Good morning... "Sad songs, they say so much," sings a lyric many of us know. Yet "sad" is relative and "saying so much" is important for every one of us. The music at yesterday's memorial service honoring J Schroeder, beloved 61-year-old husband and dad, son, brother, friend, was moving and meaningful. The following song invited us to quietly [...]
Good morning... Plan A seemed awesome. I was excited, grateful, anticipating wonderful. When Plan A gave way to Plan B, I was mildly disappointed but adapted pretty quickly. As Plan B crumbled into Plan C, the wind of joy left my sails, and I pep-talked myself into a new possibility. I lost it when Plan C unraveled into [...]
Good morning... From worm to harrow, from insect to iron, from the Bible verse that concluded yesterday's post on the evolution of our God-given-self, I did not know the meaning of the noun harrow. Harrow, as a verb, is more familiar to me. To actively harrow means to rob, ruin, ravage. To strip, spoil, severe. To destroy, devastate, demolish. When [...]
Good morning... As the plastic, pastel eggs are tucked away for next year and the last chocolate Easter bunnies are now at ninety percent off, I am brought back to the spring wisdom of When The Heart Waits. "There is a line from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins that speaks to me: 'Let him easter in us, be [...]
Good morning... In yesterday's post I was grateful to sense the fruits of God's Spirit growing early on my Easter Sunday branch, as I heeded Betty Skinner's wisdom: "The big 'I' must die." Twenty-four hours later, I realized my big "I" had not died, instead my big "I" was crouching inside, keeping score. Let me explain. Two minutes [...]
Good morning... I noticed Easter power rising in me twelve hours early. Let me explain just what I mean. At noon on Saturday, I sat on our couch folding load after load of warm, clean laundry. I had enjoyed a conversation with each of our two college-aged daughters home for the holiday weekend and our seventeen-year-old son who [...]
Good morning... This sacred Saturday, we are called to remember, piecing together, mentally re-membering the painstaking process that crucified our Lord. Here is a song to help you remember, piecing together, re-membering in your mind God's ultimate gift of sacrificial love. Let's take ourselves back with a touching rendition of Were you there? Late in the afternoon a wealthy man [...]
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... "Oh Sue," she wrote at 8:38 pm last night, nearly twenty-four hour after our first exchange. "To God be the Glory for the words He places on your heart, captures though your pen, lays on your lips. What you have written is the TRUTH! Continue speaking it, my Sister in Christ." (She was referring to yesterday's [...]
Good morning... "Hey Sue," she emailed at 8:23 pm last night. "I am being so blessed by reading your blogs. My daughter and I were talking this afternoon about the devastating destruction of Notre Dame. She asked me is this another sign of the 'end of times' read about in revelation? I would love to hear what you [...]
