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 [...]
Good morning... In much of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, the enormity and regularity of God's rhythms, set in motion before the beginning of time, will be on full display today, April 8th, 2024. Now up in the middle of the night, I prayerfully research and happily discover. Wikipedia tells us that "a solar eclipse occurs when the [...]
Good morning... I brought two good friends with me to the Maundy Thursday service at Northside Church yesterday. After reading about Jesus serving his first communion at the Last Supper (Luke 22:14-23) and his painful struggle to surrender to the will of God in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-53), we were all invited to kneel at the [...]
Good morning... In the place where the full moon exists, I see only layers of clouds. Anticipating fullness of light, this night feels anticlimactic, a drooping disappointing. The soupy, grey sky mirrors our hearts as our hopes for a permanent solution, for lasting relief, for fullness of life feel clouded over. Prayers fall limp. High hopes feel dashed. [...]
Good morning... The waxing moon, three nights before full, casts a funky design on our bathroom floor, and moonlight paints cool shadows all over our living room walls. Beckoned barefoot out into the mild night, I marvel at the dark branches stretching toward the light of the moon. [...]
