Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 11
February 14, 2025
God’s valentine for you
You may feel like you somehow got locked out of the dream life, but no one can lock you out of Jesus who loves you more than you could possibly ever dream.
You may feel like everything in your world’s changing, and too fast, and nothing holds, but Jesus holds and He holds fast to you.
You may feel rather forgotten and left behind, but you’ve got Jesus, who left behind all of actual Heaven so He could get to be with all of you.
“You get to live in more than some romantic movie scene — you get to live in the sure arms of God who loves you lavishly and obscenely. “
You may not feel beautiful enough to be attractive, but the beauty of Love Himself is attracted to you and calls you His Beloved and wants nothing more than to be with you.
You may feel like you somehow missed out on some great love story, but Love Himself daily writes Himself into your story because He was willing to do whatever it takes to not miss out on you, and for you to not ever miss out on Him.
You get to live in more than some romantic movie scene —
you get to live in the sure arms of God who loves you lavishly and obscenely.
Because there is something infinitely better than Hollywood’s movies and Hallmark’s cards — there is a holy passion that loves you infinitely.
Our hearts do well & are intimately comforted that the very word passion itself was recorded in English for the very first time in the early 1170’s, in the translation of the Latin Bible — to describe the “suffering of Jesus on the Cross”.
Passion literally is rooted in the Latin word, passio — meaning “to suffer.”
Passion originally was only used, solely and exclusively, to speak of the cruciform, suffering love of Jesus —- the passion of Jesus.
The love we long for isn’t found in someone giving us roses — but in the only One who gave us Himself, the only One who has ever loved us to death, and then rose so we could forever keep rising too.
The word passion didn’t refer to romantic love until several hundred years later, till the late 1580s.
The earliest, original and primary understanding of passion — is the passion of Jesus.
The passion the whole world is seeking in the passion of Jesus who never stops seeking us.
The love we long for isn’t found in someone giving us roses —
but in the only One who gave us Himself, the only One who has ever loved us to death, and then rose so we could forever keep rising too.
Love is more than a feeling, but don’t miss that love is actually more than a choice —
Love is a person
who chooses you
and reaches daily for you to
make a choice for Him and feel the Love you’ve been looking for your whole life.
The Love you want —
isn’t ultimately found in all we want
but in Love Himself
who ultimately wants you.
Why can it feel easier to accept that we are eternally saved by Jesus’ than that we are daily loved by Jesus?
If you’re ready to practice being truly receptive to true love this Valentine’s: Come be Loved to Life!
Believe that You are Unconditionally Loved!
what others are saying about loved to life:
Pick up Loved to Life: A 40-Day VISUAL Pilgrimage with Jesus, through the book of John, that will:
give you enlightening insights to calm your real worriesground your identity in who you really are, regardless of failuresspeak to your deepest doubts in a profoundly steading wayand walk you in fresh, intimate ways with Jesus, Love Himself, that will grow your soul into real LIFEBonus THANK YOU gifts for you:
8 hand-painted cards (by my daughter-in-love, Aurora), “How to Abide in Christ when you… ” a different kind of beautiful Habit Tracker24 “Who I am in Christ” cards with original woodcut illustrations 40 illustrated ornaments from the life of Jesus, for your own Easter tree —40-Day Bible Reading PlanPocket Prayers for your PilgrimageA Complete “Loved to Life” Community Pilgrimage Guide With the 7 I AM Statements of Jesus — to do a Lent Pilgrimage with your people 40 Days of Seeing Yourself in Jesus’ Story: Captivating artwork paired with prompts to help you personally – and very powerfully – step into the very scenes of Scripture, immersing your life in Jesus’ storyand so many (truly incredible!!!!) more deeply spiritually formative, profoundly helpful tools coming that will help grow us in connection to each other and the Vine of Life Himself…
My heartfelt thanks for your support of ordering “Loved to Life” here, where you can also claim all the deeply formative and soul-nourishing THANK YOU gifts… from my heart to yours, connecting us all to His.
ORDER LOVED TO LIFE & CLAIM ALL YOUR THANK YOU GIFTS FOR THE MOST POWERFUL LENT SURPRISE!!!! YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS:View this post on InstagramA 40 Day Community Lenten Experience!A post shared by Ann Voskamp (@annvoskamp)
Join us for daily Scripture read by Ann, devotionals, immersive prayers, and weekly livestream conversations with the most incredible companions! We’ll be face- to- face so you can join us, ask questions, and journey through Lent in real community! Grab a friend and let’s do this together!
Join Us!
February 12, 2025
About My Self-Harming & How We’re All Self-Harming in Some Way & How to Win The Battle of Your Life
Maybe the greatest work of your life is to relax into being greatly loved.
Maybe the great battle that we are actually in the midst of every day — is to believe that we are beloved.
Maybe the real truth — that’s under attack every single day –is that you are infinitely loved, and underneath of you are always the long arms of God’s love.
I cut as a teen.
Maybe the greatest work of your life is to relax into being greatly loved.
Trauma experienced as a child and bullying throughout school, left me with all kinds of pain that I didn’t know where to go with, how to process. Cutting was this sharp, visceral release of all kinds of interior ache.
Turns out: You self-harm because you’re trying to self-medicate for the pain.
You self-harm because your pain doesn’t know where to find real Love for yourself.
And …. it would take me a long time to realize: You’re self-harming whenever you do something that isn’t for your best thriving.
Whatever your means of self-harming — and there are countless ways to daily hurt yourself — it may mean there are parts of you that don’t think you are worthy of feeling loved, there are parts of you that don’t know where there’s any Love to hold the depths of the pain.
Turns out:
What heals all kinds of self-harming.. is feeling how you’re always held by radical love.
I was once asked in a radio interview, if I could in one sentence, share what is the one most important thing for people to know?
What is most important in the universe isn’t philosophical, biological, economical or eschatological — it’s about a Love that’s unconditional.
I’m not sure I had known it the moment before I actually said it outloud, words that seemed to come from somewhere else:
The most important thing that you most need to know is —-
At the heart of the universe, is the face of God smiling love over you .
I blinked it back there in the radio studio, and I’ve lived it:
I’ve been told by emergency responders at accident scenes that the person I loved didn’t make it.
I’ve struggled to stand when the hearse drove away with the body, and I had no idea how how we’d live through the excruciating pain.
I’ve watched a white gowned team carry our screaming baby toward OR for yet another open heart surgery.
The most important reality is that nothing can ever happen to change the reality of God’s love for you.
I’ve watched my baby sister killed in an accident right in front of us, and I’ve lived through raising 7 kids and we’ve navigated all kinds of unspoken broken.
And what has held true, through everything, that this is the one most important thing that holds us secure when everything else is falling away:
The most important story in all the world is the unconditional love of God.
The most important headline of the universe is that the heart of God is for you.
You can be in the worst conditions – in your thinking, in your relationships, in your family, in your temptations, in all kinds of tender ways – & Jesus still tenderly loves you counter-conditionally – in spite of those conditions.
