Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 134
October 16, 2017
The Invisible Vitamin You Need to Live The Life You’re Made For
I really couldn’t love this woman more – Liz Curtis Higgs, a humble, wise author of 37 books, is one of my soul sisters. Together we’ve memorized Scripture, celebrated Christmas at the Farm, wandered Shaker Village in Kentucky, and text prayers back and forth for each other through the week. Author of the bestsellers Bad Girls of the Bible, The Girl’s Still Got It, and The Women of Christmas, Liz has presented more than 1,700 inspirational programs in all 50 United States and 15 foreign countries — but she’s about as down to earth and warm and happiest grace as it gets. I just love her, and love her for coming by today. Have a seat on the farm’s front porch with us?
guest post by Liz Curtis Higgs
We were in the middle of a difficult holiday season, and joy was in short supply.
My father-in-law had died of cancer the Saturday before Thanksgiving, so our family gatherings were noticeably smaller and definitely sadder.
For New Year’s Eve, everybody wanted homemade lasagna. My cooking skills are limited, but I can usually manage to layer pasta, ricotta cheese, and tomato sauce in a baking dish without mishap.
However, I’d never made two dishes at once—one for the meat lovers and one for the vegetarians in the family. When I reached for some wax paper so I could lay out the freshly cooked pasta to cool, I found to my dismay that the box was empty.
“Just leave the pasta in the hot water,” my Food-Network-loving son suggested. “Maybe add a little oil to keep it from sticking together.”
The first dish came together easily enough.
But when I started on the second, the slippery, overcooked pasta came out of the water, not in long, ruffled strips, but in oddly shaped hunks.
By the time I finished, my veggie lasagna looked like something a five-year-old would make with modeling clay.
Did I burst into tears? I did not. I burst out laughing.
Soon I was laughing so hard I had to sit down.
My family, who’d wandered off to admire the Christmas tree, came back into the kitchen. “Mom? Are you all right?”
I was howling by this point, tears streaming down my face. When they saw the lasagna, they understood. Sort of.
All I know is, I hadn’t carried on like that in weeks. Months. My father-in-law would have loved it.
And this verse from Proverbs is the absolute truth.
“A cheerful heart is good medicine…” Proverbs 17:22
Like an invisible vitamin, cheerfulness “works healing” (AMPC) in your body until at last “you feel good” (CEV). The “curative balm” (VOICE) that happiness provides isn’t your imagination working overtime. It’s the Lord working full-time. It’s the Great Physician providing gehah—in Hebrew, “a healing, a cure.”
The benefits of being joyful are countless. Your blood pressure goes down, your ability to fight infection goes up, and the face you present to the world has fewer frown lines.
Alas, what happens when we lose our joy is another story, as the rest of the verse tells us.
“…but a crushed spirit…” Proverbs 17:22
Can you feel the weight of it pressing on your heart? When our spirits are crushed, our eyes give us away. Even if we’re smiling, people can see the pain and sadness inside. There’s a lack of sparkle, a dullness in our gaze. Despite our best efforts, “sorrow” (ERV) can’t be hidden, and a “broken spirit” (ASV) can’t be easily mended with a word or two.
“Lighten up!” people tell us. “Snap out of it!” These are not helpful comments for someone with “a downcast spirit” (LEB). For those of us who feel “gloomy all the time” (GNT), it takes more than a funny story, a humorous cartoon, or a clever one-liner to bring back the joy.
“…dries up the bones.” Proverbs 17:22
In Hebrew yabesh means “withered.” A perfect description for how genuine depression makes you feel. It’s “a disease” (ERV) that “dries you up” (NIrV), that “drains your strength” (EXB) until “you hurt all over” (CEV) and are left “bone-tired” (MSG).
Depression is one of the Enemy’s favorite weapons. The debilitation is physical, mental, emotional, biological, spiritual, chemical, and very real.
Is there any hope? Absolutely.
If you or someone you love suffers from depression, you are not alone.
Your loving Savior can help you take back your life. He may use counselors or physicians or medicines to do so, but you can be sure the healing comes from Him.
A few Aprils ago I was diagnosed with clinical depression. Ever-joyful Lizzie, who has loved Jesus for more than three decades? Yes. Why mention it here? Because if my admission gives you the courage to seek professional help, then praise God.
I will leave any additional advice to those who are qualified to give it, but may I just say there is zero shame in taking an antidepressant. It’s not a crutch for weak people.
And it doesn’t mean you don’t trust God. If your body needs more serotonin, then swallow your pride and swallow the pill your doctor prescribes for you.
Don’t let the fear of “What will people think?” keep you from getting the help you need.
When our minds and bodies are no longer fighting against us, then joy has a chance to settle into our bones and begin the healing process.
True joy is knowing God and being known by Him.
True joy is surrendering to His will —
and letting Him use any means He chooses to rescue us from darkness and bring us into the light.
Liz Curtis Higgs has one goal: to help people embrace the grace of God with joy and abandon. She’s the author of 37 books with 4.6 million copies in print, including Bad Girls of the Bible, The Women of Christmas, and her latest, 31 Proverbs to Light Your Path.
Maybe you’re stuck and want to move forward. Or you feel anxious and long to know what’s next. Or you’re ready for an uplifting reminder that God holds your future in His loving hands. In her new book, 31 Proverbs to Light Your Path. Liz offers wisdom for the road ahead, unwrapping thirty-one favorites from the book of Proverbs. Each verse provides solid truth, heartfelt counsel, and endless hope as you apply its ancient wisdom to your thoroughly modern life.
[ Our humble thanks to Waterbrook for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
October 14, 2017
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [10.14.17]
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:
Thomas Nations
Thomas Nations
Thomas Nations
step into a bit a glory right here … because you know you need to just exhale
must see: 2017 Nikon Macro Photo Contest Winners Show The World Like You’ve Never Seen Before
could you do this? every day people pushing themselves to their limits to help to motivate their community
good thoughts: If we want a world full of creative, entrepreneurial thinkers, we need to enable and sustain making from a very young age.
just 4 years old? we were amazed!
yes: they’re transforming basketball courts into large scale works of art
changing our view one beautiful face at a time
Smithfly
we circled ’round this one: anyone else thinking this kinda looks like fun?!
