by Elaine Olsen | Feb 11, 2014 | Beyond Cancer's Scars (the story behind the story), blessing, brokenness, cancer volume 4, knowing God, living God's truth, pain, silence, speaking, words
“But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today …” –Hebrews 3:13 I saw it in their eyes last evening … a familiar pain. It’s one I’ve felt before. It always touches a nerve whenever I speak on it, especially those nerves deeply embedded in the heart...
by Elaine Olsen | Jan 14, 2014 | faith, fellowship with God, grief, living God's truth, loss, pain, suffering, trust, truth
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” -2 Cor. 4:16-17 Yet inwardly. As...
by Elaine Olsen | Jan 5, 2014 | grief, pain, parenting, prayer, suffering, sundays
Paint my boy a Sabbath sunrise, Father – one filled with the color of hope, not the cover of despair. Take the pain that’s been smeared onto his canvas at night and replace it with splashes of your morning grace. What she has taken from him, replace it with what you...
by Elaine Olsen | Dec 4, 2013 | christmas, hunger, letting go, living God's truth, pain, parenting, peace, suffering, surrender, worship
Silent night. It’s been one of those for me. I tried to fill it with a few phone calls and text messages to friends while waiting in my car for my kids to emerge from their youth group meeting. No one answered. All was silent, and the hush filled my heart until I...
by Elaine Olsen | Dec 27, 2012 | living God's truth, pain, words, writing
“We’re growing older, realizing we cannot stop the hands of time.” So said my elder friend in her annual Christmas greeting to my family. I felt the profundity of her proclamation. It’s nothing new; it just hit me harder this go around, struck me in the center...
by Elaine Olsen | Dec 16, 2012 | Advent, christmas, evil, faith, grief, pain, trust
My daughter could barely get through the final paragraph. Her tears prevented her progress, her heart tenderly wrapped around and invested in the story of the faithful saint, Corrie ten Boom. Corrie finished her earthly chapter on her ninety-first birthday, only to...
