Good morning... As you can imagine, after our past two posts which wrestle with "the will of God," I have received many heartfelt emails from fellow followers of Christ trying to explain the philosophy of life stabilizing us during tumultuous times, like an anchor steadies a ship. I will share a heavy handful of our treasured thoughts. "These [...]
Good morning... "Would you like me to seat you inside or out on the veranda?" asked the hostess. "I would love to sit on the veranda," my spirit leapt. As I enjoyed a quiet meal to myself, I thought about the word "veranda." By definition, it is a large, open porch, usually roofed and partly enclosed. Rarely stumbled [...]
Good morning... "This is not God's will," the minister said at the celebration of Eliza's vivacious, twenty-eight year old life. "This is outside the will of God, but not outside the love of God," he tried to explain the deep mystery of grief. But I had just written in our blog post, "I entrust Eliza’s life to God’s [...]
Good morning... Walking our dog, I noticed a dead cardinal in the grass beside the sidewalk. Such a gorgeous bird. Brilliant red. Lying motionless. Dropping our dog back at home, I picked up a dust pan, hopped in the car and returned to the bird. Scooping this beauty into the dust pan with a stick, [...]
Good morning... I wake early with a song on my heart. Hearing it on the radio one day this week, I thought, "I should check out that music video." Then I promptly forgot to follow through on the nudge. Right now, the Holy Spirit reminds me again of my earlier urge, so I search for and savor the [...]
Good morning... "How has your day been?" she texted me on Saturday. "Special. Really special," I replied. "I spent the day copying notes from the final prayer journals of my friend Julie Harlan. I enjoy learning the deep roots beneath Julie's Dream, the non-profit started in her honor. She is all about authentic relationship, about getting kids outside [...]
Good morning... "I love love love this photo and the joy and peace it pours into the dreams gestating in our hearts," I texted the artist, my dear friend Corinne Adams. "I am spending the morning meandering through Julie Harlan's prayer journals, discerning in more detail the root system beneath Julie's Dream." "It's a dream scape, indeed," Corinne [...]
Good morning... Above the upside down photo dumping out all of my dreams hangs a Corinne Adams original. For Corinne, for you and for me, God is the ultimate Dream-giver. The LORD's higher, healing ways generously overflow into our ordinary lives. This is how the Bible explains God's life-giving process. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, [...]
Good morning... Shared in a recent blog post, many of you love this Goodwill photo I decided to hang upside down on our wall. Symbolically, I thought I had emptied out every dream from this photo - dreams for the hungry children we have met on mission trips over the years, dreams for our four kids, our kids' [...]
Good morning... I will remember last night's gorgeous wedding because of the white umbrellas passed out in the rain, my husband's heartfelt message to the bride and groom, a chance to talk and dance with incredible people, and the reading of a Mark Twain poem I had never heard before. A marriage makes of two fractional lives a [...]
