Listen to these words of exhortation from a woman at my church yesterday:   Don’t stop praying at the brink of breakthrough.     I apologize that I’ve missed posting blogs for a couple of weeks. But you want to know why? I was immersed in some end-of-May events that proved to be life-changing, things that brought breakthrough in my heart and spirit.   Breakthrough I’ve been praying a very long time for.   I’m still catching up from these experiences and the changes that come with new seasons, and I’m still trying to process everything that God is doing.   But what I know...

This weekend I attended the wedding of two people who waited a very long time to find each other. Neither had been previously married, and the groom is 51 years old.     What great rejoicing there was that day! And there has been great rejoicing for other older single people I know. Last month a wedding took place for a couple in their thirties. Last fall a friend in her late thirties got married, and now she’s expecting a baby. Just this week I saw engagement ring pictures posted on Facebook by a forty-something woman.   In a season where it’s easy to notice what’s not happening for me...

I thought I had missed the sunrise. At 6:40 a.m., light already hovered behind swaths of shadowy clouds. I turned my head for another look at the ocean, and suddenly I saw it—that melon patch on the horizon and, seconds later, the muted edge of brilliance emerging from far-away waves.   The first light of dawn was ascending toward full day.       Later that morning—just yesterday—I listened to a speaker quote Proverbs 4:18, “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.”   It reminded me that the renewal God...

At sunrise on Easter morning, I sat outside with believers from churches all over Franklin, TN, celebrating the resurrection of Christ. When the service began, clouds chilled the air around me. But as a pastor reminded us that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us, the clouds scattered into white wisps and golden sunbeams warmed my skin.     It was a lovely and fitting picture of what God was doing in my heart. Jesus, the pastor said, has a way of getting through whatever walls seem to be blocking us from moving toward His purpose for our lives—just as He “magically”...

I recently met a young woman who seemed to be pursuing a college education because she hadn’t yet married. Her main desire in life is to be a wife and mother. But what do you do when that doesn’t materialize when you thought it would?   Recently I’ve heard several older single women question their purpose in life. They have college degrees and jobs, churches and families and friends. Yet, it still seems like there’s something eluding them, a purpose they’ve not yet fulfilled.   In recent days, I myself have dealt with questions about the purpose of my life; as we enter new years, seasons, or...