Tagged: grief

You who are my comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me. Jeremiah 8:18 I sit by the water, watching a leaf trickle through the air on its journey to the rippling surface. The sky is blue and the clouds’ edges are so sharp they look frazzled and irritated. The perfection of their silhouette against brilliant azure seems to frustrate them. They want to frizz out a bit and break the blissful facade. Kind of like my naturally curly hair I work so hard to straighten. The wind kicks her heels, threatening to upend my coffee cup as if she agrees to help. Two people sit nearby and make me mad. I want to be alone. I don’t want to hear another human voice. I… Read More

@audreycfrank When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:32). This is Mary, the one who knew she was loved by the Lord. Mary, the one who sat at his feet and listened. She was the woman who broke the cultural stereotype of the day that said women could not be students, disciples of the Rabbi. Mary is the one who “chose the thing that was better” (see Luke 10:42). One day this same Mary would anoint Jesus' feet with expensive perfume before his crucifixion (see John 12:1-8). Mary had a strong measure of confidence in her relationship with Jesus. She knew… Read More

@audreycfrank Joy and sorrow are inexplicably connected, and stubbornly present in the human experience. I once saw a sight most strange, two very different streams flowing side by side. In the deep woods of the mountains where we summered in my childhood, the two streams swirled, separated only by a narrow, rocky ledge embedded in dark rich earth. One raged wide, its waters noisily churning up the dark and decaying debris of seasons past. The other ran slow and narrow, quiet and clear. In its depths sparkled gold and silver stars, reflecting the bright light of the sun. Dark and brooding, flowing beside calm and glittering, these waters fascinated me. While cousins and uncles fished, I wandered the banks of this magical anomaly. As I… Read More

@audreycfrank I was walking on a narrow gravel road that wound its way along the edge of a high ridge overlooking a sweeping valley. I am usually nervous about heights, but I was too focused on the journey to pay attention to the butterflies in my stomach. This was long before I gazed into the majestic Rift Valley of East Africa or the breathtaking vistas of the mountains and valleys of North Africa and the Middle East. This was a dream, and in it, the colors of the earth were strikingly vivid and the air itself seemed alive. It was more real than any path I have ever hiked on earth. I was with my companions and colleagues, and we were discussing strategy with intense… Read More