Good morning... We are all designed to live each day from "...the place where our lives touch and mingle with God's. A shared space, a center," writes Sue Monk Kidd on page 61 in God's Joyful Surprise. This crucial concept expands all over these holy pages. "A center is not simply an inner place where you are in [...]
Good morning... Tomorrow, our faithful family at Northside Church is celebrating 75 fertile years of sharing the love of Christ. I love the logo designed by our talented Creative Art department, especially the winding river of stones pouring through the centered cross of Christ. This "river of life" adorns the floor in Northside's sacred prayer chapel. I believe [...]
Good morning... As we walked the streets of Asheville, North Carolina last weekend, we happened upon three words etched in sidewalk chalk. I just had to snap a photo. Change is good. Really? I'm not sure what I think about this statement. Part of me loves it. We are always changing. Always growing. Always evolving. Part of me [...]
Good morning... Yesterday, we celebrated our friend's birthday in her beautiful, newly-built abode. Her welcoming home has been a two and a half year building project, a complete labor of love. Our fabulous friendship has been a nearly twenty year building project, a complete gift of God's love. We have journeyed beside Jennifer DeShelter (top left corner) as [...]
Good morning... On Saturday afternoon, I received his email. A tried and true friend, his words always boost me. "Hi, Sue," he wrote. "I encourage you to read Patricia Holbrook’s column on page C2 of today’s AJC, entitled 'When grief teaches us to live without regret.' I particularly like these words: 'For those of us left behind, though, [...]
Good morning... Wow! Yesterday was an incredible day. I started out at Mend Coffee with thirty friends from Northside's Morning Mission Circle. I took notes in the back of my Hope Heals book, as author Katherine Wolf told her life-changing story of narrowly surviving a massive brain stem stroke at age twenty-six. Forty days in the ICU. Disfiguring [...]
Good morning... Amid the chaos of this world, we are invited to experience the calm of God. Those who know Love will rejoice as the nations learn to cooperate, as the peoples of the earth recover their true heritage. The people say, "The time has come to dwell in peace and [...]
Good morning... Whenever I think of July 2025, two words will always come to mind. Grief and Galapagos. In June, the daughter of my dear friend, Audrey DeShetler, went to heaven the day before her twentieth birthday. Then, within the same week, our family put to sleep our beloved dog, Tate. Both Audrey and Tate battled cancer. Both [...]
Good morning... Please savor with me this delicious summer poem. ****** "Tomatoes" by Joy Sullivan I waited so long for love and suddenly, here it is standing in the garden, hands full of heirlooms hot from the sun. Soon we’ll make a supper of them. Salted slabs between slices of bread. Your beard silvers. My hips ripen. The [...]
Good morning... This unique 4th of July, I truly believe there's room on the porch for everyone. Come on up! Lingering as we wake is a portion of our prayer from yesterday's post: May we find ourselves reminded that we belong to one another. Neighbors. Strangers. Friends. All wrapped up together in this web of beautiful, terrible inter-dependence. [...]
