Good morning... "I don’t feel terribly convicted about anything right now," a reader from South Carolina admitted after yesterday's post, Waiting Without Words. "I don’t feel 'on fire' or on a mountaintop. Thank goodness I’m not in a dark valley, but I do feel as though I am merely existing. Yesterday I was a bit sad that I [...]
Good morning... Reluctantly, yesterday late afternoon, I canceled my flight to Jacksonville, Florida. Hurricane Dorian lies angrily in wait, dangerously daunting. For months I have looked forward to nestling into deep conversation with author of The Hidden Life Awakened, Kitty Crenshaw, and talking over lunch with our 93-year-old friend, Christian mystic Betty Skinner. On Sunday, I got word [...]
Good morning... It is bittersweet for me to help craft words for the final email sent out to our August Enneagram class. Included here are the notes from last week's teaching, the focus for this week's lesson, and a link to register for fall classes at Northside Church, which begin the week of September 9th. What a joy [...]
Good morning... "In Christ's name we play," my Freudian slip ended our prayer, ushering us into a magical evening. "Researcher Stuart Brown, MD, describes play as time spent without purpose," Brene Brown stretches her own mind to welcome this new possibility. "To me this sounds like the definition of an anxiety attack. I feel behind if I’m not [...]
Good morning... After the second week of our Enneagram class, I got an email from a very good friend. "Sue, I thought you might want to read where the Enneagram originated. Also google Sufi. I just wasn’t sure if you knew this. Pray and see if this is something the Lord wants you to be involved with. Love you [...]
Good morning... Last Monday morning, Rev. Catherine Boothe Olson and I prepared the space for our noontime Enneagram class. As people began slowly trickling into the sacred chapel, I felt like a "welcome" greeter in heaven. I joyfully hugged women I love from book studies in our living room and women I adore from mission trips, outreach experiences, [...]
Good morning... After a tragic weekend when more innocent, voiceless people lost their lives to a bullying bullets, her blessing came as a breath of fresh hope. "Saw this online today and it made me think of you and your butterflies," she wrote. "May we all 'be the one.' xo." "Wow. I absolutely love this," I said, especially after [...]
Good morning... One week from today, we will host another four-week class on the Enneagram, an ancient tool used to identify our own core need as a unique child of God. Once our deepest drive is discerned, we will learn to track our spiritual growth as God's Spirit awakens our True Self. This time I will be teaching [...]
Good morning... As we gathered for communion in a small church in the woods, the pastor extended gentle words of invitation: "The will of God is the way of life, and we want to get all wrapped up in it." Jotting the sentence in my bulletin, I return to the statement now. If the will of God is [...]
Good morning... Yesterday was "Simplify, Sue." Today I sense, "Stop." "Stop." "Let go." "Try less." "Quiet down." LORD, let my words be few as I meditate upon You. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable and pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my [firm, immovable] rock and my Redeemer (Psalm 19:14, [...]
