Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 120
June 23, 2018
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [06.23.18]
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:
Dirk Dallas via FromWhereIDrone.com
Dirk Dallas via FromWhereIDrone.com
Dirk Dallas via FromWhereIDrone.com
kinda never get over the whole extraordinary earth being full of His glory
this teacher in Brooklyn? He’s going the extra mile to take his students overseas
“I want students to see for themselves the value that travel has. When students put themselves in another world, they discover themselves at a new level.”
because we all need a friend
Delivery man goes above and beyond to make boy’s dream come true
it was 10 years in the making: how this community dims it’s lights – to appreciate the beauty of the night sky
wow: This 101-year-old Florida man still volunteers for Meals on Wheels
you must come see how he’s training young homeless people
cheering wildly: Four siblings raised in poverty by a single mother ‘beat all the odds,’ earn master’s degrees
first impressions never really tell the whole story
Ginny Sheller
Ginny Sheller
Ginny Sheller
just too beautiful not to share
Grace is a gift
Isn’t the Joy-Centered Life Just an Emotional Roller Coaster?
so did you know? these are just a few of the lasting effects exercise can have on the brain
and he’s mentoring kids along the way
how can churches care for and support the missionaries they have sent out?
Ashley Coston Taylor
kinda undone: how this Kindergarten Class Has Helped One Nonverbal Student Find His Voice
‘Do the unexpected’. That’s what this graduating senior with autism, who is normally nonverbal, wants everyone to remember through his powerful speech which got a standing ovation from his classmates
the extraordinary efforts of a 10 year old to honor another
YES: He is an Expectation-Exceeding God. Thank you for this, Christine Caine
Esther Havens
Post of the week from these parts here
The world feels like it is on fire. Kinda everywhere. And it’s kinda really worth it to figure out how to breathe hope right into the face of dragons:
When the World feels like it’s on fire: How to Breathe Hope Into the Face of Dragons
Grateful for the work of World Relief as they empower the local church to serve the most vulnerable
For more than 70 years they have they have touched the lives of millions of people in more than 100 countries
just so good: This is the story of how one daughter made her father question everything
singer and songwriter Zach Williams’ shares his story of surrendering to Jesus
on repeat this week: Fear is a Liar
…sometimes it’s ridiculously hard to know how to live through the stuff we’re facing in our life and in our world — & you know, maybe this is it, just this on our Friday: “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving” and experience that in His “presence there is fullness of joy” Ps100:4, Ps.16:11
Gratitude will always move you past gates & into the presence of God — and in His presence is fullness joy!
There are three small keys to open the door to joy: “Thank. You. God.”
Joy is always possible as long as thanks is possible — and there is always, always, always something to be thankful for! Deep breath–it’s going to be a pretty amazing day and weekend: You get to decide how joyFUL you’ll be because you get to decide how grateFUL you’ll be.
We will GIVE THANKS for new mercies, we will GIVE THANKS for amazing grace & we will GIVE THANKS to our God who is always GOOD & we are always loved & there is always, always, ALWAYS something to be THANKFUL FOR.
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
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.
June 20, 2018
When the World feels like it’s on fire: How to Breathe Hope Into the Face of Dragons
I once stood in Iraq with a man who looks me straight in the eye
And says: I am not human —
Just like all the others who breathe their first breath
on corners of this planet that heave
with the heat of dragons who whip their heads to
incinerate hope
with scorching terror.
Esther Havens
Esther Havens
Esther Havens
Esther Havens
Esther HavensEsther Havens
Esther Havens
Esther HavensAnd that non-human whose name is Joseph,
he turns with his burns,
leans in so I can see the screaming whites of his eyes,
so I can feel the begging warm breath of his heart when he whispers
that even the dogs can flee hatred’s fire,
that I can wing my way back to my island of safe —
but he’s left to breathe as a non-human and there is no one —
no united nations, no united peoples, no united front —
No one who cares how he exists, where he exists, or if he exists,
or if he ever gets to breathe dreams
right into the face of dragons.
I once held a woman from the Congo who bore witness to the
blade of a machete splaying open the veins of her one mother’s neck,
and she turned and ran, for weeks she ran barefoot across whole countries,
and her tears ran down over the torture that scars her cheeks, ran salty down
my arm, her words running right into me, running homeless
into the world’s barbed wire fences and then fluttered there like a dead bird snared:
“Why was my life supposed to be like this?”
I knelt once with a woman who was raped thousands of times in Syria,
body and soul bought, owned, and traded for years, by men masked in black,
And she howled to the heavens when they slammed her baby boy’s head
up against the cement walls like a rat to be smashed.
Esther Havens
Esther Havens
Esther Havens
Esther Havens
Esther HavensAnd I reached out to tenderly touch her son’s now twisted ear
And wondered if the world heard
over the roar of dragons
and the thundering of running feet,
And the pounding of terrified wings
The cries that just plead:
Please.
Please.
Esther Havens
Esther Havens
Esther Havens
Esther Havens
Esther Havens
Esther Havens
Esther HavensDignity and Humanity are not a function of geography or nationality.
And your worth is not based on where you breathe in this world.
