Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 103

April 15, 2019

Hard Holy Week? What He Asked Us on Maundy Thursday Changes the World, the Church & Every Broken Heart

“There’s a reason He called us His Body and not His Estate.”


That’s what Tib Pearson told me.


Tib with his Red Wing workboots and worn John Deere hat and hands weathered and etched like a greying cedar rail.


A Body is connected with sinew and vein —  and an estate is divided with fences and line.


He said it with his hands, the way a man of the land does, and you could see how his hands knew rusted wire and gnarled barbs and how to free things caught in fences.


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Beautiful sunset against barbed wire fence





You gotta cut down the fences – or you cut up the Body.


I’m not saying Tib knew anything, really.


Just maybe saying something about how to open up the earth and suffer a bit, so there is yield, how the Christ had commanded on Maundy Thursday, maundatam Thursday, Thursday of the new mandate, that command of the Last supper:


A new command I give you: Love one another.


As I have loved you, so you must love one another.


By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34–35)


The way we live that?


You’d think it was some flimsy, take-it-or-leave-it suggestion.


You’d think disciples are actually known by the number of points of their creeds, or the acceptable books on their shelves, or the right conferences on their calendars, or the approved names they drop in the church foyer.


You’d think Christ’s own were known by who they avoid, who they disdain, who they call out, who they label. You’d think being known by your love was being known as a liberal instead of a Christian, and there are thousand things backward about this.


Do you tell a man like Tib Pearson that you think we’re all getting torn apart?


That it feels like someone is trying to rip us sisters apart at the holy limbs, that love is laughed at as the anemic brother of muscular truth, and that acerbic rhetoric seems like the blood flow through the Body, not love?


I told Tib flat out once, that I thought a woman was teaching something false, that she was leading sisters astray, mudding up their minds and their one wild heart.


I’d lay in bed at nights staring at the ceiling, churning, desperate to protect the Church, to keep the Gospel pure.


And there was Jesus in the weeks before Calvary, Christ crushed beneath that Cross, begging that prayer of Maundy Thursday:





My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message….


that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity.


Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20–23)


Only those who love, are sent by Christ.


Without love — Christ didn’t send you.


Who will keep His new commandment and who will be the answer to Christ’s prayers? Who will love as He lived?


And I once laid awake for weeks, thinking of how someone took some of the broken pieces of my own story and misunderstood them and what they said of me, broke more of me, and I won’t lie — the whole thing, it cut to the quick, right there under the rib, razor sharp. I’ve bled for a long time.


Sometimes your scars bleed quietly long after everyone thinks you’ve healed. 


I believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him as the Only Way, truth and light and the Cross as my only hope and salvation and the Word of God as a pure word, a sure word, the only inerrant, infallible Word.


I believe it is only people who are fallible and interpretations that are errant and studying the Word of God – is about having the Word of God study us.


Sometimes instead of shooting someone a clarifying question – we shoot arrows. I thought my heart might bleed to death.


The Farmer, he pulled on this t-shirt “My Wife Rocks” – not his typical farmer vernacular or his typical farmer attire – but it was his broken way of standing with me, dying for me, and he just drew me close when the pain of it all made it hard to keep standing.


I had laid awake at night and it hurt to inhale.


And I groped around that thought and I repented and prayed I wouldn’t forget: Christians need to be most careful with words if we are the most Christ-full.


And what a heart knows by heart is what a heart knows and mine pounded out in the dark, the memory of Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers – for they will be called children of God.


If I didn’t live peace – whose child would I be then?


It took me several nights of laying awake — but finally once night — I got up out of bed. My fingers trembled but wasn’t His command to love one another anyways and I tapped out an email to that person whose words had bled me open. I sent an invitation to dinner.


Not a rebuttal, not an explanation, not a defence.


I invited their whole family to come over and sit across the table. When a relationship starts to break down, instead of breaking fellowship — always ask to break bread. 


The Body of Christ has a thousand angry opinions, a thousand fractions and divisions and circles, all these cliques of circles, all these walls. But not one of us are not broken.


And acknowledging our own brokenness is what makes high walls between people crumble. Because when you are broken – it’s always your pointing finger that is broken. You can’t point at anyone else anymore as the only sinner.


Brokenness breaks us from our need to be “right” and breaks us open to our need to extend the grace we have been given.


And when I saw their email responding to mine to break bread, I closed my eyes —


and I prayed hard and I was shaking scared when I opened their words because you don’t know when a fence might be built or tore down.


I read the words there on my screen:


“I want to send you an apology… Something happened inside of me when I saw your name in my inbox.


I had neglected to remind myself — that you are a real person and, not only that, but a sister in Christ.


I can’t deny that somewhere in my mind lurks this insider and outsider kind of thinking which somehow encourages me to extend greater courtesy to one group than another.”


And I put my hand on the screen and laid my head down on the table and there’s no shame in saying I cried hard.


Insider and outsider kind of thinking – all these walls, all theses barriers, all this pain.


While I was yet sinning directly against Him, Christ reached out wide to me and directly took the nail and literally drained Himself for me .


 Though we may theologically disagree with one another, aren’t we still called to be nice to one another?

If we truly believe someone’s soul is in danger — why do we demonize them instead of evangelize them?


And laying there in the dark, thinking about how one fence had been torn down by love, and how I could tear down another fence and love a sister different than me — He can give you eyes to see and it’s like you can read the writing right there on all the walls between us:


Obedience to the law of Love is the most expedient way to preach the gospel.


There’s Christ in the weeks before Calvary, Christ crushed beneath that Cross, and what did He do but live the law of love?


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What does God do but live the law of love: “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”


God loves while we sin, God holds out His hand to the disobedient, and love is what makes God the most potent of all. Love is the the most radically subversive activism of all, the only thing that ever changed any one.


We never have to be afraid to love — as if love might gag truth and kill God.


Love never negates truth. Because love never silences Truth.


Love is the very foundation of Truth: without love, Truth crashes, a clanging gong. Without love, Christ didn’t send you.


Love is the language of Truth and grace is the dialect of God and Truth is only understandable if spoken with understanding love.


Christ prayed that new mandate on Maundy Thursday, that we might be brought to complete unity — and unity doesn’t mean that we paper over our differences. It means we open the papers of His Word and dialogue, not open fire and destroy.


It could happen like this: We could stop confusing unity with unanimity. God’s people may not have doctrinal unanimity, but we must have definite unity, if we’re ever to have deep credibility.


The eminent theologian, J.I. Packer, he had prayed like my friend Tib, for the “visible church as a single worldwide, Spirit-sustained community, within which ongoing doctrinal and denominational divisions, though important, are secondary rather than primary.”


True, there is always this tension between practicing Unity and preaching Truth – but it is the tension of two people hanging fiercely on to each other, like the tension of a bridge, that the Gospel might go forth into all the world. If we let go of each other — the Gospel goes nowhere.


What can wound Christ more than Christians cannibalizing each other?


 I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to agree together, to end your divisions, and to be united by the same mind and purpose.


For members of Chloe’s household have made it clear to me, my brothers and sisters, that there are quarrels among you.


Now I mean this, that each of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” or “I am with Cephas,” or “I am with Christ.”


Is Christ divided?”  ~1 Cor 1:10–14


Is Christ divided?


Puritan Richard Baxter in his work The Reformed Pastor brazenly wrote:


He that is not a son of Peace is not a son of God. All other sins destroy the Church consequentially; but Division and Separation demolish it directly…”


Division and separation demolish the Church directly. Tib Pearson, he knows what every farmer knows. If you want a field to yield, you have to tear out the fences.


