Good morning... After yesterday's post, Okay And Not Okay, she texted right away. "I don't know if Jelly Roll meant this to be a song about faith," she said, "but that's how I hear it." Coincidentally, just the night before on the American Idol show, Jelly Roll was announced as the celebrity coach who will help the contestants [...]
Good morning... As I walked our dogs before bedtime last night, I marveled at the full moon. Then I went to sleep and I woke again, stepping outside at 12:55 am, expecting to see the highly touted "blood moon." Instead of the gorgeous reddish hue predicted, as the Earth eclipsed the moon, my [...]
Good morning... I am touched by the final line in a poem I met yesterday. uncertain wind stirring the leaves: this is the world we have: take it - A. R. Ammons I think to myself, "Would I take another wind if it was more certain, more predictable, more limited to my control? Would I want a God [...]
Good morning... After our post Pause. Breathe. Expand., a longtime friend texted: "I saw this last night and thought it coincided with your post this morning. This is more academic, but we need to allow the Holy Spirit into our Learning Spaces too." How wonderfully wired by God we are! We are drawn regularly into the fertile, frustrating [...]
Good morning... Last Sunday, our class discussed Man's Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl. On Monday, I blogged about the beloved book in our morning message, We Suffer and Survive. On Tuesday, I got two emails, back to back, highlighting Frankl's wisdom again, encouraging us to Savor Life's Soup from the bottom of our soul. Then, on Wednesday [...]
Happy Valentine's Day... We all love love, but love is messy. In a week that began with our niece going into early labor, from childbirth on life is filled with messy moments. In the after-school enrichment program at PAWkids, the kids collaged their response to the question, "What does love feel like to you?" We also made spin-art [...]
Good morning... Up in the middle of the night, I research Kate Bowler's new book, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Let's unpack three of the book quotes I love most. “Blessed am I when I strip away all the extra. When I see the world as it really is—broken, tender, fragile, beautiful. These are [...]
Good morning... I was thinking about all of those who have lost loved ones this holiday season. Husbands. Wives. Sons. Daughters. Siblings. Parents. Friends. One person told me, "It feels like whiplash. I was expecting a joyful Christmas, and we had a funeral instead." Then I opened an email that supported my prayerful pondering. "I came across this [...]
Good morning... Her text came in after I had climbed in bed last night. Now I wake in the middle of the night to read her words. "Happy New Year, Sue!" she wrote. "It has been a whirlwind with joys and sorrows, once again, at the same time. We are blessed with so many loving family members. The [...]
Good morning... In retrospect, we learned a terrible truth. Around 3:15 am on New Year's Day, a terrorist mowed down innocent people with a speeding pick-up truck in the celebratory streets of New Orleans. At the very same time, I was up writing yesterday's blog post, Practice Falling In Love. I was guided by the Spirit to share [...]
