Pause. Look Right.
Good morning... Envisioning our collective journey being lived upon a timeline, we pause. Looking left, we see where we had been before our recent four-day technical glitch. Now we pause to look right. At the moment of disconnection where was the Spirit leading us? I was working on a post quoting Parker Palmer: "Depression is the ultimate state of disconnection." Then, as if on cue, technology disconnected us. I kept living. 24 hours. 24 hours. [...]
Pause. Look left.
Good morning... As the Holy Spirit slows down our pace, we pause and look left. Where were we when the God's glitches began wreaking havoc? Together we were diving deep into the valley of depression. After a rash of suicides, school shootings, and violence at home and abroad, concerned people are commenting, "We must closely consider the collective and personal state of our mental health." God was leading us down into depression's dark valley and [...]
Pause. Pay Attention.
Good morning... After a four day, Holy Spirit hiatus caused by technical difficulty, I wake to the following notice in my inbox. Your list has lost a subscriber. sue@suetoyou.com Sue2You Blog Unsubscribe Date Mar 16, 2018 07:35 pm Email Address sue@suetoyou.com First Name Sue Last Name Allen Unsubscribe IP 141.126.187.10 View Unsubscribe When I "View Unsubscribe," the reason given is: "Thank you." In case you are wondering, I did not unsubscribe from our daily [...]
God Is In Our Glitches
Good morning... My most recent daily blog post was sent out four days ago. Then I hit a computer snag and sent you an email entitled: "Technical Difficulties - Will Return When Fixed." Over the years, I have grown to believe that computer snags and technical difficulties often occur when God is fighting to get our attention. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, [...]
Deeper, Deeper Still
Good morning... During my suffering season, I did share deeply with a small handful of old friends. That level of me was important to walk and talk through with trusted companions. And then there were two cloudy levels deeper, deeper still. My deepest core level was lived just with my God. Our hard-fought wrestling match, bout after bout, was chronicled in several of my journals and some of my words found their way into [...]
Cloudy Balanced Layers
Good morning... So many of you have responded so kindly to our recent posts revealing my experience of deep depression (Heavy And Hollow) and of my fear that people would think less of me because of it (I Feel Like Jerry Maguire). Thank you all for resonating with my realness. In their extreme contrast, two responses in particular taught me the importance of living with cloudy, balanced layers. One friend I know well now, but [...]
I Feel Like Jerry Maguire
Good morning... After "pushing send" on yesterday's raw, real post, Heavy And Hollow, I thought, "I kinda feel like Jerry Maguire." Remember him? After his own life-altering epiphany in the 1996 romantic comedy/sports film, Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) "pushes send" on a personalized mission statement about perceived dishonesty in the sports management business and his desire to work with fewer clients to produce better quality. After emailing his passion-filled, raw-real words to everyone in the office, he [...]
Heavy And Hollow
Good morning... As I hazily recall my own walk down-and-up through the deep valley of depression, two words linger longest. Heavy and hollow. It is weird to feel heavy and hollow at the same time, like the shell of a 500 lb. chocolate Easter bunny who is empty inside. My depression was partially situational and mostly quite spiritual. God had called to me as clearly as possible, coaxing me to leave behind the comfortable [...]
Making Peace With Mystery
Good morning... "Sue, I am so glad you posted this," she wrote after yesterday's message Depression Varies. "Making peace with mystery runs counter to our culture. Sharing this truth with others can help open the door to honesty in God. And, usher us out of the false phrases that stand in for those things we really don't/can't understand...but feel compelled to try to understand. When we offer 'junk food' in those times we are desperate [...]
Depression Varies
Good morning... God's timing is impeccable. After sharing in yesterday's blog the description of Betty Skinner's clinical depression in the 1960's - what it felt like, what it tasted like, what it dragged-on like - I read these words aloud to our afternoon class from this week's assigned chapter. ***** Depression comes in many forms. Some are primarily genetic or biochemical and will respond only to drugs; some are primarily situational and will respond [...]
Betty Is Reborn
Good morning... At age 92, Betty Skinner is living Betty Skinner very, very well. Yet, as The Hidden Life Awakened by Dr. Cathy Snapp and Kitty Crenshaw creatively chronicles, for many years Betty stayed stifled beneath her smiling, southern role, silencing her special, sacred soul. With God hiding my updated edition somewhere in my home, I am coaxed to climb between the covers of my old, tattered copy of The Hidden Life published in 2006. [...]
An Intense 10 Days
Good morning... "I AM part Billy Graham," wrote a subscriber after yesterday's post, Why Were You Not Billy Graham? "My mother is his youngest sister and only surviving sibling. It's been quite an intense 10 days for our family. Thanks for this reminder that we are to be who God created us to be and not someone else." Debbie Ford Gourley lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and, though we write back and forth regularly [...]