Is the internet, is the Body of Christ, too scared to break down walls and reach across lines? Aren’t I chief among sinners? Scared that if I reach out to that person– some will conclude that I agree with all of their theology.


What if I was just loving the person?



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That’s how the enemy tries to cut the Body with two wires:


If you disagree with someone on one point – then you must disdain or dismiss them entirely. And if you acknowledge or affirm someone – then you must agree with them entirely. This is a lie. Break it. 


Having Christian convictions can’t ever negate having Christ’s compassion.


Christ was never scared of guilt by association.


Sure, the watchdogs asked, “Why does he eat with sinners and tax collectors?


Because He was loving them.


Healthy people don’t need a doctor. It is the sick people that need a doctor. I did not come to invite good people. I came to invite sinners.


Maundy Thursday’s there on the calendar today and Christ carries His cross and this is the call of God in this hour to the Body of Christ in this world: Instead of drawing dividing lines in the community of Cross believers -– the broken are called to demolish the walls of division.


And we are the sisters who can’t be torn apart, who rise up with Beth Moore’s wisdom: “We break our sinful stereotypes in Christianity the same way we break them in the world – we get to know people we’re prejudiced toward.”


We are God’s people are done with ghettos and are on fire with the good news.


We are the People of the Cross who are ready obey the mandate of the Thursday before Good Friday, who live the new commandment of Maundy Thursday and find one woman different than we are and us broken people who start breaking down walls and we reach out to someone of a different denomination, a different political leaning, a different nationality, a different culture, a different orientation, a different skin color –a different religion.


We are the People of the Cross who take seriously enough the commandment of the Last Supper to love one another — that we invite someone to our table from the other side of the fence.


We are God’s children who break bread together to break down walls.


We are the People of the Cross who instead of waging attack on the implicit issues of another’s faith life — spend our lives openly encouraging an explicit faith in the living Christ. We are God’s people who really believe the Bible, that “The Lord knows those who are His” (2 Tim. 2:19), and we could be the ones who stop judging and simply make our lives about the joy-filled proclamation of knowing Him and making Him known.


We could be His people called to be Peacemakers and Rift Menders and Fence Destroyers, the ones who know that the brokenness of humility is the secret to community and the harshness of pride is what builds walls of division.  


We could be the ones in Christ who are done with fearing guilt by association and ready to live grace by association. 


Why be afraid of guilt by associationwhen if we don’t associate beyond the walls, no one will ever come to know the wonders of His grace?


We could be the ones who know that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Gal.5:6)


The people who know not just in our cerebral synapses but in the chambers of our bravely pounding hearts: that if we have right doctrine, but have not love, we are nothing more than a clanging gong.


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I could tell Tib that.


That the only barbed wire the Body ever knows is like those barbed thorns pressed into His brow.


How that Maundy Thursday Lord, that Good Friday Christ, broke His own body on that cross to break down the walls of hostility that separate us all.


 


 



This Holy Week — taking the way Jesus takes to abundant life… the beautiful & healing Broken Way


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Published on April 15, 2019 08:10

April 13, 2019

Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [04.13.19]


Happy, happy, happy weekend!

Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories this week 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything — and that there’s love everywhere & for ((you))! 


Serving up only the Good Stuff for you right here:




Jessica Walker 
Jessica Walker 
Jessica Walker 

anyone else wanna be here too!? Grateful she shares her breathtaking work with us…





just the best – right to the very end




so let’s go! Kids Whose Parents Read to Them Understand Up to 1.4 Million More Words





how they’re stepping up to help the bees




Talented Artists Share Their Favorite Tips for Improving Your Drawing Skills





because we all need a friend




google maps
janisdeman
janisdeman

come on! who else wants to do this!?! Dutch artists paint an apartment building featuring the residents’ favorite books!





can you see both directions?!?





THIS! When this boy who was bullied missed his bus? He met a police officer who would throw him the ‘Best Birthday Party Ever’ #BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay





Spring is here! enjoy this wonder




Dare to Hope in God: How to Lament Well





this restaurant with a year long wait list? you’ve got to meet the owner and cook




Johnny Andrews, Courtesy: UNC-Chapel Hill

oh, we so love this idea! Short story ‘vending machines’ on this college campus


The machines, which have been installed in various locations on campus, deliver fiction and poetry from Carolina writers





love & support from strangers to a grieving mom… yeah,we all need a shoulder to lean on




so much love for her: How Exactly Did This Become My Job?





a teacher going above and beyond to care for her students




thank you, Scott SaulsSome Thoughts on Sin





never, ever give up





This inmate is teaching finance behind bars – and so much more





this chef with a great big heart? must see…




Our Favourite Farmhouse #FreeTrade Resource: The Grace Crafted Home

My Mama, she’d straight up tell you this story with no shame, though it kinda burns me up with embarrassment (Who DOES these things? Apparently, I do — for decades)


But it’s the story at the end that I tell about her, that had her brimming with tears of the gentlest kind.

Because really — who doesn’t really need to know the way to the abundant life?


These stories right here — are kinda my everything life-changing right now:


How to Break Dysfunctional Cycles & Grow Healthier: When You Just want to Live the Abundant Life





completely undone: Access to God’s Word in one’s own language is POWERFUL. Watch the celebration from the Rendille in Kenya, Africa as they dedicate the New Testament in their language.





how the power of kindness goes a long, long way




Post of the week from these parts here


…hey, come close…yeah, you’ve got bends in the road ahead, things unknown, lots of question marks that you’d love answers for–you have absolutely got to know this–this is meant for you today:


when your life has question marks & life feels a bit up in the air — how to make that the best kind of life





How to Engage Lost Loved Ones





 


Maybe in this new month, we all just need the gift of Joy… a bit of Hope? To stand together — FOR each other — knowing that an act of kindness, giving it forward, can be more powerful than any sword in starting movements that move us all toward Love.


  Want the gift of light breaking into all the broken places, into all the places that feel kinda abandoned? 


These pages are for you. It’s possible — abundant joy is always possible, especially for you.


Break free with the tender beauty of The Broken Way & Be The Gift 


And if you grab a copy of Be The Gift?  We will immediately email you a link to a FREE gift of THE WHOLE 12 MONTH *Intentional* Acts of Givenness #BeTheGIFT Calendar to download and print!  Just let us know that you ordered Be The Gift  over here.


You only get one life to love well.


Pick up Be The Gift & live the life you’ve longed to



on repeat this week, over and over again: thank you for the scars…





How to Give up “Devotions” & Look God in the Eye (Or: How to Walk 130 Miles with God for Lent)



No matter your story –

what’s in store for you now is

RESTORATION.


[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]


Dare to fully live!



That’s all for this weekend, friends.


Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.


Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again


Share Whatever Is Good. 




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Published on April 13, 2019 04:55

April 12, 2019

when your life has question marks & life feels a bit up in the air — how to make that the best kind of life

I’ve got no idea who went ahead and pulled out a Sharpie marker and circled a bunch of dates on the calendar, but there it is, dates with Sharpie ink ringing around them like circling vultures.


Dates for doctor appointments and drop-dead deadlines and dream days that have sort of been lifelines.


What looks like it’s falling apart  —  is actually falling together”

I’ve been sleeping at the hospital for days, weeks, with our Littlest in ICU, a little body with all the tubes and wires and leads and IVs coming and going, and my shoulder’s out,  and my heart’s kinda breaking too.


