Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 133

A True Story for Us All in a Hurting World (When Gunfire Tears Through Churches, There Are True Stories that Light God’s People on Fire)

Life is fragile.

The way a thin-glass Christmas ball ornament — that kind where you can see your face and all the light reflected in its shiny curves — the way it shatters like a whisper when dropped.

There were families holding their Bibles and each other’s hands, on a still Sunday morning in Texas, who had their heads bowed in honest prayer and their hearts surrendered in tender worship, when a rain of bullets hit their unsuspecting backs.

When sacred life drops to the ground, the very earth howls and the hush of heaven shatters and angel wings beat in holy grief.

And not for one second did a one-light town on a sleepy road in Texas weep alone. The tears of God wash away the fears of earth. We never grieve alone.

Last night, our Baby Girl climbs up and curls close in my lap and I stroke back her hair and I know it: we touch and hold our whole world tighter when tragedy touches the world.

And Baby Girl, she’s brought it again, that book she keeps asking for and returning to, because when she opens it, she’s surprised by joy all over again, that tree of very her own popping up.

She smiles all over again when it rises and she pats my cheek, “Read me, Mama — read me.”

I nod — Yes, Child — your mama will never stop reading your eyes, reading your heart, reading back to you the story that whispers your truest name, Beloved, so you know a story greater than the headlines, the Greatest Story ever told, because the secret to best living is to stay in the best story.

Baby Girl opens the Advent flap that reads, Open The Wonders of the Greatest Gift, — and her little fingers pulls out the 100 page booklet and she turns to a page at the beginning and points, “This one! Read me this one!”

And I begin at the beginning, His love always coming for us since the beginning, what we have to know for the middle of our stories to make sense.

“They hid from the Lord God among the trees.” She’s hanging little ornaments on her very own tree. “Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

I kind choke it back. Swallow it down.

I don’t say it out loud: And now we’re gonna get brutally honest here, God, and ask You, God: “Where are You? Where are You when bullets explode in the bodies of every man, woman and child, in a little Baptist church worshipping God on a November Sunday morning?

I’m reading slow when I get to the lines in that little book of hers:

“But Adam and Eve didn’t know that God had an enemy who hated Him. He was as clever and mean as a snake. That enemy’s name is Satan and he lies about everything. But most of all, he lies about God. He tries to make us believe that God doesn’t love us with all of His heart.”

And Baby Girl looks up into my eyes and I cup her sweet face with a million words I don’t say but my eyes are begging hers: “Read me. Read me.”

Never, ever forget the true story of how a snake— longer than a man—slithered its way right through the front door of a jungle missionary’s home and straight to the kitchen.

And the woman of the house had flung herself outside screaming. And that’s when a machete-wielding neighbor had calmly walked into her kitchen and he’d sliced off the head of the reptilian thing.

But a snake’s neurology and blood flow make it such that it slithers wild even after it’s been sliced headless.

For hours the missionary stood outside.

And the body of the snake rampaged on, thrashing hard against windows and walls, destroying chairs and table and all things good and home.

A snake can wreak havoc until it accepts it has no head. A snake can wreak havoc — until it accepts that it’s really dead.

And God promised that snake right in the beginning of His Story: “He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel,” and that Great Story, it ends in Revelation with nothing less than Christmas:

“And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child, he might devour it.

She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne…” (Rev. 12:1-6)

Never forget it: That serpent is crushed on the ground and Jesus is on the throne.

Never doubt it, wondering world: Even if the tail of evil still rampages on, that snake’s head is ruined now and forever.

Evil may have slithered into that little white clapboard First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas — but it is a headless evil because He who is the head of all things is on the throne.

Even the darkness is not dark to Him — and Advent is coming and it dares to defiantly proclaim that there is a definite way out of evil’s trap – because Christ shockingly stepped right into Satan’s trap – and snapped off his sickening head.

A woman in Sutherland Springs, Texas, a friend of several killed in yesterday’s church shooting, she turns last night to the rolling cameras and the watching world and she weeps: “…. the devil never rests.”

And the universe reverberates with it and reaches out to comfort her: Jesus shattered the skull of that serpent, and “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” 1 John 3:8

He came — the only One Who could rescue, the only One Who could really save, the only One who can make the darkness and sadness come untrue and resurrect the lightest light. Infinite hope births into this world’s hopeless iniquity.

The answer to our suffering is so incomprehensible that it has to be incarnated to us in flesh.

He came — because in all our pain, we don’t want some answers like we want a Someone.

The Truest Answer always comes in Story. The story that says Someone came and He is Emmanuel, God with us, and when God is for us and with us, nothing can destroy us.

This is the story our children need to know for all the unknowns: God came to us with skin on, so that He could hold on to us, and we could hold on to hope.

Baby Girl turns the pages of book, her eyes reading the wonders of His love, the most wondrous story. And I nod and we will not let the dark win because Jesus already has conquered and we will press on.

To solely spend our attention on evil, pays homage only to Satan.

Baby Girl start to sing it, a hardly whisper, as she soundlessly turns the pages: “Jesus loves Me… little ones to Him belong, they are weak, but He is strong…”

And I pull her in close, and kiss her the top of her head: Yes, yes, He does, Baby Girl, — Jesus loves us and we love Him and we know it in our bones:

What pierces our hearts, nailed God to a Cross. And God looks you straight in the eye and stretches out His arms and lets Himself be pierced right through too, because He will go to any lengths to make sure you know you never suffer alone.

This is what we always keep doing: We cleave to each other and we grieve with each other because this is what splits suffering in half. You can count on it: Aloneness widens suffering but togetherness weakens suffering.

And we all pull in close.

We hold on to each other so the darkness doesn’t have a hold on us.

We lend each other courage when we refuse to be discouraged.

We lament but we never  relent in the rising again.

The sun rises today.

Life may be fragile but evil’s head is fractured and Jesus has finished him off and filled us with faith that flattens all the forces of evil.

In the face – no, the tail – of evil, there is a faith that never ends, and a story that resurrects again the wonders of His forever love.

 

Quietly: Today’s the last day to pick up the The Wonder of the Greatest Gift & receive Ann’s free audio recording of the entire 25 days of devotional Advent readings of The Wonder of the Greatest Gift for the whole family.

Just  enter your purchase information here. — so if you can’t read to the kids some busy Advent nights — Ann will count it a privilege to freely do all the reading!  Because, this full love story of Jesus’ coming, right from the very beginning? Maybe that’s the love story we all need to keep returning to these days…  

 

Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [11.04.17]

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 & your people right here:

Josh Robinson
Josh Robinson
Josh Robinson

kinda  never get over the whole extraordinary earth being full of His glory 

anyone else wanna go too?

I mean — police officers who do things like this?  the world can be a pretty amazing place #BetheGIFT

calling all the booklovers: let’s do this together, m’kay?

this guy kinda proves you can do that hard thing. C’MON! You need this for inspiration fuel today!

Uhhhh…. monuments in motion: we couldn’t stop watching!?!

because we have 4 kinda wild boys — then we gathered ’round this one 

YES: how this old factory is surviving on loyalty

free ticket to glory, glory, glory right here and you know your soul kinda needs this exhale

Could not love this woman more. You have got to read this because it’s kinda the best kind of believable:

A journey toward hope: Liz Curtis Higgs sees God’s faithfulness through her battle with cancer

THIS: there’s a reason why he’s the ASPCA Dog of the Year

A story of undying love: they celebrated their 80th anniversary . Yeah, I’m not teary, you are. 

