Draw Near: Lenten Devotional by Lynne Baab, illustrated by Dave BaabTwo Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian LifeA Renewed SpiritualityNurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care in the Twenty-First CenturyThe Power of ListeningJoy Together: Spiritual Practices for Your CongregationSabbath Keeping FastingPrayers of the Old TestamentPrayers of the New TestamentSabbathFriendingA Garden of Living Water: Stories of Self-Discovery and Spiritual GrowthDeath in Dunedin: A NovelDead Sea: A NovelDeadly Murmurs: A NovelPersonality Type in CongregationsBeating Burnout in CongregationsReaching Out in a Networked WorldEmbracing MidlifeAdvent Devotional

Quotations I love: G. K. Chesterton on doing things badly

Lynne Baab • Friday January 29 2021

Quotations I love: G. K. Chesterton on doing things badly

I was in my early thirties when a friend said she had come across a very helpful quotation. “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly,” she said. She told me she had been raised to do things well, and she found living up to that standard to be paralyzing. She talked about the fact that she never wrote thank-you notes after her wedding because she knew they had to say something kind about the present, and she wasn’t able to do that. So she did nothing.

She told me that she had learned to write, “Thanks for the present,” then sign her...

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Quotations I love: Bruce Springsteen on limits and possibilities

Lynne Baab • Friday January 22 2021

Quotations I love: Bruce Springsteen on limits and possibilities

In my zoom women’s group this past week, the conversation was all about who had already gotten the vaccine and how/when the others would get it. These dear friends in my group are all in Seattle, while I am in New Zealand. The situation with covid in the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other countries right now demonstrates a fascinating combination of limits and possibilities. The virus is still roaring, and people need to lead limited lives, but with each passing day, more people have received the vaccination and have hopes of regaining some freedom.

I love these words from...

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Quotations I love: Action plus character

Lynne Baab • Thursday January 14 2021

Quotations I love: Action plus character

For this opening post in a new series, I want to juxtapose two quotations that seem to me to be relevant for our time. I’ll note that this isn’t totally a new series. Back in 2015, I wrote posts about 16 quotations I love. I’ll put links to a few of them at the end of this post.

Here are the two quotations I invite you to ponder this week. Notice the similar dates of the two men:

“I prayed for 20 years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.” —Frederick  Douglas (1818-1895), on escaping slavery

“Whatever we are ... married or...

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Living free from covid while people I love suffer

Lynne Baab • Wednesday January 6 2021

Living free from covid while people I love suffer

The Seattle area leads the country in percentage of people who feel sad. According to an article in the Seattle Times, “Of the slightly more than 3 million people age 18 and older in our metro area, an estimated 1.5 million were feeling ‘down, depressed, or hopeless’ at least a few days over the previous week.” You’ll probably say, oh, it’s that terrible dark and rainy weather in Seattle in December. However, the Seattle area was effectively tied with the Phoenix area, which of course is much, much sunnier than Seattle in December. My heart goes out to all the sad...

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