“I know why you’re shoulder’s out, Mama,” some clever, grinning kid pipes up. “Maybe — it’s cause you keep going around shrugging your shoulders, saying: ‘Who knows?’


Yeah, kid, let’s go with precisely that. 


Who knows what’s coming out of those doctor appointments?  Who knows when things are going to take a turn for the better? 


Who knows if things can come together for this dream or that plan or in time to make that date?  


Who knows what tomorrow holds, who knows if people on the other end of phone calls will say yes, who knows if things are just going to up and fall apart and who even knows if…what looks like it’s falling apart — is actually falling together?




Favourite Easter Resource: Family Advent to Lent wooden candle wreath


Favourite Easter Resource: Family Advent to Lent wooden candle wreath


It’s kinda feels like — our whole life is up in the air.” I whisper it to the Farmer like I’m looking for relief of my own.


Life’s kinda sorta supposed to be up in the air, isn’t it?” He murmurs it in the dimming room,  like he’s turned on a light.


“Yeah—maybe…” I try to smile. “The abundantly good life is supposed to feel kind of up in the air.


He finds my hand.


Life’s about pulling skin on Jesus on earth —   and about pulling out all the stops against the powers of the air.  


For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12


I try to still all this whirl of worries within. Listen to us all just breathing in the quiet…


“You’ve just got to do the next hard and holy thing even when nothing feels like it’s changing anything.”

The real good life is meant to be up in the air — because life’s real battles are being fought up in the air — up in the heavenlies. 


There’s another message from our boy: “Can you pray for me? Please?


There’s our daughter in a hospital bed who we love with all our heart whose heart is trying to keep beating, trying to mend and heal.


There’s women who I’d bleed for, who look numb and empty and who are going through the brave motions because you’ve just got to do the next hard and holy thing even when nothing feels like it’s changing anything.


There’s a beautiful world of hurting crazy out there and our brave kids are in the centre of it, and our dreams and our hopes and our futures and our communities and our countries are hanging in the balance through it, and there is a war in the heavenlies and the man laying beside me is believing that if our lives aren’t up in the air where the real battle is, our lives on the ground lose ground. 


I can hear a clock ticking —  this is the thrum of things:


The more indifferent we are to prayer, the less God’s power makes any difference in our lives. 


“The more indifferent we are to prayer, the less God’s power makes any difference in our lives.”

There’s light out the window, light cutting it’s way through the dark — and there’s the way forward:


Our prayers


makes us slayers


No weapon is more formidable than prayer to slay the dark & the demons.


Prayer’s the weapon we wield to make everything else we do survive fire. 


She who commits to pray,


goes the narrow way


& her prayers circle demons & slay.


So go ahead, let our life be all up in the air. I can hear the wind outside the window, see the night sky’s stretching far above trees, like a shadowed battlefield, and I try to remember to breathe, to rest:


“Prayer’s the weapon we wield to make everything else we do survive fire.” 

Do not work so hard for Christ, that you make no time to pray to Christ. He is the lifeblood of all prayer, all work, all being, all communion. There’s moonlight catching the cross on the wall across from the window.


The calendar squares say we’re moving toward through the final days of Lent.


What had   Andrew Murray said? 


Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. 


Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves, to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God.”


What of earth do I need to let go of,  fast from, sacrifice completely, to reach for what is unseen, to reach for the One more life-giving than air? 


I lay there in the night quiet for a long time…  resolving, letting go.


Rain’s falling, splattering across the window…


I’d heard it once from an old farmer’s wife, how an eagle never takes a snake on the ground. An eagle always tears into the reptile with its talons and flies it into the sky. Because an eagle knows not to try to conquer the snake on the ground, because the eagle knows:


The way you win is to change the actual battlefield.






Favourite Easter Resource: Family Advent to Lent wooden candle wreath


That’s why the eagle flings the snake into the air.  A snake has no strength, no power, no way when tossed into the air.  Dashed upon rocks, the snake’s food for the victorious bird. When you do your battle in prayer with the principalities in the air,  there’s winning on earth. 


“Take every battle to the air in prayer — and God will take over your battles on earth.”

I exhale in the darkness — I didn’t even know I was holding my breath.


Take every battle to the air in prayer — and God will take over your battles on earth.


In the quieted, dark stillness, I almost say it aloud anyway, say it to all the questions about all the things, say what the universe knows:


“A life up in the air — can be a life up to the best things.”


You can see from the rain spattered on the window — that the wind’s shifted toward the east.


There is a changing of everything —


when breath becomes prayer.


 


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Published on April 12, 2019 10:25

April 10, 2019

How to Break Dysfunctional Cycles & Grow Healthier: When You Just want to Live the Abundant Life

My mama tells the story that when I was a gangly four-year-old kid, they hauled my kid brother and sister and I, down to a panhandle town named Hereford, Texas, for a handful of months, and my dad sharecropped cotton with this farmer west of town.


And I played with Nancy Leigh Craig across the street who was two years younger and a whole head and a half shorter than I.


My mama remembers it and I will never forget, how every time I ventured next door to play with Nancy Leigh Craig, that little slip of a girl would pull out an empty glass mason jar, and Nancy Leigh Craig would fill it with heaps of dirt dug up from the dog run behind her house, and then she would fill that jar up with water, throw in a bunch of weed tops, and stir the whole mess up with any found stick.


You can be 40 something years old— and still be swigging down mud soup.

And then, mama doesn’t have to tell me this part, because it’s the part I can still close my eyes and see: Every time that two-and-a-half-year-old Nancy Leigh Craig and I whipped up the murky concoction? She would hold it up and tell me in her most authoritative two-and-a-half year old voice:


“Drink the mud soup!”


And I was the lanky four year old girl who did exactly what two and a half year old Nancy Leigh Craig told me to do: I gulped down that mud soup like a lap dog who could only nod.


Then I’d up and walk across the street to our townhouse across from the tennis courts on 198th Avenue, and I’d whisper in my mama’s ear: “Mama? I’m afraid I’m going to die now.”


Mama, she would cup my face and say, “But my Ann-girl — why in the actual world would you drink that mud soup? — AGAIN?”


Our Favourite Farmhouse #FreeTrade Resource: The Grace Crafted Home
Levi Voskamp


40 Day Lent/Easter wreath
Our Favourite Farmhouse #FreeTrade Resource: The Grace Crafted Home
Levi Voskamp


And there are days you don’t need your mama to say even a word of it to you, because you can feel it strike you like like a bolt of lightning from the the throne of God:


“You drink Mud Soup whenever you consume what isn’t life-giving good for your soul.”

You can be 40 something years old— and still be swigging down mud soup.


I’d started to scratch it down in my journal and that scratching started decoding a bit of my life: You end up drinking mud soup whenever you see yourself as the passive victim in your story, instead of an active co-writer of your story, when you act like you don’t determine your responses to a situation — but your actions and responses are determined by somebody else.


You drink Mud Soup whenever you consume what isn’t life-giving good for your soul.


Having the courage to refuse to drink mud soup does not mean refusing discomfort, refusing suffering, refusing hard things and living given and living surrendered and living sacrificially can be life-giving good for your soul.


Sometimes the cup we drink from is suffering — ask Jesus. And you find the abundant life — wherever you turn toward the sign: Welcome to The Surrendered Life.


The only way to the abundant life is to accept discomfort in your life. The way to what we want — is often through what we don’t want.


