Good morning... The faith of our children takes form in many shapes and sizes, with varying shades and angles. I was reminded of this truth during yesterday's 11:15 am worship service at Northside Church. There was the Children's Handbell Choir, the young Cherub Choir, and the older Chancel Choir with each unique youngster making a joyful noise to [...]
Good morning... Last weekend, I flew into Boston with our two daughters, Tessa (29) and Adrianna (27). After a delicious lunch and a walk along the harbor, we drove our rental car four hours up the coast to Rockport, Maine. Traffic. Tolls. Cool roadtrip music. Crisp autumn weather. Good conversation. A brand new adventure. [...]
Good morning... Following the past two posts about the DeShelters missing their daughter Audrey, who went to heaven ten hours before her twentieth birthday, a friend from Florida emailed me. "Good morning Sue," she wrote. "I cannot imagine what Jennifer and Ben are facing as parents. Blessedly God surrounds us with angels here on earth to comfort and [...]
Good morning... On September 1st, Jennifer DeShetler posted the tribute above to her daughter, Audrey. I zoomed in close and read the plaque resting in the right front corner of the photo. "She is a mountain moving, giant slaying, world changing warrior. She walks with Jesus. That is her game changing strategy." What a perfect description of audacious [...]
Good morning... As the moon thickens above our home, I think back on our sacred weekend at the Ignatius House Retreat Center. Abiding in the quietness of now, I pull out my hand-scribbled notes. I return to the first quote shared on Friday night, the first teaching, the first song. "I remind myself that we are never promised [...]
Good morning... As the sun sets on summer, every August I am given the opportunity to speak in all three worship services at Northside Church. Northside is a welcoming place, offering two traditional services at 8:30 and 11:15 am and a contemporary service at 9:00 am, with a designated Sunday school hour for adults and for kids at [...]
Good morning... One of the women in our Thursday morning class recently had major surgery on her spine. She wrote us in early August: "Good Morning sweet Group! I cannot thank you enough for all the encouragement and prayer power that you have sent my way during this recovery period. I want to extend an invitation for a [...]
Good morning... Sharing how she felt about her recent break up after six years of dating, our daughter began reading aloud a quote she had just posted. "Give it everything you've got, then let go. Show up fully. Take the risk. Have the hard conversation..." her voice trailed off into tears. "You read it," she said. So I [...]
Good morning... Tonight at 8:00 pm on CNN, Ben Sasse and his wife will be interviewed about their experience of facing his death from stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The articulate, well-respected former senator is using his final months on earth to talk about family, faith, and living life fully. Enjoy life with your dearly loved spouse all the [...]
Good morning... "These words from Frederick Buechner captured me this morning…enjoy!" said the text from my friend. ****** Grace AFTER CENTURIES of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody's much interested anymore. Not so with grace, for some reason. Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left. Grace [...]