Life is not an emgergency. Life is a gift. This kinda makes it blazingly clear all over again …

happy, happy tears here. can you even?!

6 Veterans who left high school to enlist are honored with their diplomas… look at those smiles ! I just love people!

tears: his college dreams came true

Mercy House’s new nativity has kinda stolen my heart

(Mercy House engages those with resources to say yes to the plight of women in poverty, empowers women and teenage mothers around the world through partnerships and sustainable fair trade product development & disciples women to be lifelong followers of Jesus Christ.) 

These hand painted rocks are a great way to teach your kids the Christmas story and let them retell it to you again and again!  They were created by Elizabeth, one of the girls in Mercy House’s Maternity Home in Kenya and are truly a work of art.  Elizabeth has loved to draw since we met her and this is the first of her hand drawn creations.  We love seeing the God given talents develop in these sweet girls and the pride that comes with creating something beautiful.  Share in the joy with your very own set!

 

“Don’t thank me, thank God. He led me to you.”  a story of kindness 

“Despite the negative headlines, the back roads connect up a country that still seems rather fine, strong, and enduring”

“I can’t get up on a platform and give a message—that isn’t my work. The Lord has given me hands with no arthritis, so I do a lot of sewing—I’ve been given a talent and I make use of it.”

Dear Us,

So. Just 7 Saturdays till Christmas — I. Know.

Okay, so.  Who wants their Christmas MOJO back? Yeah, me too. And straight up — I AM SO STOKED ABOUT THIS NEW (!!) & UNEXPECTED WAY FOR STRESS-FREE, WONDER-FULL HOLIDAYS!

I’ve been kinda waiting my whole LIFE for this — Can. You. Even.

Dear Us: The Surprising (New) Way to Have a Stress-Free, WONDER-FULL Holiday & get Our Christmas MOJO back!

Guess what we’ll get into your inbox if your preorder before Tuesday? The FREE AUDIO BOOK recording of the entire 25 days of Advent readings of The Wonder of the Greatest Gift — so some busy nights during advent — I will read to the kids for you!

So if you can’t read to the kids some busy Advent nights — I freely will! You pre-order & we’ll do everything else to make the most memorable Christmas tradition — the very easiest and STRESS-FREE one of all!

And you’ll get all of your Christmas MOJO back — More Of Jesus Only!

THIS FAMILY?!? you’ve got to meet them – please don’t miss this one

How The Real Sisterhood of Women– is Really the ASSISTerhood (annnnd … The Best (New!) Subscription Box?)

Join us… and choose the case for Grace today? 

what a story here:

“They always say that failure is not an option. Failure should be an option, because when you fail you get back up.”

Want the gift of less stress?

It’s hiding where you’d never expect it.

Want to know how your brokenness could be transformed into abundance? Tired of trite answers?

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

Don’t miss out on the gift of the life you’ve always wanted.

Featuring new stories from Ann’s blog, powerful excerpts from the New York Times bestseller The Broken Way, and Ann’s signature photography from her farm and family, this gorgeous book will be a profoundly meaningful and needed gift — not only to your own weary soul, but any loved one looking for the relief of a bit of beauty and abundant joy.

It also includes pages of perforated gift tags in the back to include with a meal dropped off for an ailing friend or an unexpected treat for a friendly neighbor — so you get to #beTheGIFT — and be part of changing the world — and your heart — right where you are.

Grab a copy of Be The Gift — and 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.

Easy, doable ideas for *the whole family* to Give It Forward Today — to be the G.I.F.T. Love is a verb and that verb is give. For God so loved the world — HE GAVE.  So the plan always is: Love lives given. #BeTheGIFT

You only get one life to love well.

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

You’re a good, good Father. It’s who You are.

Anticipate the Miracle — thank you, Priscilla Shirer… we all need this

[ Print’s FREE here: ]

…everyone you meet today is fighting this hard battle & needs courage. Needs help to live “in courage.” Needs someone to encourage with words that give strength for their battle.

“Gently encourage… & reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.” 1Thess5:13MSG

And the thing is? When you help others live better – it’s your life that gets better. This might be a step toward the healing that we are all desperately needing.

If you lean in close, you can hear it, the faint heartbeat of a strong hope, of people coming together to give grace to each other, to be the gift to each other, through the brokenness of everything…

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

‪ Dare to fully live!

That’s all for this weekend, friends.

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

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

Share Whatever Is Good. 

How The Real Sisterhood of Women– is Really the ASSISTerhood (annnnd … The Best (New!) Subscription Box?)

You know — women know it in their bones from the time they first become women.

And we say it so our daughters know, so the next generation knows: Women know that they come from each other.

Women know that their dreams and their hearts fit inside of each other, and they know it like the back of their hands, like the veins on the back of the hand all run connected, how this is us, all connected to each other, all our courage and strength running into each other.

When we know we belong to each other, then we are strong for each other.

And this is what we tell our girls, because this what changes the world, and we never stop turning and telling each other our real names: You belong, You be brave, You are loved, You are strong.

We will get knocked down, but women knock fear to the curb because all fear is fraud and nothing is beyond the presence of God. All fear just fears that we can end up somewhere beyond the good love of God’s love, and we can never find ourselves anywhere beyond the love of God so there is nothing to ever fear in the whole wide world.

Yeah, this old world is for sure going to hurt, and this old world for sure has enough women who know how to do their hair, and what it needs is women who know how to do hard & holy things, women who know they don’t need Wonder-Woman capes like they need to know the God-Breathed Word and how to wield it like a sword against all the lying dark.

There are women who know it: Your hands aren’t big enough to hold all the pain you want to heal — so you hold onto His hand and feel Him heal all your pain in forever ways.

Tell your daughters that — because, sure, you can think chocolate fixes all the bittersweet things, but there’s nothing like tasting and seeing how the Lord is good.

There are days that crumble like a cookie, but this is a thing — and it’s the realest, truest thing and you have to keep doing it no matter what: In all things, taste the grace of God.

Because we are the women raising women who see the the whole world through a lens of love, like all is glass to God, like when we look into any face, we are looking into the face of God.

Know there is no us versus them, but only all of us living everyday like there is no them.

There are no other families — only our family.

Because we are the women raising another generation that knows:

The people who tear down fences to build longer tables don’t miss out on the best feasts.

The people who care about other people are taking the best care of their own souls.

The people who give grace are the ones who get grace. And the only non-toxic air any of us can ever breathe is Grace.

Grace is always racing down our darkest roads to meet us. And then Grace always asks us to pass more grace on — because this is what helps us love life & carry on.

We are the sisterhood who know: You can’t really know grace and not really be moved. Grace always moves us. Grace starts movements.

When God’s grace revolutionizes your life — God uses you to revolutionize the world.

Be grace warriors in the world — not great worriers about the world.

Be the sisterhood of women who always give each other grace, the women who know: Give grace forward — because this is always the best way forward.

Be the sisterhood how know that real love lives given, who take a brazen, defiant stand for boldface hope for all of our sisters.

The Sisterhood — is ASSISterhood.

The sisterhood of women — happens whenever a woman assists her sisters.

And we all get to belong to the sisterhood of women — because we all get to assist our sisters.

The sisterhood is ASSISTerhood —- when we give each other other grace.

Because embracing grace is always what changes your world — and a thousand of our sisters’ worlds.