“You find the abundant life — wherever you turn toward the sign: Welcome to The Surrendered Life.”

Painfully hard things are part of the price of admission to a purposeful, holy life.


But that is very different than when a woman feels like she has no voice, like she has lost her voice in her own life. When a woman feels like she has no voice, she can grow soul-deaf to the voice of God in her own heart.


When a woman feels disempowered — she can doubt the power of God.


When a woman fears saying no to certain things — is there actually a fear saying yes to better things?


Is fear of saying no to other people — really a fear of saying yes to what God wants for you?


“The only way to the abundant life is to accept discomfort in your life. The way to what we want — is often through what we don’t want.”

How did my aching soul, my broken heart, not know: You swallow garbage for your soul when you’re a fear follower instead of a Christ follower.


Is the Church made up of more fear followersthan Christ followers?


I asked my mama these things and her life is my answer:


You always have a choice to make a choice.


And you can only be an agent for change in the world — when you believe there’s agency for change in your own life.


Be patient with God’s patient work.


The way of Abundance is always first the dying and then the rising. Be not afraid of practicing your faith everywhere — your God is practicing resurrection everywhere.


And in the 6th week of Lent , in the centre of the farm table, there’s a  circling wreath telling a different story than any vicious cycle of dysfunction.


“The way of Abundance is always first the dying and then the rising. Be not afraid of practicing your faith everywhere — your God is practicing resurrection everywhere.”

There’s an Abundance of Presence that beckons into an encircling ring of meaningfulness.


My Mama moves the candle in the Lenten wreath on  Sunday morning  and there’s a way to live in a sacred circle of Presence and I watch how she does this, lives a story that tells of the wanted life, tells of  the abundant life.


Watching mama’s eyes, I’d dare say she’s made her whole life about taking that yearned for way of abundance.


Hasn’t she taken the way of the Response-able, the Reflectors, the Rememberers, the way of those who operate in the Circle of Abundance Presence — because this is the only way out of the Messy Circus Cycle and into the Abundant Life?


I don’t know when she showed me first:


You are as able to take another step toward the life you want — as you are able to live Response-able.


The Responsible are those who own how they are always Response-able — always able to have a response, determine their own response, and own that response.


You are able to feel as much joy as you are response-able — able to respond with the right response, at the right time. Able to respond with gratitude, able to respond with surrendered givenness, able to respond with kindness, because no amount of brokenness gets to break our kindness.


“You are able to embrace the abundant life — as much as you embrace being response-able.”

You are able to embrace the abundant life — as much as you embrace being response-able.


These are hard and holy things for the the brave can rise to, but choosing to be Response-Able, is the only way to be able to live the life we long for.


I watch how the  candle light flickers and reflects in Mama’s eyes.


And I remember.


I remember stories that we don’t tell, remembers words that we don’t speak but simply, bravely, live, remember how Mama shows me how to never stop remembering what literally re-members all that’s been broken and dismembered.


And I just quietly reach out for Mama’s hand…


How you choose to remember — determines how the broken dismembered things in your life will be remade and re-membered.


You have to choose to intentionally remember God’s goodness, if you want your brokenness to be re-membered into wholeness.


The Remembering People — remember they are Response-able and they are the Rememberers that remember abundance is found only in His presence.


And we can always experience as much of God as we choose. The abundant life is found only in an abundance of God. There are ways to enlarge our wanting and ways to expand our hearts and the way is possible — and who can afford to miss it?


40 Day Lent/Easter wreath


Levi Voskamp


40 Day Lent/Easter wreath


Levi Voskamp 

When my mama opens up  this book of wordsThe Way of Abundance , and reads how all the pages are dedicated to her, I cup her face and I read to her the story that she’s written with her days, a story different from being a Mud-Soup Swallower, read the story of her abundant life back to her.


“You have to choose to intentionally remember God’s goodness, if you want your brokenness to be re-membered into wholeness.”

“Mama, you have been the bravest—and your brave has won ten thousand battles because it’s made us all braver countless times. We have all watched you boldly take the way of abundance — no matter how the road seemed to wind through broken valleys that turned into the valley of His cupped hands.


We have all watched you boldly take   — no matter how the way twisted through wildernesses where He wooed, wildernesses where He never brings to abandon but only to bring us closer to the way of abundance.


And we have all watched you boldly take  the way of abundance — no matter how it seemed like it didn’t matter—because God makes meaning out of messes, because He is the God who can make all our  brokenness into abundance, because, you and I say this back to each other over and over again: The Writer of the story has written Himself into the hardest places of yours and is softening into the broken edges of everything with redeeming, abundant grace.”


And Mama kisses me gently and I whisper to her the best lines of the life story that could be ours, all of ours:


“So, like you always tell me, all is always, in every way.


Abundantly well.”


 






What do you do when you wake up and feel like you’re not enough for your life? Or when you look out the kitchen window as dusk falls and wonder how do you live when life keeps breaking your heart?


In sixty vulnerably soulful stories, The Way of Abundance moves from self-weary brokenness to Christ-focused givenness.


Christ Himself broke like bread, giving Himself to us so we might have a lifelong communion with Him. Could it be that our brokenness is also a gift to the world? These tender devotionals dare us to embrace any and all brokenness as a gift that moves us closer to the heart of God. 


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Published on April 10, 2019 08:38

April 8, 2019

It’s time to stop running away: how to unearth peace and presence in an overconnected world

Kate Merrick has a way of making you feel like you’re old friends. She wears her heart on her sleeve—the first time I met her we cried together about losing her young daughter to cancer and then laughed together only moments later about the aromatic joys of raising pigs. Her true heartbeat is unearthing what it means to practice presence with authenticity, seeking the peace of Jesus with vulnerability, and leaning into Sabbath with expectancy. Kate has learned to walk in defiant joy, even in the depths of suffering — and she kinda takes my breath away. It’s a grace to welcome the soul beautiful Kate Merrick to the farm’s front porch today…


guest post by Kate Merrick


Mary of Bethany has haunted my thoughts for a while now. I imagine her in that ancient, dusty, delightful place.


Her story shows me that something really precious lies beneath our need for being people of presence.


Something more than unplugging, more than putting overconnection and overcommitment in its place.


“Her story shows me that something really precious lies beneath our need for being people of presence.”

Something more than just rising above our current circumstances, more than just enjoying a physically and emotionally healthy way of being. There’s a profoundly sacred reason we are driven to discover what’s most important.


I’ve been going on and on about presence, about choosing peace and contentment.


I’ve talked about being with—truly with—each other, about living intentionally and openly. These are healthy things, yes. They are beneficial and wise and fruitful things.


But beyond that, there is a fundamentally better reason for shifting our hearts to practice these things, one that I believe Mary saw as she sat at Jesus’ feet with all the chaos swirling around her.


One that caused her to make a cameo in another story that made history, as told in the book of John.


Joy Prouty












Let’s enter Bethany. Another dinner party, more time with Jesus, more of Martha’s bustling about. Another dinner in Jesus’ honor, another time of human connection, of sharing food and space and trust. Another evening when God Made Flesh came into a little house in a little town and broke bread with a little group of friends.


And by this point, as His short and powerful ministry was winding down and He was making His way to Jerusalem to perform the most loving act in history, this Emmanuel had shown Himself to be healer, teacher, and lifter of unruly heads.


This Miracle Maker had walked on water, healed the sick, given sight to the blind, and offered living water.