And when you did not choose for your roof to be the open, devouring mouth of ravenous violence,
where in the world can you, and your wide-eyed children, find anyone who will just
choose
to say
Welcome.
#ChooseWelcome
“Defend the defenseless, the fatherless and the forgotten, the disenfranchised and the destitute.
Your duty is to deliver the poor and the powerless;
liberate them from the grasp of the wicked.”
A whole world of people will decide who Jesus is — by who we are.
A whole world of hurting people will decide what they think about Jesus — by how we decide to respond to the hurting.
Now, is the time for the Church to be the Church and embody Gospel — GOOD NEWS — for the 24 people every single minute who are fleeing violence, seeking refuge.
In the past, the Church may have been defined by what the Church is against — but, in this defining moment in history, the Church gets to be clearly defined by what it compassionately is for — and the Church has always compassionately been about the welcome of the stranger, the sojourner, and the welcoming arms of the Savior.
Did you know there are 22 million refugees worldwide? Even more heartbreaking, half are under the age of 18. Those numbers are huge and it can be easy to tune out. But 20,000 of those refugees will likely be resettled in America this year. We can make a difference for those 20,000.
World Relief is one of only nine agencies in the U.S providing these types of services. And the government grants we receive to support these programs have decreased by 35% in the last two years. But we believe Christians can meet this need.
Most of these refugees entering the U.S. this year will be families with small children in search of safety and security. They will be mothers and fathers looking to start a new life. They will be entrepreneurs and teachers looking to contribute. These brave souls will be our new neighbors. They will need help learning a new language, finding jobs and building community.
I’m reaching out to you today and asking: Join me as together we seek to be like Jesus:
Our family, in the last 2 years, has made a home for 11 refugees.
There can be more compassion in our hearts than fear in the world, and NOW is our time to care for Christ.
“Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and not help You?” – Matt. 25:44
Donate just $11 here — AND BREATHE HOPE INTO THE FACE OF DRAGONS
June 18, 2018
What To Do in a Crisis of Faith
Suzanne (Suzie) Eller knows that a confidence crisis can hit any of us unexpectedly. It can creep into our closest relationships. It can sneak up as we look in the mirror and feel ill-equipped or less than. Sometimes a loved one’s confidence crisis can spark one of our own, especially if they lose confidence in their faith. In her new book, The Spirit-Led Heart, Suzie shares a promise Jesus made. He said that we would have a Helper, one that would be with us always—even when our confidence feels wrecked. Please join me in welcoming Suzie as she offers a glimpse into a recent confidence crisis of her own. . . .
Years ago, my husband, Richard, and I opened our home to several college students.
We loved each of them.
I recently stumbled upon a conversation in a social media post from one of those students, now a young father and husband, and my heart sank as I read it.
Are you in a confidence crisis as someone you care about struggles with faith?
Our friend: I don’t know about my faith anymore.
A stranger: Me either.
Our friend: Man, I look around and I’m not sure that the church is relevant.
Another stranger: Yeah, they are all after something.
The conversation spiraled. Some of those commenting hadn’t experienced Christ, but they shared their opinions.
Some had once attended church, but they walked away disillusioned with organized religion. Many were painfully honest, rife with longing.
It’s important to give space to anyone (ourselves included) asking hard questions about faith.
Social media might not seem like sacred space, but in this instance, it’s where our friend’s search landed.
As I followed the conversation, his faith crisis hit me too.
I mentally wandered back to the days we hosted those college students and all the beautiful, fun, messy moments. I thought about those crazy Nertz games and baking mass quantities of chicken enchiladas. We laughed a lot. We listened when they shared their mistakes and prayed with them as they walked into Jesus’ love. We piled into airplanes to travel to poverty-torn nations to build churches and share the gospel.
It was hard work, but we loved it.
When someone we care about is questioning their faith or saying that the church is no longer viable, it can rattle us.
It might make us wonder whether we did something wrong. It might make us itch to fix something or someone and make it all right again. We might wonder if our efforts were in vain. We can get drawn into the conversation in a negative way as we try to make them see it our way.
All of these responses are human, but they take our eyes off the true battleground.
The truth is that we have an enemy who desires to distort faith, and he is hard at work.
The truth is that the church is made up of people, and that can be messy.
The truth is that we are only asked to do the best we know how as a parent, a friend, or in ministry, and we don’t get to stake a claim in a person’s personal relationship with God, no matter what that looks like.
My friend needed to ask his questions, and those questions didn’t nullify who God is.
When the early church faced their own confidence crises, Jesus reminded them to ask for help.
“Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need.” (Luke 11:10 The Message).
That’s just as true when someone we care about is in a confidence crisis.
Instead of letting my emotions dictate, I needed to ask the Holy Spirit for help.
For him.
For those who were commenting.
Even for me, as the enemy tried to erode my confidence in the ministry we had been so privileged to partner in.
Are you in a confidence crisis as someone you care about struggles with faith?
The good news is that the Holy Spirit is right there, inside of you already. That’s our promise.
Don’t be afraid to ask the Helper to show you what you might not see. Ask for guidance. Ask Him to speak to that person in ways that he or she will understand.
If you feel led to act or say something, write that down. Pray for direction and wisdom as you follow that leading.
