Good morning... "The post is beautiful - just beautiful," my dear friend wrote after yesterday's message, When Our Strength Runs Out. "Seeing his obit in the paper this morning made it so real." She shared a red broken heart emoji. "It's a beautiful obituary," I texted back. "Simple. Straightforward. In keeping with his strong, loyal presence." My friend [...]
Good morning... My dear friend's husband died on Sunday night after a long, excruciating battle with a rare disease. He was just sixty-four years old. I am grateful this friend turned me onto the brilliant work of author Kate Bowler. It gives me great comfort knowing we both savored this holy blessing as we woke yesterday. ****** A [...]
Good morning... This week I learned a fascinating fact. The biggest booster of dopamine, our brain’s feel-good neurotransmitter, is community. Life-giving relationships boost our spirits more than a brisk walk, a great meal or an awesome glass of wine! No wonder we can’t wait to return to our weekly classes offered through Northside Church. Every semester, I am [...]
Good morning... For the first time since the pandemic began, four out of five of us caught up face to face. Having met many years ago in our living room during a Friday morning Bible study, we call ourselves the "Fab Five friends." Constantly connected, we love supporting our friend whose daughter, Audrey, has been fighting cancer off [...]
Good morning... As our son and a full row of twenty-year-old friends watched their classmates paying tribute at their best friend's funeral, I wondered to myself, "Lord, in what ways is your Spirit sinking into their hearts? How are you helping these young adults to process this unexpected loss? Somehow, some way, is your comforting presence becoming more [...]
Good morning... "God is protecting you in the midst of his presence," says the tender image above, an image I reworked into yesterday's post. Then I received a text from a friend who is going through a very challenging time. We planned a spontaneous walk and talk to the nearby horse farm, meeting up at the stop sign [...]
Good morning... "Hi there," yesterday I texted a dear friend I have enjoyed quality time with for nearly thirty years. "I have our birthday season lunch on my calendar. What time do you want to meet at our special spot?" "Argh," she replied immediately, "was just going to write you. Spent five hours in Kaiser Urgent Care yesterday. [...]
Good morning... I have continued to think about a random quote shared in our supervision group last week. "There are a lot of people who work for God and very few who actually work with God." Changing just one word makes all the difference. What might it mean for us to work with God rather than working for [...]
Good morning... One week ago I rested like a fly on the wall in the foyer of KIPP Woodson Park Academy, waiting for the staff from PAWkids to arrive. As I sat quietly in a light filled corner, I texted myself snippets of conversations I overheard. "He's on the run," a teacher told a grandmother who had been [...]
Good morning... In our post We Need Friends, I shared about our grieving friend who lost her first grandchild to a miscarriage. "Oh my!" one reader wrote from South Carolina. "God is surely speaking in stereo AGAIN. My heart hurt and my eyes pricked with tears this morning when I read about your class participant’s loss. In 2012 [...]