SINCE WE’RE WOMEN WHO SUBSCRIBE TO GRACE…
THE (New!) (Best!) SURPRISING SUBSCRIPTION BOX:
THE GRACE CASE

Embrace The Grace Case — and become part of a movement of Grace all around the world.

– Limited edition fair-trade heirlooms… Gorgeous high end items in quarterly themed boxes- blankets, shoes, lanterns, pillows, fine jewelry…makes the perfect gift to give (or keep!)  and changes the world for the most precious women.  Limited memberships available at thegracecase.com

– Curated by the Voskamp family — with a new editions in every one of your boxes of the story booklet, ‘The Case for Grace’, written by Ann

– Empower and employ sister-artisans all around the world

– Absolutely 100% of profits fund the Mercy House’s Transition Home

– Get a new box of varying themes, 4 times a year. Be surprised by grace on your doorstep!

Say yes to embracing The Grace Case and join your GenEsther family in making a case for grace around the world. Jump in with us… & literally help change the world.

You can be part of the movement…

this chance to link hands with our sister-artisans around the world —

creating grace, giving grace, and living grace.
Join us… and choose the case for Grace today? 

The Absolute Best Bucket List You Can’t Miss — Or You Miss Out on the Life You’ve Always Wanted

So it turns out, I ran away.

Pain’s always a fuel — that drives you to escape, or drives you to grow.

And yeah, I do the oh, so mature thing — I run away from the pain. Literally. Well — for a day.

Knowing the thing to do — is not at all the same as doing that thing. What the head knows by heart — can take a heart a lifetime to live. And sometimes — what you just need is time. Sometimes what your heart needs — is for you to take time to clear your head.

I drive down back roads, drove up to the Mennonite country.

The rain and fog feel like a comforting shroud for my raw, exposed places.

I wander into a little Mennonite General Store in a village so small you’d miss it if you blinked too fast. The 100-year-old wooden floor planks creak. No electricity or lights or fluorescent bulbs buzz or flicker. Lanterns hang in grey lit rooms, brave flames burning back the morning’s mist. A wood stove crackles in the middle of the store, surrounded by shelves of kettles and pots and stacks of bread pans.

There are days you don’t want Target or Walmart — but the old ways of an out-of-the-way place — that kinda target your heart.

And there it is — on a windowsill of an old wavy glass window —- a wee little miniature steel bucket.

I pick it up.

That is what you often pick up when you’re in pain — a bucket. Like you’re carrying a bucket of weight. Like you can fill yourself up with all the things to drown out all the pain. Like if you fill yourself up with a bucket list of all the experiences — you could douse out all the pain.

I turn the little bucket around in my hands — and there it is in my bruised heart: Maybe the best way to deal with pain in your heart — is to pour your heart out.

Slowly — I tip the bucket over.

Maybe…. When I hit the bucket— I don’t want to leave a bucket list as much as I want to leave an empty bucket — a life poured right out.

Maybe — the best kind of bucket list — is a list of how to pour your bucket out. The purpose of your life is to find your gift — and give it away. The gifted are the ones who find their gift — make it into a gift for the world.

The bucket sits perfectly in the palm of my hand. I can’t stop thinking:

Maybe — the best way to get rid of your pain — is to pour your life out.

Maybe empty buckets — are the fullest kinds of buckets.

“If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to Me, you’ll find both yourself and Me.“ (Matthew 10, The Bible)

“Embrace true humility, and lift your heads to extend love to others. Get beyond yourselves and protecting your own interests; be sincere, and secure your neighbors’ interests first.

In other words, adopt the mind-set of Jesus the Anointed. Live with His attitude in your hearts. Remember: Though He was in the form of God,He chose not to cling to equality with God;

But He poured Himself out to fill a vessel brand new…” (Philippians 2, The Bible)

Christ poured Himself out — to make us new vessels. And as we pour out the Christ in us — Christ makes new vessels all around us — and in us.

Up at the till, the bonneted clerk takes out a pad of receipts, and writes out my receipt for one little steel bucket, in this perfect Spencerian script. We exchange shy smiles. I leave four dollars on her ancient counter.

And then I drive home with this bucket in my pocket. I am ready. When you pour out your broken heart, pour out your life — you pour out your pain.

It keeps falling on my cracked places like a gentle rain: Live with His attitude in your hearts.

Christ’s attitude about hearts — was to pour them out — not to try to protect them.

Let your heart live unguarded again — and you let love capture you all over again.

In the upside down Kingdom, you have to guard your heart from being wrongly guarded.

True: You guard your heart against sinful thoughts getting in… or out — but don’t guard your heart against love… that needs to get in or out. Guard against sins — but not against hearts.

Guard your heart against evil — and there is no doubt: a prison of loneliness is evil.

Guard your heart from the things that will crush your heart: bitterness, loneliness, uneasiness, defensiveness.

Guard your heart from being guarded because everything you do flows out of your heart — and a heart can’t flow if it’s walled off, blocked in, and shutting out.

Your heart can’t be walled in — because your heart has to flow out. Because out of the overflow of your heart, your whole life flows.

Live with walls to block out pain — and you will block out all the love that’s trying to get in.

Live with walls to block out pain — and those same walls will block your own love from flowing out.

Your job is not to find love. Your job — is to find all the walls you’ve built to keep love out. Because you have to tear down those walls — so your own love can flow out. This is only way your life can flow out — this is the only way you can live.

When I get home, I place the tiny bucket on the kitchen windowsill — a daily visual for the meaning of being, the meaning of life. And when I accidentally turn the bucket over — I see it. There’s a word engraved right into the bottom of the bucket.

It’s like a word from the Lord —- exactly there where I would have expected to read “Made in China.”

One unexpected word etched into the bottom of a random miniature bucket found on a windowsill in front of a burning wood stove in a back road Mennonite store.

One word etched into the empty miniature bucket in all caps: ENDURANCE.

I drop my head. I could weep.

God speaks.

When you pour yourself out — you will be surprised by endurance.

When you’re empty and scraping the bottom of your bucket — you will find endurance.

When you’re beautiful heart feels poured right out —- more of your beautiful heart still endures.

And I grip that little bucket like God’s handing me a cup of cold water.

Because this is what I once read about endurance.

Endurance — literally means to — abide under, stay under, remain under.

When you tip over that empty bucket so you can see that one word Endurance etched in the bottom again, it’s like all the fog’s cleared:

When you pour your life out — what you endure under, remain under, is a Niagara Falls of His grace.

When you pour your life out — what you endure under, remain under — is Christ pouring Himself into you.

What you are always enduring under — is Christ’s showers of blessings over you.

For months now — that bold little bucket has sat on the kitchen windowsill and I have watched the leaves turn and how I have turned. When my failing heart has about broke — that bucket has spoke without saying a word:

Don’t pray for ease, pray for endurance.

The good life always requires good bit of endurance. The only way to the best life is endurance through the hard things.

And this is true: Endurance does more than bear hard things — it turns them into good things. There is no other way to keep enduring.

After I mention my truth-telling windowsill bucket last week to a man over a cup of coffee, he reaches out his reaches out his hand and says, “See his bucket? Carved his bucket — out of a tree stump.”

And there’s this picture — of a carved wooden bucket — looking like it’s suspended in mid-air, pouring, always pouring, always giving.

Gabi Rizea Sculptura lemn

Relentlessly flowing, the wood grain moves through the “water” pouring from the bucket.

