Good morning... I received a surprise email from one of the directors from my two year spiritual direction training program. From Cleveland, Ohio she wrote: "Hoping the event goes well for Same Kind of Different as Me. I am asking God to bless your effort to reach out to others about with the message of this story. I am [...]
Good Morning... “God designed a world where we all live ‘within’ our selves; that is, we inhabit our own souls, and we are responsible for the things that make up ‘us,’” say the authors of our Boundaries book on page 32. “The heart knows its own bitterness and no one shares its joy (Proverbs 14:10). We have to deal [...]
Good morning… As I prepare for this month's Listening Group, I read again Jesus' ultimate show of powerful love before he begins his walk to the cross. We pick up the story in John 13:1-17 in the Contemporary English Version. It was before Passover, and Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and [...]
Good morning... Accepting my son's invitation from yesterday morning, I have prayerfully pondered my final tweet. Even though I have never tweeted before in my life, if given 140 characters, I might send this final tweet to the world. God made us unique, loves us just as we are. Jesus died for each sin, frees, leads, heals whole. Spirit [...]
Good morning... A few days back, a sobering announcement came into my blog email. It took away my breath and brought me to tears. Your list has lost a subscriber: Julie Harlan. I thought to myself, "What an understatement. We have lost much more than a subscriber." Julie was a devoted wife and mother, a beloved daughter and friend, [...]
Good morning... In a memorable service, we honored his life. A father and a grandfather. A coach and a mentor. A friend and a legend. His full-bodied life we honored wholeheartedly. At the reception afterward, I quietly browsed the table of memorabilia. Awards and pictures. Boyhood smile to doting dad to grinning grandad. Snapshot after snapshot captured his unique [...]
Good morning... "I always stand in awe of how my morning readings are woven together," she wrote as she shared with me Richard Rohr's meditation from yesterday morning. That very same day, God had been schooling me in this truth: "Comparison kills. Conversation brings life." Our heart raises the white flag of surrender as we exchange our will for [...]
Good morning... As she and I talked after yesterday's class, God's Spirit revealed wisdom: "Comparison kills. Conversation brings life." When we catch ourselves comparing, beating ourselves up for not being "good enough" or seeing ourselves as "superior somehow" to someone else, might our brain tell our heart to raise a white flag of surrender? In times of combat, the [...]
Good morning... I enjoy periodic movie nights with my close friend. Last month we saw Manchester by the Sea and last night we experienced Moonlight. Both movies are heavy and heartbreaking, painful and poignant, raw and redemptive. After each movie, my friend and I talked for hours, untangling jumbled thoughts, expressing myriad emotions, connecting insightful dots. "The purpose of [...]
Good morning... On our return flight, I could not wait to get home, to walk through our front door, and to be smothered by the whole-bodied affection of our two dogs. Unbridled excitement. Unfettered joy. Undeniable love. Yesterday afternoon in our Listening Group, one of the women shared her deep emotions about recently putting their 15.5 year old dog [...]
