After A Tragic Loss
Good morning... "I love the last paragraph of today's post," she wrote after reading yesterday's morning message Shocked Grievers Have No Words. Given each breath, we inch our way into moment by moment. Hour by hour. Day by day. Week by week. Month by month. Season by season. Year by year. "That is exactly how we proceed after a tragic loss without even realizing it," she continued. "At first, in a blur not even realizing [...]
Shocked Grievers Have No Words
Good morning… I pick up my pen and stand in the gap for shocked grievers who have no words. Life can change abruptly. Unexpectedly. Forever. One morning we wake up to “normal” and by nightfall we toss and turn, turn and toss. “Why? How? What if?” What do we do when death destroys our face to face, skin to skin, voice to voice connection? We join the cries of those who have walked the [...]
Gratitude Holds Hands With Grief
Good morning... Mary, my soulmate from Charlotte, N.C. whom I have never met, wrote to me from the beach yesterday. Her words are perfect and poignant. ****** My life is Blessed…But My Son Is Dead?!?! How can it be? I am taking in the majesty of God’s Kingdom at the beach in the winter…the ocean with it’s vastness, rolling waves, and churning power, glorious sunsets, glass-like water reflecting the sun with dolphins dancing in [...]
Are You Overwhelmed?
Good morning... Scary feelings. Scattered thoughts. Struggles strangle. We are overwhelmed. Too many needs. Too many options. Too many expectations. We are overwhelmed. Difficult decisions. Demanding deadlines. Depression descends. We are overwhelmed. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7, NIV). But God is invisible and God does not talk like us and God works in ways we do not understand. Pour out all your worries and stress upon him [...]
Tiptoeing On Broken Glass
Good morning... I knew exactly what she meant: "I feel like I am tiptoeing on broken glass." When life shatters into shards, we tread tenderly with loved ones, fearing their pain, fearing ours, fearing bare and bloodied feet. Vulnerably inching into grief, the only way through is through. Sometimes shoes are necessary. Sometimes they are not. I knew exactly what she meant: "I feel like I am tiptoeing on broken glass." He heals the [...]
Convicted By My Coffee Pot
Good morning... Overflowing black liquid. Sizzling burnt smell. Mess moving across our kitchen counter. The new coffee pot our kids bought for me this summer was "acting out" terribly. "Did you read the directions?" our wise daughter asked. "Of course not," I thought. "A coffee pot is a coffee pot. I know how to work a coffee pot." Fortunately, we have a drawer where we stash appliance instructions, so we pulled out the pristine [...]
Shush The Inner Noise
Good morning... "Many voices ask for our attention," whispers Henri Nouwen's 1.13.18 morning meditation. "There is a voice that says, 'Prove that you are a good person.' Another voice says, 'You'd better be ashamed of yourself.' There is also a voice that says, 'Nobody really cares about you,' and one that says, 'Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful.' But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that [...]
We Find New Strength
Good morning... A few days ago I posted Prayer Is Free Time With God, writing: "A momma bird and her young one capture my attention. Her wide wings fly beneath, guiding, guarding, giving confident trust. The individuating creature flaps a unique set of wings. I sense: 'No one can fly for us, we must engage our whole self.'" "You fully captured the essence of the nurturing mother bird modeling flight for her young," replies a [...]
God Transforms Us Inside Out
Good morning... Resolutions. Some make them. Few keep them. Why, by now, have many good intentions waned? Because the focus of most resolutions is on our own external efforts. We promise to do more or less. We strive to look better, feel better, act better. At the beginning of each year, many of us commit again to perfecting our weak parts. How does this play out in our relationship with God? "Concentrating on practices [...]
Prayer Is Free Time With God
Good morning... Sitting on our back porch enjoying leftover chili, I open noontime space in my slow-paced, full schedule. No agenda. No expectations. No list of "have to's" for God. I breathe. Open-hearted. Waiting. Watching. Mind wandering and wondering. Midwinter grey. 61-degree mild. Naked trees wait with me. Birds. Clouds. Squirrels. Stillness. Solitude. Silence wanders and wonders. A momma bird and her young one capture my attention. Her wide wings fly beneath, guiding, guarding, [...]
God, Heal My Heart
Good morning... "This is an important one," my intuition whispers as the message I had been working on for two hours mysteriously vanished. So, I rewrote the wisdom, as best as I could discern. Here is the "important one" well-deserving of our full attention. "The agonizing pain of a major crisis had me writhing in anger and shame - me, the guy who had tried so hard to be a committed and loving Christian, [...]
God-Given Friends
Good morning... "Friendship is one of the greatest gifts a human being can receive," observes Henri Nouwen's morning meditation from 1.7.18. "It is a bond beyond common goals, common interests, or common histories. It is a bond stronger than sexual union can create, deeper than a shared fate can solidify, and even more intimate than the bonds of marriage or community. Friendship is being with the other in joy and sorrow, every when we [...]