Abby's Alley

I think it was Beth Moore who said that waiting makes time rich. She was talking about Mary and Elizabeth anticipating the birth of their boys. This year the children are anticipating Christmas by running about the house telling one another how it will go. There will be Christmas Eve with the cousins: the Jensens and the Barnes. Then there will be Christmas at home with stockings and breakfast and presents followed by the Taylor Christmas. The next day will be the second Christmas at the Stevens. They jump up and down as they talk about what will happen. And they practice gifting each other their own toys wrapped in their comfort blankets. They are very proud of their Christmas tree, which we purchased late November and has already crisped. They are proud of the ornaments and the stocking that hang on the brass and porcelain knobs of our built-in drawers. Rose practiced filling the stockings with the ornaments from the tree. And for nearly two weeks the bottom half of the tree had to

The world is currently populated by about 7.4 billion people. Population Estimate Bureau estimates about 108 billion people have been born from the beginning of time until now. And I am only one. One among billions. I'll probably never have my name printed in a history book. It's highly unlikely that I'll be an internet sensation for a week or day or even fifteen minutes. And in 150 years, most of my decedents won't even know my name. Kind of makes one feel insignificant. Doesn't it? In High School, I wrestled with feeling worthless. Why did I matter? And more specifically, why did I matter to God? I knew that God made me and that He died for me, but I didn't understand why. Why make billions of people so small and pathetic and seemingly similar? What's the point of us all? What's my point? Does anything that I do matter? Am I of any consequence to God? And God answered my questions with questions: 1) Do you believe that God is unfathomably co

“Those who are empty fear the devil as if he had power . . .” ( Shepherd of Hermas , Mandate 12.5 as quoted in Arnold, 110). I recently attempted to read Deliver Us from Evil: A New York City Cop Investigates the Supernatural by Ralph Sarchie and Lisa Collier Cool. I say “attempted” because I got four chapters into it and had to stop because the book was keeping me up at night. So instead I read 3 Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare by Clinton E. Arnold, a professor at Talbot Theological Seminary. Here’s what I discovered about the devil and his power. Simple Q & A’s that I learned along the way are located at the end of this article. When we repent and turn our lives over to the Lord, it is like inviting Him into our spiritual house: a rather broken down structure with graffiti on the walls, missing shingles on the roof, bathrooms with missing fixtures, and plenty of closets that we didn’t even know existed. Repairs begin, but not without our consent and ne