How To Help Ukraine
Good morning... "I'm going to Ukraine on the 29th," said LaTonya Gates, founder and director of PAWkids, as we sat together yesterday. "I'm excited about serving outside of our community. This 'Crates for Ukraine' project reaches so far outside of Grove Park to help people in great need." "What can we do to best support you?" I asked. "First. Please, please pray for us," she replied. "I, along with four other members from [...]
I Feel Up-In-The-Air
Good morning... "It's like a ton of confetti has been unleashed from above," I told a friend yesterday. "This week I feel like I am frozen in one of those celebratory photographs, looking up, wondering how all of these pieces of possibility will fall into place." I texted another friend: "Overwhelmed and excited describes how I feel as I drive down for our first gathering of the year at PAWkids." To share my [...]
One Rare Word, Twice
Good morning... This week I have run into one rare word twice, in the thought-provoking image above and in Henri Nouwen's meditation below. Pilgrimage. This is a fresh word found in my everyday life. "A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience," says Wikipedia. "It can [...]
The Down Elevator Of Summer
Good morning... "I've heard it said, 'We are in the down elevator of summer,'" she commented. What an interesting way to describe this week. In Atlanta, we woke to a cooler Saturday morning after a week of warm afternoon rains. Autumn seemed to briefly sneak peak her head around our corner, with hope in her eyes. Today a large percentage of students will walk into their classrooms to take on the challenges of [...]
Our Year Of Sorrows
Good morning... As the song from yesterday's blog post ended, I was mysteriously led into a music video entitled "The Story Behind - The Anchor Holds written and performed by Lawrence Chewning." "We had one of those years," Lawrence admits. "It was 1992. My wife and I call it 'our year of sorrows.'" Pain piled up. The death of his dad. His wife's serious health issues. Burnout from division in their church. Their [...]
In Quietness I Wait
Good morning... "Loved your reflection, Sue," after yesterday's post, The Perfect Getaway. "The amazing power (His not ours) of being still and truly listening! And now God speaks in stereo as I screen shot the verse I happened upon late last night." "The LORD will fight for you; you need only be still," says Exodus 14:14. In stillness, right now, I am drawn back to a song I met while on spiritual retreat [...]
The Perfect Getaway
Good morning... When the Spirit nudges me awake in the middle of the night, our home is very quiet. I hear the air conditioner kick in to cool off. I notice the rhythmic breath of our sleeping dogs. I pick up the campy conversation of hidden insects outside. Deepening into the now of now, this sweet, still silence amplifies my private pondering. "Ah prayer!" writes Dom Helder Camara. "It's there every instant of [...]
Kids Fighting Cancer
Good morning... For the first time since the pandemic began, four out of five of us caught up face to face. Having met many years ago in our living room during a Friday morning Bible study, we call ourselves the "Fab Five friends." Constantly connected, we love supporting our friend whose daughter, Audrey, has been fighting cancer off and on since she was five and half years old. Turning seventeen in June, Audrey [...]
A Lifetime Of Letting Go
Good morning... "Good morning, Sue," she wrote after yesterday's blog post, Letting A Child Go. "A friend sent this article to me right before we sent our oldest son to college. I have since shared it with many friends who have been encouraged by the wisdom, so thought I’d pass it on to you in case you think it might also be an encouragement to your friend who is letting her child go." [...]
Letting A Child Go
Good morning... "Wow Sue," she emailed after last week's blog, Facing Life's Uncertainty. "I continue to marvel at how you seem to write posts that I always need…it’s God looking out for me through you, I just know it. So, it’s exactly five days before I drop off our daughter at college. Sky high is the amount of anxiety we both have with the 'uncertainty' of how college will be. How sorority rush [...]
Our Unknown Needs Are Met
Good morning... "Wow!" read her email heading after yesterday's post, Facing Life's Uncertainty. "God knew that I needed your words today. I am paralyzed by uncertainty right now and didn’t even realize it. I’m stuck in the mud of self-pity instead of planting whatever seeds will allow me to find God’s future choices for me. Thank you for the nudge!" "Awesome," I replied. "God gives us daily gifts, gifts we often don’t even [...]
Facing Life’s Uncertainty
Good morning... "Downtown ATL," she texted, sharing a cloud-layered photo taken from her porch. "Twenty minutes later!" her camera captured a different view. "I marveled at how the city was shrouded," she explained, "and then seen with clarity soon after." Sometimes shrouded, sometimes seen, the city exists in both pictures above. Yet our ability to enjoy the stunning silhouette is dependent on factors beyond our control. We are powerless over the [...]