Good morning... Life dishes out tons of trouble and some of us are served a high, heaping helping. Troubles come in many forms: short-lived or long-lasting, self-inflicted or unexpected, collectively experienced or randomly singled out. For some of us, troubles are fueled by our inner critic: "I can't believe you said that. Did that. Messed up. Again." For others, troubles [...]
Good morning... One line haunts me from our recent post, Do You Trust God? (scroll back through previous posts if you missed it). These powerful words, written by Terrance Malick, shed ugly light on the God who so loves us: "The very moment everything was taken away from Job, he knew it was the Lord who'd taken it away." This [...]
Good morning... "My dream life ended a year ago today," admits my old journal from 6.10.04. "I have been empty ever since. I've read and said, "The Kingdom of God is within me." I've read and said, "The Holy Spirit lives in my heart." I've read and said, "Faith holds experiential water." But right now I'm leaking all over. Tears drench my pillow. And [...]
Good Morning... “God designed a world where we all live ‘within’ our selves; that is, we inhabit our own souls, and we are responsible for the things that make up ‘us,’” say the authors of our Boundaries book on page 32. “The heart knows its own bitterness and no one shares its joy (Proverbs 14:10). We have to deal [...]
Good morning... A few weeks back, I woke to a painful text. "So sorry to have been so out of pocket. So very much going on. However, tonight I am sitting here with sweet Tess. Just have not been able to talk about it since hearing last week. She if full of cancer. I saw a friend who is [...]
Good morning... "Sue - your tears messages resound with me," writes another subscriber. "I am still the primary caregiver for my 93 year old mother. She has regressed terribly fast. I have quit my part time job. I am always seeking God's direction on how best to adapt her home into her private nursing home. She can no longer [...]
Good morning... When I posted yesterday's message, "The gift of tears," I did know know I would be crying within a few short hours. As he told his personal story through heaving waves of tears, he struggled to say, "These have been the best years of my life." His gut-wrenching tears wrenched my gut and I began to cry. [...]
Good morning... She expressed concerned over crying so much. So I wrote to her my thoughts about the gift of tears. Grief is an unpredictable thing. "Crying so much lately" may feel like "going backward" instead of "making headway," but I think tears are a sign of the Holy Spirit deeply at work. Tears tenderize us and express overwhelming [...]
Good morning... Heading into a difficult day, a close friend wrote to request my prayers of solidarity. God crafted through me the message below, a message I sense He wants all of us to experience. As we face various challenges requiring the brute strength of what my friend calls our "faith and courage muscles," we tap into the power [...]
Good morning... God can break into our daily lives in very funky ways. I have a hilariously weird story for you. Last week, my senior in high school was playing her important lacrosse game at a faraway school. Fortunately, I thought the game started at 5:00 pm instead of 5:30 pm so I had plenty of time to settle [...]
