Good morning... "Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in," says Hebrews 12:2 in the Message translation. "Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, [...]
Good morning... When I was a kid, we played in our neighborhood from after school until the dinner bell rang. One of my favorite childhood games was Red Rover. When we played Red Rover, we would pick two teams from our collection of buddies, we would stretch out in two lines, hand-in-hand, facing one another from about twenty feet [...]
Good morning... "For the joy set before him (Jesus) endured the cross," explains Hebrews 12:2b (NIV). This is a good thing to remember as we walk into Lent. We all have different crosses to bear. The cross of grieving a loved one who has left this earth. The cross of a scary diagnosis and its various treatment options. The [...]
Good morning... Prayerfully reflecting on our intimate conversation, God exposed my own fearful coping mechanism. In the face of tearful, grieving pain, I talked too much. I took up too much space in the room. Stuck in my head, I rambled on. An excessive amount of words poured out of my mouth, as I tried to explain God's big [...]
Good morning... Though our eyes have never met, our souls are shaped similarly. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, she sent me a quote from Jacksonville, Florida. She could not have known that, just minutes before, the class in my living room had read aloud the following quote from our book for the semester. "It is relatively easy to meet [...]
Monday was a dud of a day for me. It began with me feeling self-consciously down after a phone call that activated the critics in my head. It continued with news of another teen suicide, a sudden death of a beloved father, and an awareness that hard anniversaries for grieving friends are just around the corner. Then unrest in [...]
Good morning... Some losses are excruciating. Life seems to be running smoothly. Hopes and dreams are gelling. We are savoring a sense of settled satisfaction. Then WHAM! Life falls apart. Near perfection unravels. The daily drive keeping us alive ends abruptly, unexpectedly. How do we rise up from bed the morning after? How do we rise up to face [...]
Good morning... Several months back I read aloud to a Sunday school class the Message translation of John 15:4. I asked people to ponder, "What word or phrase most tickles your heart and grabs your attention?" “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear [...]
Good morning... “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’" explains Jesus in Matthew 5:43-44a (NIV). "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven." At age 39, Martin Luther King Jr. was maturing as a 'child of [...]
Good morning... A friend shared with me Richard Rohr's daily devotional from 12.1.16. How beautifully these threads of wisdom weave into God's tapestry blanketing us. Rohr writes: "At the more mature stages of life...the painful and the formerly excluded parts gradually belong to a slowly growing and unified field. This shows itself as a foundational compassion, especially toward all [...]
