Good Friends Help
Good morning... Our Friday class began by giving updates on our prayer concerns. The basement space in our home, where we gather for class, has lovingly been called "a womb with a view," as we circle up in the presence of God, week after week, important things gestate in the hiddenness of our soul. Then last night I received the tender image above from one of these friends, Joan Alexander, who recently spoke [...]
We All Need A Little Mercy Now
Good morning... The rains held off, and we walked in wonderful weather, mild and inviting. Along our way, we ran into two 'soul friends' also walking and talking at the horse farm. One is supporting her husband through treatment for his pancreatic cancer and the other is blossoming beautifully on the other side of a divorce and remarriage to the love of her life. Both are being schooled by the Spirit, moment by [...]
Let This Day Gently Unfold
Good morning... We were trying to schedule a walk-and-talk to and from the horse farm. "Tomorrow might work as long as the weather holds..." she texted. "Want to play it by ear and text each other in the morning?" "Yes, that's perfect," I responded. "Have an awesome day. Just let it gently unfold." I looked up and snapped a photo of an antique pink rose unfolding on our coffee table. With my 'soul [...]
Steve Says, “This Is The Day.”
Good morning... "This is last night at 9 pm," said the heading above the photo taken by my 'soul friend' from her front porch in Norway. The lingering patches of snow. The grounded boat dreaming of summer. The wrapped up car protected from harshness. The modest homes nestled beside the water. The mystical mountain range touched by a rich mixture of wispy clouds and setting sun. I thought, "What a gorgeous way to [...]
McLeod Reframes Our Grief
Good morning... In these wee hours I am drawn to a poem, a poem widening a very sacred space in us. ****** The Great Reframe by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Let this sorrow that has opened me to love be like a frame that has no photo— so I might know how to be this broken open, this tender, this compassionate with anything, not only toward the one who first filled the frame. Let [...]
I Saw The Spirit Spread
Good morning... This Easter season, I saw God's Spirit creatively at work, loving, spreading, multiplying. I witnessed the words of Jesus coming true before our very eyes: "I tell you for certain that if you have faith in me, you will do the same things I am doing. You will do even greater things, now that I am going back to the Father" (John 14:12, CEV). With the Spirit of the risen Christ [...]
Holding An Empty Womb
Good morning... "Mary at the Base of the Cross," reads the title of this painting by Chris Gollon. The mood is melting, silent, somber. Even the glow of the moon drains down like a tear. Helpless hands hug weathered wood. One hand is upright, sturdy like a back bone. The other is cupped, holding an empty womb. Hollowed-out shadows streak the blue-grey cross. Hidden, a mother's heart is dripping with anguish. Now she [...]
I Am Just Like You
Good morning... When we were in Israel, we went to Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center. Intense. Heartbreaking. A reminder of such excruciating pain and suffering. I took a photo of this quote from Benjamin Fondane, who was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944: "Remember only that I was innocent and, just like you, mortal on that day, and, I, too, had a face marked by rage, by joy and pity, quite [...]
I Stop Trying. Again.
Good morning... I have tried three times to write this Maundy-Thursday message. 1:30 - 3:30 am: My plethora of scattered thoughts just simply would not connect. I went back to bed. 7:00 to 9:00 am: After working diligently again, I touched one wrong random button. Away zapped all my hard, irretrievable work. Now it's 9:01 am: I give up. I surrender. I stop trying. An Ah-ha reminder returns, "For Lent, I am giving [...]
What A Friend We Have
Good morning... Up in the middle of the night, I crafted a message with God. Then some technical glitch clogged up our communications, and, tired, I decided to go back to bed. I hoped things would work more smoothly after waking from my second sleep. Then an interesting thing happened. I was stirred awake by a song. A song from my childhood sang sweetly in my brain. What a friend we have in [...]
Praying Out Our Grief
Good morning... By 10:00 am last Monday, three innocent 9-year-olds and three loving educators were killed in the safety of their small Christian school, before police put down the 28-years-old suicidal shooter. Then, by 10:00 pm that very same night, forty migrants (most from Guatemala) were left to die in their locked retaining cells as fire ripped through a detention center in Juarez, Mexico. It was one of the deadliest migrant tragedies in [...]
We Can’t Answer “Why?”
Good morning... At this time last week, things felt a little safer, a bit more predictable, a tad less confusing. Then a few violent minutes in Nashville, Tennessee stole the life of three innocent children and three caring educators in one little school. An excerpt from an article appearing last Tuesday morning verbalizes our haunting question: "Why?" ****** Weeping in Nashville: Where is God when unspeakable acts beget unspeakable sorrow? by SCOTT SAULS, [...]