Good morning... This Christmas Eve morning many in our country wake in the dark to severe cold. Brutal weather. Derailed travel plans. Several go without. Without heat. Without a home. Without loved ones for the first time this Christmas season. All of us face stressors. Uncertainties run rampant. Expectations pile high. Pressures ratchet up, please, perform, perfect. On [...]
Good morning... "Not good news," I was saddened by my friend's text. "The cancer is in her spine, hip, lymph nodes, base of her skull. I'm not sure where we go from here. Marleigh's spirits are good. I'm still taking it day by day. I fall apart when I get ahead of myself. I love you and am [...]
Good morning... This was a weekend of waiting. Waiting for a teenager's scan results. Waiting for a baby's birth. Waiting for my mom's broken leg to heal. Waiting for a loved one's transition to heaven. Waiting for deadly flood waters to recede. Waiting for raging fires to cease. Waiting for this ugly war to end. Waiting for the [...]
Good morning... "God's surround sound again," she texted me early yesterday. "I awoke praying for all those who are in the midst of personal struggles and now moving to our world and it's chaos. Was feeling the call to find and hold onto Hope--to not despair--and then I opened your email, How To Live With Hope. "May the [...]
Good morning... A truckload of immigrants die in the heat. Loved ones are buried after mass shootings. Wars rage on and on, devastating ordinary lives. These are big newsworthy aches which beg for our prayers. Alongside our communal pain are quieter, daily challenges. Depression. Disabilities. Dementia. Divorce. Death. We all face various aches throughout our lifetime. Aches we [...]
Good morning... As the Women's Ministry Director at Northside Church, I love visiting with people who are facing unique challenges. Disease. Divorce. Depression. Difficult decisions. Death of a loved one. One person who has been a vibrant part of our ministry for years has also become the Pastoral Care Executive Assistant at our church. Through a freak accident, [...]
Good morning... "I have learned now that while those who speak about one's miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more," Christian writer C.S. Lewis famously said. As the chaplain of the Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia for nearly twenty-five years, my husband Steve has been speaking candidly to this affluent community about the unique miseries we [...]
Good morning... Rescued people are my favorite breed of cat. I really relate with those who have felt lost, lonely, shipwrecked, those who have cried out to God from their innermost being, "Rescue me from the swamp. Don’t let me go under for good. Pull me out of the clutch of the enemy. This whirlpool is sucking me [...]
Good morning... "On the pavement, mid-stride, I saw a tattered, blackened penny," explained our post from yesterday. "I picked it up and looked at the ugly, messy coin. I knew that somewhere the penny read, "In God We Trust," but I could not see this truth clearly. I thought to myself, "This is exactly what my friend is [...]
Good morning... As I was walking in the woods, I came upon this tree, a tree branching up like the other trees while being strangled by barbed wire. The tree had naturally grown around the manmade injury, and the mark of excruciating pain had been embedded into the tree's unique identity. At first, I thought of the crown [...]
