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Spared
I am not sure what spared the tree or why it was still standing. Maybe after a chainsaw had been laid against the trunk, the machine gave up its ghost. Maybe a wannabe tree-feller grew tired, after he whacked his unsharpened ax at the bark of the pine. Either way, the tree stuck out to…
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Rufmord
“Reputation-Murder” is the literal translation of the German word Rufmord. In German, the word gives a powerful picture of the intentional destruction of a name, the slanderous accusations with the intent to kill a person’s honor. Rufmord happens more often than you think, and when it does, the person’s integrity is difficult (if not impossible)…
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Humdudgeon
What happened? When did I grow old?My back it aches, my feet are coldMy money, hard-earned, I must sayBecomes my doctor’s monthly payDon’t get me started on the newsOr that I need new winter shoesMy coffee’s cold, my dog it shedsAwake all night I’m in my bedI saw on Facebook Susie flewWith her new hubs…
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Of Pencil Plans and Lasting Letters
She gently ran her index finger along the sharpened point of the pencil I held out to her. She looked at me as if I had brought her a bag of gold. “How did you get this pencil to be so sharp?”She was 81 and my boss. I smiled and knew I scored – big…
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Enough!
Be gone, O gloom, from heart and mind!Has your God died, not death defied?Give heed to what you see and hear –The bird on porch, the sky so clear.Hold to the Truth you once proclaimed,When first the Gospel you unchained,When all of you knew deepest joy,When eyes and ears exposed gloom’s ploy.Don’t now go back…
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A Tiger in the Nativity
“Cynicism is so pervasive that, at times, it feels like a presence. Behind the spirit of the age lies an unseen, personal evil presence, a spirit. If Satan can’t stop you from praying then he will try to rob the fruit of praying by dulling your soul.” — Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life “How…
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Of Getting Caught and Letting Go
She must have fallen in the well sometime during the night. Her tiny body lay curled up and exhausted in the dusty gravel. Daybreak revealed her to my husband as he sat down in his office chair to make his morning calls. When I walked in to talk to him about something, he pointed to…
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Of What If’s and the I AM — A Prayer
I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because…
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What Makes us Human?
“What makes us human?” you might ask, When life can now through AI speakWhen answers overcome each taskMachines past sky and heaven reach. “What makes us human?” Ponder now!While questions answer your soul’s strife, For in the inquiry lies the how Yes! “Human” means to question life. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and…
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Too Busy for Green Bananas
I just wanted to get in and out of the grocery store. I parked the car and plotted the shortest path through the aisles to retrieve a lemon and unsalted butter, two things I needed for dessert. I only had a few more chores for the evening and then planned to hit the couch…
Heidi Viars
Finding the Image of God
