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 [...]
Good morning... Many of us could relate to yesterday's post, I've Broken A Lot. We are all gloriously, terribly broken, and oh, it's so beautiful to see it, the love in everything. "We are all so blessed that God doesn’t leave us in our broken state🙏🏻♥️," quickly came the first response. A few minutes later, another reader wrote: [...]
Good morning... These glass bottles line one window sill in our living room. They serve as a reminder of God's repeating process of growth, change, regeneration. The egg of our potential exists. Then, unexpectedly, things fall apart. We sit still in the sticky mess, empty, empty, empty. Over time, the seed of new life begins to form, "Amazing [...]
Good morning... I did stuff I shouldn't have done. I didn't do everything I should have. I'm up tonight, obsessing about "things I've done and things I've left undone." This phrase - "things I've done and things I've left undone" - this phrase shaped my mind as a child as, by rote, I recited it each Sunday as [...]
Good morning... "I want to share this tune written by my nephew, which was released yesterday," a friend wrote on Saturday. "He's a father of three neat kids (15, 17, 20) and recently divorced. He's reflecting on his hope that his kids know that the time they spend together outweighs any of the mundane daily 'stuff.' Definitely comes [...]
Good morning... For many of us the Thanksgiving holiday involves people, lots of imperfect people. Well-meaning and flawed, imperfection is baked into our human nature. To prepare myself for the stretching hours ahead, I return now to wisdom found on page 184 in The Great Spiritual Migration by Brian McLaren. [...]
Good morning... Taking our dogs outside in the middle of this night, all is calm, all is dark. Instinctively, I turn toward the south and lift prayers for the lives being ravaged in Florida by the drenching winds and the storm surge of Hurricane Milton. Prayer. What does prayer do at a time like this? I lift prayers [...]
