Good morning... As a church staff, we sprinkled ourselves into the pews of our wide-open sanctuary to commemorate Maundy-Thursday together. Music. Prayers. Scriptures. Sermon. Communion. We experienced the memory of Jesus' final moments wrapped in the flesh of a man. With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from [...]
Good morning... This Maundy-Thursday morning, we meditate on the gentle gifts given by our Lord. "Meditation is like taking a little time to sit on a park bench," writes my friend, 93-year-old Christian mystic, Betty Skinner, "touching your old Friend's hand, feeling the warm sunshine together, gazing at the new blooms that have unfolded overnight, listening for what [...]
Good morning... "Oh Sue," she wrote at 8:38 pm last night, nearly twenty-four hour after our first exchange. "To God be the Glory for the words He places on your heart, captures though your pen, lays on your lips. What you have written is the TRUTH! Continue speaking it, my Sister in Christ." (She was referring to yesterday's [...]
Good morning... "Hey Sue," she emailed at 8:23 pm last night. "I am being so blessed by reading your blogs. My daughter and I were talking this afternoon about the devastating destruction of Notre Dame. She asked me is this another sign of the 'end of times' read about in revelation? I would love to hear what you [...]
Good morning... "I absolutely love the checkmark visual," one subscriber wrote after Saturday morning's post. "The word descent makes me think of falling completely in love and being totally dependent on God at happy times - my wedding and the birth of our children - in addition to the really difficult seasons." She's right. Painful life seasons (the [...]
Happy Palm Sunday... This week we commemorate the biggest checkmark of all time. Beginning today, the Christian church around the globe follows Jesus' descent into the depth of God's love for all of us before ascending to fullness of life we never thought possible. "Jesus’s real purpose in this sacrifice was to wager his own life against his [...]
Good morning... Life-changing experiences shape us into our best selves, one checkmark after another. Let me tell you what I mean. We all know what a checkmark looks like, right? A descending line. Touching down to a bottom base before changing the trajectory of motion. The uptick of an ascending line growing to a higher level than ever [...]
Good morning... "It's bittersweet," my heart thinks as I quietly put away the mugs, the teas, the snack bowls that have rested regularly on our foyer table, welcoming women into our home week after week. "It is bittersweet to end another winter/spring season of learning." Yes, my schedule will breathe a little more freely and, yes, I will [...]
Good morning... Yesterday I facilitated our final weekly class of the season. This semester has been a doozie. Our discussions have embraced real life, ups and downs, hopes and hurts, whys and why nots. Planning weddings, funerals, and impending graduations. Facing challenging family issues and life-changing divorce. Mourning the death of pets and parents, friends and family members, [...]
Good morning... After being moved by yesterday's quote, we asked a helper to run six copies, one for each of us to take home. On the copied page lived another set of wise words, words written by Frank Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters by a Modern Mystic. "I feel simply carried along each hour," writes Laubach, "doing my part [...]
