Amy Burgin
Light at the End of the Tunnel
When there's no end in sight and you begin to wonder if there's a light at the end of the tunnel, I have good news for you!
3 min read
Amy Burgin
- Amy Burgin
- Amy Burgin
A Conversation With The Invisible One
Reading Time: 2 minutes After a long, hard day with hurts and sorrows, I walk slow in the cool breeze of the dark of night and wonder, who am I? Word answers, You are chosen, holy, and dearly loved, so clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Word knew I had ideas of changing clothes. I lay
3 min read - Amy Burgin
What Do The Heavens Declare?
Reading Time: 2 minutes My daughter Glory and I had an opportunity to see the San Antonio Symphony perform the orchestral suite The Planets at the Tobin Center on November 5th, 2014. Composed by Gustav Holst (1874 – 1934), The Planets includes a piece for each planet in our solar system. Thoughts came to my mind as I listened to
2 min read - Amy Burgin
Is a Scientist Allowed to Wonder, Love, or Grieve?
What in our experience comes together to form and function without a designer and creator at the root of it?
3 min read - Amy Burgin
Don’t Compare Stories
Reading Time: 3 minutes All three of my children got sick, experiencing the typical cold symptoms, slight fever, sore throat, exhaustion, cough, and congestion. At the same time, my oldest took a required Covid test to register for her university’s next semester. It came back positive. I thought I was unafraid of Covid, so when my daughter announced her
4 min read - Amy Burgin
Do I Have to Beg God for Purpose and Good Work to Do?
Reading Time: 3 minutes If you’re anything like me, you long for purpose and good work to do. Your heart aches to work alongside God and to make an impact on his kingdom. Maybe you’ve prayed and begged God over and over again, “Lord, please give me good work to do.” Several years ago, I went through a season
4 min read - Amy Burgin
Waiting for the Harvest
My “Fruitless” Fruit Tree I sit next to my big picture window tonight and the moon is shining bright through the cracks in the blinds. I’m listening to music and thinking again about my little orange tree. My mother-in-love bought it for us back in 2009. When she bought it, little oranges the size of golf balls covered the tree but the following year the tree did not produce any fruit. We moved in 2011 and brought the little, barren tree with us. The Lord Will Have His Harvest As I write this, I think of Sarah and Abraham, barren for decades and old before they finally saw the fruit of her womb, Isaac. The waiting was long and sometimes bitter but the harvest was worth the wait.
3 min read - Amy Burgin
Does Fear Nullify Your Identity?
Have you ever felt ashamed for being scared? I have. I often hear an accusing voice that says, "If you were a real Christian, you wouldn't be afraid."
4 min read - Amy Burgin
And He Called – A Collection of Discoveries in Leviticus
Though often thought of as a boring book of laws, Leviticus is so much more, as made evident by its original Hebrew title, "And He [God] Called."
4 min read - Amy Burgin
George Floyd
Reading Time: < 1 minute I watched George Floyd die. I asked, “Jesus, where are you there?” Two words immediately came to mind, Christ Crushed, from Isaiah 53:5. A conversation Elie Wiesel described in his book, Night, replays in my mind. As he watched a young boy slowly choke to death, hanging from gallows in a concentration camp, he heard
2 min read - Amy Burgin
Choose Worship Over Worry Because Our God is Worthy
Reading Time: 3 minutes I gotta admit, sometimes this pandemic freaks me out. Every day I work to read what God says before I read the words of the President, the CDC, and Italy. Just when I think I conquered the fear of the pandemic, I receive a private message, with an explicit command embedded inside, “be scared out
4 min read - Amy Burgin
The Righteous Made Perfect
Reading Time: 2 minutes In the morning, I read about Nadab and Abihu. The brothers offered unauthorized fire, so fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them (Leviticus 10). Their father, Aaron the priest, stands silent. Like Aaron, I’m silent too because before I read that, my mind had been fixed on the fact that
2 min read - Amy Burgin
Name the Good
Reading Time: 3 minutes When Adam and Eve sinned, God pursued. When they hid, God called, “Where are you?” God’s Response in the Heart Wrenching When they answered, God spoke in Genesis 3:14-19. He cursed the serpent with an exclamation mark and warned him of his coming doom, his head would be struck by a Victor birthed from the
5 min read - Amy Burgin
It’s Not Our Job to Make Christmas Special
Reading Time: 4 minutes On Saturday, December 21st, I made a cup of coffee, raised the blinds of my bedroom window, sat in bed and wrote out my morning pages. Morning pages are just a dump of your brain onto paper. Julia Cameron taught me about them in her book The Artist’s Way. I’ve found they help me know
6 min read - Amy Burgin
Know Your Deeper Story
Reading Time: 5 minutes A dear friend and I gathered for lunch. She sat across the table from me and grieved, “My life has not turned out as I had planned. We are behind financially. We sold our house and our acreage in our youth to follow God and here we are now, almost empty-nesters, with no house of
7 min read - Amy Burgin
A Christmas Carol for the Coder
