We Are Being Saved Whole
Good morning... Until we look inside ourselves, to the very marrow of our God-drenched soul, we look for love in all the wrong places. People. Political and religious leaders. Paycheck after paycheck, we search for deeper meaning. Sue Monk Kidd says it this way. ****** Excerpt from When The Heart Waits Without maps or signposts, people search for their inner home in the wrong places: in professional success, material status, institutions, persons, pleasures, [...]
How Do We Pray?
Good morning... She said to me honestly, "With all of the division in our world, religiously and politically, I really am not sure how to pray." Her confusion made me think of Sue Monk Kidd's comment: "To believe you can find your way 'home' through the crises and the sufferings that fall upon you - and believe it even in the midnight of your struggle - requires a transfigured vision. It requires faith." [...]
All God’s Critters
Good morning... A funky song comes singing from my brain, an old song implanted within me deeply during my active youth group years. "All God's critters got a place in the choir. Some sing low and some sing higher. Some sing out loud on a telephone wire. And some just clap their hands, their paws, their everything-they-got-now." I truly believe that all of God's critters have a place in God's choir and it [...]
My Angels Have Broken Wings
Good morning... I simply must tell you, most every angel figure in our home has at least one broken wing. The angel pictured here, who sits beside us when I host outdoor spiritual direction sessions, broken. The angel in our main nativity creche, broken. The angels in the smaller nativity scenes kept at Christmas in each bedroom, broken. The angel reading a book in our front garden, broken. The angel doing a headstand [...]
Our Fertile Common Ground
Good morning... In my quiet time this morning, I am drawn to cultivate yesterday's controversial post, expanding the fertile, common ground beneath our feet. Whether we walk to the middle with God from the left or walk to the middle with God from the right, As we take into our body the broken body of Christ, we are united in a holy, intimate mystery. Centered at one with God, we encourage rather than criticize. [...]
Broken Open Together
Good morning... I felt privileged to serve holy communion to our family of faith during a tumultuous time in the United Methodist Church. With my feeble fingers I pulled off a small piece of the whole homemade loaf and placed it in the open palm of each person walking up to receive a living morsel of transformational truth. To the young mom worshipping without a soulmate I encouraged, "This is the body of [...]
Savor Sabbath: Love Never Ends
Good morning... Whatever life phase you wake up to this springtime Sabbath, God's endless love rains down fresh and gentle. “Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As the light rain upon the tender grass, And as the spring showers upon the herb" (Deuteronomy 32:2, AMP). What teaching has the LORD dropped upon us this week? What sacred speech might we distill as the dew? As spring [...]
We Share The Love We Receive
Good morning... "I appreciate your efforts in presenting the 'Living Fully - Dying Well' series," she emailed me after we finished our six-week series on peacefully attending to various facets of the final season of life. On the last week we each brought symbols of loved ones who have gone ahead of us to heaven. A funny bow tie. Meaningful jewelry. A blue bird figurine. An original sash from the women's suffrage movement. [...]
We Come Alive In Community
Good morning... I am grateful to be the Women's Ministry Director at Northside Church. My spiritual gifts have grown deep roots and fresh fruits in the rich nurturing soil of our family of faith. My True Self comes alive in collaboration with the diverse, creative people in our loving community. As we move toward the Lenten season, check out the life-giving opportunities available. Our six-week class and our annual Women's Lenten Communion Service [...]
God Dawns In Our Differences
Good morning... Yesterday morning, I received a copy of the heartfelt letter Rev. Bill Britt sent to congregants from nearby Peachtree Road United Methodist Church. Here are some of the highlights. General Conference of the United Methodist Church has ended. In the last hour of the final session, delegates approved the "Traditional Plan" - the General Conference has upheld its prohibition of gay weddings officiated by United Methodist clergy or taking place in [...]
God Expands Through Us
Good morning... "I picked up my Bible and turned the pages, becoming aware of how God had revealed this ageless process in its stories," whispered yesterday's post. "I read it not only as a chronicle of salvation history but as the story of an inner journey taking place in the landscape of one's soul. Egypt, wilderness, and promised land are comparable to interior states of being: larva, cocoon, and butterfly. In both journeys [...]
Connection Is Lost
Good morning... "Connection is lost," said the computer just as I went to send you our completed post in the early morning hours. "Connection is lost," halted, disrupted, severed us from our normal timing. Yet our computer's "Connection is lost" message provided a perfect, unexpected analogy for today's tidbits of truth. In each of our classes this week, we have been discussing Chapter 4, "Crisis As Opportunity," in Sue Monk Kidd's When The [...]