Category Archive: Cindy Koch

The Harder Path

By Cindy Koch –

Its taken me some time to come back to real life. Only less than a month ago, my only concern was how much trail mix was left in my little baggie before 3pm. My husband and I were hiking back in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and there wasn’t exactly a grocery store around every corner. We carried all of our meals, tent, clothes on our back for 24 days as we hiked the John Muir Trail. About halfway through our trip, after days of 8 hour hiking sessions, food because a simple yet vital piece of our day. But at 3pm we could open up the bear canaster and find a protein bar. Just enough to get us through until dinner.

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High and Holy Labor Day

By Cindy Koch –

There are already too many holidays on our calendar that are a challenge to the Gospel and the pure Word of God. Some holidays are widely scoffed at by Christian communities, like Halloween. When I lived in the Bible Belt, trick or treating would be canceled if it ever fell on a Sunday. Some holidays are in the middle of a church and state type battle, like Christmas and Easter. Do you really celebrate the “reason for the season” and say “Merry Christmas,” or do you trade in your crosses for Easter bunnies? Then there are the holidays that surprise you, where our church and culture just might be celebrating the same thing. For example, that special Thursday in November that everyone takes a day to give thanks for every good thing they have been given. And while we all just love having a Monday off the normal routine (and any reason to barbeque and drink beer), this Labor Day should also inspire a little careful thought.

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Is Liturgy Enough?

By Cindy Koch –

What if liturgy isn’t enough? I know that’s the argument that well-meaning, smart theologians will give you. You know how it goes: If the preaching is bad or if the particular pastor’s teaching is less Christ-centered than you’ve understood the Bible to teach, if you at least have the liturgy, you’re safe. If the church is a mess and the people are all over the place with understandings, if you at least have the liturgy, you’ll be OK. The liturgy, a weekly confession of the true faith, built on and sustained by the faithful church for generations upon generations of Christians. A liturgy that preserves the pattern of right confession and pure Gospel proclamation, all bound up in a handy-dandy book, literally at your fingertips every Sunday.

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Let Me Sleep

By Cindy Koch –

I must be really tired right now. We are hiking the John Muir trail, and when you read this, we will be on day 14. I planned to leave you with some thoughts on marriage as Paul and I are taking our grand adventure away from kids, phones, and everyday life. But two weeks now, without my favorite pillow… I hope I’m doing ok out there.

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No kids allowed on the trail

By Cindy Koch –

If you are reading this, it means that Paul and I are still out hiking the John Muir Trail. I wanted to leave you with a few thoughts while we were out of touch this month. Yes, that’s right, 23 days on the trail—no phones. By now, we have been out of communication with the family for about a week. Writing this ahead of time, I predict I am somewhere absolutely beautiful, missing my kiddos a lot right about now. Even though they are a little older, it usually takes me about four days and then I need to talk to at least one of them. It’s strange, like a new mom who can’t sleep through the night because she just has to hear the baby breathing to be able to relax, my angst to know they are safe doesn’t really go away.

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Leaving

By Cindy Koch –

Well, that’s right. I’ve taken a long, lingering look over the last twenty years of marriage, and I’m actually going to go through with it. It’s been a long time coming, and I really can’t believe I’m brave enough to be doing this. This last month together, it has been an intense scramble of plans for this all to work out. But in one week—kids, minivan, dog, nice little neighborhood, cell phone, my favorite coffee cup—all of it will be left behind. I’m leaving.

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How’s your walk?

By Cindy Koch –

Have you followed the footsteps of Jesus? Sometimes I think I can be kind enough, sometimes I think I can love like he did. Every once in a while I have a really great day when the sky looks a little bluer and I’m pretty proud of myself for my gentle tongue and thoughtful actions. But then there is the day when I lose it, I am angry at just about everything. How can I possibly get any better? Is this Jesus stuff not really working for me? Sometimes I think I need to take a good hard look at my walk.

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My daughter was Dying

By Cindy Koch –

A few months ago, I had to tell my daughter she was dying. I had known for some time, but she wasn’t quite old enough to grasp the truth of what was happening. So as parents do when the children are small, I could only bring myself to give her part of the story—age appropriate tidbits as she grew in understanding. It’s very possible I did the wrong thing. Maybe I should have drowned her with the gory details from the beginning. But because of the nature of things and the pace of our life, even I periodically forgot about her sickness. Finally, the opportunity presented itself, and the truth has come out.

