Good morning... I unzip my purse and unfold the church bulletin. I re-read from my Sunday morning scribblings of sermon notes. "When is the best time to plant a tree?" asked the pastor. After being greeted with silence he gave us the answer. "Twenty years ago. Twenty years ago is the best time to plant a tree." "When [...]
Good morning... "One day in the country is worth a month in the city," whispers the rustic plaque hanging on the farm house wall. Why might this be? When I think of "country," natural words cascade from my mind to water my heart. Unplug. Fresh air. Big sky. Down-to-earth. A slower pace in wide open space. Within me [...]
Good morning... "Christ is the one whose center is everywhere," says St. Bonaventure, "and whose circumference is nowhere." Intriguing dichotomy, right? Center - everywhere. Circumference - nowhere. As I ponder the possibilities, into the subject line of Biblegateway.com I type this phrase: "center Christ." Three Scripture verses pop up and beg for our attention. All this energy issues [...]
Happy New Year... "I cannot pray at night in bed," many people confess to me. "I just end up falling asleep. I feel so bad falling asleep on God." In response I always say, "The way I see it, there is no better way to fall asleep." Drifting to sleep sharing thoughts with God, what could be better? In fact, [...]
Good morning... I love to browse, to meander, to lose track of time lingering. When I have opportune moments to whimsically waste, I like to stroll the aisles of a Goodwill store. There is no telling what second-hand treasures I might happen upon. What fine find caught my attention last week? A crazily covered canvas hosting these black [...]
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 [...]