At the heart of the whole universe and the holy Word, you do not find…
“For God’s actually so disappointed with you … that He shook His head in despair and begrudgingly went to the Cross for the failure of you. “
Or for “God’s so low-grade kinda disgusted with you … that He shamed you by passively aggressively dragging Himself to the Cross because of the mess of you …“
Or for “God’s so tired of barely putting up with you … that He hardly could force Himself to the Cross because He wasn’t sure how He actually felt about you….”
Rather… at the heart of the whole universe and the holy Word, are the words that are the very heartbeat of holy God:
For God so loved the world — you — that He gave Himself … and for you who believe in a perfect, purifying, protective love like His, you get to live forever with Divine Love Himself.
The reality of the universe is: “God doesn’t just love you unconditionally. He loves you counter-conditionally – in spite of your conditions,” assured theologian Timothy Keller.
Which means:
You can be stuck in the same distractions, the same temptations, the same reactions -– and Jesus sticks with you, with a love that sticks even closer than your next negative thought.
He can be nothing else. He is Love.
You can be stuck in the same distractions, the same temptations, the same reactions, over and over again -– and Jesus sticks with you, with a love that sticks even closer than your next negative thought.
You can be in the worst conditions – in your thinking, in your relationships, in your family, in your temptations, in all kinds of tender ways – and Jesus still tenderly loves you counter-conditionally – in spite of those conditions.
My therapist once said words that I’d scrawled across the top of a blank page in my journal:
You will persevere in life — as well as you practice being receptive to Love.
You will persevere in life … as well as you practice being receptive to Love.
That’s what he said:
“Your real work in the world is this: Practice opening up, being receptive, to God’s love. Perseverance is the practice — of being receptive to Love.”
How do you practice being receptive to God’s love?
To change the neuroplasticity of our brains ….requires the intentionality of practice…
And to change the progress of our lives….requires the practice of being receptive to love.
So I say it to myself, in the midst of lists and appointments and disappointments and loss and all the obstacles that are life:
“ Let God love you today any way He wants to love you. Let God love you through these moments and circumstances. Through whatever’s happening— feel the ways God is always happening to love you.”
What if every part of you that you’ve labelled unlovable — is exactly where Jesus writes: unconditionally loved.
You will persevere in life … as well as you practice being receptive to Love.
It’s easy to be a slow learner of His warming delight in your soul: “Warm me, your servant, with a smile, save me because You love me… Blessed God! His love is the wonder of the world.” (Ps 31: 14).
When you deeply trust that God’s smiling love rests on you — no matter what happens, your soul is deeply at rest.
When you don’t resist all the unexpected ways God is loving you — you can expect to be the one who persists.
What if every part of you that you’ve labelled unlovable — is exactly where Jesus writes: unconditionally loved.
None of us may be living the life we hoped or imagined — but we are living the realest love story beyond imagining:
Proof that Jesus so passionately loves you – is that there’s a stirring right now to to come passionately love being with Him.
In Christ, very Love Himself smiles and “celebrates and sings because of you, and He will refresh your life with His love” (Zephaniah 3:17 CEB).
When you feel God smiling love over you, you are no longer under the pressure to strive for His smile, but you joyfully thrive because of His smile.
“Unless He wanted you, you would not be wanting Him,” writes the preeminent C.S. Lewis.
Which is just to say:
Proof that Jesus so passionately loves you – is that there’s a stirring right now to to come passionately love being with Him.
And maybe that right there is the great work of every day — just to respond to that:
“If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God, by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of His resurrection life!” is what the Best Book assures. (Romans 5:10-11 MSG)
And the soul can feel this deep relaxing into being loved to life.
Win the Battle of Your Life: Believe that You are Unconditionally Loved
Pick up Loved to Life: A 40-Day VISUAL Pilgrimage with Jesus, through the book of John, that will:
give you enlightening insights to calm your real worriesground your identity in who you really are, regardless of failuresspeak to your deepest doubts in a profoundly steading wayand walk you in fresh, intimate ways with Jesus, Love Himself, that will grow your soul into real LIFEAnd with my deepest heartfelt thanks for the support of your pre-order of LOVED TO LIFE , may I give you:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2157050...
8 hand-painted cards (by my daughter-in-love, Aurora), “How to Abide in Christ when you… ” a different kind of beautiful Habit Tracker24 “Who I am in Christ” cards with original woodcut illustrations 40 illustrated ornaments from the life of Jesus, for your own Easter tree — 40-Day Bible Reading PlanPocket Prayers for your PilgrimageA Complete “Loved to Life” Community Pilgrimage Guide With the 7 I AM Statements of Jesus — to do a Lent Pilgrimage with your people 40 Days of Seeing Yourself in Jesus’ Story: Captivating artwork paired with prompts to help you personally – and very powerfully – step into the very scenes of Scripture, immersing your life in Jesus’ storyand so many (truly incredible!!!!) more deeply spiritually formative, profoundly helpful tools coming that will help grow us in connection to each other and the Vine of Life Himself…
My heartfelt thanks for your support of pre-ordering “Loved to Life” here, where you can also claim all the deeply formative and soul-nourishing free gifts… from my heart to yours, connecting us all to His.
ORDER LOVED TO LIFE HERE & CLAIM ALL YOUR FREE GIFTS FOR THE MOST POWERFUL LENT
February 8, 2025
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend [02.08.2025]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
So we are diving back in with Multivitamins for our Weekend! So many of you have asked for the return of the weekly multivitamin email, and we’re so with you — because who doesn’t need a bit of good news? We are figuring it out here, a bit of happy work in progress, but we are so excited for what is to come!
Let yourself smile, be crazy inspired, laugh, love & really live the gift of this life
just a little bit more this weekend…
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here
waking to the wonder of simple days right here…
I think we all need to start next week with this kind of energy!!View this post on InstagramCan we all take time for a little extra studying this week?A post shared by Responsive Parenting | Enhancing Relationships (@responsiveparentinghub)
View this post on InstagramThis is so good!A post shared by Janell Garwood (@gatheringhoney)
Eyes to See: My Word for 2025 by Vaneetha Risner
This is a must read: Imagine having the whole body of christ Around the World All together? Join us at Gather25!I’ll be joining in, Lord willing, from Cluj, Romania, one of the global gatherings — are you in with us, for this historic gathering?
