Good morning... Sorting through stacks of old stuff, I happen upon a favorite photo. Canoe. Popsicles. Big wheel. Three of our kids with some of their cousins. My mom, a grandmother of twelve, smiling in her mid-sixties. This endearing image is soaked in summer fun. Some of the same cousins, now in their mid-twenties, are pictured [...]
Good morning... When our oldest son was a little boy, he used to search for the smallest grape in every cluster. This fun memory quietly returned when I met an Estonian proverb: “Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.” Now please read with me a Biblical proverb, a proverb I have structured a bit [...]
Good morning... Sitting at her picnic table, sipping our coffee, we read aloud yesterday's blog post, Buoyed By Good News. After we were done reading together, my nearly ninety-one year old mother-in-law said, "There are about three concepts there I really want to discuss." We opened our individual copies of Falling Upward to page 90, and I began [...]
Good morning... "It has been said that 90 percent of people seem to live 90 percent of their lives on cruise control, which is the unconscious," writes Richard Rohr on page 90 of Falling Upward. "The Holy Spirit is that aspect of God that works largely from within and 'secretly,' at 'the deepest levels of our desiring,' as [...]
Good morning... What does freedom really look like on this complex fourth of July? In the Message translation, 1 Peter 2:16-17 simplifies our answer. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government. Now my thoughts are drawn back to our [...]
Good morning... This week I had the privilege of meeting with both the founder and the current director of Grove Park Renewal, a non-profit which supports the need for affordable housing in downtown Atlanta. After an energizing conversation about important possibilities, one of the men handed out copies of a blog post he had read that morning. Now [...]
Good morning... A truckload of immigrants die in the heat. Loved ones are buried after mass shootings. Wars rage on and on, devastating ordinary lives. These are big newsworthy aches which beg for our prayers. Alongside our communal pain are quieter, daily challenges. Depression. Disabilities. Dementia. Divorce. Death. We all face various aches throughout our lifetime. Aches we [...]
Good morning... On our walk and talk last week, my friend earnestly asked, "Do you really believe it's true? Do you really believe Jesus lived, died and rose from the dead? How can we know that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is absolutely true?" Take a moment now. How might you, yourself, honestly answer my friend's candid question? [...]
Good morning... After our shared silence, she read aloud a poem. Deeply. Slowly. Gently. In this sacred moment, might we each read out loud? Deeply. Slowly. Gently. ****** something unnamed is being called forth in the depths it has the familiar sound of an Abraham and the quiet certainty of a sunrise it has the movement of geese [...]
Good morning... I am empowered by the deep wisdom I gleaned from our Ignatius House retreat about Mary Magdalene. Mary had sensed God's inner voice all of her life, a relentless whisper which clashed with the loud male voices in her everyday world. Her father. Her brothers. The powerful men in leadership. Instead of becoming a young wife [...]
