Good morning... Like light seeping into the chilly winter dark, God finds a way to find us where we are. "Sue," a friend wrote, "I too have been drawn to Bonhoeffer in the last week. His little book, God Is In the Manger, has some of his Christmas sermons." Then she shared a portion of Bonheoffer’s Christmas letter [...]
Good morning... Yesterday my friend and I went to see the movie Bonhoeffer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, a theologian, and an anti-Nazi dissident who was executed by the Nazis in 1945 just two weeks before the war ended. Chronicled in his many books and expressed in his heroic actions, Bonhoeffer's life of faith was extraordinary. [...]
Good morning... Hurricane hell. Deep depression. Open heart surgery. Harsh cancer treatment. War and terror. Division, divorce, and death. Darkness seems to seep into every crevice of our wounding world. "The power of God's promise stunned me so much that I actually gasped out loud," writes Kay Warren on page 105 of Choose Joy. I will give you [...]
Good morning... I have been emailing back and forth with my special friend, Gina Macfarland, who lives in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Yesterday, she sent me a very real, very touching documentary created to shed light on the vulnerable human experience in the wake of Hurricane Helene. "In all the heaviness, almost every time there is an equal [...]
Good morning... Tonight the nearly full moon lit up the room, beaconing me outside. Barefoot I stood in the damp, cold grass, marveling at the light piercing the night. I thought of a book excerpt we read aloud in class this week from page 87 of Choose Joy by Kay Warren. "My brain froze," Warren writes. "I wanted [...]
Good morning... This week our blogs have focused on supporting one another, close friends and strangers, through the painful parts of life. A longtime friend wrote me a touching email about the loving support she received years ago. ****** Letters by Ella Herlihy In response to your post about how to love someone well when they are suffering [...]
Good morning... She wrote me after yesterday's post, Abby's Anniversary. "Sue, I don’t personally know any of these people and I’m reading your message with tears running down my face. I can’t imagine facing what they face. Is there anything someone who doesn’t know them can do to support? Obviously I’ve been praying for all of them. But [...]
Good morning... In the middle of the night I wrote yesterday's blog message, Abby. Audrey. Eliza. Then I climbed back into bed. After waking from my second sleep, I re-read Abby Smith's obituary and was surprised by the final line: The Celebration Service of Abby's life will be held on Sunday, August 21st at 3:00pm at Northside Church [...]
Good morning... Kyshona Armstrong is a singer-song writer who has performed on the shores of Florida's 30-A. Kyshona tenderly reminds us, "We are fallen people living in a fallen world. We're fallen people, people who who hurt." Having savored the song several times, it strikes me that "hurt" is a multifaceted word. "Hurt" goes both ways. Throughout our [...]
Good morning... "Why bother?" asks Sean Thomas Dougherty. Then, he answers his own question. "Because right now, there is someone out there with a wound in the exact shape of your words." Painful wounds and healing words meet at the right moment. Here, at the crossroads of wounds and words, God's presence is palpable. Might the power of [...]
