Good morning... I got a funny email yesterday after sending my post, "God goes before us," a post ending with this Bible verse, "Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you,” Deuteronomy 31:8 (NLT). The team mom from my daughter's high school lacrosse team emailed me these words: "OK - This post is written [...]

Good morning... I have been tenderized by two words for nearly two weeks: ...But God... These two words linger from the Easter morning sermon I experienced. Louie Giglio, pastor of Passion City, rattled off several hypothetical scenarios in which these two words break into ordinary lives. "I was caught in the ugly web of addiction and lost everything I loved ...But God... met me in my pain, I surrendered to Him my life, and [...]

Good morning... I love when time evaporates. Sipping tea in the living room of my friend who is managing the effects of her chemo treatment, we talked seamlessly for nearly two hours. As we meandered through details of the bond God has woven between us, time evaporated. We marveled at the colorful threads in the rich tapestry of our shared story. Not until yesterday did we piece together the fact that, thirteen years ago, [...]

Good morning... I, only half jokingly, said to my husband, "If I were someone else, I am not sure I would want to be my friend. I am close to so many people struggling with so much. I wonder if I, as a friend, am somehow a lightening rod for bad luck!" Loss of a child, a spouse, a parent. Cancer battles, parenting challenges, facing the ravages of addiction. Divorce, depression, dealing with an [...]

Good morning... Two weeks ago today, I felt nudged by God to open my home from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm. The Spirit urged me to invite early for lunch three of the women in my 1:00 pm Tuesday class. I wanted to support these friends with a private time to talk and to pray together as they supported up close their personal friend, who was grieving the sudden loss of her son the [...]

Good morning... What a beautiful, invisible web God is weaving between us. I caught a glimmering glimpse of God yesterday following my post, "Interpreting my dream." I received the email below from a "sue2you" subscriber I have never met from Pennsylvania, and the overlapping details of her life and mine are beyond human understanding. I am in awe of the way the LORD spoke through my dream and her dream on the very same [...]

Good morning... In the middle of the night, I woke from a dream. I went back to sleep and I just woke again. I felt profound peace in the middle of the night, and now I am trying to piece together the dream details and mine for their meaning. Here is the dream I experienced last night. Behind our back fence there is a scout lodge, tall trees, and a campfire circle. On that [...]

Good morning... I crack up at God's timing and God's surround sound in our everyday lives. A few days back, my post was entitled "'Practicing' God's perspective," encouraging us to see our real selves, every person we meet, and the vibrant creation around us through the compassionate eyes of God. I crafted the post and sent it out. Then I went back to find Henri Nouwen's daily meditation in my email. His message on [...]

Good morning... We are invited into real relationship with a compassionate Creator who is actively at work in our everyday lives. How much of this living, loving God do we tap into on a daily basis, when we are tired or lonely, when we are making important decisions for ourselves and our loved ones, when there are so many hungry, hurting needs in the world where we live? God offers us priceless power, palpable [...]

Good morning... A friend in our "sue2you" community shared with me this interesting quote from Ram Dass. "When you go out into the woods and you look at the trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You appreciate it. You see why it is that way [...]

Good morning... My maternal grandmother told fascinating stories. Even though she lived in Kansas and I lived in Ohio, visits with her as I aged became increasingly meaningful. Two of her life stories I remember most vividly have shaped my life of faith. First, my grandmother was raised as an oldest child on the western frontier. When she was five years old, her little brother died at age two, taken by a sickness before [...]

Good morning... On Easter morning, our college students requested to go to the Cobb Energy Center for the Passsion City worship service. So, we as a family of seven (my husband and I, our four kids, plus our year long Chinese exchange student) hopped in two cars and drove into the crowded excitement. David Crowder, Kristian Stanfill, and other talented singers whose songs play on Christian radio stations filled the packed place with powerful [...]