Come, the table is set for you. I know you wish someone could feel the depth of your pain. Truly understand it. Take on the full weight of it. Swallow it down whole. I see you. I hear what you don't say. The questions you're afraid to ask, because you fear asking will unravel what bare thread of faith you have left. I feel your ache for things to go back to the way they were before. The grief reminds you of every road now closed for what seems like forever. I know you feel ...
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Elijah’s Gift – What Does Dill Relish Have to Do With It?
It was one of those moments you experience in both slow motion and lightning speed at the same time. I don’t know how it happened, but the glass jar disappeared from my grasp and hit the floor before I could stop it. Pickle juice and dill relish flew both before me and over my head five feet behind me! The pungent stench was immediate. Tiny flecks of pickle were everywhere. Any other time I would have been super frustrated about it. Then the sound of spilled food would have alerted our little ...
This Resurrection Life
Though you are being resurrected you may feel half dead What feels dead is really only sleeping Stretch make space for the awakening Let what is buried in you be spoken be honored be loved be accepted Day after rising day of the Son Resurrection Life is living inside of you even in the suffering. Living this Resurrection Life with you, ...
What’s the Point of Easter, Really?
I have heard many Easter Sunday sermons in my 40-something years of living. As a teenager, I even participated in massive Easter productions that marked the final weeks of Jesus on earth. The real-life scenes unfolded, flipping through the stories of Scripture from the moment Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a young donkey, while people waved palm branches shouting "Hosanna!" to the shift when they exclaimed "Crucify Him!" instead, ending with a compelling and dramatic Resurrection and ...
Space to Breathe
With excerpts from "The Secret Garden" "It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place anyone could imagine. The high walls which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of climbing roses which were so thick that they were matted together… All the ground was covered with a grass of a wintry brown and out of it grew clumps of bushes which were surely rose bushes if they were alive… There were other trees in the garden, and one of the things which made the place look strangest ...
How to Stand in the Rain When Forbidden Clouds Actually Threaten Your Sunrise
Read last week’s brief Sunrise Cliffhanger before today’s resolution! Imagine my disappointment when, after driving two hours with a certain view in mind, arriving at the north beach, I see storm clouds threatening from the south. Not just any kind, but the type of solid, massive, utter darkness encroaching upon the sea. In Georgia, nine out of ten storms move from south to north. Still, I prayed for the clouds to part, to move a different direction. Afterall, it’s happened before, why not ...
Sunrise Cliffhanger
The alarm pierced through the silence of night, announcing a very early morning. The small cabin room laid dark. I reached for my cell phone to hit the proverbial snooze button, afraid I’d fall back asleep and miss my date. 4:30 AM. I had a rendezvous planned with the sunrise at a beach almost two hours away. I’d driven over to the family cabin a few days for a writing retreat. Thinking I’d get my bearings straight and gain direction for the new website, it turned out God wanted to work more ...
Can Anything Good Actually Come from These Ashes?
I see you sitting there among the ashes. I’ve watched you wonder in dismay how on earth you got here. How the earth turned to ashes, having burned your hopes, your desires, your very identity. I see you overwhelmed by the propensity to give up, give in, and let it all die; to let it smolder away with the wind. Your unrealized dreams mock you. Shame taunts you to believe you’re a failure. I see how the smoke disorients you, cloaking you in its fog, settling on you in a cloud of confusion. ...
Breathe
Breathe in… “Be still…” Breathe out… “…And know that I am God”1 in this place Breathe in… “Be still…” Breathe out… “…And know that I am God” In this place Breathe in the breath of God The life The ruach2 The very life force of God himself breathed into us that we might have life Breathe It’s ok if you run at a slower pace than others right now. Trust that the pace I set for you is good. Trust the race I give you is tailor made just for ...
Melissa. Daughter of God. Lover of Jesus. Wife to Andy. Mama to four fun-loving adult children, and two bonus sons. And now, Mia to TWINS. Embracer of brave. Why? Because in every doubt, in every broken cry, God is making me whole again. Join me?
