Linda Moore, director of by design and herself a pastor’s wife. PART 2
Those Not-So-Great Expectations
It was early in our marriage, and we were visiting my parents. We’d been there a couple of hours, and I was settling in for the day. My husband Ray, however, seemed restless, and I couldn’t understand why. Turns out, he had expected a one-hour visit and had made plans for the rest of the day. What!?
Lasting Impact: The Graceful Influence of Every Woman
I believe we all owe Martha an apology. No human was ever created to serve solely as a sermon illustration. Why are we tempted to continually pit Martha against her sister Mary? No one has ever written a book titled, “Don’t be a Peter, be a John.”
IN MEMORIAM
But when it came to letting our individual lights shine? I was a 40-watt bulb. Cindy was a chandelier. A deep friendship launched that was to have lasted a lifetime. Or should have.
Support Your Local Pastor (and Their Family!) PART 1
The following is the gist of a conversation between Gail and Linda Moore, director of by design and herself a pastor’s wife.
Think Cellular
These days the word “cellular” is associated mostly with mobile phone technology – but this is not about that! This reflection is about the human body and, more specifically, the trillions of cells in each of us. These microscopic organisms work on our behalf day in and day out. But unlike all the other living things in our lives – like kids or pets – we rarely listen or attend to them until they demand our attention. Why is that?I have...