He had shown Israel who He really was—by His words, His deeds, His presence. Redeemer. Bread of Life. Prince of Peace. Lamb of God.


And He was right there. With them.


“She kept her eyes on Jesus, regardless of the trepidation she must have felt, knowing her actions might again be criticized.”

With the stress case (Martha). With the activist (Simon). With the traitor (Judas). With the formerly dead (Lazarus). With the tax collector (Matthew) and the country boys (Philip, Bartholomew, Andrew) and the sons of thunder (James and John). With the garrulous (Peter). With the doubter (Thomas). With all these ragamuffins He loved so much.


And Mary. Doe-eyed, present, peaceful Mary. Mary, who had discovered the better thing, the thing most worth being concerned about.


Who made room for with-ness, who experienced the peace and joy that with-ness sustains.


Mary gracefully entered the scene, among all the bubbling conversations, debates, and personalities, among the various scents and tapestries and clay pitchers and wooden bowls. Quietly, she slipped into the room, maybe catching her brother Lazarus’s eye, maybe taking a deep breath.


She carried with her an alabaster jar of perfume, one that cost an entire year’s wages. All of her wealth, all of her trust, all of her future she carefully held in that thin, fragile, ethereally elegant vessel.


I can see it now, the careful steps she takes, tiptoeing into the room bursting with masculine voices and smelling like spicy food and men sweaty and dusty from the journey. The whole room, swirling with distraction, thick with cultural expectation and tradition.


She kept her eyes on Jesus, regardless of the trepidation she must have felt, knowing her actions might again be criticized.


“Mary’s example teaches me that presence breeds contentment, intimacy, trust, beauty, and joy, that it’s fragrant and lasting.”

And yet.


The draw of Jesus was so cogent that, right there, in the middle of all the distractions, in front of all the befuddled dinner guests, Mary moved toward Jesus as if it were just the two of them in the room.


There, she gave all she had. She broke the jar, poured it out over Jesus’ feet, and, using her hair as a towel, she lovingly covered Him in her most precious possession.


She was with Him, in the distraction, in the wake of miracles, in the face of His impending death. 


She was with Him, in love and adoration, knowing He would be gone soon.


And her worship and with-ness filled the whole house with an intense fragrance. Mary had learned what was most important, all right.


What had started with giving Jesus her full attention, choosing to listen in the face of distraction, had culminated in an act of worship that went down in history. Worship flowed from their intimacy, from their with-ness.


Talk about relationship goals.


The profundity of God’s presence has a ripple effect.


Mary’s example teaches me that presence breeds contentment, intimacy, trust, beauty, and joy, that it’s fragrant and lasting.


It teaches me that when we sit in God’s presence, all these things will be in the flow, both to us and from us.


“Jesus still offers this same profound presence; He has sat down and is waiting to see if we’ll sit with Him.”

That the peace I chase after, the love I long for, the acceptance and direction and courage I seek will be found in with-ness.


Isn’t that what most satisfies? Isn’t it true love that we are chasing after with all our overcommitted madness, our social media addiction, our frenzy to succeed and belong and achieve?


Jesus still offers this same profound presence; He has sat down and is waiting to see if we’ll sit with Him.


I see this invitation to with-ness in Mary’s story; I see it in His disciples’ stories. I see it woven throughout the stories of His life on earth.


And I can see myself in the people He met with:


the woman with the issue of blood , outcast and lonely;


the child without social status, unseen and unvalued;


the blind beggar , depressed and destitute;


the woman at the well, sinful and broken.


It’s that spark of attention, the offering of Himself, that moment in the crowd when He says, “I see you.”


It’s pure love.


 


Kate Merrick is a writer, speaker, pastor’s wife, mama of a teenager and toddler, surfer, part-time cowgirl, and self-proclaimed chicken whisperer. She is married to Britt Merrick and they live in Carpinteria, California, where they founded the Reality family of churches. In 2013 she endured the death of her daughter, Daisy Love, after suffering through cancer treatment for three and a half years. Kate is making her way back toward laughter and is finding life to be filled with good things.


What if our truest life is the one right in front of us? Does life sometimes seem to be passing you by? Are you so busy—with email to check, Instagram to scroll through, and friends to be envious of—that you’ve become disconnected from your actual life? You know, the one you are living right here, right now?


With hilariously relatable confessions and profoundly beautiful insights, in her latest book, Here, Now: Unearthing Peace and Presence in an Overconnected WorldKate invites us to stop running away from the lives we’re living today and instead walk in the peace and fullness God offers moment to moment.


Only when we look honestly at our hearts and have the courage to live truly present do we receive the gifts of God found in all of life’s seasons—the painful ones, the big and beautiful ones, and even the ordinary ones.


[ Our humble thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in today’s devotion ]


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Published on April 08, 2019 05:15

April 6, 2019

Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [04.06.19]


Happy, happy, happy weekend!

Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories this week 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything — and that there’s love everywhere & for ((you))! 


Serving up only the Good Stuff for you right here:




Michał Olech 
Michał Olech 
Michał Olech 

anyone else wanna be here right about now?!?












really love this!


Teacher’s skirt covered in kids’ doodles is the hit of the art show


She wanted to make sure all 580 of her students had room to express themselves



a brave man won’t be forgotten, thanks to a young girl he never met




Christian Vieler 
Christian Vieler 
Christian Vieler 

unbridled happiness: can you say treat?!?





so we kinda circled ’round this one too




did your favorite make the list? The Best Bookstores in All 50 States





coast to coast: the whole earth is full of His glory!





Made with Love: To make sure no kid goes hungry, this school district turns unused cafeteria food into take-home meals for students in need




An 80-year-old janitor comes to work expecting to clean. Instead, nearly 800 students go and do this…





how this cat has a front row seat traveling the world? because we all need a friend…




Fox News

fed up with the potholes in his neighborhood, this teen stepped up in a big way





joy can arrive in the most unexpected ways





anyone else wanna hang out with this little guy? his joy is contagious




God Makes Us Vulnerable and Invincible





beautiful twins that prove love doesn’t count chromosomes…




Ashley Pizzuti | pizzuticuties.com 

this nurse? this beautiful newborn who had no visitors? my heart…





he served 10 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit: now that he’s out? he’s doing this…





5 star story: a school principal doing great things: cleaning up a school and a neighborhood too





another 5 star school principal loving on her students in extraordinary ways




Favorite Resource for a Meaningful, Beautiful Home: Grace Crafted Home

Post of the week from these parts here


… so this woman turns to me in a car & asks me what I didn’t see coming in the least. And I sat there, staring out the windshield, feeling deeply exposed:


What You Really Want: Best Plan for a Beautiful Life





tears at this one: because we all need someone to believe in us & tell us there is Hope





April is here!


Maybe in this new month, we all just need the gift of Joy… a bit of Hope? To stand together — FOR each other — knowing that an act of kindness, giving it forward, can be more powerful than any sword in starting movements that move us all toward Love.


  Want the gift of light breaking into all the broken places, into all the places that feel kinda abandoned? 


These pages are for you. It’s possible — abundant joy is always possible, especially for you.


Break free with the tender beauty of The Broken Way & Be The Gift 


And if you grab a copy of Be The Gift?  We will immediately email you a link to a FREE gift of THE WHOLE 12 MONTH *Intentional* Acts of Givenness #BeTheGIFT Calendar to download and print!  Just let us know that you ordered Be The Gift  over here.


You only get one life to love well.


Pick up Be The Gift & live the life you’ve longed to



Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)


“Put a stake in the ground and claim the peace He promises you in His Word!”