I did what I just asked you to do—I sent a private message saying that we were available if needed.
Then it was his turn, if he so desired.
When he responded, we gave him room to share some of the hard questions he was asking.
It wasn’t our job to resolve his doubt, for that is the work of the Holy Spirit.
It wasn’t my job to fix his confidence crisis, but I could pray. I could respond to his questions with truth and gentleness.
The rest was up to the Helper. Just as He lives in me, He lives in my friend. He sees the scope of the battle. He knows that God loves him more than I ever could and is reaching for him – just like God loves that one you care about.
Several weeks later, my old friend sent a message. “I’m finding my way back,” he said.
His faith is in the process of restoration. He’s rediscovering what faith looks like and how to live it intimately.
If your confidence crisis is wrapped around a loved one’s doubts about faith, ask the Holy Spirit to ease into that confidence crisis—for both of you.
He’ll also remind us that God’s plan for those we care about doesn’t hinge on our efforts.
As you ask for help, He’ll remind you of what you can and cannot do on your own.
He will free you to bring that loved one to God in prayer.
He will help you release the need to control the outcome, allowing you instead to be open to play a part as your heavenly Father leads.
He’ll also remind us that God’s plan for those we care about doesn’t hinge on our efforts.
Rather, the invitation is to look for help in the midst of any confidence crisis.
And we’ll find it, for that’s our promise (John 14:16).
Suzanne (Suzie) Eller is a Proverbs 31 Ministries writer, a speaker, a former radio host, a Bible teacher, and a blogger. She loves watching God work in the heart of women. On her blog, Suzie offers community and connection as women discover the joy of living free in their faith, family, and feelings.
The story she shares today is from her newly released book, The Spirit-Led Heart: Living a Life of Love and Faith Without Borders. In this book, Suzie invites each of us to embrace the promise Jesus offered for every part of our lives. Certainly we are ordinary, yet Jesus places trust in us that we’ll live as world changers, starting right where we are.
[ Our humble thanks to Bethany House for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
June 16, 2018
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [06.16.18]
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:
the earth is full of His glory!
because we all need love
Why we owe it to ourselves to spend quiet time alone every day
because it is ALL kinds of beautiful:
Mathias Fast
Mathias Fast
Mathias Fast
Photographer shares a ridiculously simple photography trick and the results are stunning
so who knew?!? what an idea!
just love her so and everything she writes…
he made quite the climb! entertaining millions online this week
inspiring young women right here:
A future astronaut, and a daughter healing from loss, win top honors from Library of Congress
the story of how one man made the big leagues at the age of 35
surprises like this? never, ever get old
love, love, love what he’s doing here!! One man’s act of service #BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
could not love this more: Florida cops deliver dresses made by a 99-year-old woman to orphans in Puerto Rico
and at 9 years old? she’s doing some really incredible things for others
we’re cheering loudly: come see how they’re giving individuals a fresh start
Diego Rosman
Diego Rosman
Diego Rosman
a captivating look into the life of these rock climbers
everyone is a VIP to him #BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
Gabriele Dabasinskaite
Gabriele Dabasinskaite
Gabriele Dabasinskaite
photographer captures special bond between father’s and their children
he shares good words here
An Upopular Path To Happiness
what can we go do today?
these officers didn’t see him as part of their call – but rather, their calling #BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
Post of the Week from these parts here
Winners Know How to Spell THIS Word (Because it kinda holds the meaning of life)
When your life spells out koinonia, your life writes out joy anywhere.
And maybe what we want more than anything is to spell out the real meaning of life — t he abundant life.
Because? Fellowship and Relationship is the only way navigate the waters of life.
Decode your life — and learn how to make your life spell koinonia by daring to take the Broken Way.
Or pick up Day Spring’s Broken Way perpetual calendar — and take this year-long, daily journey with us, and maybe...just maybe, discover the key you’ve been missing.
there is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others
on repeat this week: Walk with You
…in the wait, whatever you lose, don’t lose heart — you never lose what lasts forever. You’ve got to believe it: whatever is being lost momentarily, more is being gained eternally.
In the wait, if you shift the way you see — and see that the wait could make you into the person you’ve been waiting to become.
If you’re waiting on God — do what waiters do: serve.
Break free of your comfort zone and do something, touch someone, give something, help someone, pray for someone, serve someone, #betheGIFT for someone. You can’t be a world changer until you *serve.* In serving, you are served a feast of what you’re longing for. Because the One who loves you steadfastly, stood fast at the cross for you, so now stand fast for Him.
“Each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms… Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help.” 1Peter4:10 NIV, MSG.
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
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.
June 13, 2018
Winners Know How to Spell THIS Word (Because it kinda holds the meaning of life)
This is how I woke up on a Friday in June — woke in all the ways.
“Girl! Did you see?! The word that was the winning word! That word that you wrote a whole book about! KOINONIA!”
Like all the caps lock in the world might just lock our focus on that word of capital importance — if you don’t want to miss your one blooming life.
“The national spelling bee! Did you see? The spelling bee was won with the word ‘koinonia’!”
When your life spells out koinonia, your life writes out joy anywhere.
