Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 138
August 7, 2017
the secret that wins the battles you are in
Often we think we are the only ones bombarded by the fiery darts of the Evil One laced with the poison of rejection. That sinister voice that convinces us that we are unloved or unwanted is a familiar foe that too many of us battle. Marian Jordan Ellis knows the battle with the voice of rejection all too well, but greater still, she knows the Voice of Truth. It’s a grace to welcome Marian to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Marian Jordan Ellis
The waves of accusations crashing against my mind began something like this:
“No one loves you.”
“You don’t have even one true friend who cares about you.”
“You are unwanted; you always have been, and you always will be.”
“The world would be better off if you were dead.”
The waves of this particular mental assault began about three weeks prior to a conference my ministry hosts for women.
Every year we experience various attacks leading up to this event. I’m accustomed to the typical annoyances, such as cars breaking down, logistical setbacks, and random illnesses.
But this summer, the battle was so sinister that I didn’t realize I was under attack until it engulfed me.
I got hit by wave after wave of rejection.
By rejection, I mean immense feelings of being unwanted and unloved.
Irrational thoughts plagued my heart and mind that didn’t have a basis in reality. These thoughts seemed real and wouldn’t leave for weeks on end.
The condemnation began as a gentle ripple, but it grew into a massive swell that left me sobbing hot tears on my bedroom floor.
The words “No one loves you” ripped through my heart and echoed in my mind as the days grew closer to the event.
As much as I tried to resist, I could not stand against these lies.
I simply could not believe the truth. My mind swirled with accusations, and my heart was engulfed with the searing pain of rejection. I couldn’t believe nor receive love from God or anyone else. My mind was bombarded with the voice continuously.
Here’s a fact: the Enemy knows our weak spots.
This particular attack was not a new tactic. As a little girl, this was the biggest lie I believed about myself. Due to a variety of wounds from my childhood, a lie formed around my heart that I was unloved.
But as a grown woman, I had experienced the deep love of Jesus and walked through an intense time of healing from my past wounds.
The love of God transformed my life, setting me free from the past and the lies of the Enemy. I was a new creation. Without a doubt, I knew I was the beloved of God and lived in this identity for many years. I walked in freedom from insecurity and rejection.
But then, even though I didn’t realize it at the time, I let my guard down and was not standing firm against the Enemy’s schemes.
To say this mental onslaught came out of the blue is an understatement.
At the time, I was blessed with an incredible family, strong friendships, and the sweetest marriage.
When the tsunami hit, I could not be reasoned with; I felt completely unloved and unwanted. My whole identity was under attack. Not standing firm against the lies, I believed the accusation that I was rejected.
My heart brimmed with a pain that would not relent. Satan’s fiery darts ripped through me, and every relationship was tainted with his sick suggestions. I felt rejection at every turn, most of which made no sense whatsoever.
My mind was so clouded that I couldn’t see clearly.
Let’s just say that I didn’t stand firm. I fell for every dark and sinister accusation.
Here’s the deal: If I had been counselling someone else experiencing these types of negative thoughts, I would have instantly recognized it as an attack and prayed for the individual.
But in the midst of it myself, I couldn’t discern that my thoughts were lies and not based in reality.
That’s the thing about deception: we don’t easily recognize that we are being deceived.
My fears seemed so real, especially when random circumstances appeared to validate and point to the veracity of the taunts.
For example, I would accidentally be left off an invitation list, or a close friend would forget to call me back, or my sweet husband would make a simple remark that I would completely misinterpret. I’d overhear my team whispering about something, and the voice would convince me it was about me. Crazy junk.
Wave after wave, lie after lie, the accusations pounded against my heart.
Not to sound dramatic, but at times the voice whispered that the world would be better if I didn’t exist.
As the conference finally began, the attack only escalated until I was crying alone in the shower so no one else would hear me. My mind was a battlefield. And while I was fighting this intense spiritual battle, I was trying to teach others God’s Word and lead this conference.
Then, on the second night, I experienced a profound breakthrough that left me forever changed. As we entered into evening worship, we sang many familiar songs of praise.
There is nothing in the world like worship to break the power of the Enemy. He hates it when Jesus is lifted high.
That night, the presence of God was very evident in worship. Then my friend, the worship leader, began to sing “Good Good Father.” The profoundly simple chorus proclaims the goodness of God and our identity as His beloved children:
You’re a good, good Father It’s who You are.
And I’m loved by You It’s who I am.
As she led us in the song, the room broke out in praise and the Spirit of God moved. I sang these words as though my life depended on it, proclaiming truth from my heart.
I proclaimed my true identity in Christ.
I proclaimed God’s love for me.
I proclaimed God’s goodness.
As we worshipped, I felt God’s love for me as His beloved daughter. The more I experienced it, the more I felt my mind, body, will, and emotions take their stand against the lies of the Evil One. The darkness covering me began to disperse, and I could see the Light! Why? Because worship wins the war!
Truth defeats deception.
Worship sends the Enemy running.
Declaring the truth of my identity in Christ broke the power of the Evil One over my mind.
The storm clouds lifted, and I experienced freedom from the Accuser for the first time in weeks.
Where my heart had known only rejection and condemnation, I experienced the deep love of God and the assurance that I was His beloved.
The power of the Enemy to deceive and harass me ceased as I lifted high the goodness of God and proclaimed with authority my position as His child.
I stood, arms held high, feet firmly planted in the love of the Father.
I have no idea how long that emotionally painful attack would have continued in my life had I not discovered the power of standing firm and proclaiming God’s praise in the face of attack.
