Good morning... Our Julie's Dream prayer team met by Zoom yesterday morning to pray over the lives of the inner city kids we take on trips to explore God's expansive creation. We prayed for the family of kids who recently witnessed their mother murdered by her boyfriend. We prayed for the talented trip leader from a neighboring non-profit [...]
Good morning... With our internet still out, I come to Starbucks to get service for the third day in a row. I pull out the brochure from our trip to Montgomery, Alabama and snap the photo above. I am struck by the fact that among all the informative words and haunting images, I am holding the pamphlet with [...]
Good morning... She texted me the photo above after enjoying yesterday's post, Power Drained Out Of Me. Having gone with her church to the Holy Land the day after our group returned from our trip in March, she wondered, "Did you guys go to this church (please don't ask me where) in Israel with this painting of the [...]
Good morning... Last night power drained out of me, as I taught a roomful of women at a nearby church. The requested topic? The Enneagram, an ancient personality test used by Christian mystics. My source of exhaustion? A new group of people, a plethora of information, tons of creative energy expended. The greatest grace experienced? Afterwards, I had [...]
Good morning... The rains held off, and we walked in wonderful weather, mild and inviting. Along our way, we ran into two 'soul friends' also walking and talking at the horse farm. One is supporting her husband through treatment for his pancreatic cancer and the other is blossoming beautifully on the other side of a divorce and remarriage [...]
Good morning... We were trying to schedule a walk-and-talk to and from the horse farm. "Tomorrow might work as long as the weather holds..." she texted. "Want to play it by ear and text each other in the morning?" "Yes, that's perfect," I responded. "Have an awesome day. Just let it gently unfold." I looked up and snapped [...]
Good morning... The sentence that flavored my first week of Lent came from a friend who said, "For Lent, I am giving up trying." Trying to fix. Trying to win. Trying to force. Trying to define. Trying to direct. Trying to appease. Trying to control. Trying to predict. Trying to impress. Trying to persuade. Trying to understand. Trying [...]
Good morning... After a deep, heartfelt conversation, she said, "For Lent, I am giving up trying." I thought to myself, "That's a weird thing to say." At first. Then the thought strangely returned to me. Then again. And quietly, just now, again. As I sit still with her phrase in the middle of the night, I begin to [...]
Good morning... Walking the familiar sidewalk into our backyard, I noticed a yellow blossom at rest on a bed of dying brown. I lifted my eyes to see extravagant buds all over the sprawling vine. This was the day I noticed anew, "Everything is changing." What "used to be" is dying, [...]
Good morning... There are times when the world we knew and loved comes to an end. Life as it used to be is over. Cherished comfort is lost. The unknown unnerves us. Even Jesus himself knows how it feels. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My [...]
