Corella Roberts's Blog

Returning to Joy through Gratitude

Conflict lingers unresolved, but as the day wanes, you look at the ribboned sky and just breathe.

Finances are tight, but as you sit down to a simple meal, you whisper thanks.

The loss feels like a gaping hole in your chest, but as you put your feet on the floor for a new day, you offer a prayer of trust.

Unanswered questions about the future bombard you, but alone in your car, you lift a song of praise.

These acts of defiance–and a hundred others–represent a simple choice: joy.

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The Surprising Secret of Contentment

That’s me eight or so years ago. Kicked back in a small boat, gliding over glassy waters that reflected the severe beauty of the mountains around me. I drank in the unmatched blue of the sky and inhaled the untainted freshness of the air. No destination. No agenda. Just a drawn out moment of savoring and beholding. It’s the perfect picture of contentment, is it not?

An old man, stiff with scars from whippings and stonings, sat on a tattered mat in an unadorned room. Scabs oozed from beneath ...

A Prayer to the God who is Enthroned Over the Flood

My city is flooded. The river that usually nourishes it has escaped its banks, rushing into thousands of homes, devouring river-side cafes and hotels, gathering furniture, pets, vehicles, and gardens in its torrent. Families have been separated, stranded, and overwhelmed with gulleys of loss. 

Flooding in Northern Thailand ...

Slow Miracles: Claiming the Grace of Long-awaited Change

Does healing have to be instantaneous to be a miracle?

Does love have to be falling head-over-heels to be true?

Must change happen overnight to be seen and appreciated?

Our serve-it-up-now culture might disagree, but I believe that there’s a kind of wonder and gratitude borne only out of a long, tedious trudge toward change.

The dictionary definition of a miracle is “an extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural laws and is therefore attributed to a divine age...

Solitude: The Unexpected Gift I Desperately Needed

The busy streets of Ho Chi Minh City bustle below me. Horns honk in a staccato suggestive of, “Excuse me, pardon me.” Tourists crane their necks backward to take in the Babel-esque height of the downtown towers, and one can hop country cuisine on a single street between French boulangeries, Argentinian steakhouses, Japanese mochi sweets, and, of course, Vietnamese pho. The hum and thrum of life in all its scurry happens just a few floors down.

But not in room 503.

Here the air condition...

The Lamp’s Epitaph

I have a lamp from you.
It’s not garish; it’s not bright.
It has no purpose beyond ambient light.
I’ll add it to the others:
The lamps from sisters and mothers.
Their presence in my home
A subtle form of tombstone.

And their epitaph reads:
“A friend was once here,
A heart so dear.
She brightened my life with laughter and tears.
She taught me to open my home and my heart,
Taught me to love Jesus with every part
Of my mind, soul, and strength for all of my days,
But now she is gone. We have parted our ...

Sabbath is a Weapon

“Corrie ten Boom once said that if the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy. There’s truth in that. Both sin and busyness have the exact same effect—they cut off your connection to God, to other people, and even to your own soul.”

John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

This quote sticks with me. In fact, it frightens me. Busyness is all too often my friend, keeping me hopping to the tune of self-achievement, bolstering my ego with accomplishments. Could this friend, so w...

A Story for the Spiritual Journey

Our hearts are reached in a variety of ways, and one of the oldest and surest is through story. I thought that today I would be writing you a biblical study on how the Lord shepherds our souls. Instead, when I sat down to write, I saw a little lamb. And in that little lamb, I saw myself. I suspect you’ll see yourself, too. So, in the vein of other allegories such as The Pilgrim’s Progress and Hinds’ Feet on High Places   (both classics which are far above and beyond this short narrative), I offe...

Stuck: What to Do When Your Relationship With God Is in a Rut

The alarm clock rings early, and the snooze button tempts you. But you do what you made a commitment to do and drag yourself out of bed. You make something warm to drink and hunker down in your favorite chair, Bible and journal nearby. You pray, but somehow the words feel empty and redundant. You read, but nothing seems interesting, let alone applicable. You write, or try to, but no prayers or revelations or laments come to mind. You list a few things to be grateful for—that’s always good, righ...

12 Tips for Connecting With God When Your Schedule Changes

If you’re anything like me, keeping a consistent quiet time during a transition (right now it’s the non-schedule of summer with kids at home) is incredibly hard. I’m doing a bit better this year than I have in the past, and I wanted to share a few helpful tips with you for maintaining God-time no matter what’s going sideways in the world around you.

#1 Enjoy God in nature

In times of transition and changing seasons, nothing helps reorient our perspective quite like a walk. Leave your phon...