Good morning... Photos like the one above capture a different day in time, when we could gather, meet up close, connect face to face as the body of Christ. As we consider what it means to "be the church" when many church buildings remain closed due to COVID, we wrestled with an important question posed in yesterday's post, [...]
Good morning... Yesterday a friend from church forwarded me a poem forwarded by a friend. As I read the words slowly, calmly, aloud to myself, it took no time for serenity to spread from my eyes through my lips, into my ears to my soul. Now it's your turn to experience the spread of peace. ****** Time for [...]
Good morning... Now is about the time many of us head into a slump. This Coronavirus is a marathon, not a sprint, with no end in sight. Our loss of control, routine, and stability is taking an exhausting toll. Add to it the uncertainty of new normal life transitions. Births and deaths. Weddings, divorces, and funerals. Difficult diagnoses [...]
Good morning... The photo above drew in my attention, so I included it in our post from yesterday, Grieving With God. The peaceful lake. The inviting hammock. The grey, hazy feel. The ripped up jeans. The silence, the solitude. The quiet passage of time needed for God to transform a grieving heart. To me, the photo spoke volumes [...]
Good morning... Many of you have written to me about how much you miss church. We miss entering the beloved building. We miss worshipping and learning, socializing and serving together. We miss cozying up in the warmth of our timeless traditions and bonding as Christ's body with God and each other. Still many church doors remain closed as [...]
Good morning... "Here we go again?," she emailed after yesterday's post, Wow! "Do you still read Jesus Calling before you write or is this one of those God moments?" Hers was a really good question. Let me tell you the two most important reasons I adored her enlivening email. First, she took me back to where our daily blog began. [...]
Good morning... "Wow!" she texted before last night's incredible thunder-and-lightening-fest. "Have you seen this?" "'Wow!' is right," I replied. "How can words written through a person nearly eighty years ago speak so boldly to us right now? This creative expression can only be the eternal voice of our living Lord, who was, and is, and is [...]
Good morning... Still in my pajamas, I sat outside on our private back porch. Admiring the thick canopy of summer leaves, I fully engaged in a hard, life-giving phone call. After listening and talking for as long as was needed, we hung up and I checked my email to find this inspirational story from a faraway subscriber. [...]
Good morning... These three annual words are more complicated this year. "Back to school" means virtual learning for many. "Back to school" for others means social distancing, mask-wearing, quarantining when exposed to COVID-19. "Back to school" for our family means the end of an era. Today, we will pack up two cars, drive seventy-five minutes to Athens, Georgia, [...]
Good morning... I am not the only one wrestling with this year's unique experience of heading "back to school." Children and teacher, parents and grandparents, caregivers and concerned folk everywhere are all wondering, "How do we do this school year well?" Earlier in the week, our church sent out a specialized prayer. Wherever we wake this Sunday morning, we come [...]