Turns out when the carver was asked how did he get the idea for this clever wood sculpture? “I don’t know, in my mind sometimes I have some images,” he nods. “When I work, it’s me, the log, and God.”

And this ‘log’ he carved a bucket out of? Was a tree stump.

A stump of a tree that was cut down because insects were devouring the tree.

Gabi Rizea Sculptura lemn
Gabi Rizea Sculptura lemn
Gabi Rizea Sculptura lemn

He carved his ever-pouring bucket — out of a rotted stump.

I touch the picture, trace the bucket, the water. The outpouring water is actually carved out of the stump.

What keeps the bucket held up — is actually the water pouring down.

And I meet the white-haired man’s eyes and he’s nodding slowly.

Pouring out your heart — is what will actually hold your heart together.

Pouring out your life — is what will elevate your life.

Rotting places — can be places of streams of living water.

If we choose to believe. If we choose endurance. If we choose to be the gift.

That image of that enduring wooden bucket, always living given, pouring out its heart, is burned into my mind —my heart.

Maybe God only gives more blessings to those who keep pouring more of their bucket out.

Maybe…. If you are a bucket-tipper — God will keep filling you with more blessings. But if you are only a bucket-filler, He lets keep filling with more of yourself.

Bucket-tippers get filled with God. Bucket-fillers — just get full of themselves.

I can feel more of my walls giving way. And all the things of life flowing out from a given, poured out heart.

Love lives given.

Live given — and you will be given abundant life.

And now it turns out — there’s a bucket on a windowsill that runs on and on.

And there is all of us standing under an enduring Niagara Fall of amazing grace that keeps fills all our surrendered and given places.

 

Want the gift of less stress?

It’s hiding where you’d never expect it.

Want to know how your brokenness could be transformed into abundance? Tired of trite answers?

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

Don’t miss out on the gift of the life you’ve always wanted.

Featuring new stories from Ann’s blog, powerful excerpts from the New York Times bestseller The Broken Way, and Ann’s signature photography from her farm and family, this gorgeous book will be a profoundly meaningful and needed gift — not only to your own weary soul, but any loved one looking for the relief of a bit of beauty and abundant joy.

It also includes pages of perforated gift tags in the back to include with a meal dropped off for an ailing friend or an unexpected treat for a friendly neighbor — so you get to #beTheGIFT — and be part of changing the world — and your heart — right where you are.

Grab a copy of Be The Gift — and we will immediately email you 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.

Easy, doable ideas for *the whole family* to Give It Forward Today — to be the G.I.F.T. Love is a verb and that verb is give. For God so loved the world — HE GAVE.  So the plan always is: Love lives given. #BeTheGIFT

You only get one life to love well.

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

 

When You’re Tired of Your Heart Getting Hurt: The Secret to the Good Life

Let your heart live unguarded — and you let love capture you.

I wrote that one down on a piece of paper.

Folded it up and stuck it in my back pocket, like I had been given the answers to the only test I’ve ever needed to pass.

Live with an unguarded heart — and you let love capture you.

But I turned to a friend after dinner a few weeks ago, when we were walking back down the street, straight into the wind, and I straight up told her that I didn’t care what that study note had to say about acing this living and loving thing — I needed a shield or two to protect my heart.

“Put your heart out on a table — and it might get mistaken for dinner. It might get cut up and eaten alive.” I didn’t tell her how my own heart burned from razor-sharp words.

Didn’t tell her who had said what, didn’t tell her how I had looked in a mirror, brushed back whatever was leaking and spilling and I had vowed — Don’t put your heart down on the table again — or it will get knifed.

I mean — I knew it with my head:

Transparency is the glass door that opens up a house of trust so you get to live in love.

But my tender and busted heart?

The head can know wisdom — but the heart knows its wounds.

When my mama stood in the kitchen the other day, over a pot at the stove —- I watched how she stirred. Watched how she stirred with a hand missing part of a finger.

There are women who walk around with parts of themselves wounded and missing. But they have found their soul, their way — they have found the good life.

Mama serves me her soup. She looks me in the eye and my mama reads my pain, all the liquid heartbreak that I keep blinking back.

“You know — living ‘light and polite’ is not really living.” Living ‘light and polite’ can be a way of keeping everyone in the dark about what’s in your heart. Her words rise like steam from the soup.

I nod and I know it and Mama knows what I’ve been up to. Politeness can be a cheap shield to protect your heart. And shields to protect hearts end up being prisons for hearts. But, I’m just being blunt honest when I say there are days I’d rather my heart be in a prison of my own making, than be chopped liver in anyone else’s hands.

“Look, Mama. Live like glass? Be transparent? And you can find yourself shattered.” I find Mama’s eyes.

“Let people see past the surface, past your mask, even past your thoughts —- and let people actually see your heart? An exposed heart — can end up an executed heart. Having a glass heart — can leave you cut.”

I’m telling you: Transparency can feel like a death trap.

And for a bowl of soup, my Mama gives me my birthright. She says it slow — so I don’t miss it, so I get back in touch with what matters, can be nourished by it.

“Paying attention to hearts — is the only way to spend your life well.”

She reaches over and touches my hand. Her amputated finger lays on top of mine. The woman knows.

I have no idea if Mama had ever read about a 75 year study of the lives of Harvard students — but when her scarred and amputated finger rests there on the back of my hand, I can’t help but think of the results of one of the longest longitudinal studies ever conducted:

“Close relationships, more than money or status, are what keep people happy throughout their lives,” the study revealed. “Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.”

Good relationships is the only way to the good life.

Tying our hearts to other hearts — turns out to be our best lifeline.

Mama’s tracing the back of my hand with her hand — with her one scarred and amputated finger.

The best stewardship of time — is making time for relationship.

Even when it wounds.

“Loneliness is as deadly as smoking or alcoholism,” the director of the world-famous study had reported.

Mama’s watching my eyes.

Don’t doubt for a moment: Loneliness kills.

Mama, her hand stretched across the table, she’s showing me how to reach out — and hold on.

I can see it in her brave face, right there in her warm, wise eyes:

The secret to healthy aging is healthy relationships, healthy relationships, healthy relationships.

Old age can’t keep you from love — but love can keep you from aging poorly.

This is worth the risk. I keep trying to tell my bruised heart this. To risk loving one another is our greatest safety, and to fearfully try protecting our hearts is our gravest error.

I watch Mama ladle out more bowls of soup, set them around the table, watch how she lives given.

How she lives wide-open, lives like a gift.

Mama sets the last bowl down.

And she lays it all down:

“Live with walls to block out pain — and you will block out all the love that’s trying to get in.”

Light floods the kitchen, the table, and I claim my birthright:

You have to let the love in. Open your arms wide open — live formed like a cross, cruciform — and let the love in.

I had laid in a hospital bed this summer with heart failure and I know it with all my heart. When your heart is kinda failing — the tendency is pull your arms and self-protect, shield, guard, mask your one broken, failing heart. But, Mama, she’s right.

If you build walls around your heart? No love can get to your heart, no healing can get to your heart.

No one tells you that the walls you build to protect your heart — end up being the walls that imprison your life. The walls you’re building to keep the hurt out — are the same walls that keep the healing from getting in.

Yeah, Mama — Live with walls to block out pain — and you will block out all the love that’s trying to get in.

What every broken heart needs —- is to break down their self-protecting walls.