Like the nectar sweet had been drank right out of life and there was buzz about that mystery word that is honey to the soul, to all meaning that matters.
So, this is how it began: Apparently the national spelling bee was won with that one word koinonia, that one word that makes sense of everything, that word that decodes the whole of a life — if your moments know how to spell out their meaning.
Then I went to the garden and this is what I did: I picked peonies, all the peonies, in shades of pink and and magenta and cloud white, because, true, there were a million other things to do, but this is the one time of year that the peonies come, and you have to pay attention and make space for the gathering or you can miss out on your life’s union with holy beauty.
I took her with me, our littlest, and she stood with the long grasses touching her bare legs, and I passed to her each picked peony and she gathered in her arms each slender stem I had found, shared, and passed, and she kept reaching out with her little hand and I kept reaching mine toward her.
And the peonies passed between us like a fragrant communion.
Her fingers touching mine with each passing, she kept murmuring: Yes… yes… yes.
And I nodded — because I had no idea what was coming.
Bees droned. Dozed.
And I woke.
Because before nightfall I would get the call that my mother’s mother had inhaled her last breath and lay dead under a thin sheet in a bed 7 hours to the west.
I would take peonies to my mother. Who lay in her own bed, bedridden with an arthritis-exploded knee that screamed with every movement, swallowing down morphine every three hours to fight back the snarling pain. And I would sit with her, holding her wrinkled, silk-soft hand, and bear witness to her soundless grief sliding down her cheeks for her own mother now gone — and how her own physical agony paralyzed her from going to her own mama before she passed through.
I would tell her that: Souls never pass away — souls only pass through. We never pass away from living — but we pass through this life to living forever.
And this life, as we pass through, is about passing everything on, passing grace around, passing the peace, the courage, the vulnerability, the intimacy, passing everything on.
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship (koinonia), to the breaking of bread and the prayers. All the believers were together and had everything in common.” Acts 2:42, 44
Koinonia, referenced 19 times in the New Testament, is about the Sharers and the Givers, the Participants and the Partakers and the Passers — about living in communion.
Life never passes us by — when we keep passing everything on.
In passing joy on — real joy never passes over us.
Yes… yes… yes.
And Mama pats the back of my hand, and there’s a tender kindness that passes between us — and everywhere there is sharing, there is communion.
And it was in that moment, between heaven and earth, between our passing it all on and all our passing through — it was in that moment, that it felt like the code for being a human being just got cracked, just got spelled out.
Koinonia is a sharing of everything — and finding out that sharing is everything.
Koinonia is the communion of sinners and saints, it is the partaking in suffering, in beauty, in breathing, in being, with another human being.
Koinonia is the intimacy of living given to another — and being fulfilled by the givenness of one another.
The aunts would call many times and we would struggle to make arrangements for my Grandmother’s funeral when we couldn’t arrange my own mother in any chair or bed to keep the searing pain at bay for a few minutes, let alone the necessary hours and hours for the travel back to Old Chelsea and the hills of Gatineau for the final resting place of Granny’s earthly tent.
I would make food and bring it to Mama in bed. Unless we take the time to share life with each other, we miss out on our share of real life.
We would pass aged photographs between our fingers, old memories around the room. I would keep cutting peonies from the garden, keep passing peonies around, some in this or that room, some to my sister, my mama, some to a childhood friend moving away.
And I would watch our oldest girl sit for hours with her grandmother, caring for her in the relentless pain — both knee and heart — waiting as long as it took till there was a sharing of real and vulnerable — and grieving — hearts. For the last week, still, I keep witnessing my daughter and mother’s brave communion.
We are all the fellowship of the broken.
And, I would taste it in the passing of these moments between us: koinonia is the communion we are starved for, the connection we never stop hungering for, the intimate and honest sharing of the whole of our being — only to find ourselves being nourished in the giving and sharing of our bare hearts in safe places with safe people.
When I sit beside my Mama after my Granny’s funeral, a funeral we watched hand in hand from hours away, watched the casket and almost ten decades of my mother’s mother’s life roll out and into the hearse, my mama’s hand squeezed mine and I kept trying to memorize her face before it’s too late and this is how all the real world buzzes with the meaning of being:
Real life is relationship: relationship with God and with people.
Fellowship and Relationship is the only way navigate the waters of life.
When your life spells out koinonia, your life writes out joy anywhere.
Yes…. Yes… yes…
Koinonia is all I want to make my whole life practice forever, this passing and sharing and giving and fellowship and communion.
Koinonia is the only word our moments need to spell.
Unless we take the time to share life with each other — we miss out on our share of real life.
After my grandmother’s passing through in early June, after I keep returning to sit with my own mother, after I pass through the door right here — I keep thinking…
How the fragrance of peonies can linger long after the petals fade.
When your life spells out koinonia, your life writes out joy anywhere.
And maybe what we want more than anything is to spell out the real meaning of life — t he abundant life.
Because? Fellowship and Relationship is the only way navigate the waters of life.
Decode your life — and learn how to make your life spell koinonia by daring to take the Broken Way.
Or pick up DaySpring’s Broken Way perpetual calendar — and take this year-long, daily journey with us, and maybe...just maybe, discover the key you’ve been missing.
