Good morning... "Loving your offerings!" wrote an old friend after yesterday's post Our Little Oil Lamp. "We are in Jerusalem and heading to the Old Jerusalem shortly. I have seen replicas of these little oil lamps and it makes me smile to read your morning sharing!" Soon after came the voice of another friend over the phone. "The [...]
Good morning... Monday morning's drizzle drenched our outdoor furniture, so our afternoon class was drawn inside. Our intimate circle of women savored a life-giving conversation, reading these words aloud from page 43 of Simple Faith by Margaret Silf. ****** Turning Contemplation into Action I have a little oil lamp that a friend gave me, and it's a constant [...]
Happy Halloween! "Everyone must decide," said Martin Luther King Jr., "whether to walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness." "To be a person of faith is to make a choice to center one's life around the deeper center of gravity we call God, and the greater good of all creation, rather [...]
Good morning... This week a song is gently marching through my mind. God personalizes the chorus. "I will send out an army to find you in the middle of the darkest night. Sue, it's true, I will rescue you." Lauren Daigle's voice repeats over and over again. As I rest. As I wake. As I drive. As I [...]
Good morning... After a fun filled weekend, God just woke me from sleep around 1:00 am, nudging me to read two emails which waited patiently in my inbox. "As you know we are studying Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer," wrote a loyal leader of our Banquet Bible study, the longest running study at Northside Church, [...]
Good morning... Queen Elizabeth II. Hurricane Fiona victims. Ukrainians and Russians killed in senseless war. Floods in central Italy. An earthquake in Taiwan. Wildfires blaze wildly out west. Gun violence steals lives across our nation. So many friends have recently lost loved ones to disease, to cancer, to addiction, to suicide, to overpowering riptide currents. It seems that [...]
Good morning... "Sunset tonight as raindrops are falling on the lake," she texted on Sunday night from the coast of Oregon. "Sabbath blessings indeed!" "And then this happened," she witnessed God's WOW. "Power belongs to you, God, and with you, Lord, is unfailing love" (Psalm 62:11b-12:a, NIV). Such full bodied transformation reminds me of a quote [...]
Good morning... Tonight's full moon lights the dignity of the dying roses centered on our kitchen table. I sift through yesterday's ashes to give breath to eternal embers. First my waking heart wrote these words on my blank journal page. Is it enough to root and bloom, to thrive and share love, to live daily life the best [...]
Good morning... "Campfire..." one reader began her follow up email. "A theme used to celebrate the life of my Tia Sue. She was my dad's sister, who I was very close to. I may be going in a different direction with the campfire idea, but the poem really spoke to me, which is why I shared your recent [...]
Good morning... "I woke with a strong prayer this morning," she texted first thing yesterday. "I'm praying to remember that each of my to-do/to-serve opportunities is a pure gift. God offers me a partnership in God's work. It is only 'too much' if my ego and my eagerness to do it all perfectly and efficiently take over. And [...]