What every broken heart needs — is to to be vulnerable enough to share their brokenness.

You will see as much healing in your life — as you let people see the brokenness in your life.

You are as healable —- as you are vulnerable.

I now look in the mirror and search that face with a question: Can you believe your heart is a gift?

Your gift is not what you do —- but who you are. And who He is in you. And He is making your heart into a gift.

Believe. Be The Gift.

You give what’s good when you give what’s in your hands — but you give what’s eternal when you give what’s in your heart.

Believe. Be the Gift.

The only real gift you can give is a bit of your heart. The purpose of your life is to find your gift — and give it away.

Believe. Be the Gift.

What do you do with your one broken heart?

You give it away.

This is what you have to remember to always do with a broken heart:

You be the gift — and you live cruciform and you give your one broken heart away.

Give your heart to God in endless thanksgiving. And then give your broken heart to a hurting world in intentional acts of generosity, vulnerability, and transparency — so that you are healed with what always most heals a heart: intimacy.

Mama steps in and puts her arms around my shoulders, and she whispers it there at my ear, like an epiphany of light that could burns down all the walls:

“Your job is not to find love. Your job — is to find all walls you’ve built to keep love out.”

I reach my hand out to grab hers.

And this is always what happens: When you reach out and offer yourself like a gift — you break down the walls that are keeping the love out.

And in that moment — I see what Mama has done with her life.

What every woman has wanted for her life:

True — she’s wanted to be brave. True, she’s wanted to be the weakness of the best kind of strong. But most of all — she’s wanted to become love. She’s wanted to be a gift — to her people, to the world. She’s wanted to reach out and be the gift — and break down the walls that have kept love out.

Because there’s no better way any woman can imagine to live — than to be a gift.

The good life lives given. Because Love is a verb and that verb is given and for God so loved the world — He gave. Love lives given.

Mama smiles. And every reaching wrinkle for every smiling woman — is a testament to her reaching out — and the love getting in.

There is no becoming old — as much as there is becoming a gift.

 

 

Ann’s NEW photography gift book, Be the Gift, will give you the gift
of way less stress, far more joy, & abundantly more peace & purpose

Want the gift of less stress?

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Want to know how your brokenness could be transformed into abundance? Tired of trite answers?

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

Don’t miss out on the gift of the life you’ve always wanted.

Featuring new stories from Ann’s blog, powerful excerpts from the New York Times bestseller The Broken Way, and Ann’s signature photography from her farm and family, this gorgeous book will be a profoundly meaningful and needed gift — not only to your own weary soul, but any loved one looking for the relief of a bit of beauty and abundant joy.

It also includes pages of perforated gift tags in the back to include with a meal dropped off for an ailing friend or an unexpected treat for a friendly neighbor — so you get to #beTheGIFT — and be part of changing the world — and your heart — right where you are.

One Thousand Gifts showed how to give thanks for the gifts from God in everyday life. The Broken Waythen showed how to live given to God & the world through the brokenness of everyday life. And now Be the Gift invites you into the next step of deeper transformation, less stress, more joy and abundantly more peace & purpose.

You only get one life to love well.

Pre-order this NEW book & live the life you’ve longed to. 

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This #BeTheGIFT calendar could change the legacy of you and your people. Because this is what love does:

Love lives given — love always chooses to Be The GIFT.

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Dear Us: The Surprising (New) Way to Have a Stress-Free, WONDER-FULL Holiday & get Our Christmas MOJO back!

Dear Us,

This is our tender relief, on the 25th of the month, just 8 Wednesdays from Christmas:

When the holidays hit this year, we’re all choosing holy days more than hyped-up days.

When the holidays hit this year, we’re all not choosing to fall more in debt because of consumerism, but were choosing to fall more in love because of Christ.

When the holidays hit this year, we’re all not going to be hit by all the worry — we’re choosing to be hushed by all His wonder.

Holy days — over hyped-up holidays. Falling in love — over falling in debt. Wonder — over worry.

Because we are all missing out on the life we want — for want of wonder — not for want of wonders.

The wonders of His love are everywhere — if you are in love with the wonder of Him. This is how the brilliant live.

So when she opens it up, I stop everything, and kneel right down.

“Look, Mama!” She laughs like a shower of stars.

Our baby girl’s eyes are saucers — awed.

I’m lit by her brazen wonder, her unabashed enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm always blazes within the best life — because enthusiasm comes from entheos — which literally means “God within.”

She holds this book wide open with contagious, igniting enthusiasm — God’s within, God’s within.

The book she’s holding in her hands, I wrote as a surprise, when she was just a prayer I was holding in my heart for all I was worth.

And now the wonder of her is here with us — and she’s holding this book for all her pudgy little fists are worth: “The Wonder of The Greatest Gift.”

When the holidays hit this year, we choose wonder — because wonder is one step toward choosing a wonderful life.

She keeps opening the book up again and again — just to see the the 13 inch pop-up Christmas tree rise yet again.

Nothing wonderful happens in our lives without wonder. Wonder makes this a wonderful life. Wonder nurtures wisdom. 

If the next generation is to have any wisdom, then this generation must choose wonder now.

Wonder now over grace and mercy and the ways of Jesus, because we have never needed His ways more than now.

And I grin, witnessing her fascination over that rising tree. Because the legacy we’ve got to leave, to centre the next generation, is the knowing that at the centre of our Garden Beginning and His Christmas Coming and our Calvary Saving, there always stands a tree that roots them forever and sets them free for eternity.

And nothing stands firmly anywhere, unless its rooted in the very beginning and the tree of Calvary, and the wonder that we’re grafted into the family tree of God.

She leans over the open book, her little fingers groping along the edges of the Advent flaps, one by one — wide-eyed, wonder seeking.



God’s within. God’s within.

Behind one of the 25 Advent flaps, she finds an ornament — a tree stump with reaching green shoots — to hang on her risen tree.

“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots…. In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a banner to the peoples; Him shall the nations seek…”

Him shall the nations, and the next generation, seek.

This Christmas, the nations, and our generation, and the next generation, are ultimately seeking, not more plastic, not more pixels, not more products — we are seeking, whether we know it or not, more of the presence of Jesus — the Greatest Gift.

She’s turning the more than 100 pages of that booklet behind the first flap, that tells story after story from the Greatest Story ever told, from Creation to the Creche — of how nothing ever has stopped His love from coming for us.

“Nothing is worthwhile compared to this—searching Scripture…seeking the truth of God’s Word,” Elie Wiesel once said.

For the nations— and the next generation — to seek Him — this generation can seek nothing less.

And our little girl, she sits in the thickening gold light and keeps hanging the ornaments, one after another, and that’s what her tree is telling: the grandest Gospel story, from the Beginning to Bethlehem!

And I nod, knowing— this is the year.

This is the year to forget whatever the bombardment of ads keep trying to pummel us all into believing.

This is the year to give the wonder of living in the land of the living.

Forget burying our kids in more plastic trinkets, forget piling the debt and a culture of death on them, forget giving them what cannot last.

Nothing is more important than leaving to the next generation the land of wondrous living, and nothing is more at risk. Just turn on the news.

The legacy we, the people, want to leave to our children, the next generation, is the wonder of dwelling in the land of the living, a land where our roots are nourished in the truth of miracle of Whose we are, and the shattering grace of where we come from, and the astonishing hope of who we’re meant to be.