The Word became Flesh and Dwelt Among us — and people are hungry for more of the Word! THIS: “I’ve Failed. This is the Only way Forward”
And, in the midst of failing? These FREE 24 “I AM” Identity in Christ Cards HAVE BEEN LIFE-CHANGING“Love thy Enemy” Japanese pilot who led Pearl Harbor attack learned lessons of love, faith and forgiveness after the war
Click here if you want an “only God can” storySo so good! This is a must listen: Your 2025 Needs This: “What A Habit Really is & Why We Need a this Kind of (Free) habit tracker“
Your 2025 will thank you for reading this one:
I think we all need to hear this:View this post on Instagram“You’re never too old to do the Lord’s work.”A post shared by Christine Caine (@christinecaine)
You don’t want to miss this:
On LifeToday TV: “Grief And Gratitude““How to Live Your One & Only Beautiful Life…The one Right there in your hands?“
This felt like a HUG… the embrace of REAL RELIEF
How cool is this! View this post on Instagram“The Goodness of God in Scripture”A post shared by Alex Kendrick (@the.alex.kendrick)
Such a good read! You don’t want to miss it!
Another song on repeat this week! Post of the Week From Around These Parts:
How Do You Abide In Christ Throughout Your Day & Why Does it REALLY matter?The question of whether you are mainly a disciple of Jesus – is answered by whether you abide in Him, remain in Him, when the moments of your day mainly go sideways.
You heart needs to read this! On The Book Stack at the Farm
Gavin Ortlund wrote The Art of Disagreeing because he has been grieved about the lovelessness in the church today — and I cannot recommend this book more highly.
He hopes this book will give readers realistic pathways forward for navigating disagreements in their lives. This is important because Jesus taught that the world will recognize we are his disciples by how we love each other.
In Three Seconds of Courage, Riley tells the remarkable story of how she survived the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami and learned that small acts of bravery can change your life in ways you can’t imagine. A decision made in just three seconds can mean the difference between a life of isolation and one of connection, between playing it safe and taking a bold step forward, between being self-focused and reaching out to help others, between holding a grudge and offering and accepting forgiveness. Her book will inspire you to push past your comfort zone, look beyond your own life, and act courageously for the good of those around you.
This free 40-day habit tracker is an invitation to cultivate rhythms of prayer and presence. Each day,
as you engage in your chosen sacred rhythm, you’ll fill in a quilt square — stitching together a beautiful life woven together with Christ’s love…
“40 Ways to Abide in Jesus” comes in TWO DIFFERENT, BOTH FREE, PRINTABLES (one as original beautiful art prints by my beloved daughter-in-law, Aurora (!!), to place around your home, or as one stunning cross-centered compass to frame and hang) —
Don’t Miss Out: A 40-Day Pilgrimage with JesusThis coming year, take a 40-Day journey, from barely getting through — to passionately living the fullest life
Don’t Miss Out On This 40-Day Experience with Jesus
“Loved to Life” is a 40-Day VISUAL Pilgrimage with Jesus, through the book of John that will:
give you enlightening insights to calm your real worriesground your identity in who you really are, regardless of failures speak to your deepest doubts in a profoundly steadying waywalk you in fresh, intimate way with Jesus, which will actually powerfully change your walk through lifePre-Order Here & then come fill out this form & let us THANK YOU, with all the FREE GIFTS, INCLUDING the art “40 WAYS TO ABIDE WITH JESUS IN YOUR EVERY DAY”
If you too long to be more grounded in your truest identity as always deeply beloved – then this is your personal invitation to pre-order “Loved to Life” and join us for the 40-Day with Jesus, through the book of John — and, as our sincerest thanks for joining us on this 40-Day pilgrimage to knowing our truest identity as always beloved.
Pre-Order Loved to Life & Get All Your Free Thank You Gifts Here “The Prodigal”“The Blessing”Take minute to slow down this weekend: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.
February 7, 2025
How to Live Your One & Only Beautiful Life…The one Right there in Your Hands?
The only decision you really ever have to make every day is – how will you grow your one and only life that’s right there in your hands?
Because:
Whatever you give your attention to grows.
And you really are meant to live your one life to the full — and yeah, don’t you know it:
The only decision you really ever have to make every day is – how will you grow your one and only life that’s right there in your hands?
Not the self-help, loud flashy spiel about how to remake- your- life- in-only!! 5!! days!!, or the cheap tinny made-in-la-la-land version of life that rings more than a bit hollow when you dip into a valley of the shadow of deep sadness and real loss.
You’re more than just meant to live life to the full – you actually get to .
You actually get to breathe in the clean, rarified air of expansive freedom, and sink down into rest long enough to taste the savoring richness of grace, and feel yourself unwind and lean right back into a Love that always has your back.
You actually get to be safe to honestly feel all that you feel, and be brutally honest about how the sharp raw edge of this busted old world has cut the tender underside of your heart and you don’t have to bravely pretend otherwise.
Because it’s actually more brave to grow into a life where the tears of all your feelings water your soul into an honest and whole way of being in this world, that is holy and wholly human.
Discontent comes from being disconnected from the lives of each other, and disconnected from life in the Vine of Life Himself.
You actually could get to live the kind of life that bravely digs around and excavates along the edges of your life to see with your own tired eyes, how the roots of all kinds of tender discontent comes from being disconnected.
Discontent comes from being disconnected from the lives of each other, and disconnected from life in the Vine of Life Himself.
Where in the world do we all keep going that ultimately leaves us disconnected and low-grade discontent?
Go to the noisy watering holes of culture, go to the weedy, tangled headlines of the day, go to the filtered streams of curated socials, and, turns out, the thing is: All kinds of words can numb and end up leaving you for dead.
But where in the whole actual world can we really go to grow our one and only life to Life, and into life to the full?
When life is really tender, all you really have to do is just connect to the only One who has the Words of real Life.
In all the cosmos:
There is only One to whom we can go who has the Words of real life, the forever real life . (John 7)
When life is really tender, all you really have to do is just connect to the only One who has the Words of real Life.
The One who is Life lifts your chin, cups your face, finds your eyes right now and whispers:
“The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and LIFE.” (John 6:63).
So maybe there’s a real possibility….
That the one decision the heart really has to make every day is:
In all this wearying, whirling world, will you just go to the only One who is Life and let Him love you to Life, right there in His reaching, love-scarred hands?
Come grow with me?
Pick up Loved to Life: A 40-Day VISUAL Pilgrimage with Jesus, through the book of John, that will:
give you enlightening insights to calm your real worriesground your identity in who you really are, regardless of failuresspeak to your deepest doubts in a profoundly steading wayand walk you in fresh, intimate ways with Jesus, Love Himself, that will grow your soul into real LIFEAnd with my deepest heartfelt thanks for the support of your pre-order of LOVED TO LIFE , may I give you:
8 hand-painted cards (by my daughter-in-love, Aurora), “How to Abide in Christ when you… ” a different kind of beautiful Habit Tracker24 “Who I am in Christ” cards with original woodcut illustrations 40 illustrated ornaments from the life of Jesus, for your own Easter tree — and so many (truly incredible!!!!) more deeply spiritually formative, profoundly helpful tools coming that will help grow us in connection to each other and the Vine of Life Himself…
My heartfelt thanks for your support of pre-ordering “Loved to Life” here, where you can also claim all the deeply formative and soul-nourishing free gifts… from my heart to yours, connecting us all to His.
you’ve already pre-ordered loved to life?Thank you! I cannot wait to take this 40-Day pilgrimage with you! Just fill out the free gift request form, and all these free gifts & printables — along with so many more really amazing free gifts coming! — will be emailed to you with all my love & gratitude!
