As I write these words I’m in a holding pattern. I woke up showing several symptoms matching the CDC’s warnings to watch for a COVID-19 infection. Since I have an underlying auto-immune disease and accompanying asthma, I called my local doctor first thing. Today’s doctor’s appointment was fairly ordinary. I signed in and waited for […]
Our culture has been moving more and more toward digital life, but with the advent of sheltering and quarantining due to COVID-19, every day brings new opportunities to connect, learn, and resource online, especially in the Bible study space. With this surge of digital studies, new online communities, and groups gathering digitally to go through […]
In many ways, this is where it all comes together. All the Happy Soul secrets. All the Happy Soul actions. They begin and end here, with taking refuge in God. It starts with trusting in the charity of Christ for the salvation of our souls. It continues with trusting in the grace of God—in this […]
I’ve been slowly working on our backyard. Though it is nice and green and beautifully paved, I’m not in love with the arrangement of plants. Whenever I get a few moments of free time in the early evening, once the Florida heat begins to lessen, you can find me digging up and replanting plants. Some […]
We often think of the book of Psalms as a happy book filled with praise and worship. Yet over a third of the Psalms are filled with lament. They question. They complain. They cry out. However, alongside the wails, there is worship—a declaration of God’s good and steadfast character. They exhibit a deep trust in […]
A few years ago I was invited to speak at a women’s conference in my hometown in Southern California. Since my family relocated to Alabama a few weeks after I graduated from high school, it had been decades since I’d been in that town. I arrived a bit early to visit with family, catch coffee […]
I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. — Philippians 1:6 In college I took a ton of chemistry classes, all of which were accompanied by regular laboratory time. We put into practice the theory we were […]
The Bible is not a collection of stories about mankind. It is not a history book. It is not a how-to guide for how to live our lives. It is first and foremost a book about God. It is theological in function and form. Does it include history? Indeed. Does it record stories of people […]
I woke up this morning to discover that today, March 20, is the International Day of Happiness. I don’t usually pay much attention to the many, often obscure “holidays” (March 20 is also Extraterrestrial Abductions Day) but this one caught my attention. Since I just wrote a book on happiness I can’t help but notice […]
What’s your favorite translation of the Bible? My guess is that you are able to answer that question fairly easily, and you may have numerous, specific reasons for it. There is no shortage of debate and discussion about the best Bible translation. Just this past month I encountered women (in a Christian Bible study space!) battering each […]