I’ve studied joy over the last three years. This virtue is plastered on coffee mugs, sewn on decorative pillows, and even displayed on dish soap. I’ve read a lot of books on this topic. Joy is portrayed as happy-clappy, sunshine, rainbows, and puppies. If you like...
No one gets out of life unscathed. This reminder arrived just yesterday in the news of a friend who discovered they’re in the fight of their life against a rare disease. The questions of why and what does the future hold penetrated our conversation. I’ve been praying...
Most of the definitions I have heard about joy (and probably you, too) define it more by what it isn’t than what it is. I constantly heard that happiness is based on circumstance but joy is not. I am now convinced the writers of the Bible would say that, the reason we...
My husband, Leif, never imagined after a decade of marriage that he’d wake up and find his role had shifted from spouse to caregiver. In the wake of a difficult diagnosis, he spent long hours driving me to hundreds of doctors’ appointments, watched me endure brutal...
Someone you know receives dreaded news. A diagnosis. A divorce. Unemployment. A major loss. You may feel ill prepared and unequipped to enter into someone’s crisis. You tell yourself you don’t know the person that well. You count up the months and years since you lost...