This is the year — we give our people the gift of our story — so they know the story — their story —their family tree. Right from our genesis beginning to our King’s coming under Bethlehem’s star — this is our story.

And I lean in and kiss the of my baby girl’s head. She will know who she is, Whose she is and she will know her story.

This story is our inheritance — The Greatest Story ever told. And we will claim our inheritance.

When we reclaim the wonder of Christmas — we reclaim the wonder of living.

The wonder of living in the land of the real, wondrous living. W e could get to live a wonderful life.

Our baby girl grins a whole world wide as she turns back the 25th flap and pulls out that star.

She’s bursting, tangible joy as she leans in to places that glowing atop her own tree, her own crowning, Christ-formed story.

What matters more? Our children will know their whole story, know their beginning, know their roots, know their place in the family tree of God — there, right next to His heart. Beloved.

God’s within. God’s within. 

This is their birthright — and we will claim it and reclaim it and reclaim the wonder because our God claims us.

This is the year: The way to get our Christmas MOJO back — is More Of Jesus Only.

Christmas is about: JOMO for MOJO — the Joy Of Missing Out (on all the pressure!) — for More Of Jesus Only (all of His presence!)

#JOMO for #MOJO

JoyOfMissingOut …. for … MoreOfJesusOnly

When she smiles over at me, I blink it back — she’s holding her own story — and the Wonder of the Greatest Gift.

And it’s hers. All of ours.

Christ came and claimed us and we claim our inheritance of the land of the really living and all the wonders of His love.

This is a gift of hope, of love, of wonder — that all of our hearts long to be captivated and captured by — and released into the gift our hearts want most– HIM!

This is an heirloom, a Christmas tradition —- a wonder for the child in all of us!

And there’s all this golden light flooding the place, lighting up her very own tree — the Tree for all of us. 

All this wonder that all those living too long in the shadows — can now feel a great light dawning.

She laughs.

The enthusiasm — the wonder.

God within. God within. 

Get Ann’s FREE AUDIO BOOK OF The Wonder of The Greatest Gift FOR THE KIDS !

(and your own Advent visit from Ann)

All You Have to Do is Pre-Order Right Now — & You’ll Be All Ready for a STRESS-FREE, WONDER-FULL Christmas

Guess what we’ll get into your inbox by November 6th if your preorder right now? Ann’s FREE AUDIO BOOK recording of the entire 25 days of Advent readings of The Wonder of the Greatest Gift, telling the full love story of Jesus’ coming, right from the very beginning.

So if you can’t read to the kids some busy Advent nights — Ann freely will! You pre-order & we’ll do everything else to make the most memorable Christmas tradition — the very easiest and STRESS-FREE one of all!

Anndddd? There’s more! Your name will be entered to win a video call to kick-off your Advent season on Dec. 1, with Ann reading the first day of the The Wonder of the Greatest Gift devotional with you and yours!

Go ahead and be ready for the Best Christmas right now:

1. Pre-order The Wonder of the Greatest Gift between now and November 6, 2017 from your favorite retailer.

2. Enter your purchase information here. It’s that simple!

Pre-Order right now for and be ready for Christmas — get your Christmas MOJO back — More Of Jesus Only — have a STRESS-FREE, WONDER-FULL Christmas. 

And we’ll have the FREE AUDIO of the entire book, “The Wonder of the Greatest Book” in your inbox by November 6th and the video call winner will be notified via email or text by November 17.

Does God Still Speak & How to Really Hear Him?

This friend of mine, a father of three children who lives on Capitol Hill and leads a large church in Washington, D.C. might be the last person you’d think would write about being quiet. But Mark Batterson says it’s the noise around him—and in him—that reminds him every day how much he needs the uninterrupted silence of God. Mark joins us today with a gentle but strong reminder that being quiet before God will be the most important thing we do this week as we learn to hear God’s loving whispers.

guest post by Mark Batterson

More than half a century ago, Dr. Alfred Tomatis was confronted with the most curious case of his fifty-year career as an otolaryngologist.

A renowned opera singer had mysteriously lost his ability to hit certain notes even though those notes were well within his vocal range. He had been to other ear, nose, and throat specialists, all of whom thought it was a vocal problem.

Dr. Tomatis thought otherwise.

Using a sonometer, Dr. Tomatis discovered that even an average opera singer produces 140-decibel sound waves at a meter’s distance.

That’s slightly louder than a military jet taking off from an aircraft carrier!

And the sound is even louder inside one’s skull.

That discovery led to a diagnosis: the opera singer had been deafened by the sound of his own voice. And because he couldn’t hear the note, he couldn’t sing the note.

In Dr. Tomatis’s words, “The voice can only reproduce what the ear can hear.”

The French Academy of Medicine dubbed it the Tomatis effect.

We all have our fair share of problems and perhaps your problem-solving techniques are as effective as mine, which isn’t very!

Maybe that’s because we’re treating symptoms while ignoring the root cause: a spiritual Tomatis effect.

Is it possible that what we perceive to be relational, emotional, and spiritual problems are actually hearing problems—ears that have been deafened to the voice of God? And it’s that inability to hear His voice that causes us to lose our voice and lose our way.

A few years ago, I wrote a book about the power of prayer titled The Circle Maker. Prayer is the difference between the best we can do and the best God can do.

But there is something even more important, more powerful than talking to God.

What is it? Listening to God. It turns a monologue into a dialogue, which is exactly what the Heavenly Father wants.

Let me make a bold statement:

Learning how to hear the voice of God is the solution to a thousand problems! It’s also the key to discovering your destiny and fulfilling your potential.

His voice is love.

His voice is power.

His voice is healing.

His voice is wisdom.

His voice is joy.

If your life is off-key, maybe it’s because you’ve been deafened by negative self-talk that doesn’t let God get a Word in edgewise!

Maybe you’ve listened to the voice of criticism so long you can’t believe anything else about yourself.

Or maybe it’s the Enemy’s voice of condemnation that speaks lies about who you really are.

If you don’t silence those competing voices, they’ll eventually deafen you. You won’t be able to sing God’s song because you won’t be able to hear His voice.

  Is God’s voice the loudest voice in your life? 


That’s the question. 


If the answer is no, that’s the problem.

I Kings 19:11-12 describes the voice of God this way:

“Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” (NIV)

We tend to dismiss as insignificant the natural phenomena that preceded the whisper because God was not in them, but I bet they got Elijah’s attention! God has an outside voice, and He’s not afraid to use it.

But when God wants to be heard, when what He has to say is too important to miss, He often speaks in a whisper just above the absolute threshold of hearing.

The question, of course, is why. And how. And when and where.

In Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God I talk about the seven love languages of God.

The first language is Scripture, and it’s our Rosetta Stone. God never, ever leads us in any way, ever, that doesn’t echo and follow the ways of Scripture. Like Ann Voskamp writes in One Thousand Gifts, “Unless you live in the truth of His Word, your world truly warps.”

But there are six secondary languages as well, each of which, when they are from God, echo the will of His Word: desires, doors, dreams, promptings, people, and pain. Those secondary languages are six ways in which God whispers — always and only echoing and aligning with His Word.

The Hebrew word for “whisper,” demamah, can be translated “silence” or “stillness” or “calmness.” That same Hebrew word is used to describe the way God delivers us from our distress: “He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed” (Psalm 107:29, NIV).

And that psalm foreshadows the way Jesus would stop a storm in its tracks with three words: “Quiet! Be still!” (Mark 4:39)

God’s whisper is gentle, but nothing is more powerful.

