Put On Your Thinking-Cap
Good morning... Sunday afternoon through Tuesday breakfast, the Holy Spirit and I facilitated a private "With God Weather Life Retreat" at the mountain home of a dear, deep friend who hosted a hearty handful of women handpicked by the LORD. Sharing our stories of brokenness and beauty, sorrows and joys, darkness and light, we journeyed side by side, as if centered by gravity on life's parallel train tracks, running together up high peaks and [...]
Who Am I Becoming?
Good morning... As we conspire, breathe together with God, our inside self and our outside self grow to become best friends. Connected. Congruent. In constant conversation with our Creator. No longer needed, our icy false self melts into God's warmth, watering the ground of our true "birthright" self. Connected. Congruent. In constant communication with our Creator. Who we are becoming is who God designed us to be, before we ever breathed our first breath. Connected. [...]
God’s Remedy For Anxiety
Good morning... In one week this fall, I learned the root meaning of two key words. One Thursday morning, I learned: "anxiety" means "to choke." I get that. When I get anxious, I tighten up. I spiral down inwardly, constricting myself. I cut off my own air supply with obsessively anxious thoughts. The next Tuesday afternoon, I learned: "conspire" means "to breathe together." On sunny and on stormy days, we are designed to conspire with [...]
Our In Flux Life
Good morning... 2.18.2018. As I write the date in my journal, I notice the pretty pattern of today's numbers. This exact date has never been before. This exact date will never come again. Two. Eighteen. Two thousand and eighteen. We all wake to lives in flux. One of a kind. Imperfectly unique. We all wake today to lives in flux. For some of us life is breaking through to an exciting new. An engagement or [...]
Strong Hate And Strong Love
Good morning... This is the question grabbing my attention from yesterday's post Eight Questions To Ponder: "How have I been shaped by the strongest hate and the strongest love?" Asked by the speaker to quickly jot our first response to each of the eight questions, my answer to this question tumbled onto two lists. Strongest hate: Names of my two most difficult people. Guarded. Fake smile. Straight A's and lying to self-protect. False self [...]
Eight Questions To Ponder
Good morning... This hurting world needs Our Special Endowment, the unique spiritual gift God has placed within each of us. Tucked inside the bulletin from our Women's Lenten Communion Service, we meet deep questions to help us discern: “GOD, WHAT AM I MADE FOR?” Focusing on these eight questions as we journey through the forty days of Lent, we are invited to diligently unwrap the spiritual gift intentionally bestowed upon us by our LORD before [...]
We Love What Death Has Touched
Good morning... He sent me a poem last week, a poem giving voice to our shocking loss, now a poem speaking truth in the wake of a school shooting, and, years back, a poem ringing true on the day it was written by a 12th-century Jewish poet. ****** 'Tis A Fearful Thing by Yehuda HaLevi (1075 – 1141) ‘Tis a fearful thing to love what death can touch. A fearful thing to love, to hope, [...]
Our Special Endowment
Good morning... I slept well in the afterglow of the Women's Lenten Communion Service. Now quietly I sit and savor the Scriptures saturating last night's trip-fold bulletin. Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, [that special endowment] which was intentionally bestowed on you [by the Holy Spirit]... Practice and work hard on these things; be absorbed in them [completely occupied in your ministry], so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close [...]
God, What Am I Made For?
Good morning... In my recent post Fill The Hole In My Soul, I shared words handwritten by my 25-year-old self in my first official journal back in 1988. Afterward a supportive subscriber wrote: "Wow. You are the same as when you were at 25. Older. Wiser. But really the same. If you had cut and pasted that message from your old journal and not said anything, I would have assumed you wrote it today. How [...]
Wisdom In Our Weeping
Good morning... Over thirty years ago when my husband and I walked up the wedding aisle as twenty-four year old newlyweds, we could not have known we would wake today seeking God's wisdom with a community of grievers. Before crafting this morning's blog message, I dig down deep to mine the hidden gems of God's living presence. As the chaplain at our school, which is reeling from the recent loss of a beloved trustee [...]
Verbs To Love By
Good morning... I am not sure why the Spirit nudged me to google: "Mother Teresa quotes." I suppose I was looking for a bit of wisdom from a woman who loved well, loved both our God and the hurting people around her. The following poem was reportedly inscribed on the wall of the home she founded for orphaned children in Calcutta, India. The original version of the poem, written by Kent M. Keith in [...]
Our Deepest Roots
Good morning... Somewhere at some point within this past week, I ran across this quote hanging on someone's wall: "Our deepest roots are not touched by the frost." Our deepest roots have been growing since God first brought us to mind, and disaster and depression and even death deepen us down to our sturdiest roots. Jesus whispers, "I have loved you just as the Father has loved Me; remain in My love [and do [...]