I remember when I had the mumps. My painful, swollen jaw along with the fever that made me feel miserable was bad enough. What I hated worse was being banished to my room because I was contagious, and my father had never had mumps. He would stand at the door and check on me. But that just wasn’t the same. I didn’t have a place at the dinner table. I didn’t get a ride on his back when it was bedtime. I couldn’t have a hug. I never imagined myself in the same predicament

When I returned from Kenya, I came home with a prayer for peace for that country. Tribal warring had rocked the country. I had never been closer to such rivalry than when it erupted on the street while I attended chapel on the 8th floor of African Nazarene University’s Nairobi campus. While I was grateful to learn the guns were shooting blanks, it still revealed the human fall in all its ugliness and missed design. Man fighting man for his own way. It is the wayward strugg

I am learning that Advent is a time to re-focus. It isn’t just an opportunity to do Christmas better. No one can improve on what God did in Bethlehem that first Christmas. Instead, it is a time to let God do what He does best: bring Christmas to us! He always starts in the heart. This week of Advent focuses on Peace. If you thought hope was elusive, try making your own peace in your overcrowded Bethlehem. I'd like to send you a week of short devotionals to help you bring God