Where Have We Been?
Good morning... As each new season begins, it is important to consider, "Where have we been?" Looking back before moving forward allows us to keep our balance, our sense of stability, our essential equilibrium. So, as I stepped up to preach at the Log Cabin Church on Sunday, I began with these words. ****** We Come Home Together - Sue Allen sermon, June 2nd, 2019 (section one) How privileged I feel to celebrate [...]
Come Home To God
Good morning... The old wooden pews were nicely filled. After saying "Hello" to a handful of friendly, familiar faces, I was escorted to the front of the church, to a velvety antique chair just behind the pulpit. "Oh no," my heart sank. I thought I would be non-conspicuously sitting with the church family until it was my time to step up to share yesterday's sermon. Instead, I was invited up to the front [...]
Savor Sabbath: Come Home
Good morning... This morning, I am privileged to preach at the little Log Cabin Church up the street. For their annual homecoming service, the congregation invites a community member to speak, and this year it's me. This friendly, vibrant church has a rich, 107 year history, so this morning we will come home to these guiding questions: "Where have we been? Where are we now? Where do we sense God leading us next?" Coming [...]
A Pebble In Our Pile
Good morning... Yesterday's morning message, My Change Of Heart, set off the largest avalanche of responses from one blog post, ever. Too large of a pile to sift through in one follow-up, we will examine a single pebble from our pile today. "I trust you know what God is doing," one subscriber wrote and many of you echoed. "While I am looking forward to new blog posts, I am really going to miss [...]
My Change Of Heart
Good morning... At our Writers' Group gathering this week, we enjoyed a delightful dinner together under outdoor ceiling fans. When it was my time to share, I heard myself say, "Well, the big thing for me is that God has changed my heart as a writer." Meeting one year ago in the final week of May, everyone in the group remembered me saying, "I cannot wait for the Summertime Devotional to come out so [...]
One Special Dinner
Good morning... Last night I enjoyed a very special dinner. I slid into my seat with a private tableful of women, three I knew mildly, four I had never met. These longtime friends asked me to join them as they discussed how to help their teenage daughters process a time of deep loss and great grief. Another family in our community is waking up to an excruciatingly difficult day. These women and their [...]
Deep Then Wide
Good morning... Our writers' group of ten women has been meeting most months for over ten years. So when one writer challenged us last week with the quandary of a quote, a variety of comments came cascading down. You will remember the initial words from our recent post Drill Deep. "This a small section of something I read today," the instigator wrote. "When one gallon of water is spread to its thinnest molecules, [...]
Our Heart At Home
Good morning... "Oh Sue, I know what you mean!" one subscriber wrote to me after reading last week's posts, Welcome To Our Messy Home, Does My Mess Bless, Seasonal Insanity, and Dust If You Must. "I think any mom who has cherished the happy chaos of childhood gets it. Ok don’t laugh, but one of my favorite rainy day activities was piling flour onto big cookie sheets and letting the boys play with their [...]
Remember
Good morning... "Sue, my dear friend," he wrote, "this weekend I hope everyone will take three minutes to remember the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died on battlefields across the globe over the years in places like Belleau Wood, the beaches of Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, the sands of Iwo Jima, and the meat grinder of Okinawa so we can live free today." My special friend continued: "Then I would [...]
Savor Sunday: Spring Up
Good morning... As I circle my way down into God at my core, a new idea springs up. Instead of encouraging you touch six times the "Previous" link on the top of each Sunday message, I am inspired to connect us directly to the Everyday Blog tab on our SueToYou.com website. Now that's a fresh, ingenious thought. Easy. Colorful. Inviting. At our leisure this Sabbath, we simply scroll through old messages we may [...]
Drill Down
Good morning... Saturated by the mayhem of May, I received a convicting email from a friend. She wrote, "Here is a small section of something I read today: 'When one gallon of water is spread to its thinnest molecules, it can cover an area of nearly five square miles. It would be difficult to see, and beyond that it would be ineffectual for any real purposes. However, if the molecules of that same [...]
Dust If You Must
Good morning... An empty-nesting mom ministered to a group of pre-school moms right before my eyes. In class she read aloud the following poem, encouraging us all to savor the life season surrounding us right now. Regardless of your current season of life, what creative juices flow as you experience God's joyful invitation? ****** Dust If You Must by Rose Milligan Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better To paint a picture, or [...]