Good morning... My friend's sleep was disturbed by obsessive feelings. Jealousy. Entitlement. Confusion. Rejection. Her voracious mind craved answers. Hash it out. Decide some details. Needing answers became a nightmare. Her mind went into overdrive until she read our post We Grow G.R.A.C.E. She texted me her middle-of-the-night realization: "I took a little trip away from GRACE." Moving back [...]
Good morning... "Sue - love your post this morning," she texted me yesterday at 6:29 am after reading We Grow G.R.A.C.E. "I woke up having a terrible night sleep because I felt feelings of envy, jealousy, entitlement, confusion, and rejection about a situation in my life. And all this felt out of the blue after having a great, full, [...]
Good morning... Yesterday in Sunday School, we unpacked the middle portion of the Apostles Creed. Considering the various valley times in our lives, we processed the three portions of our life-changing "check mark" experiences. Descending into hell. Waiting in the tomb for three grueling days. Ascending high into heaven in oneness with God. Each time tragedy strikes, this three-step [...]
Good morning... As she cut my hair, I read the tattoo on the underside of her left arm: “The happiest girls are the prettiest,” says the tattoo on the underside of her left arm. I thought to myself, “That statement is actually quite biblical.” Proverbs 15:13a (NLT) says simply: “A glad heart makes a happy face.” The second half [...]
Good morning... “Stillness is not about focussing on nothingness; it’s about creating a clearing. It’s opening up an emotionally clutter-free space and allowing ourselves to feel and think and dream and question,” writes author Brene Brown on page 108 of The Gifts of Imperfection. Stillness. Create a clearing. Open up emotionally. Protect clutter-free inner space. Allow feeling, thinking, dreaming, [...]
Good morning... I absolutely love that the brightness of tonight's full moon sky coincides with the seal-off mystery of the dank, dark tomb. For Jesus' dead body wrapped in burial attire, for you and for me wrapped in our own dark cocoons, God lights our hope. We each whisper in awed wonder: "...even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To [...]
Good morning... Tee Davis, the wise mother of Julie Harlan who died at age 42 from stomach cancer one year ago this week, texted me yesterday after our blog post, Tilting Our True Self. “Hi Sue. I wrote down the last sentence of your message today in my Jesus Calling book. It reminds me of my Julie. Thank you. [...]
Good morning... As I stir from sleep, one phrase fills my focus: "Unlimited Possibilities." Though I took tons and tons of notes during our two-day retreat, on the tip of my brain's tongue, this morning after, rest two distinct words: "Unlimited Possibilities." Unlocked by this one two-word phrase, biblical promises begin bubbling up from my gut, through my heart, [...]
Good morning... "Nothing on our spiritual journey is ever final," says Betty Skinner on page 83 of my old, tattered copy of The Hidden Life. "It is a continuous change and movement from what is good (the place where most of us live, desiring to love and serve God) to what is better (an open and intense desire to [...]
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." [...]
