Friendship, Listening, and Empathy: A Prayer GuideDraw Near: A Lenten Devotional Two Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian LifeSabbath Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest Fasting: Spiritual Freedom Beyond our AppetitesA Renewed SpiritualityNurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care in the Twenty-First CenturyThe Power of ListeningJoy Together: Spiritual Practices for Your CongregationPrayers of the New TestamentPrayers of the Old TestamentPersonality Type in CongregationsSabbathA Garden of Living Water: Stories of Self-Discovery and Spiritual GrowthDead Sea: A NovelDeadly Murmurs: A NovelDeath in Dunedin: A NovelBeating Burnout in CongregationsReaching Out in a Networked WorldEmbracing MidlifeFriendingAdvent Devotional

Praying about the flow of time: Praying for our ordinary lives

Lynne Baab • Tuesday July 8 2025

Praying about the flow of time: Praying for our ordinary lives

We recently had house guests from New Zealand, including a darling four-year-old girl. At one meal, she told us about a fall that required a trip to urgent care. “My chin split open!” she said cheerfully. “There was blood everywhere!”

Her facial expression and tone of voice contrasted with her words, so I said, “That sounds scary. Were you scared?”

She replied in the same tone of voice, “Mummy was with me.”

Sadly, we have far too many moments of fear in our everyday lives. I’m sure you can remember moments when your awareness of God’s presence with you gave you some measure of...

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Praying about the flow of time: Praying about AND — again

Lynne Baab • Thursday July 3 2025

Praying about the flow of time: Praying about AND — again

Last week, I wrote that one of my goals is to help people think critically and pray wisely about the human brain’s love of dichotomies and hierarchies. We often mention two things and link them with BUT, indicating that one of them has priority over the other. Linking them with AND places them side by side with equal emphasis.

After I wrote that post, my friend Rich Morey, a therapist and psychologist, replied:

“AND seems to play an outsized role in my life.  I am often struck by how seemingly opposites often present in unison: grief and gratitude, sadness and joy, the sweet and the bitter. ...

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Praying about the flow of time: Praying about AND

Lynne Baab • Wednesday June 25 2025

Praying about the flow of time: Praying about AND

The human brain loves dichotomies: this NOT that. One of my goals in my writing is to affirm that the truth often lies in this AND that. Grace AND truth. Righteousness AND peace (Psalm 85:10).  Grief AND gratitude. Our brains really want to nurture dichotomies, so we need the help of the Holy Spirit to hold two opposite things in tension. Of course, we access that help through prayer.

An amusing and thought-provoking illustration of this AND that comes from the endings to the four Gospels. We might look to Jesus's last words to his disciples to get an idea of how...

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Praying about the flow of time: Praising God for the sun, light, and seasons

Lynne Baab • Thursday June 19 2025

Praying about the flow of time: Praising God for the sun, light, and seasons

Today, I want to praise God for the way the Earth is tipped. If you draw a line from the North to the South Pole and extend that line beyond the Earth, the line is not perpendicular to the path of the Earth around the sun. This website has a motion graphic  that illustrates what I’m saying. Scroll down to below the video.

Because of the tipping of the Earth, we have seasons. On Friday this week, at 7:42 p.m. here on the West Coast of the United States, the Northern Hemisphere will be at its closest to the sun. The days are...

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