What Am I Supposed To Say?
Good morning... Do you get nervous when you wake up on the morning you are scheduled to be the speaker? I do. I really do. I really do, and here is why. I do not know what I am supposed to say. I do not know what others need to hear. I do not know what joys and sorrows will fill our gathered hearts. I do not know. I am not designed to know. [...]
We Don’t Understand
Good morning... "I don't understand anxiety and depression," she said after returning home from a funeral. Our daughter's 22-year-old brain was trying to process why her good friend's mother would take her own life. We both agreed. Because it is not happening to us, it is impossible for any of us to comprehend the swirling storm of anxiety and depression raging inside another person. Feeling drawn to put some meat on the bones [...]
I Ruined Two Cars
Good morning... In my dream I had gotten a brand new car, and the next morning I woke thrilled to spin away on my spiffy fresh wheels. Pushing the automatic opener attached to my pristine sun visor, I opened the garage door to make my car's maiden voyage. Fiddling with the new feel, I put the car in reverse and stepped on the gas pedal. THUD. HALT. OH NO. A loud, horrible sound [...]
Savor Sabbath: Be Joyfully Bonded
Good morning... Praying aloud in front of a crowd, Jesus said to our Father: "Now I'm returning to you. I'm saying these things in the world's hearing so my people can experience my joy completed in them" (John 17:13, MSG). It is an incredible thing to think the joy we experience in our everyday lives is actually the "joy of Jesus" being completed in us. Earlier John records similar words. Jesus says, "I [...]
Why Pray?
Good morning... In the quiet of right now, I envision my mind slowly lifting her inner sails, trying to catch the power of God's steadily stirring winds. I do not pray so I can change the brilliant mind of God. I pray so God transforms the changing mind in me. And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be transformed and progressively changed [as [...]
750 Babies And More!
Good morning... Remember the hard labor I experienced last month? I felt like I was birthing a 12-pound baby as I delivered into the world the manuscript for this year's Advent devotional entitled With God Weather Life. Well, since I pushed the words into this world, we fine-tooth-combed her full head of hair and took gorgeous black and white photos to grace her pages. Then we sent her off to be printed. Arriving in [...]
His Heartfelt Prayer
Good morning... On our behalf, Jesus continues praying to his Father. "I gave them your word. The godless world hated them because of it, because they didn’t join the world’s ways, just as I didn’t join the world’s ways. I’m not asking that you take them out of the world but that you guard them from the Evil One. They are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world." We all know [...]
How Do We Harvest Harmony?
Good morning... "Breathe into the glory of this day," her voice set the table for our verbal feast. "Cold is coming. Thanksgiving is approaching. At harvest we gather love to share." Then she read aloud a blessing to begin our sacred hour. "Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue," her voice soothed me through the phone. "We have been given the duty and responsibility to live in [...]
Be One Now
Good morning... "Life is all about practicing for heaven," says Richard Rohr (Falling Upward, 101). "We practice by choosing union freely - ahead of time - and now. Heaven is the state of union both here and later. As now, so will it be then." In my mind God translates this quote into a three word directive: "BE ONE NOW." When I feel overwhelmed. "BE ONE NOW." When my sleep is disturbed. "BE ONE [...]
Born From A Bumpersticker
Good morning... When I drive solo I drive in silence. No radio. No podcasts. No books on tape. I look around. I think my thoughts. I take in beauty, town to town. I notice. I wonder. I process life. While driving through the colorful hills of North Carolina this weekend, a bumpersticker smiled at me, "Life is good." My thoughts nodded and smiled back. Meandering through the mountains, my mind expanded on the [...]
Savor Sabbath: Be Emptied Then Filled
Good morning... When we are emptied out by the harshness of life, we dig deeper into God and are filled full in new ways. Each of our posts this week have touched on this theme: as we surrender our own expectations, God's higher ways begin to emerge. Touch the "Past Blog Posts" button below to review our everyday lessons on being emptied, laid low, left bare . . . then waiting in a [...]
Celebrating Our Sons
Good morning... Last Friday night, November 1st, I attended my friend's Day of the Dead party, a sacred evening when we celebrate loved ones who have gone on to heaven. The photo above is the altar I built to honor two young men, two of my 24-year-old son's close high school buddies, who have died suddenly in the past eighteen months. I took pictures of the altar and sent them to the mothers [...]