This truth is seen in scripture as God’s people faced their own enemies. God taught King Jehosophat this powerful secret: worship wins the war!
You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you. (2 Chron. 20:17)
Victory is found in Christ alone. He fights for us.
Our job is to stand firm, proclaim His praise and wait for the deliverance.
I can tell you one thing for certain: Satan and his minions will not stick around when we lift up God in worship.
Nothing sends the Enemy running faster than truth proclaimed as we worship our good, good Father…
Marian Jordan Ellis is a Bible teacher, an author of several books for women, and the founder of Redeemed Girl Ministries. Ellis holds a master’s degree in biblical studies from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and speaks at conferences and universities around the country.
In Stand, Marian explores what it looks like to be faithful in a crumbling world. She addresses questions such as, How do Christian leaders share God’s good news in a culture that wants to silence their voices? How do parents hold on to hope when their children are more in love with the world than with Jesus? How do Christians battle the voices of shame and insecurity?
Stand looks at the stories of real people—from Scripture and from today—who chose to stand firm and “win life.” Jesus promises that the evil of this present world is not our future reality. You need to read this: Stand offers inspiration and practical tools to stand in your faith, your convictions, and your trust in a God who never fails.
[ Our humble thanks to David C Cook for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
August 5, 2017
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [08.05.17]
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:
Caroline Jensen
Caroline Jensen
Caroline Jensen
this may be the very best weekend to set out on a quiet walk?
isn’t this doctor just maybe the best?!?
some great photography projects: one month at a time
a study on why some students succeed and some don’t: the results may surprise you
21 Best Travel Photos of 2017 were just announced by National Geographic
world’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge opens in Switzerland – so would you cross?
ABC News
so just look what this amazing teacher went and did for her new students
just wow: we could not stop watching AND listening!
thanks for sharing your wisdom, Scott Sauls: Death by Selfie
#BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
Ben White
you’re never too young to make a difference #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
Tanja Brandt
Tanja Brandt
Tanja Brandt
sharing the extraordinary right here
glory, glory, glory
Shania Gutierrez
it must be love: come see what they’re doing to support their newborn son
learners become leaders — and leaders change the world
this young hero calmly saved his sister’s life as the community rallies with support
just love her words here
so wondering? who is in the path for the total solar eclipse?
because you’re never too old and it’s never too late to try something new
family searches for one amazing nurse: “Those aren’t coincidences to me. That’s absolutely the hand of God.”
yes: they’re giving kids empowerment through finding a special purpose
…when one got lost, hope got found. Such a good story #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
doubt your doubts
Post of the week from these parts here
Dear Me — don’t give up. Even if nothing is turning out as you ultimately hoped.
Dear Me: Lifelines to the Person You Want to Be
flat out — one of the most incredible stories you will ever hear tears at this one
#BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
Because it’s never too late to love: Download your August 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 August G.I.F.T list
on repeat this week: Dear Me
…do I hear you —your circumstances & situation aren’t easy right now.
I get how you want to desperately change some things. Thing is, sometimes you can’t change circumstances — but maybe, you can change how you see.
And there’s ridiculous relief in that: Situations can’t make joy — but how we see can. We may not be able to change a situation today, but we can change how we see.
So that’s quietly all today: see grace, see good, see God. “See things from His perspective.” Col.3:1MSG So let’s just go out there today & ENJOY!
Circumstances don’t determine joy — as much as how you see.
And honest, Joy isn’t about how much our lives have — but how much we ENJOY our lives… how much we enjoy God.
[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.
August 2, 2017
How to Fight for Your Life: When You Kinda Enter a Full-Blown Ugly Cry
I’m telling you, this woman straight up just hands out hope — because Chrystal Evans Hurst knows what it’s like to feel like she was the only one — the only woman who felt lost in the middle of her life. She thought no one else struggled like she did to move forward through the messy stuff. She thought everyone else had something she didn’t have that made life a little easier for them to navigate. But what’s she’s found is that we all have some degree of hard in our lives and that the keys to moving forward are available to everyone. This women is a fierce encourager of others and will have you laughing and crying as she holds your hands and shines a light on real living. If you’ve lost sight of the girl you wanted to be or never had a vision for the girl you wanted to become, Chrystal comes alongside you and offers a toolbox filled with practical encouragement to help you honor the “the gift of you” in this world. It’s a grace to welcome Chrystal to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Chrystal Evans Hurst
Outside, I looked cool, calm, and collected.
Inside, I was experiencing a full-blown panic attack.
My husband and I sat on the same side of the table, facing the financial advisor and his assistant. We’d been married for fifteen years and had decided that now was a good time to get some professional direction in planning for our future.
Between that decision and the date of the appointment, my husband had lost his job.
A loyal, hard worker, he had experienced many health challenges over the years and finally found himself no longer able to maintain the workload that had formed the foundation of our financial stability.
As I sat there looking at the whiteboard where the financial advisor had carefully laid out a plan, all I saw was a big negative number. A negative number that I felt responsible for.
That moment was not the first time I’d been faced with hard circumstances, an insurmountable challenge, or a seemingly impossible situation.
Teenage pregnancy. Single parenting. Marriage. Blended family. Illness. A special needs child. Broken bones. And it goes on and on.
Hard has an interesting way of finding me.
As a result, I’ve gotten good at pushing through things in my life. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still feel the pressure.
On this day, the panic attack was controlled, tempered, and stuffed. I felt it threaten to rise up and make itself known in my face, in the tone of my voice, or in the words I used to communicate my thoughts.