This Lent: Give up — whatever you need — to hear God speak:
A FREE 7-week, Lent devotional to build spiritual foundations under your roof
Join us in partnership with The Seed Company
Speak Words of Life Over Your Home

Start a 7-week journey with us in partnership with The Seed Company this Lent & receive DAILY encouragement around God’s Word.


Apply practical steps to bring God’s presence, God’s Word into your home.


Reflect through guided questions, and involve your people in creative ways.


Give up what is lesser — to get more of the Greater.


#GiveUpToGetAwayWithGod  #40DaysGodSpeaking  #LentofListening  #GODSWORDSPOKENHERE





on repeat this week: Good Good Father




Want a Lent of More? How to have a Lent of Abundantly More God (& a Free 40 Day Lent Devo):



A tragic life is a life driven by social media likes instead of Christ-motivated loves.


A tragic life is a life about only collecting pretty things — instead of recollecting that we are made for eternally great things.


Never settle for immediate gratification –  knowing you are actually called to eternal greatness.


This could be the  Lent that dismantles everything that isn’t about eternal things.


 


[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]


Dare to fully live!



That’s all for this weekend, friends.


Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.


Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again


Share Whatever Is Good. 




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Published on April 06, 2019 05:01

April 5, 2019

What You Really Want: Best Plan for a Beautiful Life

“Iwanna buy something.”


That’s what the woman tells me. You can see that look in her eyes, looking for something lovely.


Something new and shiny and lovely, that catches the light in it’s own way.


Sometimes we want to possess lovely things — because maybe we don’t fully know what love truly is.


“Something — beautiful. I want something really beautiful.”


Sometimes we want to possess lovely things — because we don’t know what love is.

Maybe, you know —like a nicer house?


The kind of house to come home to, that looks like the amazing that is Joanna and Chip whipped it up, the kind that gets pinned as the pinnacle of Pinterest, that has soaring windows and climbing roses.


Or a thatched roof and hobbit doors and a clawfoot tub.


Or how about buying a silky new blouse? Slimming. Shimmering — just a bit.


Draping across the shoulders to make her look like a rising, like an unexpected super nova that stops the unsuspecting dead in their slack-jawed tracks. Just a bit.


Favorite Resource for a Meaningful, Beautiful Home: Grace Crafted Home
Favorite Resource for a Meaningful, Beautiful Home: Grace Crafted Home
Favorite Resource for a Meaningful, Beautiful Home: Grace Crafted Home




Favorite Resource for a Meaningful, Beautiful Home: Grace Crafted Home
Jake Weidmann


Favorite Resource for a Meaningful, Beautiful Home: Grace Crafted Home



She could click through a dozen rabbit-hole sites, she could order a bit here, a bit there, and go ahead and fill a closet full of all the beautiful things. Of all the lovely things.


Folded stacked quilts and old, wide windowsills full of clay pots of blooming geraniums reaching for spring sun, and fireplaces full of a choir of wavering, dripping candles, and white duvets turned back and always waiting.


When you know love is about self-giving —   then maybe the loveliest things are not about self-having?


“Somedays — I just want all the beautiful things. The Instagram white walls and the filtered warm light.” She’d turned, caught light of her own.


Do we long for a curated stream of beauty to help make sense of our chaotic stream of consciousness?


And then a woman turns to me in a car headed eastbound and asked me what I didn’t see coming in the least.


“So what do you want your life to really be about?”


Your life is only a blink long —and then you wake up to the forever that your life chose.


“Your life is only a blink long —and then you wake up to the forever that your life chose.”

We’d pulled up. She opened the car door. And I sat there, fixed and yet a kind of jarred, broken, staring out the windshield, heart unshielded. Exposed.


What do I really want? What do I want my one life to really be about?


What you most want — is what you most love.


And what you love —   is what you’ll ultimately have for all eternity.


And I’m thinking:


It’s doubtful that you’re thinking of pretty Instagram streams when you’re standing at the river of Life flowing like a torrent of glory from the throne room of God.


Doubtful that you’re stilling hankering for a house remodel when you’re witnessing rag-tattered kids from the Kenyan slums running into the open arms of the King of Kings standing there at heaven’s gates.


Doubtful that you’re standing at the feet of Jesus, thinking you wanted more threads in your closet when you could have been about more souls in the Kingdom.


But there is no doubt:


Beautiful things can genuinely be made into meaningful things, beautiful can definitely be made into faithful things, and certainly, thank God Almighty, there is no definitive black and white line in the sand between beautiful and meaningful— but there are times when instead of trying to forcefully see the monied-beautiful as ministry-meaningful… we may be better to simply seek out the most meaningful — and see thatas the most beautiful.


The most fulfilling lives seek out the meaningful — more than the beautiful. Meaningful over beautiful. 


The most fulfilling lives actually see the   meaningful   as the mostbeautiful.


“The most fulfilling lives seek out the meaningful — more than the beautiful.”

Any craving for the beautiful — is really a craving for Jesus. And Jesus may be found in impressive houses, but He’s powerfully found with the kids pressed into rotting garbage piles, digging for a handful of food.


A tragic life is a life driven by   social media likes  instead of   Christ-motivated loves.


Let all all the house of cards come crashing down so there can be resurrection to greater things.


Because honestly —


It would be a travesty to have a life about collecting pretty things —   instead of recollecting that we were made for greater things.


You’re meant for more than collecting sea-shells.


When I light the candles on the lenten wreath, the flames waver. Let this Lent dismantle everything that isn’t about eternal things.


You were meant for greatness — and greatness is about serving greatly.


Jesus carries a   cross around the wreath, around the world, around time and the cosmos and at the heart of the universe is a servant bending low, giving away His heart, never doubt this.


The candles are disappearing, melting lower, giving themselves into light.


God doesn’t call you to a convenient life — He calls you to an important life.


“God doesn’t call you to a convenient life — He calls you to an important life.”

A life of importance isn’t found in a life of convenience.


A life of importance sees the importance of giving your life away — to the hidden and the unpopular and the children and the forgotten and knowing this will be remembered by God.


Flames flicker brave, flicker on against the dark.


The most beautiful lives — live for the most meaningful.


You weren’t meant for self-gratification.   You were meant for soul greatness.


Never settle for immediate gratification –   because you are called to eternal greatness.


I met a woman once who said she wanted to buy what was beautiful.


But then her soul turned around and decided to pay attention to all the broken and beautiful ways to live what is meaningful.


Her people said that she had no idea how she became, over time, more and more like light.


Like all the meaningfulness of light.


 


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Published on April 05, 2019 07:14

April 3, 2019

How to fall back in love with your person

If you’re anything like me, you’re inspired by a great love story. And you just may have been one of the 2.3 million people who watched Jeremy and Audrey Roloff share their vows and their commitment to live the rest of their lives with each other on TLC’s hit show, Little People, Big World. But what you might not know is that, as beautiful as Jeremy and Audrey’s wedding was, their journey to “I Do” was filled with heart-aching challenges. Their tender love story will powerfully awaken you to write your own rare kind of love story—the kind of love letter life that just keeps falling more deeply into a sacred intimacy.  It’s a grace to welcome the Roloffs to the front porch today…


guest post by Jeremy Roloff


Audrey and I are continuing to learn that if one of us loves something that falls in line with our shared values, then there must be something in it to love.


And when the other is willing to find whatever there is in it to love, we get to experience a greater closeness and unity.


