Taryn R. Hutchison's Blog: The Glorious Muddle, page 20

Trusting in the Dark

January is not my favorite month. It signals a season of bleakness. The fa-la-la of Christmas is over. The decorations and sparkle and gifts are boxed up and put away, leaving empty spaces and a stark-looking home. Quiet holy moments have been replaced with busy routine. Short days and cold weather, colder than December, polar-vortex-cold. […]

God Still Exists!

A quarter of a century ago, the tide of the Romanian Revolution turned, miraculously, and the people won their freedom. I’ll never forget the thrill of that Christmas season as I prepared to move to Eastern Europe. Hopelessness turned to hope. The impossible happened. Years of invisible faith lived out in the dark, for that […]

Picking up the Prayer Baton

Christmas will come next week and we are bombarded with hopelessness. Will our world ever be a safe place? We feel collective anguish for the people of Sydney, Pakistan, and Ferguson. Maybe you, too, are facing the loneliness and despair of Christmas without a loved one present. Hope feels impossible. Elusive. Unattainable. And yet I’m reminded of […]

With Their Flocks Abiding

Shepherds herd sheep. They gently tend to their sick or wounded sheep while simultaneously leading the ones trying to go their own way with a firm hand. They defend their flock from predators. They nurture the babies. Normally, whenever an unblemished lamb is born, the responsibility falls on shepherds to spread the news that there’s […]

Be It Done To Me . . .

The other day, lyrics I heard on the radio on my drive into work kept being repeated in my mind: Mary, did you know That your baby boy would one day walk on water? Mary, did you know That your baby boy would save our sons and daughters? Did you know that your baby boy […]

The First Five

On December 1st, Steve and I celebrated five years since the day we reached the finish line in our cross-country trek and pulled into our new driveway in North Carolina. Full of anticipation about what the next few months would hold, we arrived “home,” not knowing anyone in our town except our wonderful realtor. But […]

Thanksgiving Grace

You probably want the grace you offer at your Thanksgiving meal tomorrow to be something special. But if you’re like me, the challenge of cooking drives the words plumb out of my mind and I’m left with, “Thanks for the food, Lord!” Maybe the following prayers will help. A Puritan Prayer of Thanksgiving from the 1600s: […]

A Purposeful Thanksgiving

Have you considered enlarging your table and guest list at Thanksgiving? It’s a great opportunity to include others as you pause to give thanks to God for his provisions. Granted, that pause is getting shorter these days with Gray Thursday/Black Friday sales inching earlier all the time, but there still is a moment at least […]

Just Another Day?

Ever notice how November has gotten to be crammed full of noteworthy days? Halloween kicks off two months of a frantic pace of activity. Here’s a partial rundown of the last eleven days: November 1  All Saints Day and National Deviled Egg Day November 2  International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church November 3  Sandwich […]

Time Skateboards By

Yesterday my husband and I shared something that sets us apart as a couple, something we love sharing with each other:  our birthday. These birthdays have gained a warp speed lately and pile up more rapidly with each year, leaving us wondering how another 12 months could possibly have passed already. I’ve revised the expression […]