Lynne Baab • Tuesday May 30 2023
I wonder what comes to mind when you hear the word “hospitality.” Hosting people in your home for meals or overnight? Perhaps larger-scale hospitality events like meals at church for church members or the wider community? In your mind, does hospitality usually or always involve food?
I recently taught a class on spiritual practices for a Christian university. My students were all in their thirties or forties. In the online discussion about hospitality, two of my students wrote about how they are perfectly comfortable hosting their kids' friends. However, when the parents or other adults show up, these two students said they...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Tuesday May 23 2023
God of beauty and peace, help me to uncomplicate and untangle my life so I can focus on what really matters.
In that prayer for simplicity, I am using Adele Ahlberg Calhoun’s words from her wonderful Spiritual Disciplines Handbook. She writes that our desire in embracing the spiritual practice of simplicity is “to uncomplicate and untangle my life so I can focus on what really matters.” [1] I love that the words “uncomplicate and untangle” can refer to many things: our physical possessions that can feel overwhelmingly cluttered, our schedule that can feel endlessly complicated, and our relationships that can feel hopelessly...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Tuesday May 16 2023
Toni, in her forties, fasts frequently. Sometimes she stops eating all food and consumes only water and tea, sometimes she gives up a specific food or category of food, and sometimes she fasts from various forms of media. Her fasts usually last between a day and a week, although sometimes she fasts longer. When she feels led to start a fast, she usually has several prayer requests in mind that she’s hoping to pray for in the time freed up by the fast. She has found that over the course of her fasts, her prayers shift not only to new topics...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Tuesday May 9 2023
Two disciples are walking home after Jesus’s crucifixion. They meet a stranger on the road, and he talks to them about the pattern of God’s work in history. When they invite him into their home to have dinner with them, he breaks the bread, they recognize that he is Jesus, and he vanishes. Reflecting back on the conversation on the road, they say, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:13-35).
Jenna Smith, the director of a Christian youth center in Montreal, has an...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Wednesday January 22 2025
By Lynne M. Baab, author of Two Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian LifeLynne Baab • Friday August 11 2023
By Lynne M. BaabLynne Baab • Saturday October 9 2021
By Lynne M. Baab. Originally published in Christianity Today, July 8, 2021
Lynne M. Baab, Ph.D., is an author and adjunct professor. She has written numerous books, Bible study guides, and articles for magazines and journals. Lynne is passionate about prayer and other ways to draw near to God, and her writing conveys encouragement for readers to be their authentic selves before God. She encourages experimentation and lightness in Christian spiritual practices. Read more »
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