The Day I Looked for a Boy and Found a Man
at 99? he’s still working, still serving
hey? it’s not too late? It would be kinda a humbling joy to meet you here?
heart exploding: moment an 11-year-old girl learns she would be adopted. A judge approved her foster parents’ petition to adopt her and her two younger siblings
two words that are carrying a lasting impact
When this Indiana couple tied the knot last weekend, the groom shared very special “best friend” vows with the bride’s younger sister who has Down syndrome
because we all need a special friend
what a concept: a load of laundry and an hour of conversation
This barber’s sweet gesture for a child with autism? he’s being hailed as an “everyday hero”
come see how he’s loving these babies each week #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
thank you for this, Jon Bloom: How to Resolve Most Relational Conflict
don’t put limits on yourself
Mark Maynard/Amy For Africa
he’s running a marathon to help children in Africa: what can we go do?
“you’ll have as much joy and laughter in life as you will faith in God” thank you, Scott Sauls
we all have a story…
She’s overcome great odds to become an ER doctor
she wants her painful journey to bring others hope
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
You have no rival, you have no equal, now and forever God You reign! Yours is the kingdom, yours is the glory, yours is the name above all names!
… hey, all girls need to know right now, that when God decided to pull on skin and make His visitation into the world, He didn’t show up in some backroom of an inner boy’s club or regale us with some black tie inaugural affair.
This is what all girls need to know:
That Christ never beat down a woman with harsh words or lusting eyes or sneering innuendos, but He stepped in and stopped a broken woman from the abuse of angry men
Christ came to the defense of a hurting woman and the Son of Man stood between her ache and her attackers and He lifted the weight of shame from her and cupped her heart with hope and wrote a new future into the dust and dirt of everything and He saved. her. life.
That’s how God loves His daughters with His defense.
That Christ didn’t degrade women in His talk, but He made women heroes in His stories. He invited a woman with a coin and broom to reveal the truth about the Kingdom of God. He elevated a lonely, unmarried woman who dropped her meager resources into the temple treasury as the rebuke of God for all the rich and religious
That’s how God loves His daughters with His words.
That when Christ stepped out of that black tomb, He still didn’t choose to first manifest Himself to prestigious officials, religious leaders, the Twelve, but instead He revealed Himself first to the women. Though no court at the time would accept their testimony, He entrusted the veracity of His resurrection to the witness of women.
That’s how God loves His daughters with His regard.
Girls are a whole world more than pretty faces & pretty hair — they do hard & holy things & change the whole world.
Rise, Esthers, & don’t be afraid to risk like a girl, be fiercely fearless like a girl & change the world like a girl.
[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.
October 11, 2017
The Verdict is In: God Favors the Weak
This man is our personal mentor and pastor and there aren’t words to express what it has meant to us that he has faithfully shepherded us through the last several years. His encouragement of the Farmer, fierce prayers for our family, weekly check-ins and generous, uncommon wisdom, has led us down the better roads — and his unbelievable pastoral heart has led us closer to God’s heart. If I could only get Scott Sauls’ first and second books into the hands of every Christ-follower…. my own copies are beat-up, well-worn friends. Scott, who is pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, speaks rare wisdom with genuine humility and grace, and is just, frankly, so much like Jesus. Scott has just released his third blazingly brilliant book – this one for leaders in the home, in the neighborhood, in the world, and in ministry – and it is another absolute must-read for the times we are in: From Weakness to Strength: 8 Vulnerabilities that Can Bring Out the Best in Your Leadership. This right here echoes the heart of his new book. It gives us incredible joy to welcome our friend, Scott Sauls, to the farm’s front porch today…
If Jesus were with us in the flesh today, I wonder if we would accuse Him of being un-American.
For as long as I can remember, I have loved being American.
Yet I have often been caught in characteristically American trappings such as the pursuit of power, money, recognition, prestige, selfish ambition, making a name for myself, and advancing my interests, my agenda, my goals, my comfort, my privilege, and my view of the world.
As a young man, I took a trip to Jamaica with a few friends. Part of our visit included a brief stop in an art gallery.
As an American Christian, I was alarmed when I encountered a Jamaican painting of Jesus and His twelve disciples.
To my surprise, all thirteen men in the painting (including Jesus) had brown skin, brown eyes, and black hair—betraying my long-held image of the white-skinned, blue-eyed, light-brown-haired, English-speaking, American Jesus who could have easily passed as the fourth member of the Bee Gees.
As I imagined Him, Jesus was decidedly American. For this reason, my gut told me that something was off—perhaps even wrong—about the Jamaican portrayal.
Or, perhaps, the fault was not with the Jamaican artist. Perhaps the fault was with me.
Now, more than twenty years since that Jamaica visit, I have come to see that my home country is not and has never been at the center of the Christian story.
Rather, we in America are members of the “ends of the earth” about whom Jesus spoke in the Great Commission.
It turns out that the Jamaican image of Jesus was much truer to form than my culturally biased American one.
The Jesus of Scripture is in all likelihood a brown-skinned, brown-eyed, black-haired, first-century Middle Eastern Jewish rabbi who never married, was materially poor, experienced homelessness, was more homely than handsome, never spoke a word of English, and never stepped foot on American soil.
Realizing these things does not take me to a place of shame. Rather, it takes me to a place of deep awe, gratitude, and worship.
Through the corridors of time, from the other side of the world, and across language and ethnic and cultural and religious and economic barriers, this same Jesus purposed to include people like me—Americans like me—in His great story of redemption.
Though Jesus is in many ways un-American, He is by no means anti-American. He is for people like me just as He was for His own contemporaries.
Through sheer grace and based on nothing that I have contributed, he has grafted me into his everlasting family, which, although it is first for the Jew and then for the Gentile (Romans 1:16), is no less for me than it was for first-century Middle Eastern Jews like Joseph, Mary, Peter, and Paul.
Jesus also offers a radically different understanding of what it means to be a leader. His vision for leadership often parts ways with the typical American view of such things. For example:
In America, credentials qualify a person to lead. In Jesus, the chief qualification is character.
In America, what matters most are the results we produce. In Jesus, what matters most is the kind of people we are becoming.
In America, success is measured by material accumulation, power, and the positions that we hold. In Jesus, success is measured by material generosity, humility, and the people whom we serve.
In America, it is shameful to come in last and laudable to come in first. In Jesus, the first will be last and the last will be first.
In America, leaders make a name for themselves to become famous and sometimes treat Jesus as a means to that end. In Jesus, leaders make His name famous and treat their own positions, abilities, and influence as a means to that end.
In America, leaders crave recognition and credit. In Jesus, leaders think less of themselves and give credit to others.
In America, leaders compare and compete so they will flourish. In Jesus, leaders sacrifice and serve so others will flourish.
In America, leadership often means “My glory and happiness at your expense.” In Jesus, leadership always means “Your growth and wholeness at my expense.”