Finding new things to love about each other is a gift that keeps on giving.


It keeps alive the growing excitement of discovery as we not only unearth more to love about each other but fall deeper in love in the process.


“Finding new things to love about each other is a gift that keeps on giving.”

We believe that bridging the gap of separateness with strands of unity will continue to draw us closer together and that weeding out things that separate us will deepen our love.


Pre-marriage, we tried to close the gaps by sharing in our hobbies and interests.


After marriage, we continue to do this in other areas as well—our failures, victories, responsibilities, and even the words we use.


For example, in our house, it’s my job to take out the trash. However, when I sometimes forget, Audrey gets frustrated and points out my fault. Likewise, I get frustrated with Audrey when we’re running late because she’s taking too long to get ready. I blame our tardiness on her.


We’ve been working on shifting the way we talk about these types of situations by using “we” instead of “you.” 


We call it “we shifting.” So instead of saying, “Jer, you forgot to take out the trash,” Audrey says, “Jer, we forgot to take out the trash.” And instead of saying, “Auj was running late,” I say, “We are running late.”


It may seem like a small thing, but this simple change shifts the atmosphere and our attitudes from accusation to alliance and from separateness to togetherness.


Audrey Roloff



Audrey Roloff



Jeremy Roloff


Audrey Roloff



Our Favourite Farmhouse #FreeTrade Resource: The Grace Crafted Home

If we are indeed “one flesh,” as Scripture proclaims we are, then we want to live into that in every way we can. We become one when we say “I do,” but we also continue to become one through daily actions and words that proclaim “we do.”


Sheldon and Davy Vanauken had a theory that “the killer of love is creeping separateness.” If sharing builds a thousand strands of unity that bind us together, it only makes sense that a thousand strands of separateness builds distance.


It came as a bit of a shock that if we could sow closeness, we could also sow distance!


“We live in a world where genuine love—love that lasts—is hard to find.”

Audrey and I had been forced to experience what physical distance does to love. Living individual lives, we entered a season of separateness during long distance that turned our flame of love into a smolder. Distance surely is the enemy of love!


We live in a world where genuine love—love that lasts—is hard to find. 


Love can be alive one moment and gone the next. We see this in the divorce rate, in broken families, in unfaithful spouses—fill in the blank. Love can flee as impulsively as the feelings do.


We are a culture that chases feelings as the fruit of love, while neglecting to water the tree that produces the fruit. If feelings of love endured on their own accord, we would be seeing different results. However, it is apparent that the feelings of love don’t last without the actions of love—watering the tree.


We believe that the principle of sharing is one good way to water the tree.


I love how author Timothy Keller puts it, “Our culture says that feelings of love are the basis for actions of love. And of course, that can be true. But it is truer to say that actions of love can lead consistently to feelings of love.”


“Through continual sharing, they would build a wall of protection around their love.”

Sheldon and Davy Vanauken discovered what they believed to be the guardian of true love—continual sharing. A lifetime devotion to ongoing discovery and pursuit of one another.


Through continual sharing, they would build a wall of protection around their love.


I don’t know about you, but I just love that. What a brilliant picture of two people desiring to get the most out of their love story.


Sheldon and Davy’s method might not be for you, but there is definitely truth in its application.


Sharing will lead you toward closeness; separateness will move you away from it.


If you’re lobbying for separate lives, you will eventually have them.


The principle of sharing is a mind-set that will save you time in the dating world as you look for a suitable spouse and continue to be a gift that keeps on giving in marriage.


 


Jeremy Roloff grew up on a 110-acre farm in Helvetia, Oregon, alongside his twin brother and two younger siblings. He grew up filming for a reality television show called Little People, Big World, which has followed his family since he was fourteen years old. Jeremy has a degree in professional photography. Audrey Roloff is a fiery redhead from Portland, Oregon, where her parents taught her to ski before she could walk. Audrey shares life, faith, and family on her blog. She is passionate about motivating women to always believe in the more that is within them, and she spreads this mission through her devotionals and clothing line. The Roloffs founded Beating50Percent, a marriage ministry on a mission to inspire couples to give more to their marriages.


Their new book, A Love Letter Life, shares the Roloffs imperfect, resilient, and inspiring love story. A passionate and persevering story of relatable struggles, hard-learned lessons, practical tips, and devout commitment. In these pages, they encourage you to stop settling for convenient relationships, offer perspective on male and female differences in dating, tackle tough topics like purity, give their nine rules for fighting well, suggest fun ideas for connection in a world of technology, and provide fresh advice on how to intentionally pursue a love story that never ends.


What your heart longs for most—is a love letter life. Hold these pages and fall the way you’ve always wanted. Jeremy and Audrey have vulnerably written their own tender love story that will powerfully awaken you to write your own rare kind of love story—the kind of love letter life that just keeps falling more deeply into a sacred intimacy.


[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]


 


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Published on April 03, 2019 06:12

April 1, 2019

When you need to escape the things that steal your joy

Valerie Woerner has a heart for mamas everywhere especially the ones who’ve been swept into a cultural undercurrent that tells them to accept motherhood as an often joyless and thankless rite of passage. This kind of thinking can seep into the farthest reaches of our hearts and darken our days. When Val found herself wrestling with these very same feelings, she knew it was time to make a change. She knew it was time to start looking at her life through God-colored lenses. With vulnerability and humility, Valerie shares her own journey from cranky and stressed out to joy-filled in her book Grumpy Mom Takes a HolidayShe gives hope to every mama who needs an escape – not from motherhood, but from the things stealing her joy. It’s a grace to welcome Valerie to the farm’s front porch today…


guest post by Valerie Woerner


The trigger for me that something needed to change in my perspective came on an otherwise ordinary day when I was tucking my three-year-old into bed.


As I curled up beside her in her toddler bed under the fluffiest fleece flamingo blanket, I was feeling particularly grateful for her. On that day, I actually thought to pass that information along.


“I didn’t need to take a holiday from my mom life; I needed to take a holiday from being Grumpy mom.”

“You make me smile so much, Vivi!” I said.


You should have seen the way she beamed. Her grin immediately spread wider than I had ever seen it. She said, “That makes me so happy to hear, Momma!”


I reveled in the moment with her and treasured her cute little profile as she looked up at the ceiling and sang made-up songs for me. Then I kissed her good night and scurried off to tell my husband all about it.


I loved that my joy could make her happy too.


But as I reveled in that special moment, I began to wonder why it had made such an impact on her. Was it really so earth shattering for her to see me smile? Why was she so surprised that she’d made me happy? Didn’t that sentiment come across every day?


As I reflected on this scene, I finally made this admission to myself: All right, so there’s a slight chance I’ve been grumpier than I thought. But where did Grumpy Mom come from? What stole my smiles without my knowledge? And why did I struggle endlessly to simply enjoy my life?


I couldn’t let this go. And that meant it was time to do some digging, studying, praying, and introspective thinking.


You know, just a fun Saturday night for a nerd like me. Over the course of the next several weeks, I came to a life-changing realization: I didn’t have to escape my life as a mom when things get chaotic to experience joy. 


It was time for me to take some ownership and start fighting for the good life. 


I didn’t need to take a holiday from my mom life; I needed to take a holiday from being Grumpy mom. 














Of course, I would have preferred to banish her on some exiled island for life, like Napoleon. But I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get rid of Grumpy Mom permanently.


This was a decision I’d have to make over and over again. At least this was a good place to start. 