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Learning to hate VBS

By Cindy Koch –

Yes, that’s right. I know it’s that time of year when we all send our kids off to a week-long adventure in loosely related Bible themes. I also know that is close to a mortal sin to not participate in at least one VBS a year, at least in my community. But every year at this time I begin to write this blog, then reconsider and delete the whole thing. It’s been building for quite a while now: I have learned to hate VBS.

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Angry at the Gospel

By Cindy Koch –

Just when I thought everything was OK, someone comes along and says those unexpected words: “I forgive you.” Immediately, something turns in my stomach. The dread of exposure washes over me. Someone else has seen my dirty secret. Someone else has recognized that hidden path that I have been following. I didn’t even know I was doing it. And someone else just called me a sinner—right to my face.

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The Secret of Marriage

By Cindy Koch –

His eyes were focused and nervous as he watched that beautiful woman brought to him from the back of the room. Her father held her arm, proudly and sadly, as she walked out her childhood into a new life with another man. Her heart was happy and scared as she slowly stepped closer to this defining moment of union. Quiet smiles, hopeful hearts, kind wishes surround the man and woman who have come here to be married.

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You Choose Hell

By Cindy Koch –

Whole faith systems are built to keep you away. Churches and teachers go over and over the roads of escape. Narrow paths are forged. Gated communities are constructed. Actions, music, words, and deeds are scrubbed crystal clean so that you might be protected. When someone starts to slip back into the pit of darkness, you have to fix them up quickly. When you begin to lose your seemingly solid foothold, it just might be too late.

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Church Addict

By Cindy Koch –

It had been just too long. Speaking words that really mattered. Safe in a relationship of care and concern. Sure, she was surrounded by people day after day. But they couldn’t really hear what she had to say. Talking, talking: puppies, lunch, clouds in the sky, but nothing that meant a thing. Every conversation she looked for that silent connection, a deeper concern, a hint of true sympathy. But only shells of plastic people drifted back and forth before her very eyes.

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What Men Can’t Say

By Cindy Koch –

It was only the beginning of a fight. She said. He said. But it turned ugly when she said too much. His anger flared, and his voice got louder. She stood her ground and said so much more. They felt the pulse of the evening race out of control as their words fueled a fire. Anger prickled his neck. Tears choked in her throat. Panic and pain washed over their hearts deep in the middle of their broken conversation.

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Not A Mom

By Cindy Koch–

For some of us, the day came and went. Flowers, family, breakfast, phone calls, homemade cards, maybe even a glass of champagne if you were lucky. Mothers all over the country were honored in some little way due to a brilliant campaign on behalf of Hallmark. It was a lovely little day set aside to give thanks for the mother in our lives.

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Emoji Evangelism

By Cindy Koch –

It’s how all the kids are talking these days. Short, quick pictures in a language of their own. Emoji characters, each displaying a carefully selected message through tiny, pixilated picture. Even I am getting the hang of communicating this way. In our modern world of texts and picture captions, sometimes you need a good smiley face or sarcastic wink to convey the sentiment of our condensed disconnected comment. In a real face-to-face conversation, you might be able to pick up on the inflections in my voice, or hear the subtle laugh, or recognize the serious tone to distinguish just what we are talking about. But in cyber-land, tiny typed shapes take on a life of their own, traveling instantly over time and space, leaving the receiver to interpret our quick shorthand exchange.

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Don’t Judge Me

By Cindy Koch –

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye’” (Mat 7:1-5)

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The Evil Mother Inside

By Cindy Koch –

When it comes to her child, a mother isn’t afraid of much. Without thinking, she will run into disaster to save her little one. She will seek out the answer and remedy when her baby is sick. She will go to great lengths to make sure her child is safe and well cared for, unafraid of the consequences. It is in her nature to shield and love the creatures that God has given her. But there is an evil enemy that a mother doesn’t talk about. It is a terrifying force that lies just as close as her protection. A mother’s greatest fear is not the evil that threatens to harm her child from the outside. Rather, for the sake of her child, she is deathly afraid of her own evil that rages within.

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