What’s Your Happy Place?
What’s your happy place? Where have you felt loved and safe? My first and fast thought in response to this prompt, offered by my incomparable niece Catherine Baker of Together at the 2022 ReSet Retreat, was this: a two-story white farmhouse framed by rows of corn in Carlinville, Illinois. Norman Rockwell could have brought that
Can God Love Someone Like Me?
Why does new love come with so much exhaustion? I have a new puppy named Pearl. It’s a good thing she’s precious because my always-on, keep-her-from-destroying-stuff-or-hurting-herself posture has me running tired. I feel like a new mom, only there’s 20 more years of wear and tear this time around. Honestly, I feel like I’m running a
Do You Want Life to the Fullest?
Have you ever taken a trip to “get away” but your problems followed you to paradise? Honest show of hands—did any of you escape the COVID lockdown only to discover you’re still a little worn down or torn down? Does life to the fullest feel out of reach? Vacations don’t really fix this. Neither do
How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?
Ocean tides have a profound healing effect on the trauma of my childhood. This is especially true in the afternoon when waves nudge and inch farther into dry sand but eventually they have to obey centrifugal force and God. The mighty expanse of ocean has a line it cannot cross. It can go only this
Learning To Stand in an Unstable World
Evil advancing in real-time. Intimidation, scapegoating, and finger-pointing. Parents, educators, and politicians at odds. Big tech acting as arbiters of speech. Gender, race, rights, and riots fighting for headlines and our head space. This is an extraordinary time to be alive. Tectonic plates are shifting right underneath our feet. So, where we place our feet
What in the World is God Doing?
Life sure adds up. Sometimes smiles, small wins, and simple joys create a composite of peace. Other times, setbacks lead to death by a thousand cuts. Where is God, we wonder. Could He just give me a break? Last week was one of those weeks. Tuesday, I deleted every last piece of video evidence that
Would You Like A Life Without Baggage?
I am fresh off an actual in-person conference and it felt like writer’s cramp and a sore face. I haven’t taken notes in two years, not by hand. Those muscles mounted a mutiny. And my laugh-out-loud-until-it-hurts muscles? They needed to be flexed more than I knew. In one workshop, my friend Mary DeMuth pressed her
Is It Time for You To Be Fun Again?
Would it help you today to know it’s ok to laugh? That even in the insanity of daily headlines, we aren’t hopeless, and I do hope we’re not humorless. Just because the globe is uptight doesn’t mean God forgot His fun side. It’s everywhere. Here are a few places I see it: His creation The
How To Find a Pain-Free Life
Forever, I’ve wanted to remodel my master bathroom, but it beat me to it. It remodeled me. What were the builders of my step-down shower thinking? Let’s drop a fifteen-square foot hole in the house, line it with slick ceramic tile, and not install grab bars. What could possibly go wrong? I’m sure the Turkish-bathhouse vibe
How’s the Bible Working Out For You?
It called to me from the thrift store jewelry case—a vintage pearl face watch with translucent beads and just the right Bohemian flair for my flowy outfit. It had probably belonged to someone’s grandma. For a few bucks, it would be a shame not to clasp it around my wrist. I wore it several times
Looking For Rest? It’s Found in a Four-Letter Word.
I once wrote a twenty-word “fast fact” for a corporate report that got slapped with a 200-word disclaimer by the legal team. Imagine, twenty words saddled with ten times their weight in unwieldly corporate claptrap—connected through an asterisk and buried in 8-point type. Makes me think. I’m so glad Jesus didn’t complicate things. He just
I Want To Be An Old Bag
Only now at age 50 have I found my calling. I want to be an old bag. I’ll explain. If life were a bag, I’d want mine to look like this weathered leather briefcase. I want to be worn from all the hands that found comfort in mine. I want to be expanded from loads
I Just Wanted To Be Pretty in Pink
“I’m so sorry that happened to your pretty coat,” the flight attendant said, handing me a claim slip to submit to the airline. They’d have my brand new pink coat dry cleaned, she promised. I made the mistake of sticking it in the overhead bin, where items shift during flight and greasy hinges shift your
Go Get Your Life
Chase the dream. Write the book. Say the apology. Forgive the offense. Say the hard yes. Say the hard no. Toss the fraud tapes. Play the God tapes. Rip the bandage off. Lance the wound. Pursue the healing. Put boundaries up. Put armor on. Put yourself out there. Make heaven crowded. Go get your life.
Laurie Davies
