We Are A Work Of Art
Good morning... "Good writing, the adage tells us, is when we read something we've always known but never been able to put into words," explains Padraig O Tuama, the inspiring author of the delightful book we are reading for our Sunday afternoon monthly study, In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World. Beside this profound sentence, I jot in the margin: "Good comedy. Good poetry. Good singing. Good painting. Good movie-making. Good [...]
Pull Me Out Of The Noise
Good morning... In our blog posts this week, we have been exploring the tangled-up places inside of us, culminating in yesterday's post, In This Chaos, Where Is God? Without skipping a beat one reader wrote: "I just read your morning offering and then opened this..." "I can smooth out all the tangled-up places, including those in your mind and heart," says God through the image above from the Sarah Young Jesus Calling message [...]
In This Chaos, Where Is God?
Good morning... From miles and miles away, she emailed me after yesterday's post, "I'm All Tangled Up." Our heart and head, tangled. Our fear and worry, tangled. Our love and control, tangled. Our anxiety and stress, tangled. Our depression and grief, tangled. Our gray skies and hope, tangled. Our belief and our journey, tangled. We wake toward a light that is not our own, it is the light of joy. "Oh my," wrote [...]
“I’m All Tangled Up.”
Good morning... "Oh I wish I could just fly up and join you to make wordless prayer cards," she wrote yesterday from a few states away. Then she explained: "My heart is tangled with my head, my head is tangled with fear, my fear is tangled with worry, my worry is tangled with love, my love is tangled with control, my control is tangled with anxiety, my anxiety is tangled with stress, my [...]
Joy And Sadness Are Born Together
Good morning... A friend emailed me the Nouwen devotional below. It serves as a grounding reminder: joy and sadness are born together. ****** DAILY MEDITATION | SEPTEMBER 9, 2023 - by Henri Nouwen - Every Bit of Life is Touched by a Bit of Death Joy and sadness are as close to each other as the splendid colored leaves of a New England fall to the soberness of barren trees. When you touch [...]
Remembering The Names
Good morning... I pulled the three stapled pages from my mailbox at church and read his kind note. "I wanted to share this poem by Billy Collins in case you haven't read it before. Collins wrote it in 2002 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of 9/11/01. I think it captures the heartbreak of the senseless taking of hundreds and hundreds of innocent lives." I brought the loving gift home and slowly read aloud [...]
9/11: One Dark Day
Good morning... On Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, suicide hijackers seized U.S. passenger jets and crashed them into two New York skyscrapers, tragically killing nearly three thousand innocent people on one ordinary day. On this Monday, September 11th, 2023 we honor the memory of those loved ones lost on the twenty-second anniversary of the attack, which remains one of the most traumatic events of the century. It is fitting that this 9/11 [...]
In Those Quiet Hours
Good morning... I happened upon a gorgeous reading just posted by one of my favorite poets. In processing her own grief after her son Finn's death, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer has become for many of us like the sweet sun rising in the dark of night. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises (Ecclesiastes 1:5, NIV). This new morning, enjoy God's guiding light spoken [...]
One Marries. One Dies. Why?
Good morning... On September 3rd, as we celebrated the new life born from the wedded union of our oldest son and his wife, one of Kyler's Lovett School classmates died of cancer. In my memory, Pearce Howell and his twin sister Laura were gently kindhearted and quite talented athletically. He played baseball; she played soccer. The twins would have turned twenty-nine years old together next week. Pearce's obituary is short, sweet and soulful. [...]
Wisdom From A Lifelong Friend
Good morning... Walking down the aisle as mother-of-the-groom, I was surprised to feel my tears well up as I saw the faces of our longtime friends beaming in the crowd. Four couples who helped to raise our son came from Atlanta along with their grown-up sons, guys who had wrestled or played soccer with Kyler since we moved to Vinings, Georgia when he was eight years old. These old friends have shared some [...]
WOW. What A Wedding.
Good morning... WOW. What a wedding. Our family of six grew another daughter on Sunday, as Chandler and Kyler Allen became husband and wife. Here are my top three Wonder Of Wonders. WOW #1: The Lord drew these two faithful young people together in an undeniable way, and God's Spirit was so palpable all weekend long. WOW #2: We were grateful for our family [...]
Our Prayers Are Answered
Good morning... A friend sent me these encouraging words from the left page in her book. "You're stepping into a week of answered prayers." What a marvelous perspective to take on our everyday lives. "God is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t worry” (Deuteronomy 31:8, MSG). This truth reminds me of a text string I shared with [...]