Good morning... "God is present with me this day," I read aloud one of my favorite Howard Thurman passages found in Meditations of the Heart. "God is present with me in the midst of my anxieties. . . . Little by little, I am beginning to understand that deliverance from anxiety means a fundamental growth in spiritual character [...]
Good morning... After texted about My Rough Re-entry, my friend responded with life-giving words. "You are carrying the load," she noticed, "yoking with so many." "This morning I read a Kate Bowler devotional (my Lenten practice) from _Good Enough_," my friend explained. "She wrote about this idea: Sometimes there are two selves - a 2:00 am self (the [...]
Good morning... After pushing through our post Pregnant With Worry, around 2:15 pm yesterday little Lucy breathed her first breath. She now joins her family and friends on the adventure of her lifetime. I was overjoyed to receive the birth texts and first photos shared with loved ones. When it comes to parenting newborns and toddlers, "Retrospect is [...]
Good morning... On January 6th, 2022, the Spirit of God spurred me to write an email to a pregnant young mom in our church family. As her due date came closer my regular prayers for her intensified, giving birth to the email exchange I share with you now. "Hello there," I wrote, and the following words tumbled onto [...]
Good morning... "Dear Sue," she emailed me yesterday. "I think today was a God moment as I read Henri Nouwen's post Know that You Are Welcome and then moved on to your message, You Are Welcome Here. As we emailed back and forth, I shared that I was also so surprised by the synchronicity of the Spirit. After [...]
Good morning... We are all creatures of habit. Left up to our own natural tendencies, we mindlessly repeat old patterns, again and again and again. For us to be guided by Christ's loving, living Spirit, we learn our best way to tangibly surrender ourselves to God's presence and welcome fresh power for the moment at hand. I am [...]
Good morning... I was driving around in December's hustle, rushing to here before dashing to there. "Of course, there's a train," I texted the photo above to the person forced to wait as I was running late. A line of red taillights. Stopped by a standstill. Traffic mounting along with my anxiety, my frustration, my anger at myself. [...]
Good morning... Men and women, black and white, younger and older, we unpack our mixed feelings in our therapeutic community group each Tuesday morning at PAWkids. Last week we were each deeply touched by a film clip from the 2017 movie Wonder. "Why am I so ugly?" the tearful boy asks. "Honey, listen. We all have marks on [...]
Good morning... "I loved your post today," she texted right after receiving Our Jumbled Emotions. "How inspirational. I cherish this subscriber's quote: 'Surrender and trust - the scary but better path that leads to life!' That is exactly where I am at! So scary!!" "I listened to an intriguing podcast yesterday," her text continued. "It said that we [...]
Good morning... As the upper school chaplain and the middle school wrestling coach at The Lovett School, a day school for kids from kindergarten through twelfth grade, my husband takes turns writing weekly devotional messages with his two chaplain colleagues. Steve's words of wisdom for this week help us to consider, "What are we to do when worry [...]
