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 [...]
Why Were You Not Billy Graham?
Good morning... Billy Graham drifted home to heaven, and I can imagine God smiling big: "You did Billy Graham really well." The influential person of faith God envisioned, when he knit Billy together in his mother's womb, is likely very similar to the Billy who now rests at peace forever, the Billy we see in this video tribute: https://vimeo.com/256952383?ref=fb-share There was never before and will never again be another Billy Graham. Billy Graham lived Billy [...]
Wake Up Well
Good morning... This spring, I told you earlier I Feel Pregnant With Quadruplets, holding, nurturing, expanding opportunities conceived by God's Spirit. Three weeks ago, our Northside Writers' Group birthed the Women's Lenten Communion Service; a special, sacred evening was enjoyed by all. Two weeks ago, we birthed a second, powerful With God Weather Life Retreat in Ellijay, Georgia; the ripples set in motion by the Holy Spirit are continuing to enlarge. One year ago this week, [...]
How To Prevent Burnout
Good morning... After sharing a quote in yesterday's post from Jan Johnson's When The Soul Listens, I quietly rest in the rest of the nurturing chapter. I eat from the feast prepared on pages 170 and 171. ****** The rhythm of action and contemplation makes compassion fatigue and burnout unnecessary. Your conversational life with God will keep you richly supplied with companionship and innovative ideas. As an author and longtime commentator on social justice [...]
A Well Of Quietness
Good morning... "Significant doers draw from a well of quietness before God," writes author and spiritual director Jan Johnson. "For example, Amy Carmichael was a single missionary to India who received temple prostitutes, eventually establishing a home and school for them. She also wrote this: 'Give much time to quietness. We have to get our help for the most part direct from our God. We are here to help, not be helped, and we [...]
One Picture Sums Up Many Words
Good morning... When our freshman at Ole Miss was recently home for a long weekend, she was working on a paper about the "self-reference effect," a phenomenon of memory that causes an individual to integrate an experience differently depending on their own degree of personal involvement with the art, the person, the event itself. Media is a mediator, a go-between, and if we live off secondhand reports of reality rather than experiencing truth ourselves, [...]
I Ran Out Of Gas
Good morning... Two weeks ago I ran out of gas. Completely embarrassed, I did not mention it to you before now. What almost-fifty-five-year-old runs out of gas? Then in the title of yesterday's post, God sparked the word "fueled" and I remembered my recent experience of literally running out of fuel. I had had one of those weeks. Drained by deep sorrow over a second suicide in two weeks and hearing the heart of [...]
Fueled To Overflow
Good morning... Nibbling on nuts and sipping a glass of wine, I enjoyed the new-book-signing for a man I admire. If God had a human voice, it would be Ron Greer's. Strong. Steady. Soothing. If anyone lives like Christ most moments of most days, it is Ron Greer. Real. Reliable. Relentlessly relational. If anyone needs a referral for pastoral counseling, I personally recommend Ron Greer. Tender. Trustworthy. Tried and true. During quiet time this [...]
Give Grace
Good morning... As I wallowed in my mistake I remembered a poignant story from Brene Brown's The Gifts Of Imperfection. On page 14, Brene writes: "I recently saw another example of ordinary courage at my son Charlie's preschool. Parents were invited to attend a holiday music presentation put on by the kids. You know the scene - twenty-five children singing with fifty-plus parents, grandparents, and siblings in the audience wielding thirty-nine video cameras. The parents [...]