But I pushed through, sitting stoically in the financial advisor’s office.
Serious.
Together.
Focused.
And then there was the long quiet ride home.
The rest of the evening was normal. I was robotic, almost. Go home. Check. Fix dinner. Check. Read to kids, then pray with kids, then put kids to bed. Check.
Movement.
Activity.
Routine.
I stayed in motion so I wouldn’t have to stop and face the barrier that had presented itself earlier that afternoon.
But, as evening came, eventually I had to slow down. There was no more energy to keep the hard thoughts from coming.
So I prayed.
I asked God what in the world He was doing and how He expected me to handle the hard. My questions quickly digressed into a rant of anger — anger at God.
Why me?
My anger melted into an emotional flood.
I tried to fight it, but the day’s strength had been squashed under the weight of the unknown.
The tears started, and they wouldn’t stop. Everything that had been bottled up forced its way to the surface. I cried uncontrollably—water poured out of my eyes, a wail escaped my lips, and I doubled over, powerless to stand up straight.
I entered a full-blown ugly cry.
And I cried out to God. I told Him, as if He didn’t know, what had happened and how I felt.
I told Him I couldn’t take one more step in this life that felt straight uphill. I huffed and puffed through staccato sentences, trying to explain my state of emotional and mental disarray.
There was no quick fix.
But as I emptied my anger and cried out to Him, I sensed a peace that passes all understanding wash over me.
I believed deep down that He heard me. And I decided to keep putting one foot in front of the other, doing what I could to move forward one step at a time.
It’s been awhile since that particular ugly cry.
Things haven’t been easy, but God has been faithful. Our needs have been met. God has provided.
But I’ll never forget the weight of the unknown and feeling of being buried. And because I haven’t forgotten, I know you may need someone to encourage you this very day.
Maybe you’re facing your own kind of hard. Maybe you’re are overwhelmed, emotionally fraught, far from life expectations, or deeply disappointed. Maybe you’re struggling with money, marriage, singleness, mental or physical health. Maybe you’re worn out from mothering your kids or struggling with infertility. Your hard might be addiction, grief, paralyzing fear, or anxiety because you can’t figure out what comes next.
May I offer you a little hope?
Where you are today is not where you have to be forever.
You may not want to embrace where you are, but it is so important to embrace Whose you are.
While you can’t control everything in your life, you can do at least one thing: every day you can choose to live and honor the gift of you in this world. There will never be another person who will grace the face of this earth who is like you.
You have the opportunity to choose every day to honor the loveliness that you uniquely bring to the world, even if the world doesn’t seem to be holding up its end of the bargain to bring the lovely to you.
If you believe you are defined only by your disappointments and disasters, you will abdicate your role in this world, the role that only you can play.
But if you choose to embrace your journey—even the parts that disappoint you, challenge you, or make you double over from the emotional weight of it all—you can one day look back and see your hard as a part of your life and not the definition of your life.
Believe that all you see is not all there is.
Your life, my friend, does not have to be a sad sum of your hard or your heavy.
Your darkest moments are only a moment in time.
I would love to offer a simple answer or a quick fix, but here’s the truth. Life can be hard. Moving forward can take time. But here’s the bottom line, and I believe this with all of my heart:
You are worth the effort.
Choose to fight for your life.
Every day. Get up. Keeping going.
Your one step forward today won’t necessarily eliminate all problems or pressure, but your journey is a process.
Choose to honor the gift of you — even if you have tears in your eyes, cries from your lips, or heaviness in your heart.
Choose to believe your life is worth the effort.
You’re still here. You’re still alive.
So you’re still worth the work of the rescue.
Chrystal Evans Hurst is writer, speaker, and worship leader in addition to serving as the chief executive operating officer in her home as a wife, mother of five and grandmother to one. She blogs and podcasts regularly at Chrystal’s Chronicles where she poignantly reflects her thoughts about her faith and day-to- day experiences. She is a self-proclaimed ”geek”; and bibliovore, who is actively seeking help for her addiction to Starbucks, sweet tea,and chocolate chip cookies.
Chrystal co-authored a blueprint in Kingdom Woman for what being a Godly woman looks like with her father, Dr. Tony Evans. In She’s Still There, Chrystal shares more of her personal story. What’s a woman to do if her life is not taking shape the way that she thought that it would? What happens when she looks at herself in the mirror, lingering just a little longer than usual and realizes that she no longer recognizes the person staring back at her? What does she do when she sees that, somehow, her life has drifted away from all her original hopes, dreams, or plans? Whether your life has been derailed because of your own drifts, detours, or collisions caused by others, Chrystal will show you what it means to fight for your life. This book is a LIFELINE: It’s a book of “me toos”, reminders of the hoped for, and challenges for the path ahead—to find direction, purpose, and true satisfaction.
In addition to the book, there is also a She’s Still There six-session DVD and study guide available.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
August 1, 2017
Dear Me: Lifelines to the Person You Want to Be
Dear Me,
Lines to the person I want to be:
Rise gently, to everything rise gently. The sun knows how to rise — follow its lead.
Even if it feels like nothing is turning out as you ultimately hoped, He who is Hope Himself is turning things around for your ultimate good.
Focus on what’s failing — and you’ll grow a rash of failures.
Steam in sunlight — off oatmeal, or coffee, or all things piping hot — is like a soul exhale. Take the time to do often.
Watch a sunrise. Glory is always yours to witness. Life is too short to not choose awe.
