Good morning... The person with the most nicknames in our family is our youngest son, Jeremiah. Jay. Jerry. Jay-bird. J.J. Jubes. Jerold. Jay-bar-tinkle (not sure where that one came from). Jesus himself had lots of nicknames. Lord. Christ. Master. Son of God. Son of man. The Word made flesh. The list goes on and on, but currently my favorite nickname for [...]
Good morning... In my dream I had gotten a brand new car, and the next morning I woke thrilled to spin away on my spiffy fresh wheels. Pushing the automatic opener attached to my pristine sun visor, I opened the garage door to make my car's maiden voyage. Fiddling with the new feel, I put the car in [...]
Good morning... When I drive solo I drive in silence. No radio. No podcasts. No books on tape. I look around. I think my thoughts. I take in beauty, town to town. I notice. I wonder. I process life. While driving through the colorful hills of North Carolina this weekend, a bumpersticker smiled at me, "Life is good." [...]
Good morning... Sometimes we meet soul-to-soul before we ever see one another face-to-face. This is the sacred situation occurring between me and a subscriber from Charlotte, North Carolina. Mary writes me periodically to fill me in on her painful process of grieving her son, Dalton, who died suddenly at age twenty-one. In previous posts on the topic of [...]
Good morning... Often I allow some silence before I pray aloud with a group or when I am meeting with an individual, one-on-one or over the phone. Silence slows the pace; it opens breathing space and curtsies to the God of grace. As I offered closed-eyed silence before I said our prayer, a stream of words naturally bubbled [...]
Good morning... This Sabbath morn, join me as I read quietly aloud the Message translation of Psalm 23. God, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right [...]
Good morning... Within a few short hours, yesterday's morning message morphed into more. Witnessing the Spirit expanding among us, touch base with God's organic growth in our past post, In Our In-Between. Listen to me now. Give me your closest attention. Do farmers plow and plow and do nothing but plow? Or harrow and harrow and do nothing [...]
Good morning... After watching the captivating video in yesterday's post, many of you responded, "Surprisingly, I was moved to tears." God lives in our in-between spaces. Between stirring a bit and being fully awake. Between standing far off and accepting a hug. Between ending this thing and beginning what's next. Between noticing beauty and being filled with gratitude. [...]
Good morning... "Hi Sue," she wrote from Newton County, Georgia. "Saturday I tried and failed twice to message you, so perhaps the delay was providential." Then she told me her story: "Still seeking a new church home, Sunday I attended a nearby independent 'contemporary' church. Since I still love (and miss) singing in a really good choir, it [...]
Good morning... As we were at the beach for fall break last weekend, I ran into a type of table I had never heard of before. Here is the sign that piqued my interest. "What," I thought, "is a traffic table?" My curious mind came home searching google for an answer. Here is what I learned. A traffic [...]
