Good morning... Last Wednesday, Bonnie returned to our afternoon class after years of being a loyal member. She certainly had a difficult story to tell and a deep need for the prayers of our group. Bonnie told us the long version of her mother's situation. Two Sundays ago, Bonnie's 83 year old mom, Patricia, fell at the Sandy [...]
Good morning... We set up our new pack and play and got out some of the rattles, books, and blankets given to us when our first grandson was born. What fun to host Charlie and his parents, Kyler and Chandler, for two nights this weekend. We enjoyed coffee together each morning before they headed onto their full days. [...]
Good morning... "A lady gave this to us at the market this morning," a friend texted on Saturday. "I absolutely love it! So good right? So simple and yet something I had never really thought of." "I love it too," I replied. "Listening to God requires W.A.I.T.ing, asking ourselves, "Why am I talking, trying too hard, terriblizing? We [...]
Good morning... Waking in the middle of the night, the light on our bathroom floor whispers, "Sue, remember, it's night one of this full moon cycle." So I walk barefoot out into the night and looked up to see the moon shining brightly over our jagged roofline. In our [...]
Good morning... From page 16 of Waking Up to This Day by Paula D'Arcy, we savored this sentence together. "Catherine of Siena writes, 'My deepest me is God.'" (Pause. Now. Really think about that. "My deepest me is God.") Then we moved to the next page and read aloud a powerful paragraph. "It's as if each of us [...]
Good morning... Still. Quiet. Pampered. As the recovering women awake this morning on their spiritual retreat at Ignatius House, I am asking God to meet them in profound, new ways. Each time we can truly "be still" and know on a deeper level that God is God (and we are not), we uncover fresh facets of our genuine [...]
Good morning... This image of a homeless person resting on a bench lives in the foyer of the Ignatius House Retreat Center. The humble figure draws my attention every time I enter the sacred space. Arriving on the gorgeous grounds yesterday around 5:30 pm, I found that the doors were locked to the library where I usually place [...]
Good morning... Eugene Peterson spent zillions of hours translating the entire Bible into a relatable language for us common people. The Message translation is an inviting gift to our world, a gift birthed by Peterson's long obedience in the same direction. Leif Peterson eulogizing his late father, Eugene, at the First Presbyterian Church in Kalispell, Montana on November [...]
Good morning... Yesterday afternoon, we happily gathered for our first monthly class of this new semester. Amidst our great discussion, we read aloud from page 24 in A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson. "...one motif occurs again and again," wrote Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. "A traveler loses his way in the forest; it it [...]
Good morning... At Northside Church, our Faithful Fitness class began a new semester on Wednesday morning at 9:30 am. One gift that blessed our time together was cooling down to Christy Nockel's song entitled Home. The song mirrors the truth of Psalm 23:6 (GNT). I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life; [...]
