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

Receptivity and offering: Another world walking beside ours

Lynne Baab • Thursday February 3 2022

Receptivity and offering: Another world walking beside ours

“I cannot tell you half of what I see. I don’t have the words. There may be no words. For what I see is another world walking beside ours, a world as gossamer as sea spray in the wind. Its presence comes to me out of the corner of my eye, a fleeting glimpse, a moment’s reward for so many hours riding the currents of prayer. I look and I see it, the sacred land just on the other side of where I am standing, the grace of a different sun in a different sky, the evening shadows that will one...

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Receptivity and offering: Reasonable hope

Lynne Baab • Thursday January 27 2022

Receptivity and offering: Reasonable hope

Back in 2013 I attended a seminar about mind-body connections, and I learned the significance of the words we use out loud or in our thoughts and prayers. According to the leader of the seminar, when I pray, “God help me with my anxiety,” or when I refer to anxiety in a conversation, I reinforce the neural pathways related to anxiety. Talking about my desire as “freedom from anxiety” has the unintended consequence of lighting up neurons related to anxiety. When I pray, “God give me peace,” I reinforce brain pathways related to peace, and these life-giving neural pathways are beneficial...

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Receptivity plus offering my (messy) song to God

Lynne Baab • Thursday January 20 2022

Receptivity plus offering my (messy) song to God

"The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those who sang best.” —John James Audobon

In my journey of letting go of perfectionism, those words from Audobon have had great impact. I came across that quotation about 20 years ago, and about 15 years ago, I embroidered it on a wall hanging that has been in a prominent position in my home for most of the intervening years.

The quotation summarizes so many of the major lessons from the Bible that have shaped me:

Spiritual gifts.As a young adult, I learned about the three major spiritual gifts passages (Romans 12:3-8, 1...

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Receptivity and Offering: The good versus the perfect

Lynne Baab • Friday January 7 2022

Receptivity and Offering: The good versus the perfect

In 2022, I am offering to God my willingness to purse good rather than perfect. I am asking God to help me receive love and acceptance so I can embrace the messiness of the journey of good.

These thoughts were precipitated by a podcast I listened to recently by Rob Bell, an author, speaker and former pastor of a rapidly growing church in Michigan. (If you want to listen to the podcast, the material on good versus perfect begins at 9 minutes 20 seconds.)

Bell begins the podcast by talking about the creation story in Genesis 1, noting that the rhythm of each...

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Meeting God in Grief and Gratitude

Lynne Baab • Wednesday January 22 2025

By Lynne M. Baab, author of Two Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian Life

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Yes, Jesus Told Us to Pray in Secret. But He Also Prayed with His Friends.

Lynne Baab • Saturday October 9 2021

By Lynne M. Baab. Originally published in Christianity Today, July 8, 2021