Good morning... I feel drawn to share with you the uplifting words from yesterday's daily devotional sent from the Henri Nouwen Society. ****** Solitude is the Way to Hope by Henri Nouwen Intuitively, we know that it is important to spend time in solitude. We even start looking forward to this strange period of uselessness. This desire for [...]
Good morning... "Hello all," a brave daughter of a subscriber wrote a letter to her extended family, giving me permission to share it with you. "I’m sure you all have heard of what’s happening in our country right now in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. I know that many of you hold very different political [...]
Good morning... Each morning we wake into a little pocket of liminal space, as we quietly cross over a new threshold, from what was to what will be. I set my alarm clock very rarely. Instead I love being woken when God's Spirit stirs me from sleep, coaxing me from my unconsciousness into the more conscious portion of my [...]
Good morning... The hands of the hand-painted clock above fell off long ago. This broken clock hangs on the wall in my spiritual direction space, an invitation for me to stay keenly alert for God's perfect timing, kairos versus chronos time. Chronos, clock-time, is the measurable sequence of seconds, minutes, and hours structuring our daily lives. Yet it [...]
Good morning... "I think we are all living in what Rohr calls liminal time," she said to me at a backyard reception following the funeral. Intuitively I agreed, then I thought to myself, "I need to look up the definition of that word again." Liminal. Wikipedia shares this drawing and this detailed description: "In [...]
Good morning... I followed the suggestion given in yesterday's blog post, Stand Actively Silent. "Active silence," Dr. James Johnson explained, "is stepping to the back of the line and creating space and opportunity for others to speak, especially those who don’t look like me or experience life as I do – those voices that I don’t normally hear." In [...]
Good morning... Since 2006, God has organically grown my spiritual gifts in the rich soil of Northside Church. I have seen many staff members come and many go, but one person I have seen stay, grow, and flourish is Dr. James Johnson, our Director of Adult Discipleship. During this period of pandemic, our church has begun sharing online [...]
Good morning... If I am a grain of wheat, I wrestle with John 12:24. Jesus says, “Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over." You see, I like [...]
Good morning... My old iPhone 5-S died. I posted about that yesterday. As the day unfolded, it became clear: our morning message was not about my phone. It was about our shared sense of losing touch. Stripped by the chaos of Corona, our economic breakdown, and the unrest of injustice, collectively we have lost a lot. As manmade [...]
Good morning... Separation from our old normal happened bit by bit. First the cancelation of highly anticipated large group gatherings, then unplugging from beloved small group supports. Next staying away from familiar buildings, church, school, office, then safely distancing from the homes of family and friends. Gradually we reduced ourselves down to computer contact, Zoom, online learning, and [...]
