Good morning... I fell in love with a song when our kids were young, a song comparing two neighboring houses "side by side on Baxter Street." Allen Levi's soothing voice tickles our heart with this chorus: "1412 is a magazine cover. 1420 is covered with kids. One's just a picture post card. The other's where real people live." [...]
Good morning... "Sue, how do we make sense of the senseless?" she emailed after yesterday's post, How Can Students Shoot Students? "We thank you for trying." "Yesterday, I felt compelled to call my sister, who lives in Highlands Ranch, Colorado," her email continued. "As we are were catching up on unimportant details of each others lives, one by [...]
Good morning... You help me to grow in God as I help others to grow in God, who help others to grow in God. Let me explain. Last month, for the first time, I filed taxes for our written word ministry. Having incubated for years in the womb of my church work, my husband and I birthed my [...]
Good morning... As I turned on the news I quickly opened my journal. From an interview with the rabbi whose California synagogue was attacked by a gunman, deep hurt and deeper hope splattered quotes on my page. There is a war out there between darkness and light. America is a nation who believes in God. Celebrating our religious [...]
Good morning... As a church staff, we sprinkled ourselves into the pews of our wide-open sanctuary to commemorate Maundy-Thursday together. Music. Prayers. Scriptures. Sermon. Communion. We experienced the memory of Jesus' final moments wrapped in the flesh of a man. With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from [...]
Good morning... "It's bittersweet," my heart thinks as I quietly put away the mugs, the teas, the snack bowls that have rested regularly on our foyer table, welcoming women into our home week after week. "It is bittersweet to end another winter/spring season of learning." Yes, my schedule will breathe a little more freely and, yes, I will [...]
Good morning... Making space and taking time for Sabbath is our weekly ritual. As we savor this Sabbath, we cut from the fast, crowded pace of the world and we remember this life-giving truth: we are designed to live in harmony with our Creator, with our True Self, and with each person we meet, day after day. To [...]
Good morning... After yesterday's sermon, our 17-year-old son said, "I really liked the preacher's story about the boy in his youth group who said, 'If you ever feel like snuffing out your light, don't. The world is dark enough.'" I agreed. That was my favorite takeaway too. Then in the afternoon, I opened an email from a friend, an [...]
Good morning... What was my best birthday gift of 2019? All six of our family members coming into town to enjoy a Sunday brunch at West Egg on the westside. Our 24-year-old son brought back from his Campus Outreach beach trip one question that sparked an animated discussion: "When in your life have you been closest to dying?" [...]
Good morning... Inspired by a deep discussion over a birthday season brunch, God grew within me an opening activity for our Enneagram class this week. As about fifty women gathered together in the Chapel at church, I said, "On a blank sheet of paper, we are going to answer five simple questions. On the left side of your [...]
