Good morning... Gathering around the kitchen island as one dear friend prepared a birthday dinner for another dear friend, we were discussing how important Jerry and Anne Landers have been to our church family, for years and years and years. Teaching Sunday school. Leading Bible studies. Facilitating worship experiences. Instigating healing prayer. Volunteering on committee after committee. Sharing [...]
Good morning... I love this image from Kate Bowler's devotional for the week. The picture gently holds hands with title of her email. "Joy is the oxygen for doing hard things." This subject line is a quote from Gary Haugen who runs International Justice Mission, "a non-profit organization committed to liberating vulnerable individuals from the clutches of modern [...]
Good morning... While nursing a partial tear in her ACL, our dog Tate chased after a squirrel, yelped really loud, fell to the ground, laid down for a long while, lame. That night we let Tate sleep outside for potty purposes. In solidarity, in case she needed help, I slept under a blanket on our outdoor couch beneath [...]
Good morning... I remember sitting on the rug in a circle one morning during my kindergarten year. We quieted down from our giddy as we were each blindfolded. Then, one child at a time, our teacher tenderly held beneath our nostrils a series of everyday items. I was the only one in class who instantly knew the warm, [...]
Good morning... As we settle into non-anxious silence, God's inner music begins to beacon. We are gently drawn toward the peace, the power, the presence of God. "Sue," she wrote after yesterday's blog post, "I always feel overwhelmed by the number of people that I love who desperately need prayer. I could sit all day and hope to [...]
Good morning... She read to me the Rachel Naomi Remen quote above and down, down deep it sank. Wisdom settled like a skipping stone at the bottom of my murky sea. "Perhaps the most important thing we bring to another person is the silence in us, not the sort of silence that is filled with unspoken criticism or [...]
Good morning... "It's late August," Barbara Brown Taylor begins her first chapter in Learning to Walk in the Dark. "I am lying in my yard on a blow-up mattress waiting for Friday to become Friday night, which is how I know people are wrong when they say, 'It's as clear as the difference between night and day.' That [...]
Good morning... As the full harvest moon slowly begins to empty and September breathes its last, I experience a strange occurrence. After taking our dogs out to relieve themselves in the middle of this night, I sit down on the couch to write. A few minutes later I hear a slow and quiet "creeeeeeeeeeeek." Moving cautiously toward the [...]
Good morning... Waking in the middle of the night, I am surprised by the brilliant light resting on our couch. I snap the photo above then walk around to find more creative light streaking our floor and rug. As if on a scavenger hunt, I follow the glow onto the back porch. Voila, I discover the source. A [...]
Good morning... My mom returned home to their independent living villa in Olmsted Falls, Ohio. For nearly a month she slept away from my dad, from hospital stay, through surgery, ICU, colostomy bag, to recovery at the skilled nursing center at their senior living community. Yesterday my mom settled into her favorite chair, grateful and content. My sister [...]