Busy is a choice. Stress is a choice. Giving yourself to joy is a choice. Choose well.
Eat ice cream. It’s summer — and it melts away faster than anything in a cone.
Believe that change is possible. Believe that grace works. Believe that today is the first day of the rest of our lives. Don’t give up — just give everything up to Him.
Turn the worship up louder to force the worries to be quieter.
Consistently be consistent. Grittiness decides successfulness. And faithfulness is another way to say grittiness. Grittiness and faithfulness is successfulness.
Befriend endurance if you ever want to meet abundance.
Always: Stay in the Story.
Live in His Story, breathe His Story, reflect on His Story, let His Story shape yours, share His story, let your story be His. And read stories — to little people, to old people, to someone — read words out loud and sit in the shared space of a bit of wonder.
Skip more of the news this week and sit with more of the Good News. That means less CNN and more of seeing Jesus in everything. Your soul deserves to exhale.
Drink water. Especially the Living kind. Thirst more for Him than anything else.
Love gives. So live given. Love is a verb and that verb is give. You’ve been given so much — so how can you not live given?
Give thanks and live given — this is how you get joy.
People love attention more than anything else.
So give attention more than everything else.
Lavishly give attention.
And when you want what isn’t …. want grace more.
The grace that washes wounds, the grace that carries you, the grace that always carries you forward, that carries you to better things around the next bend, the grace that makes you brave.
The grace that covers all the things you didn’t do and makes you into all the right you hoped to be.
Want His arms more than wanting what isn’t.
Dear Me — lines to the person I want to be….
Rise gentle and set gratefully — settle everything with relentless gratefulness.
Like the sun gives itself in a freeing surrender to the ways of God.
Because you know you want to love right now: Download your August 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 August G.I.F.T list
July 31, 2017
Why You May Be The Most Vulnerable When Things Are Going Well
This woman, Jennifer Rothschild, is one of my favourite people on the planet – one of the most empathetic, wisest, most down-to-earth humble women. At the young age of fifteen, Jennifer was diagnosed with a rare, degenerative eye disease that would eventually steal her sight. In the midst of living blind — literally living in an invisible world — Jennifer has taken her message of encouragement, across the country. What is the one power that can barge into the dusty, dormant rooms of your heart, cast open the shades, and flood it with light and hope? That power is love, and once we get a hold of it, it changes everything. It’s always a grace to welcome Jennifer to the farm’s front porch…
guest post by Jennifer Rothschild
Sometimes life just wears us out, right?
When we have to climb mountains of stress or sorrow, we just get tired.
Hard stuff can wear us out and leave us feeling powerless.
Sometimes our most vulnerable tired comes after we have stood on a mountain of success and seen God’s power.
Have you ever felt that kind of exhausted – the kind of soul tiredness that shows up on the heels of a race well run?
Oh, I have. It seems like every November it happens to me, and I finally figured out why.
November is when my ministry travels slow down. November is when I have come down from the mountain where I have seen God’s power, and believe it or not, that is the time I am most ready to quit!
It is the time I question my calling and my gifts. I review all my failures and convince myself that I really am not qualified!
You would think that that kind of dark self-reflection would follow failure, but I am most vulnerable after success.
We are all vulnerable after victory.
If you’ve felt that kind of soul tiredness that makes you question and want to quit, you’re not alone – an Old Testament prophet felt that way, too.
Elijah was ready to throw it all away— not because he was defeated, but because he had just won! Beneath a broom tree in the desert, he prayed, “I have had enough, Lord… Take my life.”
Do you know when he uttered such weak, pitiful words?
It was right after an earthshaking mountaintop experience on the peak of Mount Carmel. He had just called fire down from heaven and seen his adversaries fall to their knees. Then he had prayed for God to send rain, and the heavens opened with a thundering deluge.
He was firing on all cylinders, but soon he had a meltdown.
Elijah went from the height of the mountain to the depths of the valley.
The same man who stood strong before 450 prophets of Baal ran like a coward from one woman who threatened to kill him. Exhausted, Elijah curled up in a fetal position under a tree in the desert and slept until an angel woke him up and made him eat.
He wanted to quit — not before the battle, not during the battle, but after the battle.
The great prophet was tired, hungry, and emotionally drained… all triggers that make us feel as if we, too, have just had enough.
We all have our Elijah episodes when we are tired, hungry and emotionally spent — we, too, feel like we have just had enough. In that vulnerable state, we can become our greatest enemy. We pelt ourselves with lies and react with emotion rather than acting upon truth.
The truth is that you are the same fragile, strong, brave woman you were before the battle, during the battle and in the midst of victory.
God is the same God who was with you before the battle, during the battle and in the midst of victory.
So, if you are having an Elijah Episode, maybe you just need to rest or eat or take an emotional break so you can refill.
It’s okay to have moments when you feel like you have just had enough because maybe… just maybe… maybe you have.
And maybe you just need to wrap yourself in your blanket of faith and rest and let God feed you.
Sometimes the best way to fight the lies that hit us when we are most vulnerable is not to armor up, but to curl up and rest in the Lord.
The Psalmist told his soul to rest and that is what I now tell my soul during my Elijah Episodes too. So, tell your soul it’s okay to rest and rest in Him today.
Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from Him. (Psalm 62:5 HCSB)
Jennifer Rothschild is a recovering perfectionist who has learned to live beyond limits ever since her life drastically changed at the age of fifteen, when she lost her sight. Now, more than 30 years later, she boldly and compassionately teaches women how to find contentment, walk with endurance, and celebrate the ordinary.