February 6, 2025
What A Habit Really is & Why We Need a Different Kind of (FREE) Habit tracker
When my 6 ft 5 ¾ son comes into the kitchen and announces that – “Well! we are already more than 1/12th through this year!” – I about choke on my early morning coffee and spew out all my caffeinated disbelief – because whhhaaaa!??!
HOW IN THE ACTUAL WORLD are we all already here?
Every new year isn’t a race tracking the speed of your pace – but every new year is simply about being consistent and going the distance.
I mean, I saw a meme somewhere: “Taking January as my free trial month, so my 2025 actually starts in February” and I’ve never felt so seen. I may, or may not confess, to having taken a screenshot to send it to the family chat with one too many laughing emojis. Because honestly, who wouldn’t be okay if January was the new bonus training course, running for a limited-time only, between Christmas and the real February start of the new year?
Because turns out?
Every new year isn’t a race tracking the speed of your pace – but every new year is simply about being consistent and going the distance.
And every day is about getting out of bed, putting feet to the floor, putting some clothes on, and putting one foot in front of the other, simply keeping the cadence of grace and going the pace of God.
When that 6 ft. 5 ¾ son of ours used to be small enough to fit on my lap, I was reading a story aloud to him and his little sister curled in close, reading how this one young woman in the story had gone ahead every morning and just put on her “habit.”
And his little sister had patted me on the shoulder to get my attention and asked, “But what’s a habit?”
A habit is something that is worn , a habit something that you put on, that you pull over you. A habit is something that covers you.
And I explained what a habit is, though I hadn’t actually thought of it that way until that girl in the book had “pulled on her habit”…
A habit is something that is worn , a habit something that you put on, that you pull over you. A habit is something that covers you.
A habit is what clothes you.
Our big-boy-who-then-was-little and his baby sister had nodded, turned back to the story’s page, waiting for me to read the next line. But I was completely struck:
What are the habits that we wear? What are the habits that clothe us?
Maybe every day isn’t so much about getting new habits down — as it is about putting those new habits on , about wearing your habits?
There is nothing that doesn’t keep compounding. Everything keeps adding up to something.
Our habits are the way we wear our hours; our habits are how we clothe our days. Our habits cover us and clothe us and our habits become us… and make us becoming… making us beautiful.
Standing there in the kitchen, with 1/12th of the year behind us, and 11/12ths of the year ahead of us, standing there in a a pair of threadbare jeans with my cup of coffee, I smile:
Standing in an imperfect place is always the perfect place to begin.
And you have to intentionally keep beginning:
There is nothing that doesn’t keep compounding. Everything keeps adding up to something.
Habitually do the same thing everyday, and you eventually find yourself a new person.
Habitually do the same thing everyday, and you eventually find yourself a new person.
And the way in which we live our moments, our choices for the gift of the next 24 hours, are all adding up to what’s clothing us, what covers us – like the pieces of a quilt.
Take a few scraps of moments to be in the Word and pilgrimage with the Word Himself, to be so close to Him, that you begin to walk like Him.
Then stitch that to a patch of time for a prayer walk.
Quilt that to another habit – a daily 30 minute reading retreat, or going to sleep at a certain time, or journaling a page every morning, or moving your body to move the stress through – and you begin to quilt together your own habit to cover you – a blanket of grace to wear like a glorious coat of many colors.
And maybe that’s the thing?
In the midst of all kinds of isolation, maybe our days and habits don’t need more determination or motivation – maybe what our days and habits need to have is more community celebration !
Our habits need a community that sees us, and a community that celebrates us!
These habits that cover us and clothe us – they need patching together in a community of celebration , like a quilting party, a quilting bee, like an old-time quilting circle!
And because a habit is something that we wear , then good habits are less about controlling yourself – and more about clothing yourself in Christ . (Romans 13:14).
The bed I’m in the habit of making every morning, it’s covered with the double-ring quilt my grandmother gave us for our wedding more than a moon or two ago. And when I smooth out the quilt’s patches and stitches, I can feel the happy hope of it:
What if there was a quilting bee of all our habits, our own quilting circle, a quilting party, so there was a community celebration of the beauty of the habits that we are covering ourselves with?
And because a habit is something that we wear , then good habits are less about controlling yourself – and more about clothing yourself in Christ . (Romans 13:14).
Like a well-loved quilt stitched together over a year, over the days of a lifetime, our spiritual rhythms form a covering—a beautiful, lived expression of abiding in Him.
When life leaves you only scraps of time, be scrappy enough to quilt a masterpiece of a life.
The first coffee cup of the day’s done, that first habit of the day’s done – making our bed covered with my grandmother’s quilt, while I pray for a hurting friend to be covered in the comfort of Christ.
And after that habit of spending time in the Word, pilgrimaging with Jesus, being loved to life, I color a bit on my habit tracker that isn’t like all those hard and fast linear habit trackers, that look likes ranked lines of rigid rules…
Because the thing is:
When you realize what a habit really is – something that clothes and covers you — you realize you need a different kind of habit tracker. You need beautiful habit tracker that clothes and covers you like a quilt.
The accomplishment of a day isn’t so much about accomplishing goals but abiding in God.
And when you realize that we are already more than 1/12th through another year of your one and only life? You realize how this moment is a perfect time to begin with a beautiful and different kind of habit tracker, to do in a community – like your own quilting circle, your own quilting party – your own quilting celebration of a beautiful life.
And it’s happening even now:
When life leaves you only scraps of time, be scrappy enough to quilt a masterpiece of a life.
And feel it come at the end of every day, the sure relief of it:
The accomplishment of a day isn’t so much about accomplishing goals but abiding in God.
That is the comfort that pulls up over everything: that all is covered with brilliant grace.
FREE HABIT TRACKER: CLOTHED & COVERED IN CHRIST
This free 40-day habit tracker is an invitation to cultivate rhythms of prayer and presence. Each day,
as you engage in your chosen sacred rhythm, you’ll fill in a quilt square — stitching together a beautiful life woven together with Christ’s love…
And this beautiful, different kind of Habit Tracker is our free thank you gift to you, for your support and pre-order of “Loved to Life: a 40-Day Pilgrimage with Love Himself that will Change Your Life”
“Loved to Life” is a 40-Day VISUAL Pilgrimage with Jesus, through the book of John, that will:
give you enlightening insights to calm your real worriesground your identity in who you really are, regardless of failuresspeak to your deepest doubts in a profoundly steadying wayand walk you in fresh, intimate way with Jesus, Love Himself, that will be life-changing!PRE-ORDER “Loved to Life” HERE & claim all your free gifts, including this free habit tracker, as our heartfelt thanks for your support!
