Good morning... "I don't see color," a long-time friend said over dinner the other night. I think she meant, "I take people as they are. I don't judge any person by the color of their skin. My diverse relationships are more than skin-deep." Growing up, when we said, "I don't see color," we thought we were being non-judgmental, [...]
Good morning... Photos like the one above capture a different day in time, when we could gather, meet up close, connect face to face as the body of Christ. As we consider what it means to "be the church" when many church buildings remain closed due to COVID, we wrestled with an important question posed in yesterday's post, [...]
Good morning... Still in my pajamas, I sat outside on our private back porch. Admiring the thick canopy of summer leaves, I fully engaged in a hard, life-giving phone call. After listening and talking for as long as was needed, we hung up and I checked my email to find this inspirational story from a faraway subscriber. [...]
Good morning... As I put my feet in my shoes yesterday, I thoroughly enjoyed a socially distanced walk and talk with a dear, dear friend. She introduced me to an acronym I had never met before, an acronym recently shaping her evening prayer time. G.L.A.D. stands for Grateful. Learning. Accomplish. Delight. She ponders the following questions with God [...]
Good morning... At 7:21 am yesterday, she wrote me in response to our post, I Was So Mad. "I am moved," she said. "This is so strong and authentic, Sue. Thank you for sharing this visceral and vivid depiction of a difficult process. I love the contemporary take on Philippians." Then at 7:23 am she wrote again: "This [...]
Good morning... "Morning sweet friend," she texted me this week. "We are headed out the door to walk the dogs, and I'm going to put this little gift on your doorstep." Nearly four hours later she texted again, "Hey there...just checking to see if you found the gift I left on your porch." "Oh, I have been totally [...]
Good morning... This simple poster caught my eye. "There is no place that Jesus is not." At the depth of my being, I truly believe, "There is no place that Jesus is not." This poster reminds me of a gift I recently gave to a friend, a handcrafted pottery plaque reading, "Bidden or not bidden, God is present." Invited [...]
Good morning... One of my all time favorite Scripture passages is John 6:43-46 in The Message translation. Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people together, [...]
Good morning... Walking each day, admiring the newly born baby cardinals, and sharing pictures with you has been a real joy this week (see our post To My Surprise). But my heart sank to my stomach when I peered into the nest yesterday and saw it empty. No baby birds. No daddy cardinal. No living beings. Instinctively [...]
Good morning... As I wake on Day #7, still self-quarantining in our basement, I think, "And this type of COVID testing was designed to produce results in two days." We easily got a testing appointment with our doctor friend last Thursday, we waited in line for about thirty minutes to experience the uncomfortable procedure, and we were told [...]
