Good morning... Re-editing our post from a few days ago, I stick in a strange new word that somehow feels right. Viscerally. I am drawn to add viscerally (touch "Previous. Previous." above to revisit this message). The sentence now reads: "My gut viscerally felt like the knotted debris still littering the roads after Hurricane Michael." I google this foreign-to-me [...]
Good morning... Still. Still. Still. It is the day after our Savior's birth. As dawn breaks again into our darkness, how are we to be guided by God's inextinguishable Light? This morning, I am drawn back into the pages of my friend Lisa's book to discern the practical nature of the Light piercing the extreme darkness caused by [...]
Good morning... "God has shown me that the light within me cannot be extinguished," wrote our friend Mary as she grieves the loss of her son, "but there are times when it will be faint, and other times when it will burn bright. The Holy Spirit, the light, is always there within! He shows me that there is [...]
Good morning... "I must admit that I am THANKFUL to have another Thanksgiving behind me," a subscriber from Charlotte, N.C. writes as she grieves the loss of her young adult son. "Yesterday was tough, and also were the days leading up to it. The anticipation alone puts me in a state of angst, frustration, sadness and anger, all [...]
Good morning... At ages eight and eighty-one, my mom and dad diligently dismantled their home this fall to leave Berea, Ohio on November 1st. Having thrived in our hometown for fifty-something years, this morning they wake up in an unfamiliar two bedroom, two bath villa about twenty-five minutes away. I sensed the imminent move last spring when my [...]
Good morning... On this week when eleven innocent people were gunned down in a Jewish synagogue, how did God know that our class would read aloud these touching words, revealing our immense capacity to forgive? ****** Excerpt from Paula D'Arcy's Seeking With All My Heart While living in Boston, I studied the Old Testament with a gifted rabbi [...]
Good morning... "...you answered my prayer when I shouted for help," said Psalm 31:22 as yesterday's post ended. Soon after I re-read these words written by Paula D'Arcy. ****** Excerpt from Seeking God With All My Heart The unexpected gift of my work in prisons has been occasional moments of unequalled poignancy. Once, following a general evening talk, a [...]
Good morning... "Two weeks after our wedding in 1989, we lost our home in Hurricane Hugo," she softly shared with our Monday class. "As a whole community we were in shock, we bonded so deeply, we rallied together. God was so present, in amazing ways. Suffering together through Post Traumatic Stress (PTSD), we pushed through our fears to [...]
Good morning... She walked into our foyer on the first day of class and, after sharing an "I missed you" hug, she pulled from her purse a bulletin from her eighteen year old niece's memorial service. I marveled at pictures of the same smiling face growing up through the years, a down-to-earth face I will not meet until [...]
Good morning... After reading our post Our Community Of Trees, a grieving mom wrote me: "I definitely feel like a small hurting tree stump in a community of giant, strong, loving redwood trees that have sent their nurturing root systems to help me regain strength and bloom again. What a powerful metaphor to draw strength from on the hard [...]
