Good morning... Before the winter storm blasted much of our country this weekend, I received the above image from Wisconsin. Inside, 60 degrees. Outside, negative 30, and that's without windchill! "What does negative 30 actually feel like?" I wondered. Then the winter weather arrived, and images came blowing in from family and friends. A shiny hard layer of [...]
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... This week, a friend from our Sunday afternoon group sent us a prayer written by Howard Thurman (November 18, 1899 – April 10, 1981). We, as a group, read Thurman's influential book Jesus and the Disinherited a few semesters back. Howard Thurman's theology of radical nonviolence has shaped the faith life of generations, and he was [...]
Good morning... The unusual word "storehouse" came to me twice last week. In our blog post on Saturday, we savored this prayer. Father, make my mind a storehouse for past promises kept, love lavished and hope fulfilled. Earlier in the week we had read "storehouse" in our book, God's Joyful Surprise by Sue Monk Kidd. Now I turn [...]
Good morning... As we met for our final Wednesday afternoon class of the fall semester, we discussed a freeing way to pray. ****** Excerpt from page 241 of God's Joyful Surprise by Sue Monk Kidd It is like having a room in the very core of your heart where all of the people you pray for gather with [...]
Good morning... "God's beauty this am with our first snow," wrote a friend. Around 7:00 yesterday morning, she texted photos from her porch in Black Mountain, North Carolina. "Wow! How gorgeous," I replied, as my eyes savored the colors and the shadows and the textures. "Right now, I am looking at a pink sky also, as a new [...]
Good morning... "Sitting still with God, we un-blend our emotions," said our group leader on Tuesday morning. The word "blend" made me think of the smoothie-making process. I take separate ingredients. Almond milk. Frozen fruit, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries. A scoop of protein powder. A spoonful of plain yogurt. A big handful of spinach. I "blend" it all together [...]
Good morning... This week, I have watched footage of the final living Israeli hostages returning to the tearful embrace of their loved ones. On the news, I saw a Palestinian man finally returned to the grounds of his home in Gaza. What was once his special place, a place where he had raised his grown children, was now [...]
Good morning... I was touched by a reading of this moving poem. ******* THIS BITTER EARTH by Clyde Otis This bitter earth Well, what a fruit it bears What good is love Mmm, that no one shares And if my life is like the dust Ooh, that hides the glow of a rose But what good am I [...]
Good morning... Yesterday, my neighbor sent me a devotional link entitled "Peace When You Don't Have Control." What an gracious gift to receive on the second anniversary of the October 7th Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, a day when so many innocent people lost any semblance of control. Now, up in the middle of this moonlit night, I [...]