In America, the strong and powerful rise to the top. In Jesus, the meek inherit the earth.
The apostle Paul enjoyed great professional success and all the position, power, and recognition that a first-century rabbi could have dreamed of, yet He declared:
The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling … not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:25–29)
Scripture confirms Paul’s words to be true.
Time after time, the greatest and most influential leaders were imperfect, un-credentialed men and women who would never be candidates for our “Who’s Who” and VIP lists.
Joseph, who was disowned by his brothers and thrown into an Egyptian prison, later became the prime minister of Egypt.
Noah, a man who got drunk and passed out naked, rescued all the species on earth from extinction.
Isaiah, a preacher who was rejected by his contemporaries and sawn in half at his execution, became one of the most influential voices in the history of the world.
David, the youngest of seven brothers and son of an obscure shepherd, became the king of Israel and writer of over half the Psalms.
Peter, a hotheaded fisherman and erratic disciple who denied Jesus three times, later became a bold truth teller who courageously gave up everything for Jesus and was crucified upside down.
Mary, the unwed teenage girl from a small town, became the mother of God’s Son.
Ruth the foreigner, Rahab the prostitute, and Bathsheba the adulteress were honorably included in the family tree of Jesus.
Paul, once a blasphemer and persecutor and bully and racist toward Gentiles, became apostle to the Gentiles and writer of one-third of the New Testament.
And then there was Jesus, who came to His own—but whose own did not receive Him—who had nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him, who died on a trash heap as a condemned criminal.
Through this excruciating loss, Jesus won salvation for billions of souls and prepared the way for all things to be made new. Now and forevermore, the government of the whole universe rests squarely on the shoulders of the One who was despised and rejected by men.
Indeed, the most impactful, life-giving, and lasting leadership rests firmly on the shoulders of weakness. God chose the weak things …
… including me.
How often I have pleaded, as the apostle Paul did, for the Lord to remove my thorns, my struggles, and the obstacles that beset me! Yet it has been in these very weaknesses and challenges, even heartbreaks, that God has revealed His power, strength, and sufficiency. Although the thorns are painful, they are a gift of grace to grow me into the kind of leader that I could never become without them.
From Weakness to Strength, examines eight common thorns through a biblical lens: unfulfilled ambition, isolation, criticism, envy, insecurity, anticlimax, opposition, and restlessness. Depending on how we respond to them, these challenges will either make or break us as leaders in our families, our communities, our work.
Scott Sauls is senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Before CPC, Scott was a lead and preaching pastor alongside Tim Keller with New York City’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church. He is married to Patti and has two lovely daughters, Abigail and Ellie. Scott blogs regularly – bookmark him! His is one of a handful of blogs I subscribe to.
In this powerfully honest book, Scott exposes the real struggles that Christian leaders and pastors regularly face. He shares his own stories and those of other leaders from Scripture and throughout history to remind us that we are human, we are sinners, and we need Jesus to help us thrive as people and leaders.
About From Weakness to Strength, Joni Eareckson Tada said, “My friend Scott Sauls has written an extraordinary book for people like me…for Scott understands weakness. He resonates with people who have stumbled and fallen.”
I deeply concur. I read From Weakness to Strength all in one sitting — and have returned to drain more than one highlighter on these astonishingly insightful pages. If you have ever wanted to lead your people well, I have no higher recommendation than this book.
October 10, 2017
The Really Crazy, Unexpected Secret to Happiness When Things Are Hard
Right after I read the story, I go looking for an old horn to screw right to the wall.
There are things worth the proclaiming.
And after I find one, I walk around the house with the horn in hand trying to figure if it looks best on this wall? Or the back of this door? The Farmer raises his eyebrows.
“A horn on a wall?” He’s grinning boyish. Joshua is playing scales. Levi’s reciting Latin chants. Shalom and Malakai are arguing loud over a game of chess.
“Because you’re thinking it’s not quite loud enough in here yet?”
“You!” I tease, poke him in the shoulder, him broad like a beam that carries half my world.
“Does it look right here?”
“I think I’ve got a wall out in the barn it might look perfect on.” He winks, shields himself with his arm to fend off the next poke.
“But if you knew the story….” He nods, knowing, smiling, “Uh huh.” Stories can turn around whole hard hearts. Jesus walked backroads and spun stories and turned around lives and the axis of the cosmos.
I tell the story at lunch.
“So I read it a book … True story.“ I pass down the squash. “A man drove a stretch of highway past this tattered cardboard sign that read:
“Honk if you’re happy”
And who doesn’t roll his eyes at such naivete? As if the world is this strange hybrid of Pollyanna and Sesame Street — if you’re happy and you know it, honk, honk — when it’s really just a strange new, old world, broken and a mess.”
Shalom offers me her glass and I pour her water.
“But there’s this one day when he drives past the sign with his little girl, and on a whim, he beeps the horn.
And every day, when he passes the sign, his daughter begs him to do it again, and pretty soon, every time he’s on this stretch of highway, this jaded man, cynical man’s anticipating the sign. Anticipating honking his horn. And do you know what he said?”
I want to make sure I get it right. I push back my chair, to get the book
off my night stand.
Flip through the pages… There.
“And just for a moment… I felt a little happier than I had before — as if honking the horn made me happier…
If on a one-to-ten scale, I was feeling an emotional two, when I honked the horn, my happiness grew several points… In time, when I turned on to Hwy 544, I noticed that my emotional set-point would begin to rise.
That entire 13.4 mile stretch began to become a place of emotional rejuvenation for me.”
I lay the book down on the table, reach for the water pitcher.
“See what happened to him? The sign said, “Honk if you’re happy. And he discovered that the act of honking the horn — it made him happy.”
“Honk, Honk!” Malakai grins at the end of the table.
His mouth’s full of food.
I love him wild.
“So who puts up a cardboard sign beside a highway: “Honk if you’re happy”?”
I have to get to the rest of the story before the table erupts into a fest of honking Canadians.
“This man’s got to find out. So he finds a house on the other side of the trees that line the highway —- and he goes up to the door and asks the folks if they know anything about the happy sign?
And the man at the door welcomes him in and says yes, yes, he made the sign.” Malakai’s grinning, his cheeks right full.
“And this is why he made the sign: Because he was sitting there everyday in his house, sitting there in a darkened bedroom with his young wife who was terminal, sitting there watching her every day, as she lay there waiting to die.
And one day when he couldn’t really take it anymore, he painted up that sign and stuck it out by the road. Because, he said —- I reach for the book again, to find the right page, to get the words right:
“I just wanted people in their cars not to take this moment for granted.
