Santa Cruz Sundays

Below is a section from the morning prayer out of a book called Every Moment Holy.  It ties in with what I sent you last week. May it be a fresh way to start your day today (and each day this week).  💛💛💛💛💛 Prepare our bodies for the labors of this day. Give us strength and health to complete them. Prepare our minds for the demands of this day. Grant us clarity, creativity, and discernment. Prepare our souls for those sorrows and joys and celebrations and disappointments we will encounter, that every circumstance would serve only to draw us nearer to you. May our words, our choices, and our actions today be offered as true expressions of worship. Now you who are loved of God, step forward into this new day appointed by him, that you might journey through its hours in the peace and grace and the love of your Lord. Lead us this day, Lord Christ that we might walk its paths in the light of the hope of our coming redemption. Amen

This is one of my absolute favorite blog posts,  and I wanted to share it with you as I thought about this again when you called to ask me about your decision you had to make last week about either going rock climbing or going to the fellowship group on campus. Though I read this 6 years ago, I still think about this story a lot (and I've highlighted my favorite parts in case you need to skim it.) May this help you think about all the things you do with a different posture as it can change everything.  And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.  — Nehemiah 8:6 I was a Christian, and I was a dancer. A  ballerina , as I liked to avow with all the solemnity of seventeen. Studying classical ballet three and four days out of the week, showing up early to stretch before class, wrestling against all the opposing forces of aching...

You might remember my sweet friend Susanne Hassell from Knoxville who died 7 years ago.  She wrote this lovely book below (and her son Paul did the photography), and I re-read the  introduction this weekend to it that reminded me of you. I hope you find something that  will inspire you along the way in some of your times outdoors in the week ahead. 

good thing Easter is not just one day--- it's a 7 week celebration!  I Praise you for this Resurrection Madness Lord of such amazing surprises as you put a catch in my breath and wings on my heart. I praise you for this joy, too great for words, but not for tears and songs and sharing, for mercy that blots out my betrayals and bids me begin again, and to limp on, to hop-skip-and-jump on. To mend what is broken in and around me and to forgive the breakers; for this YES to life and laughter, to love and lovers, and to my unwinding self; for this Kingdom unleashed in me and I in it forever. And no dead ends to growing, to choices, to chances, to calls to be just. No dead ends to living, to making peace, to dreaming dreams, to being glad of heart. For this resurrection madness which is wiser than I and in which I see how great you are, how full of grace, Alleluia! -Ted Loder,  Guerrillas of Grace pictures from neighborhood walk  the last of the cherry blossoms this week ...