I first learned about novenas when my friend Laurie left a little book on my porch when my daughter was in North Africa. I was so worried about my girl traveling so far from home, and the book was an offering of faith, grace, prayer and comfort. It was one of the most...
“…Your prayers endure forever. None of them die. They live in the air about us and they move us like the breeze of Pentecost. They may appear dead, but they sometimes lay like an ember in the dull, gray ash of the present moment. Then the Spirit blows, the coals flare...
I pray here, there and everywhere. I pray in bed staring up at the ceiling. I pray at 2 a.m., looking at the blue numbers on the digital clock. I pray in the carpool lane, especially on rainy days. Tears on my windshield washing it clean away. The cobwebs, the...
This past year, 2014, has been harder than most. My father died in February and things came undone. But, if it's possible, 2013 was even worse. What I've been through is probably exactly what you've been through in your life. The most personal stories are also the...
There were four of us huddled together in the same bed. Two of us were crying and two of us were not. Someone said, "Don't Cry." But, someone else said, "Don't Stop." And, then: "Let them cry their tears of grace." I wondered what it meant and then I found: "Let us...
Are You There, God? It's Me, Boy. Our large elm tree is the first on our street to lose all its leaves. Sully says the tree told him it's so we can make leaf piles while the days are still warm. This year I hung lights on poles around a bed of leaves. So, I say, "The...
A Gen-Xer Remembers Gideon Bibles and Prayer in Schools Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to...
The following is a poem I wrote for kids of divorce. Divorce Poem: Prayer for the Child of a Previous Marriage You are not the child of divorce or my previous marriage. You are the child of my here and now. You are not the child of a previous relationship. You are the...
![Charlie Brown Thanksgiving 1973 [Linus Van Pelt’s Prayer]](https://www.jenx67.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/CharlieBrownThanksgiving.jpg)
From Snoopy and Woodstock wearing pilgrim outfits to Snoopy getting snapped between the ping pong table, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving has long been a favorite among all generations of Americans, not just Generation X. Still, this TV special debuted in 1973, and so the...
When I worked as the public information officer for a large ambulance service I had access to information about every call they responded to through computer aided dispatch. This assisted me in responding to media queries about major accidents and other emergencies...