The Gentle Answer
Good morning... "Good morning Sue," she wrote last week. "I want to highly recommend this book by Scott Sauls, The Gentle Answer. He writes: 'Jesus and Christianity do not discriminate between good people and bad people. Instead, Jesus and Christianity discriminate between humble people and proud people. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).” Then she sent me the page below to share more deeply God's enduring truth: [...]
What Do You Say?
Good morning... On November 5th, Lauren Daigle, one of my favorite artists, released a new recording of her soulful song, "You Say." Reminding us all that we are loved, we are strong, and we are held, might this music video be our morning prayer? ...our many-ness becomes one-ness—Christ doesn’t become fragmented in us. Rather, we become unified in him. We don’t reduce Christ to what we are; he raises us to what he [...]
Taste Our Half And Half
Good morning... Sipping our morning coffee, we taste our half and half. Half sad. Half happy. Half mad. Half relieved. Half scared. Half excited. Only our Three-in-One God can embrace each half and make us whole. Now may the Lord Jesus Christ and our Father God, who loved us and in his wonderful grace gave us eternal comfort and a beautiful hope that cannot fail, encourage your hearts and inspire you with strength [...]
Cat Comforts Anxious Dog
Good morning... Every day I love the dog calendar my dear friend gifted me. I adore the cute photo from Election Day 2020, but even more I love the Will Rogers quote: "I love a dog. He does nothing for political reasons." A few minutes after flipping to the above calendar page, I happened upon the comforting video below. Chuckling to myself, my anxious heart melted. It's fun to watch such different creatures [...]
Everything Becomes Beautiful
Good morning... He has made everything beautiful in its appropriate time. He has also put obscurity in their hearts so that no one comes to know the work that God has done from the beginning to the end (Ecclesiastes 3:11, MEV). "Imagine that you're unwell and in a foul mood, and you're driving through some lovely countryside," writes Anthony de Mello in his article entitled Substituting One Cruelty For Another. "The landscape is [...]
Steve Asks “What If?”
Good morning... In his message as a high school chaplain, recorded the day before Election Day 2020 and shared the day after all votes were cast, my husband Steve challenges us to asks ourselves, "What if? What if we have to live with people who don't think like us, believe like us, act like us, or vote like us?" 50% of us will soon have to face this question: "What if I live [...]
God’s Crystal Ball
Good morning... A "crystal ball" is defined as a glass orb used by fortune-tellers and mystics in popular culture to see into the future. By extension, "looking into a crystal ball" means seeking to predict future events. Broadening the concept further, "looking into God's crystal ball" means that we see ourselves as an integral part of the glorious future God is orchestrating. As we set our sights toward the fertile future of this day and the next [...]
Our Gentle Equalizer
Good morning... The tumultuous waves of this unique day have been building strength on our horizon for a long while now. Waking up into what will be, we fix our eyes on the Gentle Equalizer. Even the largest, stormiest waves dissipate naturally into God's eternal ebb and flow. The sea remains the sea, constant, reliable, fluid. Participating in life's Big Picture, the waves of today will dissolve into the waves of tomorrow, joining [...]
Our “I-Centered” Life
Good morning... The Results of an I-Centered Life is the title of Rick Warren's devotional message from October 28th, 2020. “When ‘I’ am at the center of everything in my life, that’s sin,” writes Rick. “We all have an 'I' problem: I want it my way; I will do my thing; I have to take care of myself first; I don’t have time for others; I am the most important thing.” “Growing up, my [...]
Losing? Loving? Learning?
Good morning... Into the sacred space between us, we pop-corned our answers to these three poignant questions: "This month, what are you losing? What are you loving? What are you learning?" I made three different columns on my blank journal page to collect the words popping out of our mouths. Losing - Hugs. Trick or treat. Structure. Self-discipline. Motivation. Energy exchanged through face to face contact. Ease. Comfort. Spontaneity. Carefree attitude. Reservation-free living. Loving [...]
Waiting Together
Good morning... Prayerfully seeking words of wisdom to read aloud to our Monthly Spiritual Direction group, I sensed the book from which I was to read, then I opened it to the only dog-eared page in my pristine "extra" copy. Sitting outside, bundled in jackets, blankets, and face to face connection, we pondered this powerful story. ****** Excerpt from Sue Monk Kidd's When the Heart Waits - pages 141-142 One afternoon as the [...]
We Branch Out
Good morning... I usually think of the word "branch" as a noun. A natural subdivision of a plant stem. A secondary shoot arising from the main axis of a tree. A part of complex body, like a division of a family descending from a particular ancestor. As I marveled at this magnificent yellow tree, I was drawn to the word "branch" as a verb. [...]