As a speaker and the author of 15 books, Jennifer travels internationally, offering fresh, grounded, Biblical truth to audiences who, like her, are determined to pursue healthy and fulfilling lives in spite of their circumstances.
In Me, Myself, & Lies, Jennifer shares her personal journey of learning to replace the negative thoughts in her head with the Truth of God’s Word, encouraging all of us to find freedom in that Truth.
July 29, 2017
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [07.29.17]
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:
@nationsphotography
@nationsphotography
@nationsphotography
step into a bit a glory right here…because you know you need to just exhale
Warren Photographic Ltd / Facebook
Warren Photographic Ltd / Facebook
Warren Photographic Ltd / Facebook
the best: stunning look alikes?!?
stumbling over some very old fossils: what a find!
good stuff: Let’s Stop Saying “I’ll Pray For You” And Do This Instead
extraordinary octopus takes to land
the latest research on early literacy? may not be what you think?
never too old to love
at 101? she breaks a world running record what can we go do today?
so who knew about this one? a city rooftop farm like you’ve never seen before
after this pizzeria was robbed? they turn around and offer this #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
gather the family for this one? can you even?! a rare full circle rainbow was spotted this week
Brandon Marshall Facebook
…he now considers football his platform, but mental health awareness his purpose.
“What I’ve found is that when you’re real, people come out of the (woodwork). I remember back in 2011, when I first left McLean Hospital (in Belmont, Mass). I told everyone, ‘this is what I’ve been dealing with.’ Then I had a teammate pull me aside to say, ‘thank you…you just gave me the courage to be braver and deal with this.”
a very special gift for a very special mom
Asda
how this store reached out to a mom and her son with autism #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
glory: around our world in 343 days
Faith and humanity: Woman’s chance encounter at Georgia grocery store spreads across world
#BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
his artistic creations may disappear daily – but they’re still leaving behind many memories
what she did on a recent flight?
“It was a matter of connecting. We don’t speak the same language. But a smile is universal.”
they’re reuniting the homeless with their families through social media
describing Jesus
“every parent of a special needs child should never underestimate what their young person can do”
Post of the Week from these parts here
…just as rain comes from the sky to break forth new life, this can also break us free from all the emptiness:
what’s the greatest challenge facing people of faith & the church right now?
I think he’s onto something here #BeThe GIFT #TheBrokenWay
Because it’s never too late to love: Download your July 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 July G.I.F.T list
on repeat this week: Even when it hurts…I will only sing Your Praise
…it’s a hard world out there & everyone’s fighting their own hard fires — so go gentle today.
“Be gentle with one another, sensitive.” Eph.4:31MSG
Maybe break free of your comfort zone and do something, touch someone, give something, help someone, pray for someone, serve someone, #betheGIFT for someone. This week, the world needs people to open their front door and love big right where they are, however they can — and we’re on it.
And the thing is? Sometimes helping other people — helps our own wounds.
“Help others get ahead… lend a helping hand.” Phil2:4MSG
Because we’re not really here to help ourselves to more — we’re here to help others to real life. Never doubt it: The way to break into the abundant life is to live broken – life’s not about choosing a lifestyle, but a way to serve.
[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.
July 27, 2017
what’s the greatest challenge facing people of faith & the church right now?
I ran into a preacher man at the end of June, at the end of a long haul, and he was limping hard but I asked him anyways:
“What’s the greatest challenge facing the church & people of faith right now?”
And he didn’t even blink: “Biblical literacy.”
It is kind of an absurd thing, when you think of it: Every minute more than one half of all us, 4,166,667 people on this planet, every minute on this spinning blue marble — are liking a Facebook post.
It appears that we are all at least pretty much Facebook literate — or maybe addicted.
We all have our own priorities, our own way of shaping our personal golden calves to feed our craving, aching emptiness. Idols are always about feed gaping wounds that are really hungry for Him. And He is the hound of heaven who relentlessly comes to devour the cravings and win free hearts and there is a tender grace that meets what we crave for and gives us what we are in need of.
Only our own lack of love can keep us from His love letter.
Only being captivated by other words can keep us from His Word.
* * * *
When the Farmer planted a million fold seeds back in early May, he had prayed for forgiving rains.
I’d say, he told me that at least a half dozen times. Standing there, watching the sky on the side porch off the kitchen.
“For us to have any kind of crop to speak of this year — we will need Him to send a few forgiving rains.”
The soil had hardened after the planting, crusted and baked, and the corn seeds couldn’t push up through the earth but were at risk of being trapped under one thickened crust of earth.
We’d need the softness of a few rains to forgive how weather conditions had made for a less than an ideal seed bed.
A few rains to forgive how the dirt had hardened, how the soil had compacted, how the field had grown an unforgiving, unrelenting skin that would not yield to the seed, so there would be any harvest yield.
I hadn’t told him how you can sometimes feel your heart grow a hardened, thickened skin of its own, a rind of protection, an unforgiving crust of cynicism and apathy, that refused to let love break through the membrane of things, so there could be meaningful life yield. But maybe he already knew all of that? Maybe he had felt all of that in his own way too?
I hadn’t known it then in May, at least in the hidden, deeper places and layers:
Sometimes you need His Word to fall like your own forgiving rain.
* * * * *
And, I mean, really, I thought of if after that praying, limping-brave pastor and I had nodded goodbye and gone our own separate ways —- how there may be a struggle with Biblical literacy, His Word, but we’re actually inundated with words, “with the equivalent amount of 34 gigabytes of information, a sufficient quantity to overload a laptop within a week.”
