Sarah Dixon Young's Blog: Love Much, page 4

Because He Hears Us

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This Sunday, my church sang that song, “The Goodness of God.”

I love you, Lord,

for your mercy never fails me….

Even as the song filled my ears, I thought of all the things that had filled the ears of our church members this week.

A crying baby kept more than one woman up during the night. 

The rhythmic beat of a basketball accompanied the children to gym class, and a drumbeat welcomed them to the game.

The wail of a grieving mother met one man as he arrived h...

Doomed to Die (or not)

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The first time I met Carol, she was leading four small grandchildren into the church.

They stuck out to me because they were quiet and sat so still.

“These kids need to be in church,” Carol said, and conceded, “It is good to be here.”

This week, I watched those little kids, who are adults with their own children now, look into a casket to say goodbye to the grandmother who had cared for them.

They again sat quietly and so still on the front row of the church, turning ...

I Thirst

At the dinner table the other night, a friend told us about his years as a transient wanderer.

He had come to know the Lord, but his alcoholism drove him to the streets again and again.

“One time,” he said, “I left treatment and went out on the street. I walked a long way, and I came to a restaurant. I knew they would give me some ice water, so I went in. While I was sitting at the counter, a well-dressed man came in. After looking around for a moment, he came and sat by me.”

“‘Are you...

Sure I’m Right

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Robert Browning wrote a poem that spoke to the faith-filled imagination of Oswald Chambers:

One who never turned his back but

marched breast forward,

Never dreamed, though night were worsted,

wrong would triumph,

Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,

Sleep to wake…

Chambers, serving as a military chaplain, then gave his series of talks on the Book of Job to soldiers stationed in Cairo, Egypt during the First World War in 1917. When his talks we...

As a Proof

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As far back as the book of Leviticus, God had given His people instructions about what to do when they were healed of leprosy.

Have you ever needed that particular set of instructions? Neither did they. I’ll bet that they yawned politely when it was read and waited to get to the good parts of God’s law. They certainly didn’t keep all the supplies on hand because they never really expected a leper to be cured.

When Jesus healed the leper, he asked him to go, proclaim a once-...

60 Poems Lost

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In a recent prisoner exchange, Afghanistan surrendered an American Christian for an Afghani convicted of selling drugs and terrorizing. 

The Christian had spent the past two years in jail in Afghanistan even though he had all the proper documentation, had initially been welcomed by governing authorities, and was in the country to help entrepreneurs start small businesses. 

During that time, he was separated from his wife and family. He was only allowed out of doors for twen...

The Old Cane Pole

My dad has a long cane pole hanging in his garage.

When we visited for Christmas, I asked him to tell my sons about it.

“Well, it was Papa’s,” he said, meaning his dad, “and he called it a Calcutta cane pole.” Dad went on to describe the way Papa held the pole, the way he braced himself on the side of the bridge when he was fighting a big fish, and the way he would swing the fish up and out of the water of the Indian River Lagoon to land it high up on that bridge.

When Jesus called his fi...

Ladies and Gentlemen

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Since my family is studying Medieval History this year, our car trips have been full of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Men of Iron, and Ivanhoe.

Chivalry is not dead in these stories! Perhaps the courtesy and manners in these stories only ever lived in myth, but I still raise my daughters to be ladies and my sons to be gentlemen because I still have to listen to them chew.

On a recent cross-country trip, I took special note of the words “Ladies” and “Gentlemen” every t...

Spit on. Struck. Slapped.

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There’s an awkward part of Handel’s Messiah where the alto sings, “Despised. Rejected,” over and over.

In that section, she also repeats, “He gave His back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair…”

It is always a little uncomfortable to think about Jesus having hair on his face. Perhaps it is because it is so earthy and everyday. 

As we listened to the Messiah this year, I wondered why Handel would have wanted to emphasize the rejection of Christ...

Just the Right Time

As a home educator, I have one of those closets in my house.

You know the one I mean. It’s the closet that won’t shut and is the black hole of everything homeschooling. 

Puzzle pieces, math manipulatives, parts of speech sorting activities, and dice all go to the closet to die. (Pun intended.)

When I recently could not find the protractor I needed, I determined to enter the black hole and sort it out. (Insert dramatic scary music here.)

As I sorted, I was astounded at how many thing...