Good morning... This week I met the perfect poem to begin this brand new year. ****** Start Close In by David Whyte Start close in, don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take. Start with the ground you know, the pale ground beneath your [...]
Good morning... On the seventh day—with the canvas of the cosmos completed—God paused from His labor and rested. Thus God blessed day seven and made it special—an open time for pause and restoration, a sacred zone of Sabbath-keeping, because God rested from all the work He had done in creation that day (Genesis 2:2-3, VOICE). "God’s rest on [...]
Good morning... "Discernment is first of all a habit, a way of seeing that eventually permeates our whole life," explains our post from yesterday, Angels Among Us. "It is the journey from spiritual blindness (not seeing God anywhere or seeing him only where we are expecting to see him) to spiritual sight (finding God everywhere, especially where we [...]
Good morning... In our Friday study, we read these words aloud from Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives For Spiritual Transformation by Ruth Haley Barton. Recently I spent time with our daughter's soccer team at the beginning of a practice devoted to watching game films. We discussed the importance of game films and how it gives them an opportunity [...]
Good morning... A friend who is juggling a ton of extreme stressors called me on her way to work. "People who do not understand keep asking, 'Are you taking care of yourself?'" she explained. "Stopping to take care of myself amid all of this craziness would be like holding up an umbrella in a hurricane. Hard, driving rains [...]
Good morning... She sat on our couch and said something like this: "I don't know how to hear God. I don't know my life purpose. I'm so anxious about making a plan and making a mistake that I have narrowed down my world to things, people, and activities that feel safe. My world has become very small and [...]
Good morning... Last Sunday our churches celebrated Pentecost Sunday, honoring the moment when the Spirit of God swept through the first followers of Jesus Christ. Our Bible tells God's story. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to [...]
Good morning... Texting is a glorious addition to the everyday life of our family of six. Fewer missed calls to return. Less long, drawn out phone conversation to awkwardly end. No forceful expectations, "Get back to me now." Texting mutually beneficial times to talk creates greater bonding. Our ongoing string of texts allows a gentle touch, giving space [...]
Good morning... As I was sipping on coffee and writing our devotional message this morning, our twenty-six year old son came downstairs and climbed into our king-sized bed beside me and our dogs. With his acting up car still sitting at the mechanic's shop nearby, he unexpectedly spent the night at home. A few minutes later, coming upstairs [...]
Good morning... As I allowed the second COVID vaccine to settle into my body, I pulled out the 3 x 5 card my longtime friend gave me at our birthday season lunch. I quietly ground myself in these seven key questions to see what God grows. ****** 7 Questions to Journal About from NY Times article via Austin [...]
