Good morning... I snapped a photo of these handwritten words from inside my friend's birthday card. "God will take you where you haven't intended to go in order to produce in you what you could not achieve on your own. It's uncomfortable, but it's GRACE." Then, she read to us wisdom from a devotional book she loves. ***** [...]
Good morning... Supporting the preaching series of our senior pastor, I crafted a devotional message to be sent to our Northside Church family today. As we fall on our face into God's grace, what might we learn? ******* In Dr. Bill’s summertime series, Rated M for Mature, we find our way to the most life-altering chapter of all. [...]
Good morning... "When life feels crooked, I guess there is strength in leaning into old habits," I texted my friend. "Lifting prayers in the Northside Church prayer chapel, a thin space connecting earth and heaven. Sending you divine love to bridge every gap." I lit a single candle, praying for those who are grieving, those who are scared, [...]
Good morning... There are lots of quirky artists. Grant Snider's work, as creator of Incidental Comics, feels absolutely fabulous to me. As a person who examines myself incessantly, I love the shift Grant captures on a moonless night. The heavens tell about the glory of God. The skies announce what his hands have made. Each new day tells [...]
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 [...]
