Good morning... Last week, she shared the tumultuous story of her own grief. "I think I shared this after my Dad passed away last year," she wrote. "It was two days after Dad had passed, and I was managing very difficult family dynamics with my siblings and a painful dementia diagnosis for my mom. I was exhausted and [...]
Good morning... We blink our eyes awake on a very significant day in American history. We celebrate the day the Declaration of Independence was adopted (July 4, 1776) and the United States officially became its own nation. Today is flag. Family. Friends. Freedom. Fireworks. Fashioning with God a fabulous future. The Eternal’s purposes will last to the end [...]
Good morning... "Hope you are having a good summer," she wrote. "When I read this, I thought of you. It reads like words you would write." What a kind compliment. ******* a blessing for when gratitude is hard to come by, June 16th devotional by Kate Bowler I have a complicated relationship with gratitude. Gratitude, on one hand, [...]
Good morning... Every single morning, the power of the living Christ rises like the sun. Do we sense it? Do we trust it? Do we notice God's quiet, reliable movement? Our only task is to stay plugged into the Source of eternal power. My friends, this single act, this [...]
Good morning... Our deepest hope is Galatians 2:20, quoted here in the New Living Translation. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. The [...]
Good morning... Christmas is big. The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us (John 1:14a, GNT). Easter is huge. We believe that Jesus died and then came to life again (1 Thessalonians 4:14a, NLV). Pentecost is powerful. And they were all filled [that is, diffused throughout their being] with the Holy [...]
Good morning... Look. A little light shines in the dark of this night. Just enough light sets a single blanket aglow, on the back of a chair beams one simple throw. How this happens, God, I don't know. I don't know, but I do notice. After snapping the photo of this perfect patch of light, I open an [...]
Good morning... I wake in the middle of this night with one word on my mind: retreat. As I am drawn to explore the word on Dictionary.com, I notice that, as a noun, retreat means "a place of refuge, seclusion, privacy." I see that as a verb, retreat means "the act of withdrawing, as into safety, privacy, seclusion." [...]
Good morning... What we actually know is such a tiny sliver. What we know we don't know is also quite small. The biggest portion of our hidden, inner world is what we don't know we don't know. Knowledge and mystery lie beyond like beacons of light magnetically drawing us. This slide, used by Michael Begeman in a recent [...]
Good morning... "Do you know what you will write about each night when you wake?" she asked. "No, I really don't," I said. "I just trust the Spirit to illuminate something I need to ponder." The winds of inspiration pick up as I take our little dog out to relieve herself. Walking back inside, I see a white [...]
