Good morning... "Gratitude is a seed you plant," said the minister at the celebration of Eliza's twenty-eight year old life. "This seed grows up into joy. Radiant joy comes from planting small seeds of daily gratitude." Though her body was riddled with cancer, Eliza's radiant joy was unmistakably contagious. This week Henri Nouwen also encourages us to plant [...]
Good morning... Sometimes a song sings just what we feel. I am hoping this music video adds another dimension to our ongoing discussion about the will of God. Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6:9b-10, KJ21). ...Sue... [...]
Good morning... As you can imagine, after our past two posts which wrestle with "the will of God," I have received many heartfelt emails from fellow followers of Christ trying to explain the philosophy of life stabilizing us during tumultuous times, like an anchor steadies a ship. I will share a heavy handful of our treasured thoughts. "These [...]
Good morning... "Would you like me to seat you inside or out on the veranda?" asked the hostess. "I would love to sit on the veranda," my spirit leapt. As I enjoyed a quiet meal to myself, I thought about the word "veranda." By definition, it is a large, open porch, usually roofed and partly enclosed. Rarely stumbled [...]
Good morning... "This is not God's will," the minister said at the celebration of Eliza's vivacious, twenty-eight year old life. "This is outside the will of God, but not outside the love of God," he tried to explain the deep mystery of grief. But I had just written in our blog post, "I entrust Eliza’s life to God’s [...]
Good morning... As I prayerfully consider the story of Ginny Owens, this beautiful singer/song writer who lost her sight at age three, I can't help but wonder, "God, why would you allow an innocent child to go completely blind?" I'm not the only one who has struggled with this question. In John 9:1-7 (TPT) we meet the disciples [...]
Good morning... "Sue," she emailed me, "I wanted to share this 'heavenly' picture of the full moon that I took this week after some storm clouds had passed through. I was awestruck by what I was seeing. It is from a back deck at the beach on the longest day of the year! Use it whenever you want [...]
Good morning... "I have been out of touch but reading and connecting with you most mornings," she wrote. "I am so heartbroken and encouraged by the beautiful and tragic story of Eliza." "When I saw the title of your message I'll Walk Through The Valley," she continued, "I thought to myself, 'I haven’t heard that song in a [...]
Good morning... "Thank you for posting the music video of I'll Walk Through the Valley," my friend wrote after yesterday's blog post. "It's so hard to watch Ginny Owens sing this song, but so healing too. This song got Eliza through so many dark days - along with Psalm 23." As we step forward into this new day, [...]
Good morning... I was deeply touched by the song performed at the celebration of life for twenty-eight year old, Eliza. When I got home from the reception following the service, I googled the song title and found the music video below, performed by the original artist sitting at the piano, staring ahead, and singing through her own dark [...]