June 11, 2018
A Four Word Prayer That Could Change Everything in Your Life
When I met this woman she kinda blew me out of the water. Hannah Brencher is an author in Atlanta who believes in the power of presence. She prays her generation and the ones to come will know how to look up and look around as technology tempts to steal us away from what’s happening in the present moment. Growing up into a digital age, she has always been keenly aware of the ways we miss one another when we’re so fixated on what’s happening on our devices. She uses writing as a medium to display how God is always working and always moving— we just have to make sure we don’t miss it. It’s a grace to welcome Hannah to the farm’s front porch today…
On the days when I get really fearful, I say a tiny prayer.
It’s called a breath prayer.
During a series my pastor in Connecticut taught on the Beatitudes, he taught us how to say breath prayers—short, gritty prayers that get right to the point.
You can say them anywhere and in any posture. You simply pick a sentence, something that looks like a prayer, and repeat it under your breath over and over again, as the song of your heart, a battle refrain.
Not long after, the breath prayer makes a little space in your heart and stays there.
I love the idea of breath prayers. There are plenty of times when I can’t find the words or don’t have the energy to get on my knees and pray. There are even times when I feel like my prayers aren’t good enough, as if God won’t meet me in my mess.
There are days when I feel like every word that comes out of my mouth is fake or forced.
Breath prayers help me bridge the gap between praying sometimes and praying without ceasing.
My breath prayer for when fear tries to take back the lead role is simple: Reduce me to love.
I can’t take credit for making this prayer up. I heard it one morning as I prayed with a group of volunteers at my church. I had signed up to work at a conference for worship leaders who came from all over the country to rest, refuel, and get inspired.
Before the doors open on the second morning, our group huddles close and links arms. The woman in the center begins to pray. At one point, she says it. “Reduce me to love. God, reduce me to love.”
After we say amen, we get into place at the doors. Our job is to welcome the worship leaders and get them pumped for the full day ahead.
I’m still not certain why anyone would think to give me this sort of job. I only make things more awkward when I am left to greet strangers.
I’m that person who welcomes someone into the building and asks, “Is this your first time at church?” They give me the stink eye when they tell me? They’ve been attending for four years.
I’ve since retired from greeting people and now deliver coffee and bagels to the other people serving on a Sunday. It’s easier to talk to bagels than to people.
I start saying hello to people as they come in the doors. Some look tired. Some look caffeinated. Some look like members of the band One Direction, and some look like Jesus.
A man walks toward me with stringy gray hair. He has his arms stretched out as if he has known me for years, as if this is our family reunion and he’s my uncle. I looked at his name tag: Gino.
Gino and I hug like it’s second nature. He pulls out his harmonica and begins playing “Amazing Grace” in the middle of the lobby as if no one else were there.
“What’ll you have me play?” he asks.
I request the song “Danny Boy.” He plays it, and I close my eyes for a minute. The song makes me think of my grandmother. It was one of her favorites. I can still hear her exclaiming over how much she loved that song.
Gino finishes his song. He places his hand on my shoulder and looks at me.
“Just remember to look beneath the surface,” he says, his voice low. “Beneath the surface, we all just want to be seen. Every single one of us just wants to be seen.”
As he says those words and slips past me into the crowd, that simple prayer comes back to me: Reduce me to love.
When fear is leading, I miss these moments.
My prayer expands and gets bigger as I say it more:
Reduce me to love. Help me to see beneath the surface. Help me to be a familiar face in a crowd, a light in a dark room. Turn me into love and wipe out all the excess fear.
The prayer is not asking that I’ll be propelled into something bigger for this world. The prayer is “reduce.” Make me smaller. Help me get out of my own way.
It’s a classic John 3 kind of prayer. In John 3, John the Baptist says flat-out, “I’m not it. I’m not meant to be the center of attention.” He tells his disciples that he was sent ahead to prepare the way for the bridegroom. “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30).
My heart needs this reminder constantly: You are not the center of the universe. You are not the most important. That’s God.
If I want to be open to what God has for me, I also must be open to decreasing, to becoming less.
I stick close to writer Flannery O’Connor’s words in her prayer journal: “Dear God, I cannot love Thee the way I want to. You are the slim crescent of a moon that I see and my self is the earth’s shadow that keeps me from seeing all the moon . . . Please help me to push myself aside.”
The world doesn’t tell us a story about reduction. It tells us to be front and center, always impressive.
The gospel is a different story. Gospel-living requires us to get smaller as we go, so that God can be amplified. Smallness is where the real work happens.
Smallness is where we learn what we’re made of. Smallness is where our actions trump our words.
Reduce me to love. It’s me saying, “I can’t actually do this reduction thing on my own, so come in and do the work. Have your way. I trust you.”
It’s beautiful — because I went a really long time without ever trusting God.
My prayers were prayers that I could handle things and that I could see with my own strength.
Now I like to pray for impossible things because I want to get to the end of my life and be able to say,
“I saw impossible things — and the fear didn’t win.”