February 5, 2025
I’ve Failed. This is the Only way Forward
I’ve failed.
Your main identity isn’t mainly a function of your activity. Your ultimate identity is that you are ultimately loved unconditionally.
I got a text last week from my husband where he tenderly and gently shared how I had failed him during a conversation, and he wasn’t wrong, and my stomach dropped and my heart cracked and I immediately texted him back that he was very right, and I was very, very sorry.
I’ve botched things and I’ve hurt people; I’ve wounded unintentionally and I’ve fallen miserably; I’ve failed people who I love, and done what I shouldn’t have done, and haven’t done what I should have done, and knowing that you aren’t the way you hoped, and you haven’t loved the way you’ve wanted, can leave you right flat-out undone.
Honestly? In the midst of all my daily failures and painful falling short, there’s only one guy in all the world I really want to be: the guy in the Good Book who identifies himself as “the one whom Jesus loves.”
There’s genuinely no greater relief in all this striving, stumbling world:
Your main identity isn’t mainly a function of your activity.
You are human – and you are still the one that, ultimately, Jesus loves unconditionally.
Your ultimate identity is that you are ultimately loved unconditionally.
You fail – and still, you are not ultimately a failure.
You get it wrong – and still, you are not primarily wrong.
You make a mess of things — and still, you are not mainly a mess.
You are human – and you are still the one that, ultimately, Jesus loves unconditionally.
Because when you follow the One who says, “I am the Bread of Life” – you can fail to always nourish others in countless ways, and you still get to say: “I am the one who Jesus loves.”
When you follow the One who says, “I am the Light of the World” – you can be struggling with dark thoughts and be wrestling with the shadows and fail to light up every room, and you still get to fully feel the unwavering reality that: “I am the one who Jesus loves.”
When you follow the One who says,”I am the Good Shepherd” – you can wander off and get lost and fail to take the shortest, straightest way, and you still get to be embraced with the assurance of knowing: “I am the one who Jesus loves.”
When you follow the One who says,”I am the Good Shepherd” – you can wander off and get lost and fail to take the shortest, straightest way, and you still get to be embraced with the assurance of knowing: “I am the one who Jesus loves.”
When you follow the One who says, “I am the Door” – you can feel boxed in by everyone and run yourself into a thousand dead ends and slam hard against a million brick walls, and you still get to experience the deep comfort of saying: “I am the one who Jesus loves.”
When you follow the One who says, “I am the resurrection and the Life” – you can feel numbed to all kinds of pain and deadened with grief for all kinds of heartache, and you still get the real, embodied relief of saying: “I am the one who Jesus loves.”
When you follow the One who says, “I am the true vine” — you don’t have to force any fruit production to earn anyone’s accolades, you don’t have to perform, pretend or perfect any impressive productivity, and you still get to completely rest in knowing: “I am the one who Jesus loves.”
When you follow the One who says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” – you don’t have to know the way, you don’t have to find the way, you don’t have to forge your way, you simply get to be with the One who is the Way, the One who gives you His life, so you can say what is always the truth: “I am the one who Jesus loves.”
It’s only when you know your identity as beloved — that you actually begin to LIVE!
It’s only when you know your identity as beloved — that you actually begin to LIVE!
Identity, it literally means “the state of being the same”— coming from the Latin root word “identitatem” meaning “sameness.” Which means that one’s true identity, regardless of changing circumstances, wavering emotions, or different situations, your core identity is unchangeable, stable, and always forever the same.
No criticism can change it. And no failing can’t shake it.
Lists – accomplished or not – can’t determine it. And no mark – checkmarks or smudge marks – can define it.
No adversity ever has permission to be your identity, and no activity – good or bad – ever gets to be the ultimate framework to shape your identity. You aren’t ever just a sum of your yesterdays, and you are far more than any of your messes tomorrow, and because of the infinite heart of the one who is the great I AM – you get to ultimately say that your identity is: “I am the one who Jesus loves.”
No adversity ever has permission to be your identity, and no activity – good or bad – ever gets to be the ultimate framework to shape your identity.
When your identity is on the Rock Himself, your identity is rock-solid — and as long as your identity is hidden in Christ, it doesn’t matter what mountain rises ahead of you: You are brave enough for today, because He is. You are strong enough for what’s coming, because He is. And, when He is in you, moving through you, you will have more than enough for all that is, because He always is more than enough.
I’ve failed. And somedays, miserably.
And yet still — when I lay my head on the pillow at the end of the day, that is the softest place in the world to finally land, the only place where the soul can surely, deeply rest:
“I am still the one who Jesus loves.”
Free Identity in Christ Cards: Our Thank-You for Pre-Ordering “Loved to Life”
It’s one of the reasons why I wrote the book, “Loved to Life”, following Jesus through every chapter in the book of John – because John is the one who refers to himself over and over and over again, at least 5 times, as, quite strikingly ,“‘the disciple whom Jesus loved.”
That was John’s ultimate identity – and it’s meant to be ours.
That when we look in the mirror first thing every morning, when we fail, when we mess up, when we put our head down on our pillow at the end of the day – more than any title, more than any position, more than any work – that we can know, in the very marrow of our bones, our truest identity:
“I am the one who Jesus loves.”
If you too long to be more grounded in your truest identity as always deeply beloved – then this is your personal invitation to pre-order “Loved to Life” and join us for the 40-Day with Jesus, through the book of John — and, as our sincerest thanks for joining us on this 40-Day pilgrimage to knowing our truest identity as always beloved – please accept this pack of FREE IDENTITY IN CHRIST CARDS
Pre-Order & Claim Your Free Gifts!February 4, 2025
Phony or Real Believer? How Do You Abide & Why Does it Matter?
It’s hardly the second month of the year, still in the chill of winter, when I’m watering my citrus fruit tree by the front window, wondering yet again, why the poor thing keeps losing fruit.
Producing doesn’t come from how much you work — but how deeply you abide in the vine.
Behind me, open on that old, burned blacksmith table that I use as a desk, lies all the various editions of The Book, open to the book of John, where I’m working and studying and writing, for school, for my soul, the pages open to those words: “As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
I set my watering can down – and feel this watering within, in all kinds of tired and parched places:
Your life only produces true fruit — to the extent your life truly abides in Christ.
Producing fruit isn’t about your work — producing fruit is a work of the Vine.
Producing doesn’t come from how much you work — but how deeply you abide in the vine.
“All our sap and safety is from Christ. The bud of a good desire, the blossom of a good resolution, and the fruit of a good action, all come from Him,” writes theologian John Trapp.
You don’t have to worry about whatever’s coming — your focus is to abide in the vine of Christ and fruit will come.
I’ve been feeling it along the frayed edges of my thoughts, all the loud whirl of the world, all the stresses and the unknown spreading out across every one of our calendars, and I’m surprised by the deep relief of it that’s slowly unfurling within:
You don’t have to worry about whatever’s coming — your focus is to abide in the vine of Christ and fruit will come.
