Things look so different now from just 2 months ago, don’t they?  We are having to stay 6 feet apart, go only one way down the grocery aisle, wear masks, work from home, and attend church online.  Yet, some things are very much the same – just amplified.   A friend asked me when all the COVID-19 precautions started, how it had changed the prayer requests I get here at The Fish Atlanta.  The short ...

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Being quarantined has forced  us to use this time to look within and deeply contemplate, and live with a new daily normal. Perhaps, the most unexpected, and challenging change: the lack of available  toilet paper.  Toilet paper is bulky and takes up a lot of shelf space, once it's gone the shelves look desolate. Then, seeing empty shelves put people in a panic mode.   The same is true for hair dye, sugar, flour, ...

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Nobody would have even predicted or chosen the ‘new normal’ that we are all living in here in 2020. Words and phrases like ‘shelter in place’, ‘toilet paper shortages’ and ‘face masks’ are now a part of our daily vernacular. But in the midst of all of the turmoil, we do have an opportunity to grow and draw closer to Jesus.  In life there is always a ‘space between’. It’s a ...

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On New Year’s Day of this year, who would have thought that by mid-March some new terms would have taken over our vocabulary?  Words like Coronavirus, COVID-19, and social distancing.  Welcome to the new world of working and doing school from home, fighting for toilet paper and being isolated in a socially connected world.  This is a time where fear and uncertainty can easily take over our minds; and while it’s ...

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My fascination with wells in the Bible continues to grow… The Bible is full of references to wells.  I originally learned why in a devotion from Brad White, “…After people heard God speak, they would often dig a well and give it a name.  As a result, whenever they took water from it, they would remember God’s words and goodness.” Well, consider my mind blown, when Pastor Banning Liebscher, mentioned another purpose of wells.  The wells dug by The Israelites were ...

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Reflecting on the face of Mary, the mother of God, is a takeaway for me after a recent trip to Rome, Italy. After touring the Vatican, Saint Peter’s Basilica and the famous Uffuzi Gallery it’s hard to ignore that the nativity scene is a popular renaissance subject. I also noticed how how the face of Mary is depicted tells you about the artist. During a tour I learned that Michelangelo’s sculpture The Pieta was critiqued ...

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Don’t rush; how about that for a Christmas message? The Christmas countdown is on, but instead of a sprinting to the finish, maybe we can handle it like a walking marathon (if there even is such a thing). Maybe we should just take a cue from my Italian Grandmother, who planned her day calmly, and knew that it was the time we spent (and the food we ate) that mattered the most.  As I pull out ...

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Loss; as much as we try to put it off or ignore it, loss is a big part of life that we all have to face. Sometimes it’s a small loss, like your favorite sports team loses the big game. That’s the kind of loss make you down and maybe even upset for a few days, but you get on with your life promising yourself ‘we’ll get them next year!’ But life gives you way bigger ...

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Sometimes our experiences aren’t just about us. Sometimes you literally have to share your faith with a hurting person whose faith is faltering. A dear friend of mine recently asked me what I did when I had a crisis of faith. I told her I went back to “one of my wells.” I got the “well” concept from a devotion by Brad White, “…drawing water from a well ...

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Last weekend, I was throwing out some old leftovers and put some chicken down the garbage disposal. In the middle of its chopping and grinding, it started making a strange noise and the sink started filling up with water. I tried several tricks that usually get the water to drain and the disposal working again – but, alas, none of them worked. So, I called my friend, Cameron, who’s a plumber ...

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