We “Easter” Joy
Good morning... As the plastic, pastel eggs are tucked away for next year and the last chocolate Easter bunnies are now at ninety percent off, I am brought back to the spring wisdom of When The Heart Waits. "There is a line from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins that speaks to me: 'Let him easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us, be a crimson-cresseted east,'" writes Sue Monk Kidd [...]
Savor Sabbath: You Are Like Me
Good morning... You are like me. Imperfect. Improving. Intimately to connected to God, Self, and others. As an online community, we bring our whole selves out from the isolating dark, where negatives develop, into the light of God's redeeming love. I enjoy taking time on Sundays to savor where we have been, reviewing the spiritual baby steps we toddle, week by week. Another cool thing for me is that different posts get better [...]
We Name. God Tames.
Good morning... As we gathered for the last time this semester for our Monthly Spiritual Growth Group, I read aloud from my heavily underlined copy of The Hidden Life Awakened. Sharing from pages 130 and 131, I highlighted the spiritual growth of our spiritual mentor 93-year-old Betty Skinner. "All of this inner work was gradually bringing Betty to a clearer knowing of her true self as well as enabling the presence and love [...]
Bless Don’t Stress
Good morning... "My dear Sue," she wrote. "I did not respond to your 'crazy' message as I was proudly basking in the light of a perfectly celebrated Easter weekend with our children and grandchildren. I was quickly brought back to reality when I received a text from our daughter blaming me for her daughter being sick at school with a tummy problem. It was because the children got so much chocolate (in their [...]
Do Not Wear Worry
Good morning... "Sue, I just read both Monday and Tuesday's posts," she wrote yesterday. "Well as your 'crazy' moment was about turkey, my UGLY moment was about what our young adult kids chose to wear to church on Easter Sunday. I went off before we left the house and ended up being the naggy mom. So, instead of just being happy that they were BOTH going to be in church with me, I was [...]
My Divine Mistake
Good morning... In the cozy gray comfort of everyday life, I love the way God's light shines on our bathtub around 5:00 pm, evening after evening. Earlier in the week, I snapped this photo before heading to a friend's home to be with the grieving husband of a girlfriend who had died of cancer last month. To remind a small group of us about this gathering, an email reminder had popped up in my [...]
We All Lose It
Good morning... Seems yesterday's post, My "Crazy" Popped Out, pierced a nerve. Just listen to the emails gushing the blood of our human nature. "Your message is one I need to hear over and over again as I go through different seasons with my husband, our boys, our daughters-in-law, and our grandkids. It's a constant struggle to refrain from making things all about 'me' and to think about God's 'Easter power' rising up [...]
My “Crazy” Popped Out
Good morning... In yesterday's post I was grateful to sense the fruits of God's Spirit growing early on my Easter Sunday branch, as I heeded Betty Skinner's wisdom: "The big 'I' must die." Twenty-four hours later, I realized my big "I" had not died, instead my big "I" was crouching inside, keeping score. Let me explain. Two minutes after this picture was taken following the Easter service at our oldest son's church, my [...]
Savor Sabbath: Easter Power Rises In Us
Good morning... I noticed Easter power rising in me twelve hours early. Let me explain just what I mean. At noon on Saturday, I sat on our couch folding load after load of warm, clean laundry. I had enjoyed a conversation with each of our two college-aged daughters home for the holiday weekend and our seventeen-year-old son who added items to our growing grocery list before getting ready for his afternoon lacrosse game. [...]
Were You There?
Good morning... This sacred Saturday, we are called to remember, piecing together, mentally re-membering the painstaking process that crucified our Lord. Here is a song to help you remember, piecing together, re-membering in your mind God's ultimate gift of sacrificial love. Let's take ourselves back with a touching rendition of Were you there? Late in the afternoon a wealthy man from Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus, arrived. His name was Joseph. He went to Pilate [...]
Being Stripped Bare
Good morning... As a church staff, we sprinkled ourselves into the pews of our wide-open sanctuary to commemorate Maundy-Thursday together. Music. Prayers. Scriptures. Sermon. Communion. We experienced the memory of Jesus' final moments wrapped in the flesh of a man. With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw [...]
Join Me On The Park Bench
Good morning... This Maundy-Thursday morning, we meditate on the gentle gifts given by our Lord. "Meditation is like taking a little time to sit on a park bench," writes my friend, 93-year-old Christian mystic, Betty Skinner, "touching your old Friend's hand, feeling the warm sunshine together, gazing at the new blooms that have unfolded overnight, listening for what He might be moved to say, occasionally sharing your hopes and your tears, being together [...]