Savor Sabbath: Rooted In Trust
Good morning... Eight out of ten times our family worships God at church on Sunday mornings, but today we will savor this Sabbath differently. My husband will worship God this morning at a coffee shop, meeting up with a Lovett School grad who wisely unplugged from college for the weekend to come home to talk vulnerably about the ways he is struggling. Uncharacteristically, I will worship God this morning around the breakfast table [...]
Today They Bury Their Boy
Good morning... “Hi Sue, I hope you are well,” wrote a friend from last year’s Sr. Moms Study. “I have prayed over whether to share the news of this latest suicide with you. While mine and my family's lives have been touched by several of the other incidents in our community, this one hits the closest to home. This young man’s father used to practice with my husband and our families were extremely [...]
One Trusting Wife
Good morning... On September 10th at 9:48 am, after reading our post, We Are Learning To Trust, one reader wrote me a touching email. "Last night my family and I moved my husband of 63 years into hospice care. Your writing about trust spoke to me profoundly this morning. My journey these next few weeks or days leaves no option but to trust. Which I do every day. The only way to survive [...]
Our 9/11 Bond
Good morning... "We all have something important in common," she said softly, as we neared the end of our first fall gathering of our Sr. Moms Study. "We were all pregnant on September 11th, 2001." "Pregnant or caring for a newborn," I quietly added. Our youngest son was born on June 5th, 2001, so he was three months old when the planes plowed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, striking [...]
Trust God Radically
Good morning... "May we have faith in the unfolding of our lives," hoped yesterday's paraphrase of Psalm 106, "and radical trust in the universe." What does it mean for us to learn to radically trust the Sustainer of our universe? Researching the meaning of "radical" in its original language, two Latin words pop up. The adjective "radicalis" means "of, related to, or proceeding from a root." The noun "radix" means simply "root." To trust [...]
We Are Learning To Trust
Good morning... I crossed my legs and closed my eyes as she privately read aloud to me an excerpt from Nan Merrill's paraphrase of Psalm 106. ****** May we become bearers of joy, we who are invited to share in the Cosmic Dance! We pray for the gift of wisdom, that the motivations of our heart might be made pure, That we may recognize the perfect timing of all things and know the [...]
In Fire And In Flood
Good morning... Worshipping at church yesterday, one sentence touched me deeply, reminding me of the challenging week we have collectively experienced. "You're with us in the fire and the flood." I came home and googled the title of the song sharing this most powerful promise. Now it is your turn to be strengthened by the music video God drew me to discover. Wake up and strengthen whatever you have left, teetering on the [...]
Savor Sabbath: Opportunity Abounds
Good morning... After crafting yesterday's post, We Live In Layers, I returned to my email and received this message from a dear friend: "Please consider helping my neighbor as she tries to rebuild her life from a devastating house fire on Wednesday night. https://www.gofundme.com/f/house-fire-recovery-for-dale-pierce-taylor?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet." As I read through her difficult story and scrolled through the list of "Go Fund Me" donors, I saw many names of people I know and love. One small part [...]
We Live In Layers
Good morning... There are so many different aspects of life, various layers of you, me, and us. Football and fantasies. Fighting and friendship. Fun, food, and family. Hurricanes and helpers. Heartache and healing. Hardness, hurriedness, and hopefulness. Wasteful and wonderful. Whining and wondering. Waiting, watching, and "What if?" Individually and collectively, we are a moving mass of living layers. Our daily prayer begins to become, "LORD, please permeate me so that I might see You at [...]
Links To Hurricane Relief
Good morning... Wisdom lingers within me from yesterday's post, When We Feel Broken. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence (Ephesians 1:20-23, MSG). I am so grateful to be a prayerful part of Christ's living [...]
When We Feel Broken
Good morning... I find my mind lifting prayers for devastated Dorian victims in The Bahamas and those most vulnerable residents on our eastern shores. As a symbol of silent solidarity, yesterday I wore this necklace, reminding myself, "With God as our glue, we will heal whole together." Made with a stone I picked up on a Bahamian beach in 2015, this primitive necklace reminds me of the broken body of Christ depicted in the [...]
How Can We Help?
Good morning... Before sophisticated, arial footage of the utter devastation in The Bahamas, "those victims" would have remained foreign, faceless, far away. What stays out of sight slips from our mind. What our eyes see our minds retain. What saturates our mind, our heart feels. What our heart feels moves our lips, our feet, our hands. I am grateful for the media coverage of the Dorian's aftermath. Horrific images. Frightening firsthand accounts. Searching [...]