Hannah Brencher is an author, blogger, TED speaker, and entrepreneur. She founded The World Needs More Love Letters, a global community dedicated to sending letter bundles to those who need encouragement. Named as one of the White House’s “Women Working to Do Good” and a spokesperson for the United States Postal Service, Hannah has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Oprah, Glamour, USATODAY.com, The Chicago Tribune, and more.
Our hyper-connected era has led us to believe life should be a highlight reel—where what matters most is perfect beauty, instant success, and ready applause. Yet, as Hannah learned, nothing about faith, relationships, or character is instant. If you are tired of running away from your life or tired of running ragged toward the next thing you think will make you feel complete, Come Matter Here will help you do whatever it takes to show up for the life God has for you.
If you are tired of running away from your life or tired of running ragged toward the next thing you think will make you feel complete, Come Matter Here: Your Invitation to Be Here in a Getting There World will help you do whatever it takes to show up for the life God has for you. Whether you need to make a brave U-turn, take a bold step forward, or finish the next lap with fresh courage, find fuel and inspiration for the journey right here.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
June 9, 2018
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [06.09.18]
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:
ponder and exhale: the earth is full of His glory
Richmond Animal Care and Control
smiling at this story here: Blind dachshund and pit bull “guide dog” finally find a forever new home together
Dress for Success: Kid vs Firefighter
Emily Gibson
Emily Gibson
Emily Gibson
One Tree – A Hundred Backdrops
maybe the very best way to start the day?!?
Richard Silver
Richard Silver
Richard Silver
calling all book lovers? a collection of some of the most stunning libraries around our world
Watch a prodigy create a masterpiece — from four notes pulled out of a hat
yes: your free pass to Lake Tahoe
The Rockford Peaches: ‘A Female Baseball League of Their Own’ celebrate their 75th anniversary:
‘We were just doing what we loved’
the most crowded island on earth
Chattanooga Fire Department
beautiful: for firefighters, this is what it’s all about
surprise reunions like this never, ever get old
Teacher carries student with cerebral palsy on school hiking trip #BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
2 generations of Alzheimer’s bond under 1 roof
you’re never, ever alone
How he escaped the Holocaust
many tears: oh, to be loved this much
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 from home or at your local print shop! 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
Jesus sends all of us
what’s one more thing you can do each day?
on repeat this week: Jesus Only You
…you’ve got big, hard things coming at you from every side. You may not even be saying it out loud — but really? It’s hard to keep showing up when it’d be easier to give up.
But can you hear Him?
“Just Call to Me. I guarantee I will answer you.
I will make you strong & brave.” (Ps.138:3MSG)
Ask Him — He will come & make you strong & brave for the Hard Things.
So that’s the plan: Be Brave.
And do not pray for the hard thing to go away.
But pray for a Bravery to come that’s bigger than the Hard Thing.
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
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.
June 8, 2018
When you’re wrestling with how to serve well when you feel you’re losing yourself
Rachel Spier Weaver is in the business of identifying gifts. As recruiter at a Christ-centered non-profit, she has spoken with hundreds of women, many of whom have struggled to claim their gifts and whose stories impassioned her to rediscover the women in the Bible. This inspired Rachel to write Called and Courageous Girls, a children’s book series spotlighting women in Scripture who embraced their unique gifts and boldly lived out their faith. It’s a grace to welcome Rachel to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Rachel Spier Weaver
This weekend was girls’ weekend. Five college roommates together at a cabin in the woods of West Virginia with lots of food.
It was the picture of perfection: no distractions, no rules.
But after the reunion hugs, we got down to business. As we were sitting on couches and huddled under blankets by the fire, the stories began to flow, and there were a lot.
This time it was one story of loss that bore the most weight.
Loss of self.
Nineteen years of sacrifice to husband, kids, home, and the result was emptiness. She feels alone and depleted, sick, devoid of anything that she once called “hers”—her love of skiing, U2, big-city exploring, learning for learning’s sake.
She isn’t using her gifts—can’t, really, because she doesn’t remember what they are.
Over the course of the weekend, we prodded, questioned, investigated. Like a three-day therapy session with four counselors, each from a different school of thought. She left on Sunday either with all her problems solved or completely overwhelmed. Probably the latter.
You’d think that the number of times I’ve had this type of conversation, I’d be better at it by now.
A few months ago, I reconnected with a friend of 27 years. We talk every six months or so; she’s the type of friend you can pick up with after going months without a call or text.
This time she unloaded about her failing marriage.
After nearly 18 years of marriage, she had given up. Four moves across the country in response to her husband’s job, years of homeschooling, fostering countless children, and extreme isolation and loneliness has taken its toll.
She has forgotten who God has created her to be, and at 41 years old, she is trying to find her soul again.
For many of us, we have grown up to believe that our best contribution, our calling, is to lay down our gifts at the altar. And we sacrifice ourselves at the expense of our gifts—those beautiful, heroic, blessed gifts bestowed on us by God—and lose ourselves.
Many of us have wrestled with the polarity of this choice. Do we sacrifice ourselves for the love of our children and spouse, or do we selfishly explore our own giftedness?
As a recruiter at a faith-based non-profit, I have had countless conversations with hopeful candidates who are exploring opportunities at the organization. I get to listen to their stories and observe how they share about their skills, passions, and gifts.