I turn the fruit tree a bit closer to the window.
I too can turn and trust:
No matter what hardship you’re bearing — when you abide in Christ, you’re bearing fruit.
No matter what hardship you’re bearing — when you abide in Christ, you’re bearing fruit.
Our real work isn’t advancement in the world of commerce or culture, but real attachment to the vine of Christ.
As I work on my doctorate in spiritual formation and soul care, that’s what I’ve been studying, writing, learning,
To abide in Christ — means to shelter in Christ, move into Christ, dwell in Christ, attach to Christ, live with Christ, remain in Christ.
Which is to say:
In the midst of a storm, the call is to shelter in place.
And in the midst of life’s storms, the call is to abide & shelter in Christ.
Storms may pound, storms will distract, storms keep peeling life back and away – but what remains, what endures, what perseveres, is that we remain holding onto Jesus, who holds onto us.
True disciples remain in the Word as they go about their work, because, for true disciples, remaining in the Word is their main
This is how we abide.
How we remain in Jesus, when everything is mainly being tossed and turned and thrown about, is how we keep abiding in Jesus.
When Jesus says, “If you abide in My Word, you are truly my disciples,” He’s speaking inclusively to everyone, as all of us fall into one of three groups:
There are some who aren’t His disciples…. there are some who are fake disciples…. and there are some who truly are His disciples. And the mark of true disciples is that they abide in His Word, they remain in His Word.
How do you know if you are a true believer?
True disciples don’t let the Word remain on the shelf, the desk, the counter, while they go about their main work. True disciples remain in the Word as they go about their work, because, for true disciples, remaining in the Word is their main work.
How do you know if you are a true believer?
The question of whether you are mainly a disciple of Jesus – is answered by whether you abide in Him, remain in Him, when the moments of your day mainly go sideways.
True disciples so savor the goodness of Jesus, that nothing else the world offers tastes near as good – so they stay in Jesus. Remain in Jesus. Abide in Jesus.
How do you know if you are a true believer?
“By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him…” says The Book.
The question of whether you truly believe in Jesus – is answered by whether you truly abide in Jesus.
The question of whether you genuinely know Jesus – is answered by whether you genuinely abide in Him.
The question of whether you are mainly a disciple of Jesus – is answered by whether you abide in Him, remain in Him, when the moments of your day mainly go sideways.
Real rest is only found when our minds remain in Jesus.
And there is Jesus’ eyes tenderly finding yours:
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest,” says Jesus who understands our sideways days, the days of overwhelm and stress: “Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
I pick up the watering can, lighter now, and pick up these cards, these 40 Daily Ways to Abide in Christ, that speak to heart questions –– When Feeling Worried…. When Needing a Soul Reset… When Beginning My Day… When Ending My Day — and then answer how help me to keep abiding right in that moment, keep remaining, help me to keep keeping company with Jesus in and this is learning to live, really live, freely and lightly.
Real rest is only found when our minds remain in Jesus.
The only way to remain sane – is to find ways for your moments and your mind to remain in Christ.
And I place these cards, these 40 Ways to Keep Company with Christ in all the moments of the day – all like cups of cold water – throughout the house, at the sink, the mirror, the counter, the desk – all offering the relief of how to remain in the Only One who will remain in the end.
When I make the bed every morning — I lean on Jesus in prayer, bringing the same friend’s name to Him every morning. As I begin every morning, as I make that first steaming coffee, I read the next Psalm that is there is open there on the book stand in the kitchen and drink deeply of Living Water. As I do my chores throughout the day, I tuck a memory card into my pocket and meditate on that Word and find my truest memory returning to me: I live in Jesus and He lives in me and in Him is where I dwell, safe and secure.
And this is what I amazingly discover throughout the day : Abiding is attachment…. and attachment to Jesus is security through absolutely anything.
And keeping these cards, “40 Ways to Keep Company with Jesus” along the main routes of the day, keeps the mind and heart remaining in the safest place: in Jesus.
I can feel myself beginning to bear better and riper fruit: The only way to remain sane – is to find ways for your moments and your mind to remain in Christ.
You keep sane by keeping company with Jesus.
You keep sane by keeping company with Jesus.
The fruit tree that remains in the front window, it perks with a deep watering, and I can see, all along one branch, tender new green tendrils coming. The fruit comes, as there is a coming to the light.
As there is a coming back to Life.
This is the only real fruit that matters.
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February 3, 2025
Burnout? Failure? This is What Happens When Wounds Become Wisdom
It’s easy to spot transactional religion in others but oh so difficult to see how it creeps into my own life. That’s why I love the honesty that Tanya Godsey shares in this story of how her striving led to surrender. By revealing her own struggles, she helps me turn duty for God into devotion and worship. That’s why it’s an absolute delight to welcome Tanya to the farm’s front porch today…
Guest Post by Tanya Godsey
A mentor of mine once told me that no one benefits from a lie.
The place where that happens the most is deep down inside our very own hearts. Many of us know many things in our gut but have been conditioned to dismiss those instincts. Yet it is the truth that sets us free.
How do I know this?
Failure. I had lied to myself.
I was several years past twenty-nine, but few words triggered me on a neurobiological level more than “You’re not going to succeed.”
But I knew my calling was from God Himself, and I knew it wasn’t going to simply disappear into thin air even if it didn’t align with music-industry norms. My call would forever echo off the walls of my heart if it did not find a way out of my body. The music industry had a template for artists, and I didn’t fit it. But as I saw it, I had no choice. I had to steward my calling.
In 2015 I set out to make my third record. I recorded, engineered, comped, and tuned my own vocals in my own studio until the wee hours of the morning with my husband, a four-year-old, and an eight-year-old close by. I did my own preproduction, from programming drums to fine-tuning MIDI keys. I tweaked parts until they were absolute perfection in my mind and swam in an ocean of musical minutiae, sometimes until 4:00 a.m. Then I would rise and shine at 6:45 a.m. to get kids off to school and work a full day at the studio with only a short lunch break.
“It’s the truth that sets us free—if we have the courage to face it.“
It was intense. But I knew no one would care more about these songs and this work than I did, and I didn’t expect them to.
At the end of what I referred to then as a “labor-intensive sowing season,” I will never forget how God brought harvest from scattered seeds. It became my most critically acclaimed record at the time. I booked a successful tour and recouped my money within two months of said tour, but I was falling apart.
My physical, mental, emotional, and relational health had been sacrificed on the altar of this success, and the carnage was widespread and undeniable. I had stopped eating, and sleep was at a minimum. I was on a mission to save the world, but at the age of thirty-six, I was the one who needed saving.
Let me tell you something. All the success in the world doesn’t mean much when you are laying your very body, mind, and soul on the altar of achievement to secure it.
The idol of man’s approval had granted me momentary public success, but the private fallout was disastrous.
