Good morning... "Life is all about practicing for heaven," says Richard Rohr (Falling Upward, 101). "We practice by choosing union freely - ahead of time - and now. Heaven is the state of union both here and later. As now, so will it be then." In my mind God translates this quote into a three word directive: "BE ONE [...]
Good morning... When I drive solo I drive in silence. No radio. No podcasts. No books on tape. I look around. I think my thoughts. I take in beauty, town to town. I notice. I wonder. I process life. While driving through the colorful hills of North Carolina this weekend, a bumpersticker smiled at me, "Life is good." [...]
Good morning... When we are emptied out by the harshness of life, we dig deeper into God and are filled full in new ways. Each of our posts this week have touched on this theme: as we surrender our own expectations, God's higher ways begin to emerge. Touch the "Past Blog Posts" button below to review our everyday [...]
Good morning... Last Friday night, November 1st, I attended my friend's Day of the Dead party, a sacred evening when we celebrate loved ones who have gone on to heaven. The photo above is the altar I built to honor two young men, two of my 24-year-old son's close high school buddies, who have died suddenly in the [...]
Good morning... Sometimes we meet soul-to-soul before we ever see one another face-to-face. This is the sacred situation occurring between me and a subscriber from Charlotte, North Carolina. Mary writes me periodically to fill me in on her painful process of grieving her son, Dalton, who died suddenly at age twenty-one. In previous posts on the topic of [...]
Good morning... Often I allow some silence before I pray aloud with a group or when I am meeting with an individual, one-on-one or over the phone. Silence slows the pace; it opens breathing space and curtsies to the God of grace. As I offered closed-eyed silence before I said our prayer, a stream of words naturally bubbled [...]
Good morning... I hate it when I spend early morning hours crafting a blog post, and then a misguided mistake makes it vanish, disappear, blip away in an instant. Of course it's me. I swipe wrong. I touch something I shouldn't. My non-technical mind makes some errant error. I hate it when I spend early morning hours crafting [...]
Good morning... Morning by morning, I begin empty, open, thirsty. In each day's first hours, I silently pray, "LORD, please fill me up with Your endless love." I envision my mind, my heart, and my soul as three empty jugs. One vessel (my mind) collects timeless truths from the Creator, the Father, the Almighty, the Maker of all. [...]
Good morning... Following in the footsteps of someone who is following in the footsteps of the Savior who whispers to each one of us, "Follow me." This is my definition of a spiritual mentor, a person leaving relatable footprints while following Jesus with their everyday life. The Hidden Life Awakened tracks the footprints of Betty Skinner as God [...]
Good morning... Being with my spiritual mentor Betty Skinner last weekend reminds me of the "Be the Ball" scene from the 1980 movie Caddyshack. Traveling to Ponte Vedra, Florida to visit with 93-year-old Betty, I had questions about life, about faith, about God. I have admired the way Betty has landed herself in the center of God's will for [...]
