Good morning... I woke to her email, short and deep. I wrote her right back, deep and long. Somehow God ministered to both of us as we unpacked our pain. Sharing just my private response, I invite you into our intimate expression. ****** Personal Email from Sue Allen - August 30th, 2019 Another suicide? Yes, it is completely [...]
Good morning... "Sweet Sue," a mom wrote to me yesterday. "While I absolutely related to yesterday’s post very well, today’s title got me right in the gut. I really didn’t have to read anymore. Your timing. God’s timing. My son was in the Greek Village yesterday at the University of South Carolina when the student who took his [...]
Good morning... Our posts from this week start and end with a video of a statue created by God through the young hands of Michaelanglo. The statue is named the Pieta, which is an Italian term for pity (compassion, commiseration, condolence, sorrow, sadness, sympathy). It is a sculpture depicting Mary lamenting over the lifeless body of her son Jesus resting in [...]
Good morning... "That 'letter' is very well done," one of you wrote to me after yesterday's post, Someone You Know Needs This. "What many people don’t understand is that the sadness is also a liar. And a really good liar. And the sadness will surely tell the person it is living in that all of those people would be [...]
Good morning... "In the wake of losing someone special," she wrote, "maybe you know someone who needs to read this. Hugs. Take care." New post on Sean of the South Dear Sean by Sean Dietrich DEAR SEAN: I know you usually write about good things, but I am pretty down and I don’t know what to do, I [...]
Good morning... Envisioning our collective journey being lived upon a timeline, we pause. Looking left, we see where we had been before our recent four-day technical glitch. Now we pause to look right. At the moment of disconnection where was the Spirit leading us? I was working on a post quoting Parker Palmer: "Depression is the ultimate state of disconnection." [...]
Good morning... As the Holy Spirit slows down our pace, we pause and look left. Where were we when the God's glitches began wreaking havoc? Together we were diving deep into the valley of depression. After a rash of suicides, school shootings, and violence at home and abroad, concerned people are commenting, "We must closely consider the collective and personal [...]
Good morning... During my suffering season, I did share deeply with a small handful of old friends. That level of me was important to walk and talk through with trusted companions. And then there were two cloudy levels deeper, deeper still. My deepest core level was lived just with my God. Our hard-fought wrestling match, bout after bout, was [...]
Good morning... After "pushing send" on yesterday's raw, real post, Heavy And Hollow, I thought, "I kinda feel like Jerry Maguire." Remember him? After his own life-altering epiphany in the 1996 romantic comedy/sports film, Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) "pushes send" on a personalized mission statement about perceived dishonesty in the sports management business and his desire to work with fewer clients to [...]
Good morning... As I hazily recall my own walk down-and-up through the deep valley of depression, two words linger longest. Heavy and hollow. It is weird to feel heavy and hollow at the same time, like the shell of a 500 lb. chocolate Easter bunny who is empty inside. My depression was partially situational and mostly quite spiritual. God [...]
