Good morning... While we were on the women's retreat two weeks ago, I snapped this photo of a heart shape on the sidewalk. Revisiting it now, I sense a profound epiphany. When the dirt and the residue of our broken lives gradually loosen and fall away, what remains is the heart of Christ. As the song in yesterday's [...]
Good morning... This week in class, we read aloud these words from the prologue of our book, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. ****** Wintering is a season in the cold. It is a fallow period in your life when you're cut off from the world, feeling rejected, sidelined, blocked from [...]
Good morning... Yesterday, after I spoke aloud the final prayer at the end of our Ministry of Movement fitness class, I intended to walk with a friend. God had a different plan. I left the church and drove to my friend's house. She greeted me with a long, loving hug, expressing her deep sorrow over the violent murder [...]
Good morning... After yesterday's post, Stoop Down. Reach Out., a friend texted me immediately: "Oh my goodness!!!! I'm so sad over here. When do you go downtown for group? I can send a zucchini bread for Mike Mike! (The same delicious zucchini bread she made our friend's 80th birthday party last Thursday.) Maybe if you go to drop [...]
Good morning... On this day when we celebrate the non-violent movement of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I am trying to process the violent death of a beloved woman in the Grove Park neighborhood of our city. The last time I gathered with our therapeutic community group at PAWkids, we sent flowers home with Mike Mike, the group [...]
Good morning... As I sit beneath the growing weight of our now 40 lb. pup, Cami, I think about Philip Yancey and his wife of 55 years. My prayers go up like incense on their behalf as they drop from the public eye to work on their daily life, a life broken by his eight year affair. In [...]
Good morning... In the early hours, the image above opened our Saturday morning post, I Get Overwhelmed. Together with the Holy Spirit, we learned a freeing truth: "I only need to find a path, I don't have to clear the wilderness." By Saturday evening, the image from our blog post became the back drop of a collage I [...]
Good morning... "Dear Church Family," began the November 5th letter to Northside Church members. Rev. Angela House, our Director of Missions, explained, "The state of Georgia currently has over 11,000 children in foster care. Many of these children carry deep emotional and behavioral scars from the trauma they have endured. Murphy-Harpst Children’s Center stands in the gap for [...]
Good morning... As our daughter was in Louisiana with friends Grieving A Suicide, the Henri Nouwen meditation for yesterday brought to life the gift she was experiencing. Our ability to suffer in solidarity, with God and with each other, creates beautiful moments amid life's brokenness. "God loves us so much that he does not simply take our suffering [...]
Good morning... After creating Martha's Happy Painting, my artist friend, Gina, talked about the process of transforming the unfinished painting I had purchase at a flea market. "Sue, the original looked like the painter was struggling with body form, layout and color," Gina wrote. "The colors were cold and it had no depth. I did not like the [...]
