ABOUT

We sat long after the interview, talking about our mutual experiences as cancer caregivers and widow/widower.

Over that winter, we built a deep friendship—hiking and snowshoeing and conversations on snow-covered mountainsides, hugging steaming mugs of Chai latte poured from a thermos.

Somewhere along the trails, our friendship deepened into love. And there followed a COVID-friendly outdoor wedding surrounded by our kids/kids-in-law, and the grands.

Our spare time is filled with hiking, snowshoeing, kayaking, camping, riding Dan’s motorcycle, and driving the Jeep Wrangler with hair flying in the wind.

A member of Cascade Christian Writers and Advanced Writers & Speakers Association, I am an award-winning writer (Cascade Awards 2019 and 2022). I have been published multiple times in both Chicken Soup for the Soul, Bella Grace magazine, and a handful of national publications. I am also a contributing writer for Grit & Grace.

Dan and I are Christ-followers and we have a passion for helping people navigate the hard and holy moments, having negotiated a few ourselves.

If you don’t already have a relationship with Jesus Christ, I wish I could sit down over Chai and talk face-to-face with you about how and why.

But for now, I’ll start here: At the beginning of time, God created the world and everything in it. But he kept his best design for last. After choreographing the dance of the stars and moons and planets, after creating orangutans and red sandstone cliffs and juicy watermelon, God created mankind in his image, for relationship—a Father and his beloved children.

But the very first man and woman, Adam and Eve, blew it when they chose to disregard the one guideline God had established for their wellbeing: “And the Lord God commanded the man, ’You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die’” (Genesis 2:16-17).

One tree. Placed in the center of the Garden of Eden so that the first man and woman had a choice. They weren’t puppets.

And then along came a serpent. “‘You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’” (Genesis 3:4-5).

Eve was tempted—not by the fruit, but by the serpent’s suggestion that it would make her wise, it would make her like God. 

And so Eve took a bite, and gave it to Adam who also ate. And they paid the price for disobedience. No more garden living. In place of paradise, they were given thistles and weeds and the work of growing their own food in the heat and sweat of the day. And pain in childbirth.

In her study book, Jesus & Women, Kristi McLelland explained how the garden of Eden was created in shalom, meaning, wholeness, harmony, flourishing, and delight. “The Lord doesn’t hate sin because we broke a rule, law, or instruction. The Lord hates sin because it disturbs our shalom. It disrupts our harmony, wholeness, flourishing, delight, and communion with God.”

 After thousands of years of mankind living how we wanted to live—and making a general mess of things—God’s Son Jesus came to do life on earth in a human body to experience our disappointments and sorrows and temptations. Fully God and fully man.

And then he hung on a Roman cross, one of the worst torture devices that depraved man has ever invented, as the ultimate payment for my rebellion, for your rebellion.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). It’s that simple. Believing that Jesus is who he says he is, the Son of God. Acknowledging the things that keep us separated from God and from living fully—like, jealousy and fear and selfishness and pride, to name a few. And believing that Jesus took these sins upon himself and died in our place so we could walk this broken world with shalom wrapped around me, so we could have the assurance of a sweet fellowship and closeness with our Creator.

I invite you into relationship with Jesus Christ: “Jesus, here I am. I believe you are the Son of God. Please forgive me of my rebellion and (fill in the blank). Help yourself to my life.”

Now what?

The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to new believers in ancient Colossae answering that question. “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6-7, NIV).

It’s like any union, whether husband and wife, parents and children, or friend to friend: Relationships die from lack of attention. From a deficiency of communication and spending time together. From absence of gratitude.

I invite you into fellowship with the family of believers. You’ll need them and they’ll need you. They’ll be your strength and encouragement on your new walk with Jesus Christ.

I invite you to read the Bible, beginning with the book of John in the New Testament. Ask God to speak to your heart as you read. Ask him to show you truth and give you the faith and audacity to travel forward on this spectacular adventure with the One who knows your address, the number of hairs on your head, the number of tears you’ve cried, the One who knows the deepest longings in your heart.

I invite you to live as an apprentice of Jesus—not just reading his words, but also walking them out.

I invite you into an endless adventure as you step into your eternal life that begins now as you journey on this rotating planet toward your final home, which is God himself.