Lynne Baab • Wednesday June 9 2021
My mom and her mom were always very slender, and my mom at 96 still looks great in her clothes. My mom had seven aunts on her father’s side who were all plump or significantly overweight. Most of them were also mean. My mother grew up associating being overweight with being a less than admirable person.
When I hit puberty and began to get a more rounded build than my mom had ever had, she started telling me stories about my mean, overweight aunts. I became so certain, deep inside, that being slim was virtuous. As a teenager, I loved Seventeen magazine,...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Tuesday December 22 2020
Our first Christmas in New Zealand, 2007, our son Mike came to visit and we had a great time travelling to Queenstown and exploring gorgeous Lake Wakatipu. Our second Christmas, 2008, I was really freaked out about having a Christmas with no family members, so I frantically tried to plan something fun. We rented a house in Te Anau for a week that Christmas, and we really did have a good time exploring the town and the shore of Lake Te Anau on the bicycles provided at the house. It took until our third Christmas here for me to start asking...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Wednesday July 1 2020
I’m thinking about friends who have been doing a lot of crocheting and knitting during the pandemic. I’m thinking of their hands rhythmically moving the knitting needles or crochet hook, threading yarn through their fingers.
I’m thinking of friends who have been baking bread in these strange days. I picture them moving around their kitchens, from fridge to sink to countertop to oven, using their hands and their feet as they gather ingredients, knead and shape their loaves.
I’m thinking of a friend who is a poet. I’ve never asked her whether she writes her poems on a piece of paper with a...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Thursday August 8 2019
I am so pleased that my good friend Steve Simon has written a book about the prayer practice that took his faith from his head to his heart. Steve memorizes psalms as he walks his dog, and then he prays those psalms. Holy Walks: Learning and Praying the Psalms is practical, humorous, and so helpful. He asked me to write the foreword, and here’s what I wrote.
Foreword for Holy Walks: Learning and Praying the Psalms. By Lynne Baab.
When I read a psalm—or listen to a sung version of a psalm—I am invited into something amazing and wonderful. The Psalms encourage me...
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 »
Quick links:
Most popular book, Sabbath Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest (audiobook, paperback, and kindle)
more than 50 articles Lynne has written for magazines on listening, Sabbath, fasting, spiritual growth, resilience for ministry, and congregational communication
You can listen to Lynne talk about these topics:
"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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