During our average 12 waking hours — 23 words every single second grab for our attention.
23 words per second — through our phones, email, TVs, radio, newspapers.
How many of them are His Words?
There are days you can feel the wearying of it: Our minds process 105, 000 words a day — the equivalent of 2 complete books. Every single waking day — we process the equivalent of 2 complete books — about 550 pages of words — but how many pages of His Word do we read, digest, meditate on, sit with, incarnate?
And how is a heart hardening, scaling over, everyday, in this world of hard knocks and hard roads?
They say when you lose your language — when you lose how to speak the lilting tones of Dutch, the intonations of Chinese, the rhythms of the romance languages — that when you become illiterate in your mother tongue — you become ignorant to your culture, your ways of thinking like your people, of processing the world through the lens of where you came from in the world.
If we all lose our mother tongue that speaks our Father’s Word — don’t we lose what it means to be human?
And this is a bit of glory that you get to decide to miss or never miss: Our God talks. God unveils His Spirit through sentences — and who picks up pages to pick up bits of God, to carry the holy that heals?
God’s Words alone never fall to the ground and evaporate (1 Sam. 3:19). God’s Word always literally, concretely, take up space in space — the only question is: do we make space for His Word in us?
All other words evaporate, don’t take up space, don’t hold weight — but God’s Words hold more weight than heaven and earth, because they made heaven and earth and hold the weight of Glory and can rest in your hands, lodge in your heart, and resuscitate your heart.
God’s Word is the only thing that never falls apart — and holds us when we are falling apart.
God’s Word never goes away, passes away or falls away —- but is always given to show us The Way.
When God speaks— He does not speak hot air, or heated opinions, or highfalutin commentary.
When God speaks — He breathes actions. When God says “Let there be light” — the words act, the words create reality.
God’s Words are the only words that create reality, shape reality, remake reality — all other words risk being fake realities.
Jesus turns to a broken world and offers: “… the Scripture cannot be broken …” (John 10:35). The Words of God always do their work. All other words may be distractions, abstractions, or detractions, but God’s Word is always effective action. “Is not my Word a fire or a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29)
His Word cannot be broken — but His Word breaks idols, breaks darkness, breaks brokenness. His Word cannot be broken — it’s for you, to break the brokenness of you.
And if you do not let His Word break your brokenness — someday it will break the way that takes you away from Him.
Scripture cannot be broken — and ultimately, there is no breaking away from the Word of God.
So let the hip and cool laugh and the cynics and sophisticated balk and let heaven and earth and all things popular pass away.
The opinion pages of the papers may roll their eyes and the trendy streams of social media may laugh, but if you stand on the Word of God, you’ll still be standing when no one understands why everything else is falling.
It may be easy to want to get on the latest bandwagon passing by — but the wise stand on the Word that will never pass away.
C.S. Lewis says, “All that is not eternal, is eternally out of date.”
And there are things that are hard to even skirt up against, to even choke out: If anyone says they’re too modern to believe parts of the Word of God, are they making parts of God into their own golden calf — so they can make up whatever they believe?
Because a personal God is like your personal friends and will personally contradict you, challenge you, confront you — and ask you to live cruciform.
It’s only when you have an infallible Bible that you have an in real life God.
You can wonder it lying in bed late at night, keeping the night watches with these raw honest prayers:
If your God only affirms your opinions — then perhaps He’s actually just an echo of your feelings.
* * * * *
When the forgiving rains came in late spring, the Farmer he and I, we stand and watch it come across from the west, across the way of the lake, low heavy clouds settling, lingering, over the waiting, willing fields planted with a million seeds of corn.
The rain falls warm and steady on the crusted earth, softening its hardened rind, liquid hope soaking slow into soil. And the Farmer stands on the back step and grins grateful to the heavens, nods like a man who lives into the beauty of a metaphor.
And it too comes down, His Word, like grace on places in me, in the world, that need the kindness of a softening storm:
“I don’t think the way you think.
The way you work isn’t the way I work.
For as the sky soars high above earth,
so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
not come back empty-handed.
They’ll do the work I sent them to do,
they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.” Isaiah 55
Just as rain comes from the sky to break forth new life, so His word does not come back empty, but breaks us free from emptiness.
There are 23 words every actual waking second yanking on our attention spans, and 4 billion people every minute on this planet of 7 billion are clicking and liking words on Facebook, and there are words falling on us, failing us, failing to soften the soil of our being so abundant life can break forth.
When there is an illiteracy of His Word, there’s a warped reading of everything.
When there is a daily reading of God — we can read all the crazy of life.
Read God — and you can read life.
And, then over hardened hearts, it can keep coming, with a daily opening of His pages, with an open wanting of growth and hope and yield, just line upon line, softening all my embedded, hardened mistakes.
That is how it is and the Farmer turns and smiles.
God’s Word falls like rain.
Falls like forgiving rains.
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
July 24, 2017
2 of the very best tools for dealing with rejection
If you asked her, Teri Lynne Underwood would tell you she prays Scripture because she isn’t really sure what else to pray. Far more comfortable studying and teaching the Bible, prayer has never come easily or naturally to her. Desperate to know how and what to pray, Teri Lynne began forming her prayers around the passages she was reading and teaching. And it changed everything! Praying Scripture gave her confidence and boldness like she’d never had. And she’s been encouraging others to pray the Word ever since. It’s a grace to welcome Teri to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Teri Lynne Underwood
My first recollection of not being chosen was in sixth grade.