Women often focus on everything except their gifts.
Over the years, I have had approximately 1,500 interviews and have gotten pretty good at identifying confidence versus arrogance, humility versus self-deprecation.
What I have learned is that women are far more likely to unintentionally self-sabotage in the interview process.
Women often focus on everything except their gifts.
It happens after years of believing that self-sacrifice and using our gifts are mutually exclusive.
Of course, we remember: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves” (Philippians 2:23).
But enacting our gifts doesn’t equal being selfish. We lose ourselves because of this fraudulent polarity.
God—through Paul—wasn’t just talking to women in his letter to the Philippians.
Service is something we are called to, not because we are women, but because we are human, made in the image of God, the perfect example of service and sacrifice.
Jesus, God incarnate, washed the feet of His disciples, including one who would ultimately betray Him, thereby causing the greatest sacrifice in history.
Service is for all of us.
But somehow women like my friends are losing themselves while serving. The unraveling, the corrosion of their beings, happens over time.
We begin to think that service is our gift, that God has gifted women as an entire population the same way: to serve their families and sacrifice themselves.
No. Serving is something for all of us, but our gifts are unique, personalized imprints on our souls that are meant to be explored, refined, and practiced.
Lately I’ve been studying Priscilla’s story in Acts. I’ve been reminded of how she used her gifts of teaching and preaching to build the Church. She quite literally guided and redirected the leading scholars of the day, which led to conversion of multitudes.
What if she had just served her husband in the most traditional sense?
What if she had neglected to also use the other gifts she had been given?
Without her acts of teaching and preaching, the name of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit would not have had the reach it did.
Praise God that she served and used her other gifts well!
I wonder what it will be like when we begin to operate out of a model that encourages us to serve and use our gifts.
This will mean untangling the repercussions of isolating service as women’s only gift of value.
It will require us to embrace our other gifts.
But maybe one day embracing those gifts will allow us to serve in greater measure.
Rachel Spier Weaver is a recruiter at HOPE International and has worked as a career counselor at the University of Florida and Dickinson College. She is passionate about sharing stories of women of God who led in extraordinary ways.
Called and courageous girls are disciples, political and spiritual leaders, philanthropists, moms, businesspeople, evangelists, prophets, and so much more. Called and courageous women of the Bible face overwhelming odds, finding strength, faith, and courage to join God’s story.
Through examples of steadfast faith and—ultimately—God’s direction, the Called and Courageous Girls series invites your children to answer God’s calling to discover and use their talents, passions, and gifts to journey with Him on a lifelong adventure. God is calling every courageous hero—including your child—to arise, trust in Him, and join the Greatest Story. Called and Courageous Girls—Bible Heroes Who Inspire Your Child’s Faith in God.
[ Our humble thanks to Harvest House for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
June 4, 2018
How You Hold a Surprising Key to Changing a Skeptical, Hurting World
Frankly, the word “hospitality” often invokes the image of a gracious host welcoming guests into a beautiful home, serving perfectly presented meals. Yeah, that. However, the biblical call to hospitality goes much deeper, leading Christians to consider strangers as neighbors — and neighbors as family. In her new book, The Gospel Comes with a House Key, Rosaria Butterfield explains how “radically ordinary hospitality” can be an unexpected key — that each of us hold — for bringing the gospel to lost friends and neighbors. With engaging stories from her own life-changing encounter with radically ordinary hospitality, she equips Christians to use their homes as a means to showing a post-Christian world what authentic love and faith really look like. It’s a grace to welcome Rosaria to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Rosaria Butterfield
So, it turns out that our little neighborhood (made up of three hundred houses in the city of Durham, North Carolina) uses a social media app called Nextdoor.
And — it turns out — this is the only form of social media in which I actually, participate.
Because, I’m kinda crazy enough to think that if I am going to post a picture of my lunch — I want to be able to share it with those with whom I might actually share this lunch— my neighbors.
So I read Nextdoor updates daily, and I receive messages as they are posted so that I can respond to and pray for the neighbors whom I do not yet know.
I pray about lost dogs, and I donate school supplies. Every time someone posts a request for meals for a sick, grieving, or newly blessed-by-newborn neighbor, I’m on it. I look carefully at the food allergies and preferences. Over the years, I have developed go-to recipes for a variety of food needs.
My husband, Kent, and I believe that practicing daily, ordinary, Christian hospitality is worth the cost—even if it doubles our grocery budget (or sometimes triples it!).
It costs money and time and heartache to run a house that values radically ordinary hospitality and nightly table fellowship, and we are all in.
Over the past sixteen years of marriage, we have given away a lot of things.
We give away many meals each week (those we serve here, those we serve at church, those we send in Pyrex pans to neighbors who have new babies or new knees, and those we mail to brothers and sisters in prison via iCare packages).
We give away our time. We share our house. We don’t rent space in our house. If we did that, we wouldn’t be able to give it away.
We give away cars when we have had the means to do so.
We have never suffered for the absence of anything.
Paul’s words ring in my ears: “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things” (Eph. 3:8–9). I like better the King James rendering: “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery . . . ”
Christian hospitality brings together the mystery of union with Christ and the fellowship of the saints to gather in close the stranger and the outcast and the chronically lonely.
