Good morning... As I taught class, wisdom broke the surface of my lips: "We would not scold a spring bulb for failing to pop from the soil more quickly. Why do we scold ourselves for not being further along in our spiritual progress?" Invisible to the eye, bulbs are experiencing significant movement, day after day, tucked six inches deep down in the dirt. Establishing first a strong root system is essential to sustain future [...]

Good morning... This weekend, my husband and I were given tickets to see "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" at the Alliance Theater. Powerful. Meaningful. The play forced me to see the battle between evil and good, in subtle and not-so-subtle forms, in each character and in each audience member willing to look in the mirror. Dressed in the costume of a helping angel, Nurse Ratchet leads the "peckin' party" for the enemy of [...]

Good morning... To prepare for our upcoming "Women's 1st Wednesday Book Club" at Northside Church, I am reading Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place. I fell in love with these words on page 31: "He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but to my surprise he said nothing. At last he stood up, lifting his traveling case from the rack over our heads, and set it on [...]

Good morning… Walking with a friend this week, I learned an interesting fact. The bite of a snake is not what kills a person. Poisonous venom spreading throughout a body is the common culprit of death by snakebite. As I research this truth further, I learn some interesting facts. One common misconception is that snakebites themselves are usually fatal. In truth, even during frontier times, only one quarter of the bites from pit vipers [...]

Good morning… I hope that every time I combine the numbers 9 and 11, I remember the life altering tragedy of September 11, 2001. One year later, on September 11, 2002 at 5:00 am, these raw words saturated my journal page: “I know now why I’m writing in this black book. It is right. It is honorary. It is the color of today. So many vital, loving, one-of-a-kind people woke up to the last [...]

Good morning... In a handful of hours, a small group of us will gather around a friend whose cancer has returned. We will lay our hands on her. We will call upon God to fill her with healing power. We will gather in unison, one voice, one prayer: "Please, LORD, perform Your miracle." Why will we do this and what good will it do? First, Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:19-20 (MSG): "When two [...]

Good morning… About a week before we launched “sue2you”, I had a very vivid dream. I was at three places in the dream all at once. First, I was an overall observer of the event, second, I was the driver of the van, and, third, I was somehow inside the “power pack” in the scene. Strange, I know, but let me explain. I was driving my van down a nearby street and I accidentally [...]

Good morning… He said, "You know, theology is just like ice cream. We all have our favorite kind." To demonstrate, he polled us for our favorite ice cream flavor. I said, "If there are fresh strawberries around, my favorite is vanilla." She said, "Neapolitan." He said, "Cookies and cream." She said, "Coffee ice cream." My friend said, "My favorite flavor is the freedom to pick my flavor." There are a lot of great theologians [...]

Good morning… Growing up in Berea, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, one thing I remember of the summer months is chasing lightening bugs in our back yard just before bed. We'd poke holes in the tops of mason jars then go outside to catch as many lightening bugs as we could track down. Any of the tiny miracle creatures we could cup in our bare hands would be dropped in our personal jar and [...]

Good morning… God had you in mind on April 30, 1988. When my pen left its first mark on a blank journal page, these are the words formed by my twenty-five year old fingers: “Being aware and attentive to feelings, thoughts, inklings is very important to me. For if I don’t know my inner world, I won’t be able to share it with you. And if I don’t share what I have been given, [...]

Good morning… Our twenty-year-old son sent his dad and me this video. As many of you know, my husband is a committed early morning runner and I am a committed early morning writer. We both relate to this video on so many important levels. I hope these words and images encourage you to find your best way to come close to our Creator, morning after morning. http://www.desiringgod.org/run Come close to God, and God will [...]