This special, never-again-to-be-repeated moment with the ones they care for most should be savored and they should be aware of the happiness in the moment.”
I look around at all their faces ringing the table, the jewel of them slipping around me in this space.
Light’s falling across the table.
Hope’s one strand of loose hair is it’s own gold.
Something inside of me trumpets loud and long.
I can only whisper the end of the story.
“At first, after he put out the sign, there was only a honk here and there. His dying wife asked what that was about and the husband explained how he’d put the sign out there.
After a few days, there was more honking and more… And the husband said that the honking…”
I look down again at the book but everything’s blurring. Finally the line surfaces…
“.. that the honking, it became like medicine to her.
As she lay there, she heard the horns and found great comfort in knowing that she was not isolated in a dark room dying.
She was part of the happiness of the world.
It was literally all around her.”
The happiness was literally all around her.
God is literally all around us.
So much light’s falling across the table.
“I think that horn of yours, it will look best in that doorway.”
The Farmer winks.
And when The Farmer heads out to the shop after lunch, I call after him — Remember to bring in a screwdriver! So we can hang the horn.
And he waves back to me as he runs across the farmyard.
And when I’m standing in the kitchen, wiping off the counters, I hear it clear, from the farm pickup parked out in the laneway, out by the shop: Honk! Honk! Honk!
I laugh! He’s out there honking the horn of his truck!
I turn to the window, laughing…. He’s happy! Happy…
And I reach for my pen laying on my open gratitude journal there on the counter.
“Honk if you are happy” is in reality: “To BE happy — honk.”
And “Give thanks if you are joyful” is in reality:
“To BE joyful, give thanks.”
And I write it down, “The farmer honking a horn — and that grin of his.”
This has become like medicine to me.
Shalom waves to the Farmer from the window. He’s waving back at her.
She sings the words quiet to him, “Honk if you’re happy!” and she knows he can’t hear.
But all the world is heaven’s clarion and even in the dark, we are surrounded by it, all the happiness of the world.
I keep the journal close, the thanks ready.
Because literally —
He’s all around us.
October 9, 2017
why you need to not be afraid of intimacy
It’s not often you find a man who’s willing to open up and talk about intimacy. Unless of course that man is John Ortberg. As a husband, father, pastor, and bestselling author, John has spent a lifetime building, teaching, and writing about relationships. In his latest book, I’d Like You More If You Were More Like Me: Getting Real About Getting Close John shows us how to overcome the obstacles to true intimacy and create the kind of deep, meaningful relationships with God and with others we all crave. It’s a privilege to welcome John to the front porch today.
Intimacy is a scary concept for a lot of people.
When I mentioned I was writing a book about intimacy, some people visibly tensed up. Others blushed. My wife laughed.
I sometimes wonder why people have such a strong reaction. Why do we fear intimacy so much?
For one thing, I think we’re afraid of being hurt.
Intimacy means being known by someone—like my wife knows me. She knows my strengths and weaknesses, my hopes, and my fears. She can use that knowledge to bond with me and grow closer to me, or she can use it to shame, wound, or betray me.
We also fear intimacy because it can set us up for disappointment.
If you and I are not particularly close, I won’t be crushed if you let me down, because odds are I didn’t expect much from you to begin with.
But if I desire closeness with you, if I come to depend on your friendship or need your love, it would wound me to the core to be rejected or abandoned by you. I would feel like a fool for trusting you.
Intimacy can also make us feel needy. Or worse, it can reveal our neediness.
Generally speaking, we don’t like to feel needy. We like to think of ourselves as strong. (Ironically, the choice to pursue intimacy—to reveal our weakness and neediness—actually requires great strength.)
Many of us fear intimacy because, deep down, we think we don’t deserve it. We’re afraid that our flaws are bound to emerge, and it will hurt even more to lose intimacy than never to have had it at all. Anytime we let someone in, we run the risk of being hurt or rejected. So we tend to avoid it.
The irony is, of course, is that we deeply desire intimacy.
We want to be loved, to be liked, to be celebrated, to have someone who accepts us no matter what.
We want to have great friendships.
We want to have people to turn to when a crisis hits.
We want to have someone trustworthy in whom we can safely confide our secrets.
We not only want intimacy, we were made for it.
Whether you are a man or a woman; whether you’re the life of the party or a wallflower; you were made for connection.
You were made for relationships. You were made for intimacy.
We see it whenever a freshly minted baby enters the world, looks into its mother’s eyes, and—by some miracle—latches on to its mother’s breast and begins to feed.
We see it when two young lovers cannot stop gazing into each other’s eyes.
We see it when a couple bent with age won’t go anywhere without holding each other’s arms.
We see it when a child comes to us beaming with the knowledge of a secret and wants to whisper it to us.
We see it in the Bible when God looks at Adam and declares, “It is not good for the man to be alone,” and proceeds to create a partner who is “just right” for him (Gen 2:18).
When we experience intimacy, we can take on whatever else life throws at us.
Without it, even our greatest accomplishments ring hollow.
After all, where’s the joy in success if we don’t have someone we love with whom to share it? That’s why I believe the pursuit of intimacy is the greatest, most worthwhile pursuit there is.
Granted, for most of us, pursuing intimacy is not as simple as adding more fiber to our diets.
We have to work at it.
But it’s worth it, because deep down, we know that being close to another human being matters like nothing else in the world.
And being close to God? That takes things to a whole new level.
But maybe when you think about having “an intimate relationship with God,” it feels like one more obligation in an already overwhelmed life.
After all, intimacy is tricky enough to pull off with a real, live flesh-and-blood person. How can we hope to have an intimate relationship with someone we can’t even see?
Well, what if I were to tell you that not only did God create you for intimacy, but He also has been pursuing an intimate relationship with you from the very beginning?
Not long after God decided “it was not good for the man to be alone,” we find Him walking in the garden searching for Adam and Eve. They were His creation, He enjoyed their company, and He wanted to spend time with them. But they were hiding. Finally, He calls out, “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9)
Unfortunately, the serpent convinced Eve to eat from the Tree of Life, she had cut Adam in on some of the fruit, and their relationship with God changed—the bonds of intimacy were broken. For the first time, they realized they were naked, and they were embarrassed and ashamed. For the first time, they feared being seen and known by God. So, they hid.
Now, here’s the interesting part:
God allows them to hide—because intimacy can’t be coerced.
Intimacy respects distance, but isn’t content with it.
Like God in the Garden, intimacy calls out, “Where are you?” And God, in His desire for intimacy with us, has been asking that same question ever since.