My dictionary defines whisper as “speaking very softly using one’s breath without one’s vocal cords.” The use of breath instead of vocal cords is significant. Isn’t that how God created Adam? He whispered into the dust and named it Adam.

Adam was once a whisper.

So were you.

So was everything else.

Whispering is typically employed for the sake of secrecy. No form of communication is more intimate. And it seems to be God’s preferred method. The question again is why, and I won’t keep you guessing any longer.

When someone speaks in a whisper, you have to get very close to hear. We lean toward a whisper, and that’s what God wants.

The goal of hearing the Heavenly Father’s voice isn’t just hearing His voice; it’s intimacy with Him. That’s why He speaks in a whisper.

When our children were young, I’d speak in a whisper so they would inch closer to me. That’s when I’d grab them and hug them.

God draws us in the same way.

We want to hear what He has to say, but He wants us to know how much He loves us.

“The voice of the Spirit is as gentle as a zephyr,” said Oswald Chambers. “So gentle that unless you are living in perfect communion with God, you never hear it.”

Aren’t you grateful for a gentle God?

The Almighty could intimidate us with His outside voice, but He woos us with a whisper.

And His whisper is the very breath of life.

 

Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D. C., and the New York Times bestselling author of The Circle Maker, which has helped over 2 million people learn to talk to God. Today’s devotion is from his book Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God, which helps us learn how to listen to God.

Whisper introduces us to seven love languages of God, each of them unique, divine—and surprising. There’s more than one of us reading this book here on the farm — and I highly recommend Whisper to anyone who longs to hear God’s voice in everyday life, for big decisions, and as a way to draw closer to Him. 

 

[ Our humble thanks to Waterbook Multnomah for your partnership in today’s devotion ]

 

Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [10.21.17]

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 & your people right here:

Jan Vincent Kleine / Instagram / Facebook 
Jan Vincent Kleine / Instagram / Facebook 
Jan Vincent Kleine / Instagram / Facebook 

deep breath at the wonder of this right here   

so this may be a first?

what they did after this stray dog crashed their wedding?!? love this!

to hear your father’s voice? the best

Faith isn’t so much about the total and complete absence of fear and doubt as much as it is about choosing to put your faith first each and every day 

how this custodian greets students with high-fives every Friday? because we all need to be encouraged

we circled ’round this one: who she found on her hike on The Appalachian Trail?!  

yes, yes, yes

Stefan Draschan 
Stefan Draschan 
Stefan Draschan 

when people randomly match artwork? you gotta come see what this photographer found

just so beautiful: He has chosen you for me

how a teacher made his students cry…

because sometimes you need to tell others just how special they are

#TheBrokenWay #BeTheGIFT

sad beginnings but happy endings

thank you, John Piper: “Deep, humble dependence on God has produced world-changing achievements.”

oh my goodness … to have the heart and deep compassion of a child

neighbors love on this WWII Vet as he walks the same route twice a day

It was then, finally, through the eyes of a blind child, that I could see the problem was not with the world. The problem was me

Malala / Twitter 

Malala Yousafzai Nearly Died For Girls’ Education. Recently, She Started Classes at Oxford

“You can wallow in your pain and cry all day and not get out of bed which is quite easy to do…but it’s even easier to wallow in the hope and to know that Jesus is walking with you the whole time. I’m ready to take on the next battle because I know He stands before me and He stands behind me — and all of us.”

Kinda Undone: what she did for her friends who couldn’t afford milk for lunch at school?

#TheBrokenWay #BeTheGIFT

glory, glory, glory

From bank robber to law professor: A story of redemption

“It was people that helped, that went out of their way to provide grace to me. That made the difference.”

almost unbelievable what this Marine Veteran is doing

“My mission is still the same — make a difference in the world”

to every single parent: be encouraged

He saw Jesus

Post of the week from these parts here

… people you love are hurting? And you’re praying for people you love to be healed? Maybe we all need to get brutally honest — & maybe this heals a bit of our hearts:

Why God Doesn’t Heal People We Love? [Brutally] Honest Psalms #3

“If you pursue Jesus every day, you will have no fear of tomorrow. Even death will have no sting.” don’t miss this?

Because it’s never too late to love right where you are:

Download your October G.I.F.T list & be part of the joy we all need? 

We could all together kinda start a little movement of Giving It Forward Today, choosing to #BeTheGIFT, living broken & given like bread out into a world down right hungry for love right now.

 

Pick up your copy of The Broken Way — and break free.

Find all kinds of free tools at thebrokenway.com and   download your October G.I.F.T list

I am not alone

[ Print’s FREE here: ]

…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?]

‪ Dare to fully live!

That’s all for this weekend, friends.

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

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

Share Whatever Is Good. 

Why God Doesn’t Heal People We Love? [Brutally] Honest Psalms #3

Why, in the name of all things holy, do You cherry pick one person to heal and another person to die?

Why in the world does one baby get to recover and go home to laugh loud and inhale life and another baby gets covered with 6 feet a dirt and hunk of granite gravestone?

You tell us—- Why does this cancer patient get to tout that You heard their prayers and that cancer patient gets a morphine pump for the devouring pain and an unwanted visit from hospice?

When The Picked and The Healed audaciously celebrate: “God heard our prayers!” — are the unpicked and the unhealed really supposed to assume that You plugged Your ears and flat-out refused to hear their wildly begging prayers?

Or when the healed flaunt: “God heard our prayers” — are the unhealed supposed to realize that their prayers were actually flawed? Is healing only granted to the superior, spiritual elites who know the secret launch codes for prayer — and the prayers of the rest of us sorry sops somehow fell short, so our loved ones ended up dead?

Do You not have power to heal? Or do You just choose not to heal?

Is God ultimately impotent— or just plain indifferent?

And God grabs our attention and cups our faces close.

God is not impotent — He kept a young girl from death and raised a middle age man from the dead and His words gave eyes light and ears reverberation and the Wounded Healer can heal.

And God is not indifferent — He’s wept over a grave and He catches every single one of your tears in a bottle because God can’t bear to waste grief and the way Christ most moves, is to be moved with compassion. (Matt. 9:36) The One who stretched out His hands on a Cross, stretches out His arms to touch us. (Mark 1:41)

God is not impotent. And God is not indifferent. And God hates injury, infirmity and injustice. Jesus came to heal and relieve from suffering, and God calls us to alleviate and decimate suffering. So if God allows suffering — it must be to allow something He loves even more than He hates suffering?

Sometimes God allows what He can hardly stand — to accomplish more than we understand.

“It is what it is” — isn’t the whole story. All is not what it is — it is always more. What seems like your story — is but a line in the whole story.

In every one happening — Christ is happening to do one million other things.

What if: God’s purposes are not so much for me to understand His plans: His plan is for me to understand Who He is. And He is my Peace.

What if: Prayer isn’t about getting what you desperately want, but about getting more of the One Who desperately wants you.

What if: You discover Jesus is really enough — when you discover Jesus is really all you have left.

Jesus was the only man of perfection — and He was a man of sorrows. He perfectly understands your heartbreaking sorrow — and stands heartbroken with you in it. No one can truly withstand suffering unless they know God truly stands with them.

And — The Wounded Healer always writes a story that offers healing: the healing here or the healing of heaven.

