Category: Uncategorized
Letters to the Lord: Change of Plans
Yesterday was Labor Day, Lord, and for the first time in many, many years, I haven’t labored on Labor Day. For most of the past twenty years I’ve been in France on the first Monday in September, and there’s no holiday over there. But for the four times in the past twenty years when I’ve been in the US over Labor Day weekend, I’ve … Read More Letters to the Lord: Change of Plans
Letters to the Lord: Celebrations
This past week has been filled with celebrations. First we flew to the USA and made it here without any major misdemeanors and many masks: Then we got to meet our precious new granddaughter Lena! Of course, there was much to celebrate at being reunited with the rest of our family, too. And before quarantining with our ‘bubble’ here in the Chattanooga area, we … Read More Letters to the Lord: Celebrations
Letters to the Lord: Dark Times
Lord, I’m reading in Job and Ezekiel right now, and honestly, it’s pretty dark. But in a way, this feels like where I need to be reading because the times in which we are living are very dark, too. In Job, he’s endured the worst possible tragedies a human can endure. He’s lost everything. But not because of his sinfulness. Because of a bet … Read More Letters to the Lord: Dark Times
Letters to the Lord: Three Days
I asked Kim Platt, my dear friend, colleague with One Collective, and fellow Pastor to our Workers, to be my guest today. I know her words will be an encouragement to your soul. 3 Days The 10th of August marks 3 years since my breast surgery. I’m still ‘coming to terms’ with it. I’ve been thinking a lot about having body parts removed—ectomy: hysterectomy, … Read More Letters to the Lord: Three Days
Letters to the Lord: Shock Treatment
I penned this little essay years ago, but I find it oh, so true today, about my pool and my heart. It seemed like a good idea at the time. It really did. A pool. Oh, not the real, down in the ground, big, expensive kind. Just a little above-the-ground pool. To help us cool off in the hot, hot summer. We’d moved to … Read More Letters to the Lord: Shock Treatment
Letters to the Lord: Remembering Sallie
Lord, my heart is heavy today as I grieve the death of a remarkable woman, Sallie. She was as unique as the spelling of her first name, a Southern belle with lots of grit and a wild and passionate love for life and Jesus. I met her when Paul was in seminary in South Carolina. We attended the same church, and I admired her … Read More Letters to the Lord: Remembering Sallie
Letters to the Lord: Time
I’m in Ecclesiastes now, Lord, and today, in Chapter 3, as I read those beloved verses about time, so familiar, I think what a strange time we are living in now. We say it often. “These are strange and confusing times.” And it’s true. But whatever they are, this is the time we have, this present moment. As I read through the familiar list … Read More Letters to the Lord: Time
Letters to the Lord: You Know Better
“Don’t wear yourself out to get rich; because you know better, stop!” Proverbs 23: 4 Ugh, Lord. Just ugh. Your Word got me right in the gut. And I couldn’t ignore it because I’d stopped and prayed before I opened my Bible for my heart to be tender to what I read this morning in Proverbs, Jeremiah, and Ephesians. And as so often happens, … Read More Letters to the Lord: You Know Better
Letters to the Lord: The Problem with Paul
On Sunday, I listened with tears in my eyes as our young adult sons, on a Zoom call, spoke words of love and gratefulness and pride to their father. As I listened, it struck me that the problem I wrote about in the essay below-almost thirty years ago-has only increased. (Some of the photos were taken years after the essay was penned=). As a … Read More Letters to the Lord: The Problem with Paul
Letters to the Lord: The Writing Chalet
People will say she is really just a tool shed, Lord. But You and I know differently. She has been my place to run to, my safe space, my ‘she shed’ a decade before there was even such a term. She’s much more than just my office. So I named her because naming her means she is seen. She’s my Writing Chalet. When we … Read More Letters to the Lord: The Writing Chalet
Letters to the Lord: Waking Up White*
Lord, I have no words right now to explain the depth of my sorrow, anger, and despair. So I offer what I do have, words I wrote twenty years ago about a young white girl in 1962 whose eyes were being opened to racism. Oh, Lord, have mercy on us! Open our eyes again, and, with them wide open, show each of us how … Read More Letters to the Lord: Waking Up White*
Letters to the Lord: This Little Mommy Went to Market, This Little Mommy Stayed Home
This, my first published article, appeared in Jill Briscoe’s magazine for ministry wives, Just Between Us, in 1991. Almost thirty years later, what polarizes believers may be different but the solutions remain the same. I cuddled my two-year-old in my arms, smothering him with kisses. In between my squeezes, I could feel baby number two kicking away inside my rounded tummy. “There’s no … Read More Letters to the Lord: This Little Mommy Went to Market, This Little Mommy Stayed Home
Elizabeth Musser 