Good morning... I noticed Easter power rising in me twelve hours early. Let me explain just what I mean. At noon on Saturday, I sat on our couch folding load after load of warm, clean laundry. I had enjoyed a conversation with each of our two college-aged daughters home for the holiday weekend and our seventeen-year-old son who [...]
Good morning... This sacred Saturday, we are called to remember, piecing together, mentally re-membering the painstaking process that crucified our Lord. Here is a song to help you remember, piecing together, re-membering in your mind God's ultimate gift of sacrificial love. Let's take ourselves back with a touching rendition of Were you there? Late in the afternoon a wealthy man [...]
Good morning... As a church staff, we sprinkled ourselves into the pews of our wide-open sanctuary to commemorate Maundy-Thursday together. Music. Prayers. Scriptures. Sermon. Communion. We experienced the memory of Jesus' final moments wrapped in the flesh of a man. With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from [...]
Good morning... This Maundy-Thursday morning, we meditate on the gentle gifts given by our Lord. "Meditation is like taking a little time to sit on a park bench," writes my friend, 93-year-old Christian mystic, Betty Skinner, "touching your old Friend's hand, feeling the warm sunshine together, gazing at the new blooms that have unfolded overnight, listening for what [...]
Good morning... "I absolutely love the checkmark visual," one subscriber wrote after Saturday morning's post. "The word descent makes me think of falling completely in love and being totally dependent on God at happy times - my wedding and the birth of our children - in addition to the really difficult seasons." She's right. Painful life seasons (the [...]
Happy Palm Sunday... This week we commemorate the biggest checkmark of all time. Beginning today, the Christian church around the globe follows Jesus' descent into the depth of God's love for all of us before ascending to fullness of life we never thought possible. "Jesus’s real purpose in this sacrifice was to wager his own life against his [...]
Good morning... Life-changing experiences shape us into our best selves, one checkmark after another. Let me tell you what I mean. We all know what a checkmark looks like, right? A descending line. Touching down to a bottom base before changing the trajectory of motion. The uptick of an ascending line growing to a higher level than ever [...]
Good morning... I have been awake in the dark for hours now. Praying. Journaling. Pondering on a blank page, "LORD, what do You want to say through me today?" Sitting still in this question, jotting one dead-end idea after another, I have watched a multitude of minutes tick off our wall clock. "This is where so many holy [...]
Good morning... Whatever life phase surrounds us right now, this day and each day is distilled down to two simple tasks. Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well [...]
Good morning... "I love love love today’s reading!" she wrote after yesterday's post. "My Mom was named Rosemary and we lost her in Jan 2018. At her service we wore sprigs of Rosemary on our dresses/shirts! I guess my Aunt knew the significance as I did not. Just this last March we took her ashes to Wilmington NC [...]
