Good morning... On Saturday, August 4th, 2018, three of us hiked quietly through a mountainous forest near Cashiers, North Carolina. We came upon an interesting plaque beside a fallen tree. "Competition is fierce in nature," read the engraved words, "even among the beautiful trees, shrubs, and herbs in the forest. Sunlight, water, and nutrients are quietly 'fought over' by [...]
Good morning... We are a skipping stone. Skimming across life's smooth surface. In constant motion. At break-my-neck speed. We feel in control as we fast-forward to our goal. For a while. Newton famously says, "An object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force." An [...]
Good morning... Gone. Eerie. Devastating. These are just a few of the words traveling from Florida's panhandle through our TV screens. Shattering. Twisting. Splintering. Aerial images of Mexico Beach show the ravages of Hurricane Michael. Power out. War zone. Ground zero. At ground zero, our lives are reduced to rubble. From the raw wreckage, we stumble into the first [...]
Good morning... The first Adam paved a wide path to sin and separation from God. Our human feet just naturally followed. When the moment was right, Jesus Christ, the second Adam, zipped up a suit of skin and came down from heaven to walk with us on earth, blazing a new path for us to return home to God. [...]
Good morning... This summer, two of my best friends and I walked through the mountains near Cashiers, North Carolina, and I snapped this photo of a pruned back tree becoming host to new forms of life, sprouting moss, supporting seedlings. This image returned to mind as I read these words aloud to our class this week. ****** Excerpt [...]
Good morning... One month ago today, I settled into the passenger’s seat of Cathy Smith’s car. This close friend to many of us invited me to visit with her the cemetery where their precious daughter Abby is laid to rest. At midnight on March 23, 2004, I handed my birthday baton to this new little babe and Abby [...]
Good morning... So deeply loving her book Gift Of The Red Bird, I joined author Paula D'Arcy for a weekend at Ignatius House Retreat Center in August of 2015. Many who had loved boldly and lost abruptly came to be with this vibrant woman, a woman who was not only standing, breathing, and living on after the 1975 death [...]
Good morning... Many of you have written to me about the pain of losing sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, friends and extended family members. Our fruitful branches have been and will be pruned back by the death of a loved one, again and again. We know what it feels like to love and to lose, [...]
Good morning... I just woke to news of a shocking tragedy. "We need URGENT prayer," an email from a man named Steve was forwarded to me. "There was a tragic car accident on Saturday with 5 American college students from Texas heading to Frontier Ranch to work at camp. One girl - Anna, who was Gina Ramey's campaigner girl [...]
Good morning... I had journaled profusely since I was twenty-five years old, but I had never shared my writing with others until after our uprooting move in 2003. Being hired at Northside Church in the spring of 2006, for ten straight years I wrote a new manuscript, we self-published a book, and each Mother's Day morning we handed out [...]
