Damp “Dry Spells”
Good morning... One line lingers from yesterday's "sue2you" message. "Oh honey, even the saints had spiritual dry spells!" It strikes me that spiritual "dry spells" are not really dry. Actually, dry spells of the Spirit are quite often wet. Wet with weeping. Moist with meaning. Damp with deep desire. Spiritual "dry spells" carry us downstream toward the Savior of our souls. In fact, when God spoke light into the damp darkness existing before creation [...]
Simply Be A Conduit
Good morning... After reading yesterday's message, "From dark to dawn," she wrote: "Oh my goodness Sue, we have such parallel stories. Please share Lindsay McCaul's beautiful song "Take My Hand" with your subscriber. Like you, my disconnected time followed a move that unexpectedly brought up emotions of loss from a miscarriage suffered over a decade earlier. We lost a twin at 13 weeks pregnant and my doctor put me on bedrest and said to [...]
From Dark To Dawn
Good morning... After reading a post about me living on after the life of my dreams was severed, she wrote: "Dear Sue, tears are pouring down my face as I am reading this. I am certainly no stranger to deep dark depressions as I have suffered from these most of my life, but God has chosen to prune me back at this point in my life until it seems there is nothing at all [...]
Chaos Births Identity
Good morning... Chaos. We hate the word. We hate the experience. We hate her synonyms. Disarray. Jumble. Turmoil. We love her antonyms. Order. Peace. Calm. Yet one line from one book has stayed with me for twenty five years. "Identity is born out of chaos," penned Sue Bender in her 1991 book, Plain and Simple. What does Bender mean? "Identity is born out of chaos." Tricked by our human nature, we falsely feel we [...]
Trying Times Of “Tohu”
Good morning... When darkness was upon the face of the deep (Genesis 1:2), one Hebrew word sums up the atmosphere into which God spoke the first light. "Tohu." English words resembling "tohu" describe an experience familiar to many of us. Confusion. Emptiness. Formlessness. Complete chaos. "Tohu's" primeval disorder precedes God's creative activity. Always has. Always will. A trying time of "tohu" precedes our own sense of clarity, our personal process of being fully formed, [...]
Beginning Again
Good morning... How fun it is for my fingertips to listen for the LORD's movement in the early morning hours. As hurricane Hermine exposes the vulnerability of Florida's Gulf Coast, God's winds now blow us back to the start of it all. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering [...]
Living God’s Song
Good morning... As I drove to fitness class at the church, a chorus resurfaced from our years of leading youth group in Gettysburg, PA. "Here I am LORD. Is it I LORD? I have heard You calling in the night. I will go LORD if You lead me. I will hold Your people in my heart." Amid planks and squats, leg lifts and push ups, why was I surprised when this very song came [...]
Listening Without Shoes
Good morning... "I waken this morning as one being taught." This sentence coaxes me to awareness from my sleeping state. Next a prayer dawns, "LORD, give us a teachable spirit." As we hone the art of early morning listening, LORD, help us to crave the wisdom You teach. Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning then breaks into my consciousness, adding her voice to our holy chorus: "Earth's crammed with heaven And every common bush afire with [...]
Sacrificial Scraps Of Love
Good morning... This Memorial Day morn, I think of my grandparent's generation, a generation which was heavy laden with the effects of war. Just yesterday, I was reading one of my old journals entries dated August 27, 2005. Back then I wrote these words. "I'm drawn to the note attached to the quilt that covers the old oak rocker for my writer's desk. The note, beautifully etched in my grandmother's handwriting, reads: ' The [...]
I Need To Say “Sorry” And “Thanks”
Good morning... Regrets ruin. The unsaid undermines. When the moment is lost, so is the opportunity. As spring fades to summer, my unsaid regrets linger. I have lost an opportunity. I feel convicted to say "I am sorry" for two things this spring. First, in March, I went on two spring break trips back to back. One week to the mountains of Colorado with my husband and our two youngest kids. The next week, [...]
The Sweet, Needy Power Of A Puppy
Good morning... Thanks to a friend of a friend, who is an intake worker at a dog rescue organization, we patiently found our way to our next family member. We are still settling on a name as this eight week old golden retriever/yellow lab pup settles into our home. I have not cared for a puppy or a baby for years now, so I had forgotten the power of being with a being who [...]
Spring Tips Into Summer
Good morning... Spring is tipping into summer everywhere I look. The pruned back branches of winter gave way to small leafy buds this spring, and now those same trees are exploding with green growth. I watched my neighbors' lawn guys dig up still beautiful pansies yesterday. Purple and white flowers remaining poised atop thinning, scrawny stems. A few weekends ago, I too changed from pansies to begonias in the pots outside my front door. [...]