It’s a mystery, no question about it, that we’re invited into an intimate relationship with God.
But how does that happen?
Is it possible that God has been speaking to us all along, and we’ve been hearing without realizing that it’s Him?
Is it possible for us to draw closer to God without realizing that it’s happening?
I think it is. In fact, I believe God uses our relationships with other people to teach us how to love Him.
The more we pursue intimacy in our other relationships, the more we see and understand God’s incredible, audacious love for us.
John Ortberg is the senior pastor at Menlo Church in Northern California and the bestselling author of All the Places to Go . . . How Will You Know? He and his wife, Nancy, live in the Bay Area and have three grown children.
His newest book, I’d Like You More if You Were More Like Me: Getting Real About Getting Close helps readers discover how to achieve greater intimacy with God and with others and takes on one of life’s most important questions: How can I get closer to God and other people? We were created for deep connections. When people have deep connections, says John, they win in life. When they don’t have deep connections, they cannot win in life. John offers help in overcoming one of the biggest obstacles to making deep connections: the fact that we’re so different. Different from God and different from each other. God took on flesh and shared every human experience. So we don’t have to wonder what a close relationship with God looks like anymore. An intimate relationship with God and other people doesn’t have to be a cliché, it can be a daily way of life.
[ Our humble thanks to Tyndale for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
October 7, 2017
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [10.07.17]
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:
Matt Deakin
Matt Deakin
Matt Deakin
just exhale: we’re serving up the extraordinary for you right here
Show up and share your home with a community of imperfectionists, autumn-appreciators, and crunchy-leaf-lovers.
Post photos on Instagram daily, during the month of October.
fascinating to watch this talent
thank you, John Piper: How to Find Gold in God’s Word
she refuses to take the easy way out
beautiful people doing beautiful things: ‘ICU Grandpa’ has been cuddling babies for 12 years when parents can’t be present
#BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
Glory.
hey? it’s not too late? It would be kinda a humbling joy to meet you here?
never ever, ever give up
Kunito Imai
Kunito Imai
Kunito Imai
stunning photography here – and he shares how we can do this too!
after all the hard work of being born
Lynne Hybels
“True & very short story about a guy I can’t get out of my head. ‘I have it. You need it.’ It was that simple to him.” ~Lynne Hybels #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
an impromptu song at a hospital – between friends who have never met each other before
…. you never where your story will end up. Hope is EVERYWHERE:
childhood cancer survivor returns to the same hospital as a nurse
is there anything better than people loving each other? and a really beautiful surprise?
Undone: Parents who lost toddler meets the boy who received her heart
he gave his life for someone he didn’t even know…#PrayingForLasVegas
her husband saved her life…#PrayingForLasVegas
love is a roof: there is no other, there is only us #TheBrokenWay #BeTheGIFT
Amazing Grace:
Thousands gathered in a local church in Las Vegas for a candlelight vigil to honor victims
thank you, David Platt: ‘Ten Things to Pray for in Light of the Tragedy in Las Vegas’
because it’s never too late to be kind #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
come see who these vets have hired after they came back home to find their purpose
“who wants to pick up a weapon & fight when you can have a good life just spending time with your family & running your farm”
Tears here: Dear Kiara. A video note to my little sister who I met for the first time a year ago. #downsyndrome
so how are you living? don’t miss this one
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
…. so our son Levi flew over the farm — and our youth pastor wrote a song — and this is the kinda glory that happened
Do not be afraid. Do not give up. Do not worry.
Take courage. Take heart. Take joy.
Be grateful. Be brave.
Believe. Beloved. Trust. God.
When we feel how His goodness overtakes us, nothing can overwhelm us.
Just that today: Don’t simply follow your heart — but follow a Light so lovely that it will ignite your heart.
For when God has your heart — your times are safe in God’s hands.
Your plans today don’t need to happen fast — because you are held with a steadfast love.
And you have a Lover who dismantles the crushing gears of time and binds the lashing hands of the clock and He whispers: You can feel numb but you are still held.
[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.
October 4, 2017
How Your Heart Can Be Brave Enough to Risk Again
We all come to moments when it seems it would be easier to slam the door of our hearts, especially now in this noisy, frustrated world. Holley Gerth came to such a moment in her life and knew she had a choice: to live fearfully and love safely, or to live fully and love bravely. She chose the latter. She’s here to share her story and help us all learn a bit more about what it means to be Fiercehearted. It’s a grace to welcome Holley to the farm’s front porch today…
The news came one fall afternoon.
The leaves had just started acting like that neighbor woman who always wore the plain housecoat until showing up at the block party in the audacious dress everyone talked about for weeks.
Reds and oranges and flashes of gold. Perfume bittersweet as the edge of a burnt marshmallow.
I was driving to my in-laws’ house when I heard.
I wanted to push the gas pedal into the floor until it snapped or slam the brakes so hard my tires would write my broken heart on the pavement in ugly skid marks.
I did neither.
Instead, I just kept going. Isn’t that the way with us?
But inside me something had shattered. Trust.
A friend had hurt me in a way I’d never expected. Normally, I’d just say, “Oh, that’s okay.” I tried. I gave the speech in my mind a thousand times.
But it wouldn’t make its way to my lips or fingertips, and I felt panicked.
Because I am a woman who has always hated conflict. I would rather go under the drill at the dentist than exchange tense words with someone I love.
Let me pause and confess I full-out know better.
I have a master’s degree in counseling, for goodness’ sake. But I’m starting to understand there are two kinds of knowing in this world.
The first is in your head, where everything makes sense and is as pristine as a laboratory.
The other is the kind where Scripture says things like, “Adam knew Eve.”
We used to blush and giggle in Sunday school at that one because we guessed what it really meant.
But aside from the sexy talk, I think what that word knew expresses is experiencing something fully—with not only our minds but also our souls and hearts and bodies. And when this hurt happened, I didn’t know a thing about real, healing conflict on that kind of deeper level.
Looking back, I think I was just scared.
Conflict seemed like making yourself bare and putting your whole vulnerable heart out there. I didn’t appreciate the idea of my soft spots showing like a spring breaker’s on the beach. Better to stay buttoned up under the umbrella with my SPF 1000.
I got on a plane the day after I heard the news and stared out the window at an offensively clear evening sky as I considered my options.
I wanted with every part of me to slam the door of my heart.
Not just on this person but all people. I wanted to put a sign in the yard that said, “Trespassers will be shot.”
I wanted to board up the windows and put a mean dog on the porch. I wanted to be done with all humans everywhere for always and always.