We make gospel bridges into our home because we notice the people around us and their needs.
We see people whom God has put into our lives—especially the difficult ones—as image bearers of a Holy God and therefore deserving of our best.
Hospitality is image-bearer driven, because Christ’s blood pumps me whole. It is not time, convenience, and calendar driven. If it were, none of it would happen. None of this grace would be mine to hold and to share.
Hospitality requires daily Bible reading, deep repentance, dark mornings in solitude, and the daily willingness to forgive others whether or not they ask.
Hospitality renders our houses hospitals and incubators. When I was in a lesbian community, this is how we thought of our homes. I learned a lot in that community about how to shore up a distinctive culture within and to live as a despised but hospitable and compassionate outsider in a transparent and visible way. I learned how to create a habitus that reflected my values to a world that despised me.
I learned to face my fears and feed my enemies.
Engaging in radically ordinary hospitality means we provide the time necessary to build strong relationships with people who think differently than we do as well as build strong relationships from within the family of God.
Radically ordinary hospitality shows this hurting world what authentic Christianity looks like.
So here I am, a new creature in Christ, yes, but still wearing my Birkenstocks. Lobotomized, no. A beneficiary of God’s grace, both common and saving, with eyes wide open to behold what contagious grace looks like—and what it does to people and the world and the church. And my house, by God’s grace, is still an incubator and a hospital.
As we grow to be more like Christ in practicing daily, ordinary, radical hospitality, the Lord blesses richly for it, adding to His kingdom, creating a new culture and a new reputation for what it means to be a Christian to the watching world.
As we practice daily, ordinary, radical hospitality — strangers become neighbors, and neighbors become the family of God…
And our hearts, homes, and lives find the key to greater joy.
Rosaria Butterfield (PhD, Ohio State University) is an author, speaker, pastor’s wife, homeschool mom, and former tenured professor of English and women’s studies at Syracuse University. She is the author of The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convertand Openness Unhindered.
What did God use to draw a radical, committed unbeliever like Rosaria to himself? Did God take her to an evangelistic rally? Or, since she had her doctorate in literature, did he use something in print? No, God used an invitation to dinner in a modest home, from a humble couple who lived out the gospel daily, simply, and authentically.
With this story of her conversion as a backdrop, Rosaria Butterfield invites us into her home in her new book The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World to show us how God can use this same “radical, ordinary hospitality” to bring the gospel to our lost friends and neighbors.
[ Our humble thanks to Crossway for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
June 2, 2018
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [06.02.18]
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:
Warren Keelan
Warren Keelan
Warren Keelan
you know you need to exhale & enjoy all this wonder
he captures our oceans like no one else I know
so who knew?
an apartment that is 236 sq feet? no wasted space right here
he’s started his own recycling business and encourages all of us to keep up the good work
Adrian C Murray
Adrian C Murray
Adrian C Murray
he’s captured the extraordinary right here
can. you. even??!!!
you’ve gotta see! 15+ Of The Best Entries For The Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards 2018
so much good right here…
The Trashless Town: “we are powerless to effect change if we begin by saying it can’t be solved”
she meets the man who rescued her before her car sank in a lake
come see how he’s visiting Earth’s untouched corners
good news: He Will Carry You Through the Fire
Water gives life “…more abundantly.” (John 10:10) – Compassion International
feeding the homeless is the highlight of his life
tears: letters from parents to their grads
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 from home or at your local print shop! 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
Seeking Stillness: One of the quietest rooms in the world
“God, where are You? Do You even care? Why am I going through this?”
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.
This gentle book does nothing less than take you on an intimate journey of the soul.
Order Your Way to Abundance Here
After being wrongly imprisoned for 15 years, she is embarking on a new life #TheBrokenWay #BeTheGift
Your Weakness is Not a Setback
on repeat this week: What a Friend
…maybe, if we’re honest, it feels like there’s been a lot of burned down hopes & dreams & we’re walking through a whole lot ashes lately, and in the midst of our honesty & brevity maybe all we can murmur is just “Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit with us” (Ps. 51)
And in the midst, there’s His Gentle Word: “God will supply every need of yours” Phil. 4:19
You don’t need to be perfect,
You need to simply feel His perfect love.
You don’t need to be in control
You need to simply be in Christ.
You don’t need to be more —
because He is all you need.
Revel in how loved you are today.
Yeah, sure, you’re infinitely messier than you dare admit but that doesn’t change the Truth one bit:
*You are infinitely more loved than you ever dared dream.*
“Do you think anyone can drive a wedge between you & Christ’s love for you? No way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred —
absolutely NOTHING can get between you & God’s love because of the way that Jesus has embraced you.” Ro. 8:31MSG
That’s Real Love today: Jesus. has. embraced. you.
So no matter what the world may be selling today, Jesus wraps you close: You are infinitely more loved than you ever dared dream.
Feel the forever embrace of that.
It’s sorta the greatest relief: You don’t have to be awesome & do everything today.
You simply have to believe that the One who is Awesome loves you through everything.
Full stop. That’s it. Takes the pressure right off!
“Make yourselves at home in My love.” John 15:9 MSG
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
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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