I was suffering from the worst case of burnout possible. My marriage, my body, my mind, and my soul were barely surviving. I needed a full stop. I needed to sleep. I needed to eat. I needed to heal. I needed to mine the meaning of how I had let myself get to this breaking point.
It’s the truth that sets us free—if we have the courage to face it.
In hindsight, I fought hard to reach the fullness of my potential, and while there were some benefits to the development of my skill set and to the overall project, I also learned that if we’re not careful, workaholism can become a little-g god that can bind us to a mindset of striving. This mindset can deplete us spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, and relationally while enslaving us to a life rooted in the idolatry of achievement, self-sufficiency, and the approval of man.
“I learned that working from God’s pleasure within us is vastly different than working for God’s pleasure. “
I learned that succumbing to perfectionism is not the same as offering excellence. Excellence is simply about receiving what God gives us and responding to Him with faithful stewardship. Excellence is about working with a proper fear of the Lord, an awe and amazement of Him.
I learned that working from God’s pleasure within us is vastly different than working for God’s pleasure.
I learned that God was already pleased with me through Jesus, His Son, and my attempts at earning anything more than what He had already given was a false gospel rooted in transactionalism. Failure was the great teacher because pain was the great motivator that led me to ask transformational questions and to have the courage to answer those questions with nothing less than the truth.
I discovered that when you reach your own professed “Promised Land” the wrong way, the milk and honey doesn’t taste so sweet.
My heart longed for an intimate friendship with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The antidote wasn’t in a passionate approach of doing more or trying harder. The answer would come in a metamorphosis of motive. Surrender and obedience first, then passion, then endurance with a respectful sobriety of my weak points and tendencies.
All this, the fruit of failure. Beauty from the ashes of extreme burnout.
“I discovered that when you reach your own professed “Promised Land” the wrong way, the milk and honey doesn’t taste so sweet. “
God remade me in the fires of my own collapse. Transformation began with new practices. I never stopped working hard to steward my call, but I began to take the Sabbath, a twenty-four-hour period of rest and delight, very seriously.
I began to see the Sabbath as an act of trusting God with all the people, things, dreams, and projects I couldn’t control. Contemplative prayer followed. Sleep. Rest. Margin. Wonder. These all became new spiritual practices that yielded life, inspiration, renewal, joy, and a closer awareness of God’s activity and the Spirit’s leading and movement.
Failure offers many gifts.
One of them is the authority to speak truth mined from lessons learned.
Transformation turns to gold when wounds become wisdom.
*Taken from Befriending God: How We are Undone, Changed, and Made New by Tanya Godsey © 2025. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.*
Tanya Godsey is a worship leader, a speaker, a spiritual director, and the founder of Redeeming The Story, a nonprofit organization focused on spiritual renewal and personal development resources and gatherings.
Tanya is the artist and voice behind four critically acclaimed albums that invite others into God’s transforming presence and serves as the host of The Unforced Gifts podcast. Tanya and her husband have been married for over twenty years and live in the Nashville area with their two children. Follower Tanya on Instagram and Spotify.
Befriending God was birthed in a south-Texas, immigrant community and influenced from studying the radical loyalty of people like Moses, King David, and John the Baptist.
Artist, worship leader, and spiritual director Tanya Godsey shares her experiences of striving, suffering, and surrender, and explores ways to create intimacy with God in each moment-by-moment of your day. Learn to trust God’s power, faithfully face life’s disruptions, find hope in suffering, and ultimately quietly rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
{Our humble thanks to NavPress for their partnership in today’s devotional.}
January 31, 2025
Where is God In Tragedy & Suffering? Where is God When We Weep?
YOU NEVER CRY ALONE — no one ever, ever cries alone. Jesus weeps with you over every loss, every grief, every tragedy.
Maybe those are two of the most powerful words in all of Scripture, in all our suffering: “Jesus wept.”
In the midst of all kinds of excruciating heartache and devastating headlines — the real lifeline for all our heartbreak is:
Jesus comes, and Jesus sees, and Jesus weeps, and the reality is that Jesus didn’t just enter into the world; Jesus intimately enters into your hurting world, the world of your broken heart.
The wounds of your heart makes the God of heaven weep; and your heart has always wholly captivated His, because this is who He is, and has always been:
“When Jesus saw (Mary) weeping (after the death of her brother Lazarus), and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, ‘Where have you laid him?’
They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’
Jesus wept.” (John 11)
The moment invites you to feel His arms around you: Your tears move Jesus to tears.
No one in the history of the world has ever been more tender with the lines of your story, of heartbreaking stories, than the Word Himself.
No one in the history of the world has ever been more tender with the lines of your story, of heartbreaking stories, than the Word Himself.
Jesus, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3, ESV), physically knows what it’s like for a soul to groan, for a heart to howl. And there is incomparable comfort in it: Jesus comes to be with you and weep with you, because the gentle love of Jesus wants nothing more than to hold you through this.
The comfort we seek is always found in the arms of the co-suffering God.
And that’s what holds us: Jesus’ sovereignty over everything may cover us, but it’s Jesus’ solidarity with us in everything that comforts us.
And before He ever begins to work all things together for good, God weeps over with us what is altogether wrong.
Jesus weeps —- and, also, Jesus does more than just weep, and He feels more than just empathy with us in our grief. He is “deeply moved in spirit” not once but twice, both as He weeps with Mary – and as He moves toward Lazarus’ tomb. Mary’s grieving tears leave Jesus “greatly troubled,” the Greek verb for “greatly troubled” expressing a deeply felt passion, like a groaning within Himself.
And before He ever begins to work all things together for good, God weeps over with us what is altogether wrong.
Some translators even render it as “a deep anger” that “welled up within him” (NLT).
What is this anger, this passionate feeling, this raw mixture of grief and groaning and fury that roiled within Him?
Jesus wasn’t only weeping over Lazarus, because He knew He was about to miraculously raise Lazarus from the dead….
Jesus wasn’t just weeping for Martha and Mary, because He knew their devastated grief tears were about to turn to tears of delirious joy as He rose their brother, Lazarus, from the dead…
What was happening was staggering:
When Jesus was weeping, Jesus was seeing into the future, into every grave, every loss that would ever be, and Jesus was weeping with you.
When Jesus stood by a grave on this planet, Jesus saw you, Jesus thought of you, and He wept, furious over how losing your people, your beloveds, would hurt you.
With tears blurring His whole world, Jesus stands with each of us who will ever sit with deep loss, weeping hard, hating death as much as we do, and Jesus is ferociously angry, to hell and back, with the horror and havoc of death for each of us.
In your darkest valleys, feel how Jesus’ furious love hates all kinds of death too.
Standing there with heart- shattered Mary and Martha, Jesus knew the surreal miracle of Lazarus’ resurrection that was about to happen.
