Good morning... I was rushing out of Kroger when I looked up to see a toddler strapped into her grocery cart, staring right at me. When our eyes met, a smile spread from her wide-eyed lips to engulf her whole entire body. "You give a smile to everyone! Don't you?" I beamed back. "Everyone gets a smile." Though this [...]

Good morning... If not for the overdose, he would have turned 30 years old today. During his time of remembrance, the father of the deceased young man shared beautiful words of love and encouragement. I will always remember two of his most touching insights. First, this grieving dad said something like this: "One month ago, my daughter married the [...]

Good morning... I write at our Cochise Drive home one final time. Bitter-sweet. This closing day is bitter-sweet. ​ Bitter is having our home on the market for 14 months. Bitter is this being the last roof our four kids have ever slept under regularly. Bitter is never again jumping on the trampoline as a family in this awesome [...]

Good morning... Richard Rohr says things I know deeply, but I can not eloquently put into words. For example, he writes: “Jesus did not call us to the poor and to the pain only to be helpful; he called us to be in solidarity with the real and for own transformation. It is often only after the fact we [...]

Good morning... Three hours after I facilitated a lively Sunday school discussion on the unavoidable opposites littering our lives, polar opposites laid out in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, I attended a time of remembrance for a young man who lost his long battle with addiction. His obituary explained he had overdosed from "a heart too heavy for this world." This Thursday, [...]

Good morning... I am often asked to speak for churches, for women's groups, for private Bible studies nestled in a home. I actually love the privilege of gathering with people I have never met and talking about the movement of God in our lives. The women who come to my living room for class weekly know that the LORD [...]

Good morning... My friend who is battling brain cancer has invited us to join her on her journey through her Caringbridge site. She ends each post with things she wants to remember. Like any truth, that which is deep is also most wide. Yesterday's wisdom reached deep to extend wide, embracing all of us. "Things I want to remember: [...]

Good morning... I love peering over life's fence to a stage where our family's feet have yet to touch ground. Our kids are now 20, 18, 16, and 14. On Tuesday night, I had the privilege of facilitating a small group of young women in their mid to late twenties. Two dear friends of mine mentor this group weekly [...]

Good morning... In response to my post "A slap in the face," she wrote: "I had to laugh out loud today. Many years ago, when my daughters were still young, I sang in an adult choir in a small SC United Methodist church. One night at practice, the director was giving us dates for a special performance. A very [...]

Good morning... Some scriptures feel like a slap in the face. To me, the verses in Luke 9:57-62 (CEV) are shocking, confusing, disturbing. Along the way someone said to Jesus, “I’ll go anywhere with you!” Jesus said, “Foxes have dens, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man doesn’t have a place to call his own.” Jesus told [...]