Except I knew I still was one. And if I made this choice, I would suffocate in my own safety. All that was alive inside would die because I couldn’t let the light in.
And I sensed Jesus—very kind and tender and knowing far more than I what it is to feel crucified, waiting quietly for me to decide what to do.
I pulled out something to write on and cried in the dark while the flight attendant passed out crackly packages of peanuts. I sniffled into my too-small napkin and worried about scaring my seatmate.
But I couldn’t stop. Because this wasn’t just about this one time, this one thing.
And I knew once I finished my scribbling I could never go back to who I was or how I lived before. This was my map and declaration and manifesto:
A fiercehearted woman . . .
looks life in the face and says, “You can’t beat me.”
Knows love is risk but reaches out anyway.
Understands kindness takes real courage.
Believes the impossible.
Fights like she’s unstoppable.
Dares to find beauty in a ragged soul.
Scandalously picks warm over cool.
Tastes life as a brief, salty-sweet miracle.
Skins her knees, has scars that bear witness.
Defends like a warrior and weeps like a girl.
Makes gentle the new strong, small the new big,
ordinary the new extraordinary.
Sees wrinkles on a face as lines in a victory story.
Never gives in, never gives up, never lets go.
Chases Jesus with a tender, world-changing wildness.
Lives in your neighborhood or not even on your continent.
Looked back at you from the mirror this morning . . .
and has yet to fully see the force her star-scattering,
mountain-moving, water-walking God created her to be.
The wheels touched ground, and when we unloaded, I left some of my baggage on the plane. I left the part of me who had been nice out of fear, who had agreed because it was easier, who had silenced her own voice.
The next week I started going to counseling.
Then I sent the person who wounded me a note. I told the truth. Of my hurt. Of my hopes for our relationship becoming different. Of how much I loved her.
We’ve been making our way back toward each other again. But I’m not rushing. I’m not forcing the next step. That’s both difficult and down-deep healing all at once.
This story has no perfect, pretty ending.
The relationship is still being restored, brick by slow brick.
The temptation to be a peacekeeper instead of a peacemaker in my everyday life is still there all the time.
I’m practicing not “getting over” things but instead walking through them—an amateur tightrope artist who wishes for wings. But I know I’ve made a decision to live differently. I wouldn’t be here with you if it had gone the other way.
So here’s to whatever brings us to the point where we can no longer stay the same.
Here’s to keeping the front door open.
Here’s to doing the brave, hard thing.
Here’s to being fiercehearted.
Holley Gerth is the bestselling author of You’re Already Amazing and several other books, as well as a counselor and life coach. She’d love for you to connect with her at HolleyGerth.com or Fiercehearted.com and join her in the Fiercehearted Fall Study.
Fiercehearted: Live Fully, Love Bravely is Holley’s most powerful and personal book yet. She empowers and encourages women not simply through “how to” but by life-changing, heart-freeing “me too.” Join Holley on this journey to becoming a fiercehearted woman and discover what she did: the freedom and courage to embrace life, love, and faith to the fullest because your struggles can no longer hold you back.
[ Our humble thanks to Revell for their partnership today’s devotion ]
October 2, 2017
How to Change You & Your People: The Habit of a Life-Giving Table
No one has mentored me quite like this woman. Sally Clarkson has poured me tea, has poured into me, has poured from a depth of rich wisdom and life well-lived and she loves from the deepest places. She has learned the secret of cherishing and celebrating life each day, always looking for the fingerprints of God to delight her. Raising four outside-the-box children and learning to embrace her life puzzle has taught her the freedom that comes from living to please only God, the only one who can offer unconditional love and total acceptance. Listening for the song of God through the dark moments in her life journey has given her peace of heart and joy in her moments. Mentoring others to know and experience God’s beauty is a passion that fills her days as she writes, loves, and moves through each day. It’s a grace to welcome Sally to the farm’s front porch today…
Bulging with pregnancy, a sweet young mama of a toddler, was rocking gently on my Colorado front porch showering me with endless questions about how to raise vibrant, healthy children.
“Please tell me the secret of nurturing such a close, faith-filled family,” she asked.
As I pondered her words, stories of years and years at our table began to flood my mind.
My four children and one spouse had returned from their homes all over the world for a few cherished days to be together, and my friend’s family had joined us for dinner.
If my table could talk, it would tell much of the story of our family life.
I had purchased our table the first year of my marriage.
Searching for it diligently on the cobbled streets of Austria where we were missionaries, I discovered it in the dusty corners of a second hand shop, priced as a bargain. The carved dark walnut legs that I spotted on top of a pile of musty smelling antique furniture attracted me.
My Viennese treasure played a star role in the life of our family.
Though I am sure it had many stories to tell of meals served on it before I ever found it, I could not have known what a stage it would set for so many strategic life events of our family.
So much of our shared lives have happened around that old piece of wood. Our table has lived the history of Clarksons through every season, every move. In fact, I’m sitting at it now, waiting for the kettle to whistle so I can enjoy a cup of tea.
If my table could talk, I know it would tell of moments like these— toddlers happily munching on bits of food and Cheerios scattered over plastic place mats.
Birthday breakfasts with cinnamon rolls, mugs of hot tea, and morning presents companioned by words of love and appre- ciation.
Warm soup and stories shared on cold winter nights with neighbors, friends, strangers.
Sunday afternoon teatimes with James Herriott’s animal stories read dramatically.
Countless lively discussions about morality and worldview, about the goodness and love of God, as we filled up growing teenage bodies with satisfying food.
Souls grow by seasons.
As we celebrate the passage of time by establishing and commemorating joyful traditions, honoring milestones (however small), cultivating a taste for greatness through the scripture shared, books read, memories made, and faith lived out, we also form a path for growth and development.
Godly legacies are built, in other words, when we bring the life of Christ to the table through the grace of loving relationships and intimacy shared moment by moment.
This is the essence of table discipleship.
But doing it well requires both vision and commitment.
What is my vision for my lifegiving table?
I set the atmosphere by intentionally accepting each person there as a gift, as one to imprint with the love, the touch, the goodness of Christ.
I picture that I am nourishing souls and spirits with both physical food and the everlasting food of the Word of God.
I am providing grace and peace through gently accepting whoever joins us at the table.
I am speaking hope forward by articulating my confidence in God’s love, faithfulness, and kindness for each person.
I am establishing a spirit of graciousness by welcoming all who come as guests of the loving Host who serves all and makes us all whole.
