Good morning... As I hazily recall my own walk down-and-up through the deep valley of depression, two words linger longest. Heavy and hollow. It is weird to feel heavy and hollow at the same time, like the shell of a 500 lb. chocolate Easter bunny who is empty inside. My depression was partially situational and mostly quite spiritual. God [...]
Good morning... "Sue, I am so glad you posted this," she wrote after yesterday's message Depression Varies. "Making peace with mystery runs counter to our culture. Sharing this truth with others can help open the door to honesty in God. And, usher us out of the false phrases that stand in for those things we really don't/can't understand...but feel compelled [...]
Good morning... God's timing is impeccable. After sharing in yesterday's blog the description of Betty Skinner's clinical depression in the 1960's - what it felt like, what it tasted like, what it dragged-on like - I read these words aloud to our afternoon class from this week's assigned chapter. ***** Depression comes in many forms. Some are primarily genetic [...]
Good morning... At age 92, Betty Skinner is living Betty Skinner very, very well. Yet, as The Hidden Life Awakened by Dr. Cathy Snapp and Kitty Crenshaw creatively chronicles, for many years Betty stayed stifled beneath her smiling, southern role, silencing her special, sacred soul. With God hiding my updated edition somewhere in my home, I am coaxed to climb [...]
Good morning... "I AM part Billy Graham," wrote a subscriber after yesterday's post, Why Were You Not Billy Graham? "My mother is his youngest sister and only surviving sibling. It's been quite an intense 10 days for our family. Thanks for this reminder that we are to be who God created us to be and not someone else." Debbie [...]
Good morning... Billy Graham drifted home to heaven, and I can imagine God smiling big: "You did Billy Graham really well." The influential person of faith God envisioned, when he knit Billy together in his mother's womb, is likely very similar to the Billy who now rests at peace forever, the Billy we see in this video tribute: https://vimeo.com/256952383?ref=fb-share There [...]
Good morning... This spring, I told you earlier I Feel Pregnant With Quadruplets, holding, nurturing, expanding opportunities conceived by God's Spirit. Three weeks ago, our Northside Writers' Group birthed the Women's Lenten Communion Service; a special, sacred evening was enjoyed by all. Two weeks ago, we birthed a second, powerful With God Weather Life Retreat in Ellijay, Georgia; the ripples set [...]
Good morning... After sharing a quote in yesterday's post from Jan Johnson's When The Soul Listens, I quietly rest in the rest of the nurturing chapter. I eat from the feast prepared on pages 170 and 171. ****** The rhythm of action and contemplation makes compassion fatigue and burnout unnecessary. Your conversational life with God will keep you richly [...]
Good morning... "Significant doers draw from a well of quietness before God," writes author and spiritual director Jan Johnson. "For example, Amy Carmichael was a single missionary to India who received temple prostitutes, eventually establishing a home and school for them. She also wrote this: 'Give much time to quietness. We have to get our help for the most [...]
Good morning... When our freshman at Ole Miss was recently home for a long weekend, she was working on a paper about the "self-reference effect," a phenomenon of memory that causes an individual to integrate an experience differently depending on their own degree of personal involvement with the art, the person, the event itself. Media is a mediator, a [...]
