Satisfied: Hamilton, Ecclesiastes, and the Chase for Life’s Meaning
Can you have spoilers for a musical that’s been out for almost three years? I’m going to go with no . . . but if you’re going to see...
top of page
ruthieburrell
May 25, 20184 min read
Lost without Your Love: What Sherlock Taught Me About Jesus, Pt. 2
The following post contains spoilers for BBC’s Sherlock, Season 4, Episode 3. Haven’t watched it yet? You’ve had a year and a...
ruthieburrell
Dec 27, 20173 min read
The Week Between: Pausing to Be Still Between Christmas and New Year’s
We received our first snow of the season three days ago, just in time for Christmas Eve. After weeks of “will it,” “won’t it,” the...
ruthieburrell
Nov 14, 20173 min read
How Longfellow Created a Legend, or A Little Encouragement for Mid-NaNoWriMo Blues
Listen my children, and you shall hear… My guess is almost anyone who reads those words can finish the sentence. …of the midnight ride of...
ruthieburrell
Oct 24, 20172 min read
A Tale of a Tree and a Pipe
In the dream, I was standing on the grassy slope of the dam that overlooks the lake behind my parents’ house. A metal pipe jutted out of...
ruthieburrell
Aug 27, 20173 min read
A Quick Life Update
Hello friends, It’s been a while since I wrote last (again…sorry about that!), but I wanted to take a few minutes to provide you with a...
ruthieburrell
Jul 3, 20173 min read
Between Light and Dark
In Iceland, the sun never quite sets during the summertime. It dips just below the horizon around midnight and then hovers there, still...
ruthieburrell
Mar 31, 20174 min read
Manipulating Grace
In 2016, the world’s favorite Bible verse was Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,...
ruthieburrell
Mar 17, 20174 min read
A Generation of Fathers
“This is like my family,” the little boy in my after-school reading group said, looking up from the book. “My parents are divorced, and I...
ruthieburrell
Feb 25, 20173 min read
A Million Time Machines
In Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, three boys are running through the streets. “A Time Machine!” panted Charlie Woodman, pacing...
ruthieburrell
Feb 18, 20173 min read
A Conferred Value: How Sherlock Taught Me about Jesus
The following contains spoilers for BBC’s Sherlock season 4. Read on at your own peril. I’ve always enjoyed a good mystery. I’ve written...
ruthieburrell
Feb 10, 20174 min read
“I am doing a great work . . . ”
Happy 2017! Wow, it has been far too long since I posted anything. To those kind people who asked me from time to time if I had decided...
ruthieburrell
Sep 23, 20164 min read
In the Stillness
It’s been a long couple of weeks, for a lot of reasons. Between some changes at work, several conversations with friends who have really...
ruthieburrell
Aug 23, 20162 min read
Stay the Path
God’s pretty cool. I know that sounds almost irreverent and like such an understatement, but honestly, the things He does sometimes are...
ruthieburrell
Aug 2, 20162 min read
Grace to Last
You met at an InterVarsity meeting, you told me. You saw her across the room and asked a friend who she was. “Her name’s Becky—and she...
ruthieburrell
Jul 1, 20164 min read
Stuck in the Desert on the Way to the Promised Land
I remember how blue the sky was in January 2010 when we climbed to the top of Herodium, a fortress built by Herod the Great in Israel,...
ruthieburrell
Jun 19, 20164 min read
A Father’s Day Post: 7 Qualities I Love about My Dad
My senior year of college, a couple of my friends and I were invited to join a control group for a study one of the master’s students was...
ruthieburrell
Jun 3, 20164 min read
Small vs. Big: The Unexpected Benefits of Small Things
When you’re a writer and have to produce words daily, you occasionally suffer from brain freezes that, unfortunately, have nothing to do...
ruthieburrell
May 8, 20164 min read
What I Learned from Watching My Mom Parent My Siblings
Earlier this week, my baby brother turned fifteen. To most people, that would barely count as a milestone, but when there are ten years...
ruthieburrell
May 6, 20164 min read
God of the Storm
The sun was bright over the Jezreel Valley as our tour group reached the top of Mount Carmel. It was 2010, and I was spending three weeks...
bottom of page