Good morning... Almost flippantly, she said something really profound. I captured the Holy Spirit wisdom in my blank journal. "We try to add and add and add," she commented, "but God multiplies magically." Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot [...]
Good morning... After a fun filled weekend, God just woke me from sleep around 1:00 am, nudging me to read two emails which waited patiently in my inbox. "As you know we are studying Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer," wrote a loyal leader of our Banquet Bible study, the longest running study at Northside Church, [...]
Good morning... "When you say, 'I believe in God,' what do you mean?" asked the final page of our assigned reading. I sketched my answer, this boat riding stick figure. The God I trust has three parts. God the Creator is like the ocean, endless water buoying me. God the living Christ surrounds me tangibly like a sturdy, [...]
Good morning... "Gratitude attracts more reasons to be grateful," whispers one little card. "Heaven is breaking through the veil all day, every day," echos The Hidden Life Awakened by Kitty Crenshaw and Dr. Cathy Snapp. "Hot coffee, warm fire, beautiful sun diamonds on the river, eyes of love looking into yours, animals, children, art, grass, cool breeze, changing [...]
Good morning... "Coping is something we do when we are overwhelmed," says the single note I took at our therapeutic community group at PAWkids yesterday. Instead of searching for the words in the puzzle above, I decided to search my heart, pondering the given list of helpful coping skills. Smile. Clean. Exercise. Walk. Water. Sing. Relax. Turtle. Laughing. [...]
Good morning... Queen Elizabeth II. Hurricane Fiona victims. Ukrainians and Russians killed in senseless war. Floods in central Italy. An earthquake in Taiwan. Wildfires blaze wildly out west. Gun violence steals lives across our nation. So many friends have recently lost loved ones to disease, to cancer, to addiction, to suicide, to overpowering riptide currents. It seems that [...]
Good morning... God set our new semester ablaze as we gathered to study one tiny book, Simple Faith by Margaret Silf. As we have seen the horrific images of the mass graves found in Ukraine this week, I have pondered one long sentence from our class reading. "She will learn to distinguish between those things in life - [...]
Good morning... "God leads us with cords of human kindness," says Hosea 11:4. The God Almighty uses people - weak, vulnerable, powerless people - to guide us with reigns made of love. I am reminded of the book bag tag given to each child at church before the start of the school year. Weak, vulnerable, powerless kids can [...]
Good morning... "When you pray, simply dwell on one line," she encouraged, "something like sucking on a candy rather than gobbling it up, or soaking in a bath rather than jumping in and out of the shower." I prayerfully dwell on one Bible verse. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them [...]
Good morning... I texted her yesterday, "Kate Bowler's blessing is deeply yours today." ****** A blessing for when you're different now by Kate Bowler Blessed are you, dear one, when the world around you has changed. Everything is different now, your body, your age, your relationships, your job, your faith. The things that once brought you joy. The [...]
