Good morning... Yesterday's post by the Henri Nouwen Society explains the process of shedding our old self to gradually mature into our God-designed true self, "growing up in all things" into Christ, our Head (Ephesians 4:15). I wonder if somehow this is what happened to me when I moved from the close-knit cocoon of loving and being loved [...]
Good morning... From a retrospective distance, moving from life phase to life phase may seem seamless, but in the middle of leaving behind "what was" while waiting precariously for "what will be," we often struggle to be satisfied with the scraps of "what is." As I have shared with you before, I hit my deepest time of depression [...]
Good morning... I love the tense of the verb in Revelation 21:5a (NIV). “I am making everything new!” "I am making everything new," says the Sustainer of life. Not I will make everything new. Or I was going to make everything new, but I changed My mind when I saw humanity's mess. When we savor Sabbath, stopping and resting, [...]
Good morning... Today is a new day. The sins of yesterday need not expand into the sins of today. Ugly thoughts. Biting words. Selfish deeds. Together with God, we can nip these painful buds right off our branch, letting them fall to the ground, to become humbling hummus for the soil beneath our feet. As we allow our [...]
Good morning... On Saturday, August 4th, 2018, three of us hiked quietly through a mountainous forest near Cashiers, North Carolina. We came upon an interesting plaque beside a fallen tree. "Competition is fierce in nature," read the engraved words, "even among the beautiful trees, shrubs, and herbs in the forest. Sunlight, water, and nutrients are quietly 'fought over' by [...]
Good morning... Since I began blogging daily in January of 2012, there have been a large handful of posts I will always remember. Posts I love. Posts teaching timeless truths. Posts continuing to shape me, even to this day. The wildfires in California now spark in my mind one of my favorite posts of all time, written in 2014. [...]
Good morning... We sat in a small, sacred circle, ranging from one-hundred-and-one years old, through ninety-eighty-seventy-somethings, to fifty-five year old me. Our soulful speaker, a dear friend of mine, read aloud wisdom from Richard Rohr: "Poetry gives you resonance more than logical proof, and resonance is much more healing and integrating." He continued reading Rohr in his slow, [...]
Good morning... Gravity says, "What goes up, must come down." Planted bulbs promises, "What goes down must come up." A wise father encourages, "Plant rapid-rising radishes with your slow-growing carrots so, seeing green growth, you will not give up hope." And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will [...]
Good morning... Okay, I just have to tell you a really embarrassing story. One summer day, I parked our van in the garage like normal, like I do every day. As I walked around the back bumper into our house, I noticed a plastic box hanging on the garage wall. "Huh," I thought, "I've never seen that before." [...]
Good morning... The first Adam paved a wide path to sin and separation from God. Our human feet just naturally followed. When the moment was right, Jesus Christ, the second Adam, zipped up a suit of skin and came down from heaven to walk with us on earth, blazing a new path for us to return home to God. [...]
