Open Hands · Week 1 · Saturday · STRESS We started the week at the river. You know what the line for the whole week has been walking toward? The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and…
He Went Out Limping
Two Handfuls
Open Hands · Week 1 · Friday · STRESS He is seventy-one, and there is writing in every square on his calendar. The board he sits on. The two younger men he meets with. The airport runs, the hospital visits,…
Every Move Was True
Open Hands · Week 1 · Thursday · STRESS He has never lied to her. He wants that on the record, and as far as it goes it is true. He has only arranged things. A message written at nine…
The Work She Redoes at Night
Open Hands · Week 1 · Wednesday · STRESS Her team does good work. She would tell you that herself, and she would mean it. She also quietly redoes it. After everyone has logged off, she opens the files and…
Outside the Field
Open Hands · Week 1 · Tuesday · STRESS He is forty-three, and he took the job because a man he came up with professionally took one like it. That really is the whole reason, though he would not have…
The Fourth Thing
Open Hands · Week 1 · Monday · STRESS She is sixteen. She found out on a Tuesday that her friend got the spot she had wanted since ninth grade, and by Thursday she had signed up for a fourth…
The Night Jacob Ran Out of Moves
Open Hands · Week 1 · Sunday · STRESS I have read Genesis for probably over 20 years and mostly skipped the strangest sentence in it. Jacob sends everything he owns across the river — two wives, two maidservants, eleven…
The Morning I Was Wrong
Go Back In · Week 5 Complete · The series continues I want to end this series with the worst I have ever felt at work, because it is the truest thing I know about going back in. September 11,…
He Said Your Name
Go Back In · Week 5 · Friday This person is certain they have been quietly taken off the list. Nobody made it official. After the failure, they simply assumed their place was gone — the family gathering, the ministry,…
Two Men Were Sorry
Go Back In · Week 5 · Thursday He is older now, and he is carrying something old — a failure from years back, the kind that changed a relationship or ended one. The remorse never left. But over the…