Anxious, frustrated, and appalled. Relieved, hopeful, and excited. I have felt all of these in the past weeks. The pandemic creeps closer into my circle of colleagues. Relationships struggle for lack of face to face connection. Safety vanishes. Leaders disappoint. Yet medical breakthroughs encourage. Change brings hope. Surprisingly encouragement comes through learning that I am called, loved, and kept. Sounds lovely, but what does it mean?
Author: Eva Burkholder
If I Understand it, Then I Can Control It
The desire to figure everything out, to fully understand, and make sense of my world is strong in me. However the events in our nation's capitol last week proved that even more fleeting than the loss of control over my schedule and calendar (due to a pandemic) is any control I thought I had over the beliefs and actions of others. Four guiding truths emerged as I pondered a quote from Emily P. Freeman.
Envy and the Unique Role of Aunts
I am an aunt to some lovely young women and men. I have cultivated individual relationships with them and enjoy my unique role in their lives. Being their aunt gives me a certain advantage over their mothers.
Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love
Today we head into the final week of waiting for our annual celebration of the birth of Mary’s son, Jesus. We expectantly anticipate the coming—the Advent—of the Son of the Most High as she did. During each week of Advent, I focused on finding the traditional Advent themes in Mary's story.
Cancer, Stage 4
“Cancer, most likely stage four,” announced the email. Since older women compose the majority of my Bible study group, a notification of someone’s hospitalization was not unusual. But this one? She seemed too young, healthy, and vibrant.
Rumors and Risk in the Aftermath
Three weeks after we evacuated to Bali to escape the riots on Lombok Island, we returned to our home. On my desk I found my abandoned letter to my parents from January 17, the day the riots broke out. My last words on the unfinished page read, "We are not terribly alarmed, just being careful." I picked up where I left off.
Narrow Escape
Muslims, Hindus, and Christians lived peacefully together on Lombok Island, Indonesia in the 1990s. The only violence this sleepy paradise knew was the occasional outbreak of a decades old tribal feud between two rival Muslim villages. Consequently, the events of January 17, 2000 caught us off guard.
Y2K Provision
This scare, known as Y2K, caused us to pause and take a few extra precautions. Before the clock struck midnight on the new millennium, my husband took a significant wad of cash out of the bank. January 1 arrived and nothing happened. We hid the cash. Then January 17 erupted around us and we grabbed the cash.