Armed with a renewed fire in my belly to pursue the abundant life Jesus calls us to, I cranked up a worship playlist, diffused an essential oil (aptly named Joy),and threw back the curtains to let in that early morning (and I mean earrrrly morning) sunshine.


“Joy is something we have to fight for.” 

As I did, I realized something: Joy is something we have to fight for. 


The truth is, motherhood at any stage isn’t easy.


We know, deep down, that our children are gifts and that we have so much to be grateful for.


But the grumpy sneaks into our hearts anyway, and we find ourselves huddled in the bathroom or in the closet, sulking about how hard it is to parent day in and day out. When we finally emerge, our kids know to stay out of Mom’s way for a while.


And if they don’t? That’s our cue to start yelling. Many times these aren’t full-blown fits, just tense words with an underlying aggressive tone. In our hearts, we are longing for some sort of escape, preferably involving sunglasses, sand, and the sound of ocean waves.


If Grumpy Mom lives at your house sometimes, you’re in good company.


But God doesn’t just want us to commiserate over the hard stuff; the point is to discover together a better way.


When life gets busy or our kids misbehave or life doesn’t go the way we hope it will, we don’t have to resort to Grumpy Mom status. Through the Holy Spirit at work within us, we have the power to choose joy no matter what’s happening around us.


“God doesn’t just want us to commiserate over the hard stuff; the point is to discover together a better way.”

I’m guessing you have fallen for some of the world’s lies about motherhood at some point. 


We’ve heard it all. Moms are tired. Moms are emotional. Moms are control freaks. Moms are terrible friends.


The worst part is that we allow these things to become the dominant voice determining our thoughts and actions. But this doesn’t have to be the end of our story.


Romans 12:2 is about to become the anthem for anyone who wants to send Grumpy Mom on a holiday: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (NIV).


I love how The Message words this verse: “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.”


Without even thinking. That’s exactly the danger— that we accept the world’s subpar clichéd version of motherhood without even realizing we could be living something better.


It becomes second nature for us to stay in the pigeonhole the world puts us in. We think we have no choice but to live up to the stereotype of moms as worriers and hot messes.


“Through the Holy Spirit at work within us, we have the power to choose joy no matter what’s happening around us.”

The life we live is often far below what God has graciously gifted to us, and it should come as no surprise that this is when Grumpy Mom sneaks in.


We spend our days focusing on the things of this world and end up living an insane life when the Lord has offered us abundance and soundness of mind.


We have bought into an idea of “normal motherhood,” which when you really think about it, is completely not normal.



Do you feel totally overwhelmed when falling into bed?
Are you consumed with worries about the future?
Does your child’s tantrum ruin the rest of your day?
Are you preoccupied with schedules and to-do lists?
Are you infinitely stressed about how you will get it all done?

If this is what motherhood is most days, then we are in need of a change.


We need that transformed life Romans talks about.


And I for one am ready to fight for it.


 


Valerie Woerner is an author and the owner of Val Marie Paper, where her mission is to create practical tools and content that equip women to cut through the noise of everyday life and find fullness in the presence of the Lord. She graduated from Louisiana Tech University in 2007 with a degree in journalism and English. Her experience designing newspaper pages and her love for writing have come full circle, as she uses both to create content and products that encourage women to transform their lives through prayer and action.


Grumpy Mom Takes a Holiday brings hope for every mom who needs an escape—not from motherhood, but from the things stealing your joy.


Most days, motherhood looks like bottomless piles of laundry; a sink full of dishes; and nonstop, endless days. If that’s all there is, then no wonder Grumpy Mom sometimes sneaks into our hearts and homes. If you can relate, you’re in good company—Valerie Woerner has experienced Grumpy Mom more often than she’d care to admit. In Grumpy Mom Takes a Holiday, Valerie shares what she’s learned about sending Grumpy Mom packing and embracing a joyful, intentional motherhood.


As you journey with Valerie, you’ll be inspired and equipped to find energy in the most unlikely places, pursue your own dreams, be set free from mom guilt, feel content despite unfinished to-do lists, spend purposeful time with God amid the daily chaos, and discover more joyous moments of motherhood.


[ Our humble thanks to Tyndale for their partnership in today’s devotion ]


 


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Published on April 01, 2019 04:57

March 30, 2019

Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [03.30.19]


Happy, happy, happy weekend!

Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories this week 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything — and that there’s love everywhere & for ((you))! 


Serving up only the Good Stuff for you right here:




Kyle Fredrickson
Kyle Fredrickson
Kyle Fredrickson

gentle reminder in all of this wonder — that life is not an emergency, life is a gift





so we gathered ’round this one – here’s to a huge smile





okay, thinking this might be kind the best way to start off an adventuresome weekend




perhaps this will help someone? 7 Vitamins You May Be Lacking if You Have Trouble Sleeping





some valuables lessons she learned – from her daughter





love, love, love: THIS


#BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay





the growing trend of plogging? doing good & feeling good – they’re saying it’s a great combination




so how about this?!?


Delta Airlines passenger shares photo of mother-daughter pilot team who flew him from LA to Atlanta – and the internet can’t get enough of it





how these veterans are tacking PTSD through their art




Volunteer cop goes from homeless to Harvard: and she’s hoping to inspire others





this labor and delivery department? may need some fill-in nurses really soon!




Mary Anne Morgan

love her heart: When Love Thunders





when this basketball team needed a coach? yup, a 14 year old stepped right up




good, good words here: God Must Be the Hero





so smiling at this one




Michał Olech 
Michał Olech 
Michał Olech

so these photos took my breath away: he spent 10 years photographing the faces of The Baltic Sea





absolutely stunning




one to read and share: An MIT Professor Meets the Author of All Knowledge


“I once thought I was too smart to believe in God. Now I know I was an arrogant fool who snubbed the greatest Mind in the cosmos—the Author of all science, mathematics, art, and everything else there is to know. Today I walk humbly, having received the most undeserved grace. I walk with joy, alongside the most amazing Companion anyone could ask for, filled with desire to keep learning and exploring.”



How To Raise an Independent, Free-Thinking Child





because we all need a friend





a decorated retired Navy SEAL officer shares a powerful story of overcoming pain, loss and a new beginning…




Post of the week from these parts here:


How to Give up “Devotions” & Look God in the Eye (Or: How to Walk 130 Miles with God for Lent) (Part 3)





Amen and amen: He is The Way, The Truth and The Life




This Lent: Give up — whatever you need — to hear God speak:
A FREE 7-week, Lent devotional to build spiritual foundations under your roof
Join us in partnership with The Seed Company
Speak Words of Life Over Your Home

Start a 7-week journey with us in partnership with The Seed Company this Lent & receive DAILY encouragement around God’s Word.


Apply practical steps to bring God’s presence, God’s Word into your home.


Reflect through guided questions, and involve your people in creative ways.


Give up what is lesser — to get more of the Greater.


#GiveUpToGetAwayWithGod  #40DaysGodSpeaking  #LentofListening  #GODSWORDSPOKENHERE





on repeat this week: Lord I Need You




Want a Lent of More? How to have a Lent of Abundantly More God (& a Free 40 Day Lent Devo):



Before any day is over:


Open the Word,

look God straight in the eye–

& let Him speak straight to your heart.


Open the Word, look God in the eye–

& you can stare down anything

threatening your heart.


[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]


Dare to fully live!



That’s all for this weekend, friends.


Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.


Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again


Share Whatever Is Good. 




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Published on March 30, 2019 05:11

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