When God gives healing here — all He’s giving is more time here. Healing only gives time. And we already have all of time, because of Jesus. We’re given forever, time without end. Love heals us all — with love that breaks the bonds of time.

Whether we get less time or more time, to receive all time as a love gift. What if we didn’t always want the gift of more time — but appreciated more of time as a gift?

What if instead of asking: “Why did God take her already?” — the awed question was: “Why did we get the grace of her at all?”

What if we bravely lived what we humbly pray:

Your kingdom come —-

not our kingdom.

Your will be done —

not ours.

Your story be written —

not our way, but Your way, because You alone are The Way.

Because you alone are God — and we are not. And when we say we could write the Story better than God — we are saying that we are better than God.

We are always loved with the gift of a tender choice:

We can live bitter — or we can live Beloved.

We can walk away — or we can walk The Way — and let Him who is The Way show us the way through.

We can trust our changing feelings alone — or trust in the unchanging love of God alone.

We can feel abandoned — or we can abandon ourselves to God.

And the kindest truth is: When you feel most abandoned by God, is when you most can just abandon yourself to God.

You can feel nothing and still be held through everything.

And in everything there is this:

We only think we might write the story different because we don’t know the same things the Storyteller knows.

Who knows why the Storyteller allows heartbreak, but the answer must be important enough, because the Storyteller allows His heart to break too.

And this heals a bit of our hearts:

There is a Storyteller who writes Himself into the story and makes our souls well, because He walks with us until the story is finished in His perfect time, and His perfect way, for His perfect glory — so our souls are always well.

 

 

Related:

Done with God? The (Brutally) Honest Psalms Series: #1

Sick of Waiting on God? The (Brutally) Honest Psalms Series: #2

 

Pick up our story of The Broken Way and how to love a brokenhearted world. This one’s for all of us who have felt our hearts break a bit…

This one’s for the brave and the busted and the real and dreamers and the sufferers and the believers.

This one’s for those who dare to take The Broken Way… into abundance

 

The Secret About Your Behavior that Changes the Whole Deal

Mark Maulding is a legitimate “grace man.” For more than 20 years, he’s counseled and taught thousands that there’s a much easier way to live as a Christian. This “easier way” can replace anxiety with peace, depression with joy, and bondage for victory. It’s a grace to welcome Mark to the farm’s front porch today…

guest post by Mark Maulding

Drew sat down in front of me and I could tell he was miserable.

He talked about how he and his wife, Kono, fought and argued a lot about money.

However, Drew revealed the real reason: he had a cocaine addiction.

“One day I skipped work, got the cocaine, and used it at home while Kono was at her job. Afterward, I promised God and myself I wouldn’t do it again. But a week later, I slipped up again and got some more cocaine. Kono came home early and caught me. She went ballistic, and we started arguing. After things calmed down, I promised her I’d never do it again.”

“Is it possible that you have learned to cope with stress and negative feelings by your addiction to cocaine?”

I pressed further.

“When you feel the temptation to do cocaine, do you feel as though two sides within you are battling each other? For instance, do you tell yourself you don’t want to do cocaine, but also feel attracted to the temptation?”

“Yes, exactly!” Drew exclaimed. “It scares me to feel so hypocritical inside. I thought being a Christian was supposed to help get rid of temptation. Instead I feel like there is a good Drew who is getting overmatched by a bad Drew. I want to do the right thing, but I still do the wrong thing.”

Drew’s situation is similar to what many Christians feel about life today—stuck and hopeless.

A major part of this problem is that they don’t know who they really are.

This is an alarming problem, because true identity is one of the most central truths God wants us to know.

The Bible shouts this truth so loudly that you can’t miss it.

But a confusing misconception can lead many Christians to doubt their true identity.

The misconception is the lie from Satan that we are holy and evil at the same time.

Do you ever feel as though two equal powers are inside you with completely opposite desires? Some people may tell you your old self is like a ferocious dog living inside of you, terrorizing you and other people. It controls you and makes you commit all kinds of sins.

In contrast, they say the new self is like a wonderful, loving dog that always wants to be with you. It protects you and leads you to do what God wants. It’s the reason you can resist temptation.

According to this illustration, the dog you feed the most will be the one that wins the battle.

The Bible tells us we have only one self.

When Jesus was raised from the dead, God created a new you that was resurrected with Him. This resurrected new self is clarified in a familiar verse, 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!”

We tend to think of a “saint” as someone who lives a particularly godly life.

But the word saint simply means a holy person. God calls you a saint based on your new birth in Christ, not because of your behavior.

Even though Christians can commit all kinds of sins, those behaviors don’t define them. The reality is that if they sin, they are saints who are sinning.

When my children were young, I heard a big commotion with yelling and running. My son Ben was chasing his younger brother, Christopher, and yelling, “You’re a tattletale! You’re a tattletale! I’m going to get you!”

Ben had been disciplined by my wife because Christopher told her something Ben did, and he wasn’t happy about it. Ben kept yelling those same words at him until Christopher finally yelled back over his shoulder, “I’m not a tattletale! I’m a truth teller!” To have the last word, Ben said, “Well, you’re a truth teller who tattletales!”

That’s like what God says about us. We are saints who commit different kinds of sins, but we are still saints!

As I counseled Drew, I asked him, “Have you taken on the identity that you’re an addict because of your addiction?”

“Yes, especially based on some of the recovery programs I’ve attended,” he said. “I still believe I’m a recovering cocaine addict.”

I responded, “Drew, I understand why recovery programs have people say, ‘Hi, my name is Drew. I am an addict.’ They want people who believe they can stop their addiction anytime to come out of their denial.

But as Christians, we need to approach it differently.

We need to say, ‘Hi, my name is Drew. I am a child of God who is sinning through my addiction.’

Here is the important difference: God does not define us as Christians by our behavior. God defines us by our birth.”

To make sure Drew saw the difference, I continued, “Do you see who God says you really are? Do you understand how this truth can free you from your addiction?”

“Yes, I do. If my identity is that of an addict, the most normal thing for me to do would be to live addicted. But if my identity is that of a child of God who is a saint, the most normal thing for me to do would be to live free from my addiction.”

One day Drew came in to see me. He said, “Mark, I finally get it! I see what you’ve been trying to tell me. I’m the righteousness of God in Christ, not a sinner. I am who God says I am. I am more than a conqueror in Christ, not an addict!”

About a year after Drew finished his counseling, he called me to say he had not done cocaine since we’d last met.

He had been tempted several times, but he had relied on Jesus to defeat his temptation with the truth of his new identity in Christ.

One of the best aspects of Christianity is the reality that we have only one self, which is holy, loving, good, and complete in Christ.

It could happen — there could be a walking in this truth today and a deep experiencing of the incredible and real freedom God offers…

 

 

Mark Maulding is founder of Grace Life International, one of the largest Christian counseling and teaching ministries in America. A speaker, counselor, and leadership coach, Maulding is a regular blogger who is passionate about sharing the transforming message of God’s grace with a world in desperate need of it. He and his wife, Ellen, have four adult children, including a daughter with Down syndrome who, along with her three brothers, recently finished college. They live near Charlotte, North Carolina.

In God’s Best-Kept Secret, Mark explores our preconceived notions of living the Christian life, freeing us to stop just going through the motions and to experience true fulfillment. As he explains commonly misunderstood Bible verses, you will discover that following God is not as complicated as we often make it out to be. And the answer to our struggles has been hiding in plain sight all along.

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