Draw Near: Lenten Devotional by Lynne Baab, illustrated by Dave BaabTwo Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian LifeA Renewed SpiritualityNurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care in the Twenty-First CenturyThe Power of ListeningJoy Together: Spiritual Practices for Your CongregationSabbath Keeping FastingPrayers of the Old TestamentPrayers of the New TestamentSabbathFriendingA Garden of Living Water: Stories of Self-Discovery and Spiritual GrowthDeath in Dunedin: A NovelDead Sea: A NovelDeadly Murmurs: A NovelPersonality Type in CongregationsBeating Burnout in CongregationsReaching Out in a Networked WorldEmbracing MidlifeAdvent Devotional

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...

Read full article »

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...

Read full article »

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....

Read full article »

Creativity, imagination and Jesus’ relationships

Lynne Baab • Thursday August 13 2020

Creativity, imagination and Jesus’ relationships

I have never before thought about the connection between imagination and equality in relationships. I love Cheryl Forbes’s insight about this: “Jesus’ relationships showed his imagination at work. A shepherd doesn’t favor his male sheep over his female sheep. Each is important him; he knows each by name and they know him.” [1]

In her book Imagination, she gives lots of concrete examples:

“Jesus reflected the same respect toward women and men. Mary and Martha, Mary Magdalene, the woman at the well, the woman taken in adultery, his own mother were all treated as individuals who matter as much as did Peter and...

Read full article »
<< Newer | Older >>

Featured books

Featured articles

NEW: Nurturing a contemplative stance for navigating challenging times

Lynne Baab • Friday August 11 2023

By Lynne M. Baab

NEW: Spiritual Practices for People in Ministry

Lynne Baab • Sunday June 26 2022

Making Space for a Continuing Conversation with the Living God

NEW: 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