Good morning... Trash piles high this time of year. Empty boxes. Used wrapping paper. Unneeded extras of all kinds. Into my own mess of excess, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer shares a short, thought-provoking poem. carrying out the trash this, too, a holy path Small. Simple. Stimulating. My mind plays with ideas sparked. To carry out the trash, one must have [...]
Good morning... A friend borrowed words from our Christmas Eve blog post to create the inviting image above. "Loved your message today," she texted. "I posted it along with my picture from church today. What blessings!" I have heard it said, "We don't go to church, we go to worship then we go out to be the church [...]
Good morning... On December 26th, I love being the first awake in a quiet home full of sleeping people. I brew a 12-cup pot of our family's favorite coffee, fill up my personal "COMFORT" mug, and nestle beneath the fuzzy blanket with our smallest furry dog. Surveying the situation, my eyes pick up the mounds of "mess" strewn [...]
Good morning... I love that God has given me meaningful moments with my soul friend this week. After church. During a quick visit in our home. We shared brief time, hugging, expressing, processing. With her 37-year-old daughter-in-law boldly battling colon cancer, my friend said, "I believe God needs Elizabeth on this earth. I have to keep hoping for [...]
Good morning... "I'm feeling very stretched," a friend texted me yesterday. I could relate. I could totally relate. In a weird way this mid-December week reminds me of the Christmastime I was nearly nine months pregnant. Then and now I feel stretched beyond my comfortable capacity, like I want to jump out of my bursting skin! Romans 8:22-25 [...]
Good morning... Elizabeth, our friend's daughter-in-law who is battling colon cancer at age thirty-seven, writes an honest, faith-filled blog. I am grateful to regularly receive her inspiring messages. This week she wrote about the joy amid her swirling river of sorrows. ****** PostHope blog from December 3rd I had the joy and privilege to hear Sandra McCracken in [...]
Good morning... I love this Halloween photo of our nephew and his expectant wife. On the morning after Thanksgiving, many of us wake stuffed. "Today's average American lives more comfortably than the nineteenth century's wealthiest tycoons, who never beheld the sky from an airplane seat, browsed a website, heated soup in a microwave, or looked at a color [...]
Good morning... "The whole person is involved when we give thanks from our hearts," says Br. David Steindl-Rast. As I wake early this Thanksgiving morn, my heart is saturated with gratitude. I am grateful for small, simple pleasures - a furry blanket and cozy socks that hug my feet just right. I am grateful for my husband and [...]
Good morning... Our Friday group finished the fall semester last week, yet we have remained connected through a lively email string. Regularly we share words of encouragement as we pray for Elizabeth, the 37-year-old daughter-in-law of our classmate, who began her first round of chemo on Monday for advanced colon cancer. "I want to tell you all how [...]
Good morning... When I walk and talk with one dear friend, she often notices stray worms inching aimlessly across the surface of the sidewalk. Gently, consistently she picks up every lost worm she sees, placing each in the familiarity of the soil beneath the soft green grass. "I know you love caring for stray worms," I wrote her [...]
