We begin our journey into Psalm 27 with an illustration of change. What do we put our faith in when the path ahead twists unexpectedly and precariously, exposing the shadows that lurk within?

In my youth, the word “change” was synonymous with adventure; and the world was like a beautiful, mysterious forest waiting to be explored. I didn’t seek the well-worn paths, but the overgrown trails where wildflowers bloomed around hidden streams. It thrilled me to visit exotic places and eat strange, new foods — to meet people from all walks of life, share my heart for a season, then…

Sometimes it seems as if God shows up in the least expected moments or circumstances. But maybe it’s more the case that God is everywhere and we are merely explorers stumbling upon glittering treasures.

Growing up, when my friends were turning sixteen, we heard stories of kids getting cars or huge parties with swimming pools, DJs, and Beyonce. So you can imagine that I had some expectations for a ‘sweet sixteen’ when it was finally my turn. And as a beautiful morning dawned on that fateful day, my dad approached with a smile and proudly handed me…a formula. As in…

“Where’s Dad?”

“He’s gone away…Let’s pray to God so that he would come back.”

I was eight years old and this conversation with my mom confounded me. Why would my father leave us? How dare he leave us alone. And why in the world would we pray for my father to return, when he willingly left us behind?

Forget him! (Actually, that was the ‘G’-rated version of what I thought) We will manage… somehow.

My mother’s faith in God bewildered me. Being my mom’s eldest child, I couldn’t bear to see her tear stained face day in and day out…

Of all the figures in my life, perhaps the one most difficult to adequately define is also the one who’s played some of the most fundamental roles in my life. My mother. The main example of nurturer and disciplinarian, and a case study on the resiliency and break down of the human spirit, my mom is living proof that people are tremendously complex and ever-changing.

Our relationship is difficult to describe. I love her ferociously as all children love their mothers, but we’ve also hurt each other, we’ve withheld things from one another, and there are parts of our lives…

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:3)

Years ago, on a drizzly summer day, my children and I took a quick drive to the grocery store. All three sat in the back — my youngest in her car seat and the twins in their boosters.

“Mom, will I ever see a rainbow?”

I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw my older daughter staring through the window up at the sky. She angled her head this way and that, searching.

She knew what a…

I recently celebrated my birthday and nothing reminded me more of encroaching mortality than junk mail full of well wishes pimping eye cream, 401Ks, and yoga. But as friends gathered over delicious dishes and glasses of wine, I took a moment to soak in a moment spent with friends, some who had walked beside me for years — surrounded by laughter and love, what a gift.

As a slice of amazing tiramisu with a burning candle was placed in front of me, an old memory surfaced and I was taken back several years ago to a birthday that fell during…

There was once a young girl who imagined she was adopted.

Though she looked like the parents and siblings who loved and cared for her, she couldn’t shake the sense that somewhere beyond her normal, practical existence, she possessed a heritage that far surpassed what she saw with her eyes or could understand with her mind. She pondered that possibility often.

Perhaps dark magic had stolen her away and erased the memory of her origins.

It could be that her real parents were royals who had purposely hidden her with another family to keep her safe from some sinister plot.

…

Perhaps it was that one drink or hit too many, that rueful one night stand, that punishing word in an argument, that right turn instead of left, that one decision or act that led to a mountain of shame and regret. If you could turn back the clock how far would you go? Would you return to that very minute when choice reared its head? Perhaps go back years and take a completely different path from the one that was tread. …