Good morning... We began this semester studying one book, Wintering by Katharine May. To our surprise, we will end this semester studying a second book, Parker Palmer's new 25th anniversary edition of Let Your Life Speak. We did not plan this expansion into more, but the seamlessness of these oddly orange book covers, set side by side, offers [...]
Good morning... On Sunday in worship, the musicians sang a song I had never heard. I went home, and I researched the gift. Humble Jesus by Audrey Assad speaks the truth we all need to hear on this dark Ash Wednesday morn. ****** [Verse 1] Humble and human, willing to bend You are Fashioned of flesh and the [...]
Good morning... I met a poem this weekend that whispered to me about the consistency of life, year by year by year. Our high hopes are laid to rest in the soil of our common ground, and the low lows are lifted up as fodder for our creative connection. ****** "This was the year that was not the [...]
Good morning... In a constant state of amazing love, the vulnerable baby Jesus was born to be beside us. God, in human skin, was born to be beside us as we journey throughout this treacherous life. On Christmas Eve at Northside Church, as I served during the final two worship services, I was asked personally to pray for [...]
Good morning... As I nested in the rainy darkness following the Cold Moon's first waning moments, I received the surprise of four photos within a few early hours. First came a photo from Norway. "The full moon over our house this morning, 8AM," wrote my lifelong friend. Wow. Oh wow. Then [...]
Good morning... A dear friend regularly reminds me when the full moon is about to burst on our scene. I got this month's text about the December 4th moon when I was up in the middle of last night, writing our blog about resting while God works. "Thanks for the full moon update," I replied. "God is already [...]
Good morning... As we begin this Thanksgiving week, there are places to be and people to see, with a huge list of to-do's to accomplish. Check. Check. Check. We embody the common phrase, "Don't just stand there. Do something." Yet I am drawn to live this week differently. I return to one sentence from our book for this [...]
Good morning... As the light of tonight's full moon peeks through our window, the hopes for our first grandbaby grow big in my heart. On Saturday, our whole immediate family gathered to learn the gender of this precious new family member, who is due on May 15th, our daughter-in-law's birthday. With our eyes closed shut, an Henri's cookie [...]
Good morning... We are all designed to live each day from "...the place where our lives touch and mingle with God's. A shared space, a center," writes Sue Monk Kidd on page 61 in God's Joyful Surprise. This crucial concept expands all over these holy pages. "A center is not simply an inner place where you are in [...]
Good morning... Yesterday, in the middle of the night, I felt drawn to write about the metamorphosis of a butterfly. Then by midday, I read for the first time the following words in our assigned book chapters for this week. ****** Excerpt from God's Joyful Surprise by Sue Monk Kidd Not long ago my daughter received a butterfly [...]
