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Sometimes this is what Hope looks like
Funny how a single sentence can stop you in your tracks instantly crumbling the edifice of how you define reality. I can still hear her beautiful soft voice on the phone and feel the strain of trying to catch her quiet words: ”Lancia, the baby doesn’t have a heart beat any more.” I’ve been here before and I’ve had another phone call like this. All the things I was doing, all the things of that moment, all the things I thought I had to do tomorrow and the week ahead flatten faster than a deflated balloon. The...
read moreOxbridge 2011 Favourites Slide Show!
The C.S. Lewis Foundation brought us another superlative event this summer which took place in Oxford and Cambridge. Extraordinary speakers from multiple disciplines presented plenary sessions each morning preceded by worship services, then afternoon workshops covering a range of subjects from poetry to creative writing to business management. Evenings led into beautiful meals, world-class music or drama presentations and culminated in happy fellowship at Bag End Cafe. An experience not to be forgotten! If you would like...
read moreDaniel’s Birthday
Today is Daniel’s birthday. My beautiful, prince-like, brown-eyed son. We named him for the prophet Daniel after these words Youths without blemish, well-favored in appearance and skillful in all wisdom, discernment, and understanding, apt in learning knowledge, competent to stand and serve in the king’s palace¦. (Daniel 1:4) He would be 35. Today marks another milestone that I will not celebrate with him. Try as I might to focus on life today with all its fullness and blessing, grief resolutely stands at the door of my mind...
read moreC.S. Lewis Song by Brooke Fraser!
Brooke Fraser is an exceptional song writer and singer whose music has been an inspiration to me for the past several weeks while editing and preparing images from the C.S. Lewis Foundation’s triennial Oxbridge conference. Good friend and Lewis scholar Andrew Lazo introduced this song to me while we were staying at The Kilns this year with other Foundation staff members before Oxbridge began. From the moment I heard it I was enchanted. The lyrics are superb and are based on C.S Lewis’s famous quote in Mere...
read moreOxbridge! Oxbridge!
Oxbridge, Oxbridge! In my professional and personal worlds there is nothing quite equal to it. A superlative conference certainly – but Oxbridge is far more than that. Oxbridge is, in its essence, a merging of like-minded and like-hearted people into a growing organism with a single point of purpose. Each of us here are drawn by a voice we have heard in C.S. Lewis at some point in our lives to the same something that he himself was drawn to. And we are now drawn by the same voice of the Holy Spirit that called Lewis before us. We come...
read moreBless and forget not
Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul; and all that is [deepest] within me, bless His holy name! Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits “ Who forgives [every one of] all your iniquities, Who heals [each one of] all your diseases, Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, Who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercy; Who satisfies your mouth [your necessity and desire at your personal age and situation] with...
read moreThe Source of Pleasure
“Whom have I in Heaven but You? And I have no delight or desire on earth beside You.” ~ Psalm 73:25 ——- You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures for evermore. ~ Psalm 16:11 Why is it so easy to forget - or worse, to disbelieve – that God is the Source of all true pleasure? That God made enjoyment itself and made us to share the experience of enjoyment with Him? The lines of a song I’ve loved come wandering through my thoughts as I...
read moreConfidence in the storm
Be merciful and gracious to me, O God, be merciful and gracious to me; for my soul takes refuge and finds shelter and confidence in You; yes, in the shadow of Your wings will I take refuge and be confident until calamities and destructive storms are passed.” Psalm 57:1 ——- There is such soothing peace in this verse. A clear cry to God for help, for protection and for His presence, the covering of His wings. A clear sense of confidence and trust in God’s unfailing character. The Psalmist here does not pretend to be...
read moreThe Kilns 2005 – Part III
Every trip involves a physical experience of moving body and gear from one place to another. However, every trip is a personal excursion into dimensions that are also entirely intangible. The unseen elements to travel often have the greater significance for what we take from our journeys. The trip to The Kilns the summer of 2005 was something much more than an amazing travel experience to a beloved author’s home and meeting remarkable people, though it certainly was all that. The unseen element for me was the fulfillment not only of...
read moreThe Kilns 2005 – Part II
Taking the trip to The Kilns that summer was a step of faith for me. It required me to overcome fear, guilt, being too rooted in place where I was and step into the unknown “ by myself. It also required me to believe that God wanted to give me something good, not just require character building and obedience from me. That was actually the greater step of faith for me at that time. As in all steps of faith God met me in ways I could literally never have imagined before. All the longings I had felt for England since childhood were satisfied...
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