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 [...]
Good morning... “The accumulated sorrows of your exile (your being barred from comfort, your being kept from closeness, your inability to feel completely at home) will dissipate,” whispers the LORD through the pen of an Old Testament prophet. Zephaniah 3:19-20 in the Message translation continues: “I, your God, will get rid of them, your sorrows, for you. You’ve carried [...]
Good morning... I love the contemporary worship service at Northside Church. I am welcomed each week by singers and musicians gifted in ways I am not. Music can disintegrate the thin veil between earth and heaven. Yesterday morning, my imperfect voice joined in praise with the live band, merging my heart and with the heart of our God. Enjoy [...]
Good morning... We are told: "...problems and trials...they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation" (Romans 5:3-5, NLT). The one word shimmering for me now is salvation. So, I google "What is the root word for salvation?" In Latin "salvus" means whole and safe, healthy and uninjured, and [...]
Good morning... Hurricane Matthew has affected the lives of millions this weekend. The messy photos of wreckage from high winds and water tug at our hearts. Chaotic. Uprooted. Torn apart. We all lift prayers for the rebuilding of rummaged lives. Even inland here in Atlanta, the ripple effects are everywhere. Eerie skies and windy rain. Horrendous traffic traveling north [...]
Good morning… If true friendship grows out of "What? You, too? I thought I was the only one," as C.S. Lewis so wisely teaches, then true love is bound to grow from the same sacred spot. CNN ran a story a few days ago chronicling the life and the love of Katie and Dalton, a young couple who bonded [...]
Good morning... When are shattered like we have never been before and the life we knew lies in a thousand pieces on the floor, we are rushed into heart surgery. The Great Physician promises, "I will give them one heart [a new heart], and put a new spirit within them. I will take from them the heart of stone, [...]
