Good morning... I feel like I just birthed a 12 pound baby. Naturally. After three full day of hard, hard labor. Our baby was conceived by God a long while back, but this was the weekend her due date graced my calendar. Sunday was my well anticipated time to deliver. For months and months, really years and years, [...]
Good morning... My attention was caught by James 1:19-21 in The Message translation. These three verses whisper saving wisdom to savor this Sabbath. Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all [...]
Good morning... "I love, love, love this!" she wrote after yesterday's post, Take Three Steps. "I tend to get a little glum in the fall. As the days grow shorter, the light changes, the energy of spring and summer fades, I feel a little sadness. I have been reading our Richard Rohr book, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for [...]
Good morning... "As I read this morning's message," one of you wrote after reading of the "hidden wholeness" of fall, "I thought of the Bible study I am doing, The Good and Beautiful God series. Might we look at autumn as an opportunity to shed old self-protective habits to make room for the Holy Spirit within us to make [...]
Good morning... After I shared with you an image and a paraphrase of Zepheniah 3:17 from the inspirational September newsletter sent by one of my spiritual mentors, Jan Johnson, one of you shared with me encouraging words from the September newsletter of one of your spiritual mentors, Amy Julia Becker. ****** Dear friends, What do speaking to 70 [...]
Good morning... "May we have faith in the unfolding of our lives," hoped yesterday's paraphrase of Psalm 106, "and radical trust in the universe." What does it mean for us to learn to radically trust the Sustainer of our universe? Researching the meaning of "radical" in its original language, two Latin words pop up. The adjective "radicalis" means "of, [...]
Good morning... It is bittersweet for me to help craft words for the final email sent out to our August Enneagram class. Included here are the notes from last week's teaching, the focus for this week's lesson, and a link to register for fall classes at Northside Church, which begin the week of September 9th. What a joy [...]
Good morning... "In Christ's name we play," my Freudian slip ended our prayer, ushering us into a magical evening. "Researcher Stuart Brown, MD, describes play as time spent without purpose," Brene Brown stretches her own mind to welcome this new possibility. "To me this sounds like the definition of an anxiety attack. I feel behind if I’m not [...]
Good morning... After the second week of our Enneagram class, I got an email from a very good friend. "Sue, I thought you might want to read where the Enneagram originated. Also google Sufi. I just wasn’t sure if you knew this. Pray and see if this is something the Lord wants you to be involved with. Love you [...]
Good morning... Last Monday morning, Rev. Catherine Boothe Olson and I prepared the space for our noontime Enneagram class. As people began slowly trickling into the sacred chapel, I felt like a "welcome" greeter in heaven. I joyfully hugged women I love from book studies in our living room and women I adore from mission trips, outreach experiences, [...]
