Almost Peaceful: My Journey of Healing from Binge EatingFriendship, 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

Creativity in grief

Lynne Baab • Thursday September 10 2026

Creativity in grief

Three years and two weeks ago, my husband Dave went fly fishing with a friend. Dave brought both his fly-fishing gear and his painting equipment. They drove to the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River, an hour east of Seattle, beside the Gateway pedestrian bridge. Dave fished for about 45 minutes but felt unstable the whole time. He retreated to the shore, sat on his folding stool, and painted his friend as he fished.

Dave was 77 at the time of that outing. He had been a passionate fly fisherman in his 50s and 60s. After he got a chronic lung disease...

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Quotations I love: Make it beautiful

Lynne Baab • Wednesday April 28 2021

Quotations I love: Make it beautiful

“If it can’t be happy, make it beautiful. . . . I hope that, in the midst of your sorrow and the bleakness of what you’re facing, you can yet find a way to make it beautiful. . . . The pandemic has been an experience of powerlessness and sadness for most of us. It hasn’t been happy. But we can still make it beautiful.” —Samuel Wells, vicar of St. Martin-in-the Fields, next to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery in London

I love Samuel Wells’s distinction between happiness and beauty. I find it easy to conflate the two. I have seen so...

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Creativity: Exaggeration and a few closing thoughts

Lynne Baab • Thursday August 27 2020

Creativity: Exaggeration and a few closing thoughts

My family has accused me many times of exaggerating things when I tell stories. My perspective is that I might exaggerate emotions but seldom the actual facts, and that I stand in a firm tradition. Jesus used hyberbole constantly in his stories in order to intensify the impact. Looking only at the Sermon on the Mount, here are three examples: If someone hits you, give them the other cheek? (Matthew 5:39) Never pray in public? (Matthew 6:6) Never plan or make provision for the future? (Matthew 6:25, 26) Jesus uses hyperbole to make point.

I was delighted when I found a few...

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Creativity in C. S. Lewis’s Perelandra

Lynne Baab • Thursday August 20 2020

Creativity in C. S. Lewis’s Perelandra

Imagine that you are one of the first two humans created on a planet that is mostly ocean. God has given you floating islands made of mats of plants to live on. The islands are host to charming, companionable animals and a variety of trees with beautiful flowers and delicious fruit, and the surfaces of the islands shift and move with the waves of the ocean. God has shown you an island of fixed land and has invited you to visit that island during the day. The fixed island, God has told you, is forbidden at night.

The tempter comes to you....

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Featured books

Almost Peaceful: My Journey of Healing from Binge Eating Almost Peaceful: My Journey of Healing from Binge Eating I've never written a book like this before! A personal story with photos from my life and Dave Baab's beautiful watercolors. I pray it will bring encouragement and healing to readers. Buy online » Sabbath Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest Sabbath Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest Sabbath Keeping is Lynne's most popular book, available in paperback, audiobook, and for Kindle. Grounded in her 18 months living in Israel, it is practical, biblical, and reflective about why rest matters so much today. Buy online »

Featured articles

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

Nurturing a contemplative stance for navigating challenging times

Lynne Baab • Friday August 11 2023

By Lynne M. Baab

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