He knew their brother’s funeral procession was about to become a thrilling resurrection celebration; He knew who He is: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.” He knew how those are the words that quake the darkest chambers of every heart awake. He knew that only one kernel of trust that He is the cosmic, great I Am, who lays down His life to kiss the universe back to life, is all the belief that is ever needed to rescue us, and revive us back to life.
But instead of telling Mary the miraculous breakthrough that was about to happen, Jesus, the weeping God, broke down with Mary.
True, Jesus points to the truth of the resurrection and eternal life — and yet: Jesus passionately weeps for all the griefs of life here and now.
Because God knows: Shared tears are always multiplied healing.
God knows: Shared tears are always multiplied healing.
And because Jesus knows you need one arm stretched out, pointing to the hope of forever Life beyond — and Jesus knows you need another arm wrapping ’round you right now, weeping with you right now, lovingly holding you with comfort right now.
And there is deep comfort in knowing that we are not alone: Whatever suffering you’re furious over, Jesus is furious too. However you’re mad at the heartbreak in this broken world, Jesus is mad too. And because Jesus is mad at heartbreak, and because Jesus is madly in love with you, Jesus’ love for you drives Him to war against all the suffering in the world—for you.
To love is to suffer, which means that the only seeming way to end the problem of a world that suffers would be to have a world devoid of love, and devoid of all the lovers.
But your God, who is Love Himself, puts on skin and enters the story of the world and the tender places of your story, and ultimately goes to the Cross to absorb all the dark, and begin the revolution to end all suffering we have ever known.
Jesus, who is Love and who loved the very most, suffered the very most, to love you into the fullest life.
Love Himself not only catches every single one of your tears; He also weeps with you, His tears watering a new way of being, a new way of life.
A resurrection.
~ an excerpt from Day 20 of “Loved to Life: a 40-Day Pilgrimage with Love Himself that Will Change Your Life”
In the Midst of Loss, There’s a Way to be Loved to Life
In the midst of hurting days, in the midst of 365 days in a year — there is this invitation, to just 40 Days with Jesus — to be Loved to Life .
This 40-Day Pilgrimage with Jesus through the book of John, is your invitation to come right now & touch the hem of Jesus — & to let Him touch your wounds, touch your tender places, touch your tears with His own gentle love that weeps with you — & touch you with His own healing and hope.
Come, your year will thank you:
40-Days with Jesus to be Loved to Life, & experience healing in your one & only life, that only He can bring. Come be Loved to Life.
January 30, 2025
Kindness to an Enemy? It’s Complicated. Start Here:
How can you show kindness to an enemy? There isn’t a cut-and-dry answer to this question. I hold Gavin Ortlund in humble esteem and when I held his latest book in hand I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the the way Gavin has wrestled through the messy nature of relationships with others and shares how Jesus is the only answer for all the muck and mire of life together in the body of Christ. It’s an absolute joy to welcome Gavin to the farm’s table today…
Guest post by Gavin Ortlund
Kindness is complicated.
It is not formulaic.
It’s often difficult to know how kindness relates to other virtues and what it even looks like in the complexities of real life in the modern world, including the role kindness plays in our disagreements.
Several years ago I started a ministry on YouTube.
Over the years I have had the privilege of being in dialogue with all kinds of different people, and I have learned a lot along the way about how disagreement can go well or go poorly.
Sadly, it’s very easy for it to go poorly! And I have certainly made a lot of my own mistakes along the way.
Perhaps my deepest conviction resulting from these experiences is that kindness in dialogue is powerful.
“…kindness does not mean the absence of discernment.“
In my time on YouTube, I have imperfectly but sincerely sought to exhibit kindness to others. I’ve also gotten to know many sincerely kind people from other viewpoints. However, what do we do when others return our kindness with cruelty? When it comes to showing kindness to someone who has proven themselves to be an enemy, a clarification is absolutely necessary: kindness does not mean the absence of discernment.
What Kindness Is NotKindness is not being a doormat. Kindness is consistent with toughness and shrewdness.
Therefore, when the disagreement you are facing is with an evil person who is seeking to harm you, it is right to protect yourself. You matter to God. You should take all reasonable steps to take care of yourself (as well as those in your care), and this is not at odds with kindness.
Kindness is not at odds with getting a restraining order or blocking someone on social media or withdrawing from a relationship. Sometimes these are necessary steps, for all parties concerned.
Kind Non-EngagementWishing people well does not mean we must always maintain a relationship.
The necessity of non-engagement and withdrawal comes up often in Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus. I think of this as the spiritual discipline of ignoring people.
It sounds strange, but it is biblical: “As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned” (Titus 3:10-11). Jesus gives a similar commandment to those he sends out: “If anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town” (Matthew 10:14).
This is a lesson that many of us are slow to learn, but it is so important. There are evil people in this world. We should be kind but not naïve. There is a time to turn away.
Again, consider the wisdom of Jesus’ words: “I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16).
[image error]Kindness That DiscernsIf you are experiencing a difficult disagreement and you are not certain whether or not you should persist in it or withdraw, here are some questions that might be helpful to consider:
• Does this person’s behavior suggest that engaging with them has a realistic chance of being productive?
• Is addressing a disagreement likely to create further harm?
• Do I have any formal obligations that require me to resolve this difference, or can it be left unresolved without negligence?
• Could a season of waiting or reflection be beneficial before working through a particular disagreement?
Often it helps to involve wise friends who can help you think through the best approach. This is not formulaic or easy. Remember that God is a loving Father, who cares for you.
When Kindness Is Met with MaliceWhat do we do when our kindness is met with malice?
We know that we are called not to retaliate, and we know that we may need to disengage from that person—but now what? How do we endure the unkindness of the world without being tainted?
The only answer is Jesus. Jesus has a special place in his heart for those who are being maligned.
The people discarded and despised by our world are especially precious to him. We can go to him, finding strength in his promises and his presence.
We have every reason to follow Christ in practicing kindness to those around us. When you are reviled, do not revile in return.
Bless those who curse you.
Keep an open heart, even in bitter disagreement. Wish well to all.
This is what Christ can do in and for you.
This article is adapted from Chapter 1 of The Art of Disagreeing by Gavin Ortlund
*Please note that the full chapter goes into more depth about what kindness looks like when you are met with malice. Learn more about how to disagree with courage and kindness like Jesus, avoiding divisive arguments, here. *
Gavin Ortlund is a pastor, author, speaker, and apologist. He serves as President of Truth Unites and Theologian-in-Residence at Immanuel Nashville.
Gavin is the award-winning author of Why God Makes Sense in a World That Doesn’t and Finding the Right Hills to Die On.
A fellow of The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, Gavin is married to Esther and they have five children.
He wrote The Art of Disagreeing because he has been grieved about the lovelessness in the church today — and I cannot recommend this book more highly.
He hopes this book will give readers realistic pathways forward for navigating disagreements in their lives. This is important because Jesus taught that the world will recognize we are his disciples by how we love each other.
{Our humble thanks to The Good Book Company for their partnership in today’s devotional.}
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