I tried out for the basketball team. Rather than rehash the whole traumatic tale, let’s just say dribbling while running wasn’t my thing.
Honestly, I didn’t really want to play basketball. But it was my first year at a new school and I thought it would help me find a place to belong, an opportunity to be accepted.
Instead, I was the clumsy new girl.
In the thirty-plus years since, the sting of rejection has come around more often than I’d like.
And I bet you’ve known it too.
This is where it gets hard.
Because we know how much it hurts not to be accepted, not to be chosen, and we want our girls never to experience that heartache.
But we know they will.
How do we prepare our girls to deal with the inevitable rejection they will face?
How do we help them settle in their hearts and minds the truth that they are chosen by God? (Especially when we aren’t always confident of it ourselves.)
Two of the best tools we have for guiding and teaching our daughters are story and Scripture.
When we can share our own stories with them, we remind them they are not alone and that we understand more than they think we do. (Trust me, if you have a little girl, there will come a day when you’ll want her to know you aren’t completely out of touch with her world.)
But our stories are most powerful when we use them to point to biblical truth.
One of the best examples of how Jesus meets us in our rejection is the woman at the well. In John 4, we read about a Samaritan woman, filling her water jars in the heat of midday. According to ancient customs, this timing reveals she is, at the very least, uncomfortable around the other women in her village.
Grab your Bible and read John 4:1–45 to refresh your memory of this encounter. I’ll wait right here.
So good, right? I love how Jesus responds when we feel rejected.
First, He chooses to meet us where we are.
Note in verse 4 where it says, “He had to pass through Samaria” (emphasis added). Geographically, Jesus could have traveled from Judea to Galilee without going through Samaria.
But He didn’t. Jesus’ compassion compelled Him to be where the need was.
Second, He chooses to see us as we are.
In the familiar conversation, we learn that Jesus knows the woman had been married five times and now lives with a sixth man who isn’t her husband (verses 17–18). Can you imagine the look on her face?
But I believe that since she stayed with Jesus to talk, she recognized something different about this itinerant teacher.
There is something deeply comforting about being seen as we are and accepted anyway.
Third, He chooses us based on His character, not ours.
Jesus didn’t spend a lot of time rehashing all the woman’s sins, nor did He point out what she could do to make the situation better.
Instead, He helped her focus on who He is and what He offered her.
Fourth, when we believe He chooses us, we are changed.
Jesus offered her living water, and she was changed! After her encounter with Jesus, she went and told the very people she’d been working so hard to avoid, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did” (verse 29). And they did! And they too were changed (verses 39–42).
Our daughters long to be accepted, to be chosen.
Little girls want to know how much you love them.
Big girls want to be reassured they can’t do anything to lose your love.
And deep inside, friend, you know that need too. We all do.
Isn’t it sweet to know that Jesus’ acceptance of us isn’t rooted in who we are but in who He is?
That’s a sweet promise both our girls and we need to believe and cherish.
Teri Lynne Underwood isn’t a perfect mom. In fact, if the past seventeen years of parenting her daughter have taught her anything, it’s this: Without Jesus, she’ll never be wise enough, gracious enough, or anything enough to encourage and equip her daughter to become the person God created her to be.
Praying for Girls: Asking God for the Things They Need Most is her earnest and engaging invitation for moms to join her—not as perfect pray-ers but as humble daughters of the perfect Father, interceding on behalf of the girls they love.
With Teri Lynne as a guide, Praying for Girls equips moms to identify and understand five key areas of their daughters’ lives, to apply biblical truth to challenges and obstacles their daughters will encounter (things like the sting of rejection), to pray with boldness and confidence using Scripture as the solid foundation for their prayers, and to engage their daughters in understanding and applying biblical truth to their own lives.
[ Our humble thanks to Bethany House for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
July 22, 2017
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [07.22.17]
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:
Warren Keelan / Instagram
Warren Keelan / Instagram
Warren Keelan / Instagram
because you know you need to just exhale and enjoy all this wonder
he captures the waves like no one else I know
can. you. even.
had to share: Doing These 4 Things Will Make You Happier, According to Neuroscience
this little place with stunning windows in the woods? anyone else wanna visit?
there’s still time to take the kids and go? 40 must-see places to take your kids before they’re grown
no where else in nature does an animal create something as complex and perfect as this
so did you know? this Free Digital Archive Makes Over 50 Million Pieces of European Art Available Online
what this farmer created in his field? we gathered ’round this to cheer him on
all things colored pencils here: and how to make the most out of them
veterans are getting hooked on a program that provides peace through fly fishing
good, good words, thank you, Scott Sauls: On Feeling Lonely
it takes a village to raise children #beTheGIFT
Mieke Meijer
stunningly designed staircases – which are your favorite?
glory, glory, glory
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
If this doesn’t win your Saturday, well. I just don’t even know what to tell you.
a most beautiful short story on autism
Giana Snell Photography
their story proves that it’s never too late to fall in love
it’s all about the trash
youtube/#TalktoMe
exactly this: world’s first zero-electricity air cooler made from plastic bottles
Eternity Echoes in Every Marriage
yes, yes, yes: God weaves the best stories. Because He is a miracle worker.
If you need one, hang on… because there will be miracles.