I picture that I can be an instrument through which God brings life, beauty, and redemption to the limitations of my marriage and my family—because, in His spirit, I am filled with the life that always brings light to the dark places and redemption to the broken places.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). And this knowledge, too, informs my vision for table discipleship.
As I serve those around my table, am I offering them the real Bread of Life that will satisfy their souls—my Jesus?
Am I satisfying the thirst they feel for a life that is meaningful in light of knowing their Creator?
Am I willing to give and even sacrifice until my home and table reflect the elegance of my Designer, the artistry of His hand, the loveliness of His presence?
These questions fuel my vision for the mission of table-based discipleship.
If my tables could talk, I think they would remind me that I have an important work, a strategic task to engage my heart .
They would remind me that I can persevere in this work by His tender encouragement and my own commitment to celebrate each and every day, each person, each interruption, each mundane (or not so mundane) moment as He has given it to me.
Yet as the hostess of such a table, I have to prepare my heart to generously give in a way that brings life to the souls of others.
Making my heart ready to serve when I sit down requires a daily choice of mind, heart, and commitment. The cultivation of the life of Christ at table doesn’t just happen. It comes through planning and intentionality.
Relationship is at the heart of all influence, good and bad.
When people feel loved and accepted, affirmed and believed in, they are more willing to receive the messages I feel are important to share.
The lifegiving table isn’t really about furniture, after all.
It’s about making our tables centers of nourishing comfort and acceptance, places where we invite others to come, just as they are to share life with us.
It’s about being willing to see all who come to our tables through the lens of how we might serve them.
Each person, like my old table, has a history and some scars and blemishes—physical, emotional, psychological.
But just as my table could be cleaned up and beautified with lemon oil, elbow grease, and a couple of fresh flowers,
each life can be improved with a listening ear and a cup of tea when one becomes the conductor of life to all who will sit at their table.
Sally Clarkson is the mama of four adult children, who live in cities all over the world, convinced that they have a mission to bring the life of Christ to their arenas and communities. An author of 14 books, an avid writer and speaker, her messages have inspired hearts, fed souls and passed on Biblical convictions for over 40 years.
In The Lifegiving Table, Sally shares her own family stories, favorite recipes, and practical ideas to help you get closer to the people you love . . . and grow in faith together. She believes that meals lovingly served at home―and the time spent gathered together around the table―are a much-needed way to connect more deeply with our families and open our kids’ hearts. Food and faith, mingled in everyday life, become the combination for passing on God’s love to each person who breaks bread with us. Make your table a place where your family and friends long to be―where they will find rest, renewal, and a welcome full of love.
[ Our humble thanks to Tyndale for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
September 30, 2017
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [09.30.17]
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:
Merlin Kafka: Instagram / website
Merlin Kafka: Instagram / website
Merlin Kafka: Instagram / website
your soul needs time to be still and breathe in the extraordinary glory right here
anyone else wanna get up and dance?
so did you know? this one’s for those who love words:
12 nouns that are always plurals
so, ummmm: this could change everything
Benjamin Bortels
love what they’re doing here: it has the potential to be a great solution to a popular problem
could not love this more:
they record their family’s reaction to the news they are adopting 4 siblings
always an interesting study: The Best Public Colleges in the US
stunning
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The 9 Most Breathtaking Photos of Saturn’s Cassini Voyage:
this photo shows the pale blue dot that is our home: Earth. Taken from roughly 900 million miles away, it is yet another humbling reminder of our tiny place in the universe.
keep looking for kindness…because it’s really everywhere
Reading is Agonizing for Me – How Can I Study the Bible in Small Bits?
created by 2 teens: Project Heal is offering new hope
good stuff: Bring Your Bible to School Day: bring it, share it, live it
at 52? she’s a proud member of her university’s marching band we circled ’round this one!
Air Canada Pilot Overhears Distressed Mom on Plane, Then Drives Her to Husband’s Bedside
#BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
There is beauty — in the midst of the brokenness
Hyatt Photography
undone: hero groom saves boy from drowning #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
Lou Holtz: what he wished he knew when he was 21
William Malcolm
What began as friendly service is now a legacy
This organization places mentors in schools to get students thinking and talking about their dreams and how to achieve them.
Rather than focusing on academics and graduation rates, the project wants to expand on students’ ambitions.
“You don’t have to be an adult to influence your community. All you need is a compassionate heart.”
#BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
These People. This Story. I want to grow up & be them.
It’s worth it — fighting to stay in the gift of this present moment. #1000Gifts
…yeah, you know it: life kinda goes sideways & stories don’t have the endings we pray for — and how in the busted world do you stay brave enough to even dare to keep Hoping?
This woman nails it:
Daring to Hope When It’s Not Happy Endings: How to Sing in the Dark
@AnnVoskamp & @sheilawalsh talk about the healing that came when they found their identities in Christ alone. pic.twitter.com/8EFPPXz2tz
— LifeTodayTV Program (@LifeTodayTV) September 15, 2017
healing can come…
so so good
Humanity is astonishingly beautiful & what if we were the positive & believed that change is always possible?
Post of the Week from these parts here:
… so it turns out: When we remember the humanity of the other — there is no other.
There is only us:
you’re as free as you break others free
All because someone cared. #BeTheGIFT #WhatAreYouDoing?
Because it’s never too late to love right where you are: Download your September 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 September G.I.F.T list
God Help Me
There is only so much time.
And I’ll admit, over the years I got so much wrong.
So there it is: I have been the broken mama who punished when I needed to pray. Who hollered at kids when I needed to help. Who lunged forward when I should have fallen back on Jesus.
And until you see the depths of brokenness in you, you really can’t know the depths of Christ’s love for you.
And for crying out loud, there is only so much time to be broken and given and multiplied.
I never expected to get so much wrong. Yet also? I never expected love like this. I never expected so much joy. Please be patient with God’s patient work in you.
And the thing is — it’s not that your heart isn’t ever going to break; it’s how you let the brokenness be made into abundance afterward. And afterward, I’d had to say sorry—no, I got to say sorry—so many times.
Isn’t repentance a foundational thesis of life, of taking the broken way? If the whole life of believers should be repentance, then what is the call of the whole life of believers but a broken way?
You have enough of Him — and He is enough. You are enough — because the great I AM is in you & with you & for you.
He is enough — and that is enough.
[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.
September 28, 2017
you’re as free as you break others free
When she closes her eyes and blows out the candles, the smoke slips a bit of the bonds of here and ascends to the place of prayers.
Sham looks up from the cake and grins. The room erupts in cheers.
Sham miraculously turns 11. This is her first birthday as a new citizen, this side of the ocean, far from ISIS and a bloody war and the shrieking bombs that shredded her house and the boy next door.
