Good morning... I am experiencing my once-in-a-lifetime "golden" birthday. I was born in 1963, and I turn 63 today! A longtime friend came up with a fabulous way to celebrate. Jeannine Rollins, a beloved Northside Church member, wrote me after recent a blog post, Kindness Is A Ripple. At the end of our post, we watched a short [...]
Good morning... In class yesterday, we continued to unpack the concept of kindness, one of the fruits of God's Spirit alive in our hearts. We agreed, in the face of so much worldly unrest - polarization, violence, despair - there is one thing we all can do, each moment of every day. We can take a deep breath [...]
Good morning... With so much strife and pain around, one of our superpowers is kindness. A small, kind act can ripple out to share the love of God. ...the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we [...]
Good morning... Yesterday, as I drove to the vet with our six month old puppy, a tiny dream of mine died. Honestly, I have always wondered if I would whelp at least one litter of puppies in my lifetime. In awe of the cyclical nature of life, I have thought that helping my dog to give birth to [...]
Good morning... Before the winter storm blasted much of our country this weekend, I received the above image from Wisconsin. Inside, 60 degrees. Outside, negative 30, and that's without windchill! "What does negative 30 actually feel like?" I wondered. Then the winter weather arrived, and images came blowing in from family and friends. A shiny hard layer of [...]
Good morning... Happy New Year! There is no better way to recognize new phases of growth than to remember where we were while celebrating where we are. Two photos, set side by side, tell the story of natural, unstoppable growth. One is from October; the other was taken last night just after the ball dropped in Time Square. [...]
Good morning... As this fall semester comes to an end before our winter/spring semester begins, it dawns on me that I have been blogging most days since the fall of 2015. Ten years of waking in the wee hours, opening up two-way-street veins of private prayer, seeking to discern the presence, the patterns, the power of our living [...]
Good morning... Yesterday's blog post included one of my favorite Bible verses. Before leaving earth for heaven, Jesus told his followers, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8, NIV). I [...]
Good morning... This week we received handwritten envelops, one for Steve and me as well as one addressed personally to each of our four kids and our daughter-in-law. At ages 88 and 87, my parents are still sending out Christmas cards. Pretty amazing, right? I took this photo as I visited with them in Ohio earlier this month. [...]
Good morning... Last night was the final New Moon of the year. Dark. Dark. Dark. For three straight nights we experience great darkness. Tomorrow night is the winter solstice, marking the exact moment when half of Earth is tilted the farthest away from the sun. This God-ordered, natural phenomenon creates the shortest day, the day with the least [...]