“love can never be lost as long as it’s savored”
you’ve got to meet her: the roaming optimist #beTheGIFT
she used to search for signs of hope — now she searches for places to leave them
tears: adopting the loneliest child no one wanted…come see what she’s doing now
Post of the Week from these parts here
you have no idea how many hard days turned right around when the Farmer unpacked this…
Instead of Being Stressed — The White Horse Maxim That’s Turned Countless Hard Days Around
she turned her heartache around by serving others #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
Download your July 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 July G.I.F.T list
on repeat this week: If You use broken things, then here I am, Lord, I’m all Yours
If we knew what fire every single person is facing, there isn’t even one person we wouldn’t help fight their fire with the heat of a Greater Love.
So…no matter what’s ahead in your day — try this beautiful plan that could make the world a more beautiful place: “Help others get ahead…lend a helping hand.” Phil2:4MSG
Because the thing is? We aren’t here to one-up one another —
but to help one another up.
Let’s do this! Break free of your comfort zone today and do something — touch someone, give something, help someone, pray for someone, serve someone, be the GIFT for someone.
God will help you – so lean in & let’s go!
[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.
July 19, 2017
Instead of Being Stressed — The White Horse Maxim That’s Turned Countless Hard Days Around
When that window shattered into 7 billion pieces, a sliver stuck my heart and maybe a sliver is all we ever have?
It wasn’t so much that our farm boy had turned the tractor too sharp.
It wasn’t that he’d backed the tractor into the auger of the wagon hitched behind him.
It wasn’t even so much that the steel auger had slammed into the full window of the tractor — exploding the glass into a torrent of shards all over our boy, the tractor cab, across the yard.
It was the way I saw our boy turn his face, turn away from sharp fist of the moment.
It was the way I saw him turn to hide what was slipping down all stinging wet, him more broken than any pane of glass.
The farm boy swept a million shards off his lap.
Brushed that stinging wet away with the back of his hand.
And then I watched the farm boy drive the tractor back out to the field, back to the Farmer in the combine, back to fill up with his next load of wheat.
How did he know? That even when we’re broken, we battle onward, all the fixing coming in the moving forward.
When the Farmer looks up from the combine steering wheel to his boy in the shattered tractor, he nods quiet. The farm boy turns his eyes away.
Sometimes it’s hard to look love square in the eye and accept the acceptance. Is this why we turn from God?
I crawl up in the combine cab, sat down beside the Farmer. The Farmer hits the button and the combine auger begins to unload into the farm boy’s wagon.
“What do we do?” I hardly murmur it above the roar of the combine, my hands twisted and wrung in my lap. The Farmer senses my words more than he hears them. He knows I don’t mean the window. I can’t look away from our son bent and busted over that tractor steering wheel.
“You know how it is, Ann…” The Farmer glances over at the wagon, our son driving alongside of us, and then back to the wheat he’s combining. “From where we stand, we can’t see whether it’s something’s good or bad. All we can see is that God’s sovereign and He is always good, working all things for good.”
The wheat’s bowed before the combine, willing.
“The window’s gone and the tractor cab dented and sure, we can think about how shook up and heartsick our boy is, and we can think about the cost… but how do we know if this is really a bad thing?” The Farmer’s speaking quiet, focused on the wheat heads laying down before the combine. “You know that story you told me years ago — the story of the white horse? Well — I think this is another hour of the White Horse.”
I had written down that story of the White Horse when I had first heard it from Max Lucado, an old story from South America, written out my own version of it, what I remembered of it:
How a white stallion had rode into the paddocks of an old man and all the villagers had congratulated him on such good fortune.
And the old man had only offered this: “Is it a curse or a blessing? All we can see is a sliver. Who can see what will come next?”
When the white horse ran off, the townsfolk were convinced the white stallion had been a curse. The old man lived surrendered and satisfied in the will of God alone: “I cannot see as He sees.”
And when the horse returned with a dozen more horses, the townsfolk declared it a blessing, yet the old man said only, “It is as He wills and I give thanks for His will.”
Then the man’s only son broke his leg when thrown from the white stallion. The town folk all bemoaned the bad fortune of that white stallion. And the old man had only offered, “We’ll see. We’ll see. It is as He wills and I give thanks for His will.”
When a draft for a war took all the young men off to battle but the son with the broken leg, the villagers all proclaimed the good fortune of that white horse. And the old man said but this, “We see only a sliver of the sum. We cannot see how the bad might be good. God is sovereign and He is good and He sees and work all things together for good.”
Hasn’t that been the lie right since our Genesis beginning – that we can see? When we ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Satan hissed then that we’d know what is good and evil — that we’d really see.
But the father of lies, he’d duped us in the whole nine yards. Though we ate of that tree we did not become like God.
We have no knowledge of good and evil apart from God. Our heart optics are not omniscient.
How can I really see if a seeming disaster or dilemma, is actually dire?
My focus need only be on Him, to only faithfully see His Word, to wholly obey. Therein is the tree of life.
The Farmer slows towards the end of the field. Turns off the combine auger.
The farm boy nods to his dad through that hole where there used to be a window. The window that broke — but who are we to see?
The son pulls with the now full wagon to take up to unload at the grain bin.
“Yes – it’s just a White Horse Hour.” The Farmer turns on the headland, pulls back into the field.
He looks up at the farm boy headed towards the bin.
“We may have taken a boy to the field. But I think we may be bringing home a man. God’s only up to good work.”
I reach over and lay my hand on the knee of the Farmer’s work worn wranglers. Say it quiet. “All we can see is Christ – and in Him all is grace.”
And in the combine’s rear view mirror, I can see it, just what we always have, what we can always only see —
Just a sliver, a sliver of the sum, swaying behind us there in a whisper of wind.
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
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