Lynne Baab • Tuesday March 28 2023
“No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by it, and made fit for God by that affliction.” —John Donne, “Meditation 17” of Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
I resist John Donne’s idea with every particle of my being. I don’t want to be shaped by pain because I don’t want to experience pain! No, no, no! And yet, my perceptive and supportive husband tells me that my 16 years of battling depression (from age 27 to 43) softened me. I met Dave when I was 23, and he says he remembers many moments in my twenties when I came across...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Tuesday March 21 2023
My mother has a green thumb, and her home and garden are full of thriving plants. When she shows me a new plant, she’ll often say, “This plant is happy here,” meaning that the plant is thriving in the western sunlight of this particular window or the more diffuse light in the living room. Her plants tell her where they like to be.
I’ve read about sculptors who say that the stone tells them what it wants to be. In an article about her spring quilt, Avis Collins Robinson said, "I let the fabric’s colors and textures tell me how they want...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Tuesday March 14 2023
Until I was nine years old, my dad was a pilot in the U. S. air force. For those of you who love planes, he flew P-37s and P-51s in World War 2, then cargo planes (C-47s and C-54s, also known as DC3s and DC6s) in the late 1940s and 1950s. I have vivid memories of my dad coming home from a trip. He would carefully spread out maps on the dining room table and show me where he’d been. One time, he had flown somewhere tropical – the Caribbean? Hawaii? – and he saw a black sand beach. He showed...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Tuesday March 7 2023
The week before Valentine’s Day, a friend posted a quotation on Facebook. Since then I have returned over and over to this quotation, which is increasingly relevant as I get older, and as my family members and friends are aging, too:
“To love someone long-term is to attend a thousand funerals of the people they used to be. The people they’re too exhausted to be any longer. The people they don’t recognize inside themselves anymore. The people they grew out of, the people they never ended up growing into. We so badly want the people we love to get their spark back...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Sunday June 26 2022
Making Space for a Continuing Conversation with the Living GodLynne Baab • Sunday June 26 2022
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 a teacher and writer. 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 Christians spiritual practices. Read more »
Lynne is pleased to announce the release of her book on grief and gratitude, designed to help people grieving from anything, including the pandemic, while also desiring to notice God's good gifts. Two Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian Life is available in paperback, audiobook, and for kindle. Lynne's 2018 book is Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care for the Twenty-First Century, and her best-selling book is Sabbath-Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest (now available as an audiobook as well as paperback and kindle). You can see her many other book titles here, along with her Bible study guides.
Lynne recently spoke about bringing spiritual practices to life.
Lynne was interviewed recently for the podcast "As the Crow Flies". The first episode focuses on why listening matters and the second one on listening skills.
Here are two talks Lynne gave on listening (recorded in audio form on YouTube): Listening for Mission and Ministry and Why Listening Matters for Mission and Ministry.
"Lynne's writing is beautiful. Her tone has such a note of hope and excitement about growth. It is gentle and affirming."
— a reader
"Dear Dr. Baab, You changed my life. It is only through God’s gift of the sabbath that I feel in my heart and soul that God loves me apart from anything I do."
— a reader of Sabbath Keeping
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