We Are Fed By Our Focus
Good morning... "Good evening, my dear friend Sue," he wrote after our recent posts about the turbulent turmoil and torment swirling around and within us. "I hope you are fully recovered after your illness earlier in the week. I read with interest your messages these past two days. You are right. We live in challenging times. But our loving God has seen our country through many difficult times. Thanks be to God." He went [...]
What Torment Teaches
Good morning... The Spirit of God continues to speak. Isaiah 50:10b-11 (NIV) sheds more Light on this portion of our path. Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on their God. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my [...]
The Gift Of Turmoil
Good morning... Turmoil stirs us from sleep. Deep hunger and homelessness litter our streets. Senseless violence and the threat of war push us to the brink. Fires of all kinds blaze around our globe, and we are witnessing the third-ever impeachment of a President in the history of our deeply divided United States. This is just a fraction of the unrest sounding our alarm clock. We wipe our sleepy eyes and turn inward [...]
After My Bubble Bath
Good morning... Thirty-six hours after being bit hard by a stomach bug, I took a hot bubble bath and felt like a brand new woman. Then my mind turned to those without a home, without a bathtub, without hot running water. What makes homeless people feel brand new after they have the flu? Our family's kitchen is stocked with food from generous friends, soups and salads, breads and cookies, lasagna and rotisserie chicken. [...]
I Was A Wounded Eagle
Good morning... “How can we picture God’s kingdom?" asks Mark 4:30-32 in the Message translation. "What kind of story can we use?" we wonder within. "It’s like a pine nut," Mark says. "When it lands on the ground it is quite small as seeds go, yet once it is planted it grows into a huge pine tree with thick branches. Eagles nest in it." Yesterday I was a wounded eagle nesting in a tree [...]
The Best Time To Plant
Good morning... I unzip my purse and unfold the church bulletin. I re-read from my Sunday morning scribblings of sermon notes. "When is the best time to plant a tree?" asked the pastor. After being greeted with silence he gave us the answer. "Twenty years ago. Twenty years ago is the best time to plant a tree." "When is the second best time to plant a tree?" he continued. "Today. Today is the [...]
Savor Sabbath: Be At Peace
Good morning... The peace of God, which surpasses human understanding, is ours to enjoy, moment by moment. As I review our posts from this week, I am drawn to the Bible verses tenderly taking our hand and lovingly leading us along. Monday: You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Tuesday: If this [...]
One Day In The Country
Good morning... "One day in the country is worth a month in the city," whispers the rustic plaque hanging on the farm house wall. Why might this be? When I think of "country," natural words cascade from my mind to water my heart. Unplug. Fresh air. Big sky. Down-to-earth. A slower pace in wide open space. Within me "city" elicits a different list. Easy convenience. Crowded congestion. The cutting edge of progress. A [...]
Why Argue With What Is?
Good morning... I ran across this quote jotted in the margin of my book. "If you argue with what "is" you lose. But only 100% of the time." It strikes me that at the heart of each fear, each worry, each anxiety we are arguing with the Almighty God who is in charge of what "is," "what has been," and "what always will be." It’s better to enjoy what we have than to always [...]
Peace Permeates Us
Good morning... We are invited into deeper trust. God feels every fear, God knows every need, and God offers permeating peace to calm our anxiety. In the privacy of our personal prayers, will we take time to let go and lay down our worries? Fear will not leave us alone, worries naturally well up in each human heart. Our scared soul is prone to wander, LORD, we feel it. We wander and we [...]
We Receive Peace
Good morning... I was not expecting to wake up yesterday to the message below written by my husband, a high school chaplain who takes his monthly turn writing a weekly devotional with their team of chaplains. It is as if he opened up the bag and let out all our scared cats. ****** Morning Devotional for January 7, 2020 - by Rev. Steve Allen My 18 year old asked me a question the [...]
Influence Expands
Good morning... The life-changing influence of my favorite book continues to expand. In the fall of 2007, I met the first edition of The Hidden Life Awakened when Becky Anderson, the beloved scribe of Christian mystic Betty Skinner, spoke at our church on the newly released book chronicling Betty's journey up from the valley of clinical depression to the peak of healed wholeness with God. Betty "was forty-two years old, mother of four, wife of [...]