Reading Time: 3 minutes I returned to work after over thirteen years as a stay-at-home mother and wife. It’s been a tough transition, but I enjoy my new job. It even comes with a glamorous title – I’m a full-stack developer in the making at a top tier research institute working on ground data systems for NASA missions. In
5 min read - Amy Burgin
You Can Thrive in the Desert
Reading Time: 3 minutes I once thought I could never bloom in a barren land, never be all God called me to be in the midst of hard, dry circumstances. Then a friend named Stacy told me I could thrive in the desert. What freedom this brings! When life is dry and barren, the sun burns hot, and all
5 min read - Amy Burgin
We Sometimes Need Help to Walk Out Forgiveness
Reading Time: 4 minutes If you’re anything like me, forgiving can be difficult. You want to forgive. You say you forgive, but then old offenses flood your brain against your will at the most inopportune times and you wonder if you really did forgive. You wonder if you really can forgive. We sometimes need help to walk out forgiveness
5 min read - Amy Burgin
Plenty Big Enough to Dream
Reading Time: 4 minutes On January 5th, 2018, I received an email from a friend full of encouraging words including these four, “You are a dreamer.” She couldn’t have known I had entered a new season of dreaming and planning. And every time I did dream, a question came to mind with accusing tone, “Who do you think you
5 min read - Amy Burgin
Comparison Can’t Compete
Reading Time: 3 minutes In my church seat on a Sunday morning, aching to be included in God’s work, Comparison whispers in my ear, “God loves her more – look at all the beautiful and wondrous ways he partners with her in life.” He’s not referring to anyone specifically. He’s talking in generalities, although a few faces of beautiful
4 min read - Amy Burgin
The Practice of Moving in Slow Motion
Reading Time: 3 minutes I made a quinoa salad, which requires the preparation of many ingredients. I found myself rushing the work. It was Sabbath. I had hoped to finish all my work the day prior so I could truly rest on this day. I had failed yet again. My Sunday afternoon was spent reminding myself of the logic
4 min read - Amy Burgin
Don’t Look Back in Regret Thus Paralyzing Your God-Given Capacity to Preserve
Reading Time: 5 minutes Adults and children gather in the living room, lining up kitchen chairs against the fireplace. The older girls stand, dancing their arms while we sing “This is Amazing Grace.” Little girls look up to the big girls and imitate. One mother cups her hands around her little girl’s, synchronizing little arms in the dance. My
7 min read - Amy Burgin
If I Make My Bed in Hell, You Are There!
Reading Time: 3 minutes When we’ve made a wrong and regretful choice that brings unpleasant consequences, we sometimes hear that dreadful command, “You’ve made your bed. Now lie in it!” Sometimes it comes from a family member or friend and sometimes we hear it in our own heads. It’s such a rude rebuke. It’s not God’s way. Certainly, consequences
4 min read - Amy Burgin
Calling Forth Life From the Deep While Standing on the Surface
Reading Time: 4 minutes When my oldest daughter fell into the deep abyss we call the “Junior Year of High School,” I freaked out. The workload was intense with multiple Advanced Placement courses and she became overwhelmed to the max. She slunk into the isolation of her bedroom often. Her straight A’s, turned to B’s, to C’s then dove
5 min read - Amy Burgin
Does the Proverbs 31 Woman Ever Sleep?
Reading Time: 2 minutes Haunted by exhaustion and the need for sleep most of the years of my motherhood, I was sometimes discouraged by the Proverbs 31 woman. I would find myself trying to live up to her standards and failing, especially when it came to sleep. One verse in particular made me feel like a real loser: verse
3 min read - Amy Burgin
Jesus Won’t Leave You in Wrong-Thinking
Reading Time: 3 minutes Sometimes I just worry that I’m not thinking rightly. I’m certainly aware of a lot of wrong-thinking I have justified in my brain: blaming others for my decisions; laying down my God-given authority; judging, comparing myself to and competing with others; treasuring temporal trinkets; floundering in self-pity; missing the most important ones in front of
4 min read - Amy Burgin
Why Did I Just Say That?
Reading Time: 5 minutes We often ask the Lord, “Why?” but do we ask it of ourselves? “Why do I want to say that?” “Why DID I do that?” “Why do I want to go over there?” Unfortunately, it wasn’t until my late twenties before I learned to ask myself this simple and telling question, “Why?” “Why did I just
6 min read - Amy Burgin
Listening With Your Mind’s Eye
Reading Time: 4 minutes Close your eyes and imagine a glass. What did you see? I saw a tall, slender, clear glass filled with ice and a clear carbonated beverage, probably Sprite. What I saw was formed in my mind’s eye, or my imagination. The Lord may use our imagination to speak to us. For me, receiving pictures from
5 min read - Amy Burgin
The Strength of a Six-Word Memoir
Reading Time: 2 minutes I was introduced to the idea of a Six Word Memoir and encouraged to write one by Stephanie S. Smith in one of her Slant Letters, titled Don’t Be a Small Talk Writer. Here’s mine: Beloved, Knowing More, Loving More, Beloved. I love how it’s guarded on each side by identity. Beloved. It’s my name,
3 min read