Good morning... "Good vines require cutting and more cutting," says Sr. Judith Sutera, a Benedictine nun and vinedresser. "A mile of runners won't give you one more grape, so get rid of the branches that do not bear fruit. Do you want to keep everything? Then expect nothing. Cut. And then cut some more." By nature, I am [...]
Good morning... Oops. My mistake. Our friend Betty Skinner turned 94-years-old yesterday, not Saturday as I jumped the gun and announced. Again I am humbly reminded, I am a big picture person, not a detail diva. Yet God now morphs my mistake into another opportunity. Kitty Crenshaw, co-author of the book we are studying this semester, The Hidden Life [...]
Good morning... How do we grow up into our Christlike true self? We follow in the faithful footprints left by Jesus as he walked his short lifetime on this dusty earth. We listen to Jesus' constant encouragement: “Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock [...]
Good morning... "I don't know exactly why or even when the idea came to me that I should keep a ledger on deep-felt thoughts," writes Betty Skinner the heroine of our semester's book, who is gracefully celebrating her 94th birthday today. "I have experienced that on one level, in matters of the heart, we are all alone, isolated, [...]
Good morning... On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I read aloud to each class the series of Scripture verses filling yesterday's post. We opened our inner ears to notice the words touching our hearts, then we popcorn-ed out our phrases beneath the heading "Our Hidden Life." As we recorded our reflections, together we scribbled God's answer to our deepest [...]
Good morning... Teaching my favorite book on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I ponder the title, The Hidden Life Awakened. Beneath our many layers, I wonder, "God, what is this 'hidden life' secreted in our depths?" The Word of God illuminates our answer. God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our [...]
Good morning... I used to think I needed older, wiser mentors watering my seeds of faith, people pouring into me, helping me to grow. At the same time, I thought I was designed to be an older, wiser mentor, pouring into the lives of others, helping them to grow. Me being poured into so I could pour out. [...]
Good morning... "Many words rush along like rivers in flood, but deep wisdom flows up from artesian springs," says Proverbs 18:4 in The Message translation. "The words of the mouth are deep waters, but the fountain of wisdom is a rushing stream," says Proverbs 18:4 in the New International Version. "The words of a man’s mouth are like deep waters [copious [...]
Good morning... "Anyone who drinks water will soon become thirsty again," Jesus said to end yesterday's post. "But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life" (John 4:13-14, NLT). I am now drawn to the Message translation of verse 14. "Anyone who drinks [...]
Good morning... "When you take a child and you sit a box on top of them, all they know is what is inside the box," said the quote that began this week's morning messages. "But if you remove that box then the rest of the world is at their fingertips." The same is true for all of us, [...]