Sham is alive. Sham is miraculously 11. Sham gets to live.
I watch her mother watching Sham winging round the room. It’s almost been a year since we waited for them at the airport, waited for them to wing away from the hell of Aleppo and into our anxious welcoming refuge.
“You all look so happy tonight,” I murmur the words, us both turning to watch Sham, watch the room lighting with the laughter of Syrian and Canadian children. I can feel how this moment, these children, these faces testify:
Open your life to the other, and you may open your life to other angels without ever knowing it. (Hebrews 13:1-3)
“Yes — so happy. Joy — that we are — Free.” She finds my hand, squeezes it, finds my eyes — and she’s radiant.
Yesterday’s ache can become today’s joy —when you never stop believing that tomorrow will wing into hope.
********
The first people on the planet were migrating refugees.
Adam and Eve were wanderers who begin the human migration story, and the people of God were uprooted and upended refugees desperate to settle down, and the last book of the Revelation ends with the Apostle John in exile on the Isle of Patmos.
The Word of God has always been a word for welcoming the stranger — and all of our stories is a migration story.
Not one of us isn’t a migrant far from home.
And God Himself comes to as the Refugee Christ who left heaven to save us.
********
When the file arrives unexpectedly in our inbox in early summer, I am the first to read it.
A family from — Africa. Victims of horrific violence. Would we sponsor them as refugees?
Adopt them and support them for a year? Find them a house, make them a home, find them employment, schooling, health care, English training, transportation, help them rebuild their slashed and burned lives?
They have three little ones. Three boys. And — a lost child, whereabouts unknown.
I turn to the Farmer. “Somehow — whatever we have to do — we have to figure out how to say our yes.”
Because sometimes: Your one brave yes is how God destroys a tangling net of nos.
Hope is a lifeline that leads you to courage — hand over hand, don’t let go.
********
It is one of God’s first genesis acts toward humanity: care for refugees. God strings together skins for the exiled Adam and Eve, wrapping around them what God Himself stooped and stitched together, to protect them against the elements with His handmade love.
Every exodus has always been the same: God, in a pillar of strength, in a rising flame of hope, in a comforting shroud of presence, He has always stayed with the refugees, has always moved with the migrating people.
Manna for the migrant and relief for the refugee, has always been the will of God.
This is the heart of God — and the heart of God for our hearts: “Your God… loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:17-19)
********
It’s been almost a year since Zak, Sham’s dad, found a way out of the detonating misery of Aleppo and walked brave off that plane, leading Sham, her 2 little sisters, her brother, his courageous bride, Fatin, to safety.
Our hearts had broke for the monstrous hell we read in the news and it broke our hearts right open, and Zak had found that crack in the universe, in our hearts, and it looked like hope. It looked like the doorway to freedom.
Broken hearts can break us open and make us we into a doorway for someone’s freedom.
And now Zak works a 60 hour a week, welding and drywalling — every waking minute, rebuilding and remaking a busted world with his bare hands.
Now he gives back, contributes, supports. Now he calls the Farmer, “I dream again. I am saving now. I save and buy a little house of our own now? You help us with a roof first — and now I find a roof —- and I give my roof to help another family.” And the Farmer chokes it back, nods.
Yes, Brother Zak.
Love is a roof and we are live well as much as we are roofs for each other.
The good life means we are good roofs for each other.
********
The whole of the Old Testament closes with the word of the prophet Malachi, who, in Malachi 3:5, echoes the words of God:
“I will be a swift… against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.”
Because this is the truest: Christians are saved by the Refugee Christ, who left heaven to save us, and we are always saved from a thousand things when we welcome in the refugee — when we open our doors to Christ.
“…for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave Me clothing… Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:35-41
When the Farmer tells Zak when we are going to head to the airport to welcome our second refugee family, Zak tells the Farmer in his thick Syrian accent: “I call my boss. He understands. I come with you. I come to welcome them too.”
The Farmer smiles through the brimming.
“Just — they aren’t from Syria, Zak,” the Farmer speaks quietly. “They don’t speak Kurdish — and I don’t know how well they will speak English? They are flying in from Africa — from Namibia.”
And our Zak, he leans in, he grips the Farmer on the shoulder, and he looks him right in the eye:
“But…..” Zak says it slow, punctuating every word with bits of his heart, “They are human, aren’t they?”
And the universe reverberates.
When we remember the humanity of the other — there is no other. There is only us.
Because we belong to each other, we don’t belittle one another.
Christianity means you embrace everyone’s humanity.
When you’re a follower of Christ — you’re free to see the face of Christ in every face.
We are all family here, because we all have the same Maker here. Thinking about this changes absolutely everything.
********
When I head home after a lunch with Fatin and a room full of brave newcomer refugee women and their North American sisters who get to do life with them, my side hurts from the laughing too loud, the rib pokes, the reaching across tables for their homemade pastries.
My heart hurts a bit, enlarged with loving them all them so much it beautifully aches.
I slow, after I turn at Knapp’s corner, down by the woods, and that’s when I see it. Something’s caught in the ditch? A monarch butterfly — lighting its wings? But she’s — not in flight? Her wings wildly beat — but there is no soaring.
When I step closer — I can see.
Proximity always brings a kind of clarity.
The monarch is trapped in a spider’s web. A swollen spider hangs over it, suspended like a bomb about to drop, about to devour.
Yet the defiant butterfly keeps opening her wings, opening her wings, like she is gasping for hope.
Like she’s beckoning me — beckoning me to pay attention. Begging me to do something. Can’t I see that her hope’s all strung up in these sticky silvery gossamer threads?
The stilled spider — suddenly drops. I jolt, startled. He hangs close over those gilded wings, like he’s eyeing where to lunge. The butterfly desperately flits, gasping.
Wait undecided — and it will be too late. I lean in, stretch out my hand — and break the web of that tangling net.
And the butterfly ascends, lands on nearby tree, extends wings — and I reach out, pull away a few of the remaining net bonds.
You are as free as you set others free.
If you aren’t freeing someone — you are still in bondage to something.
There’s nothing as freeing — as setting others free.
And the butterfly lifts and I stand there witnessing it again —- how the bound ones can fly free.
• Mennonite Central Committee is in urgent need of Canadians who are willing to sponsor a refugee family through the Blended Visa Office Referral Program (BVOR).
• To learn more about how you can resettle a refugee family from crisis to community, be in touch with your nearest MCC provincial office at http://mcccanada.ca/supporting-refugees or by calling toll free # 1-888-622-6337
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