Author: maryanncrum

   He was a software developer before software developers were cool. And now, after 40-plus years in the techie trenches, my husband finally gets to retire next week.    Oh yes, I’ve heard how retired couples can get on each other’s last nerve, but since Joe has worked out of his home office for the past… Continue reading Retired (sort of) But Pressing On

    I almost instinctively answered my phone, and if I had, it would’ve been very, very bad. No, worse than bad.    I’d literally just stepped out of the shower when I heard my phone ringing on the bathroom counter. I mindlessly reached for it and was poised to answer when I noticed something was… Continue reading Exposure Can Be Bad … or Good

    The harder you work, the faster you’ll improve. When you’re told to run one mile after practice, run two. And after that, and not because anyone told you to, run up and down all the stairs in the basketball coliseum. Every one of them.     I think I was born with that mindset when… Continue reading Hurry Up and Give Me Patience

    Forget Olive Garden and Target. What Greenwood really needs is a curling rink and a cricket field. Not a hair salon or field of chirping bugs, but places where folks like me can expand our athletic horizons and have a go at the sports of curling and cricket.    I’m not serious … well,… Continue reading So Much I Don’t Know

   This store or that one for groceries? Run that errand today or put it off until tomorrow? Accept this invitation or stay home?    It’s a little freaky how decisions that feel so incredibly inconsequential at the time can sometimes have such a huge impact upon the rest of our lives, for better or worse. … Continue reading I Don’t Believe in Random

    I was supposed to be meditating upon the most amazing act of redemptive and sacrificial love ever displayed: the crucifixion of Jesus. But as I made my way to the front of our church auditorium for communion at a Good Friday service, my crazy brain was totally distracted with worries that I looked… Continue reading My Quasimodo Two-Step

    Big hair, small minds, obnoxious personalities, and frumpy clothes. It seems that’s how most evangelical Christians are portrayed on TV these days. Many Hollywood writers are apparently so unfamiliar with what it really means to believe in and follow Jesus Christ that when they try to include “religious” people in their storylines, it’s… Continue reading Hollywood Doesn’t Get It

    I was talking to a young wife recently who was frustrated that her husband isn’t communicative enough. He rarely asks her how she’s feeling or what she’s thinking. He goes all “deer in the headlights” when she asks him probing questions. He’d usually rather watch a ball game on TV than sit on… Continue reading Let it Go

    I’m taking medication with a typically horrendous list of potential side effects that includes suicidal thoughts, but I promise that’s not why I wish I could’ve been in heaven when Billy Graham recently arrived. I just wish I could’ve seen a smiling Jesus embrace him and say, “Well done, Billy, my good and… Continue reading A Life Well Done

    Even though they sometimes leave me feeling disturbed and dismayed by man’s capacity for evil, I like to watch true crime shows. My husband casts a wary eye at me when he walks in the room and I’m watching another “murder show,” although I’m pretty sure he’s only kidding when he wonders out… Continue reading Nothing But the Truth