Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 144
April 22, 2017
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [04.22.17]
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:
Meg Loeks
Meg Loeks
Meg Loeks
who doesn’t need a quiet exhale of all this?
…yep, because we all need to be rescued
Akiko DuPont
Akiko DuPont
Akiko DuPont
kinda wonderful: how a cat turned a grumpy grandpa’s life upside down
um, wow. who knew?
Monstrum
because it’s the weekend & we all need to go play: some of the very best playgrounds in the world right here
how to edit a photo in 5 minutes using Lightroom.
Don’t have that tool either? Still found this fascinating!
Bobbie Burgers
Bobbie Burgers
Bobbie Burgers
inspiring creatives to go make this weekend: how she creates larger-than-life abstract floral paintings
okay, so wishing we could do this for all the kids birthdays: what a perfect way to celebrate an 18th birthday!
wise words: Two Keys to Flourishing in the Digital Age
“We all seem to sense that — for good or bad — our smartphones are changing us, our habits, and our relationships.”
how these young student researchers are helping the visually impaired within a classroom
I just absolutely love these people: Commemorating the ten-year anniversary of the beloved Jesus Storybook Bible – music, art and story come together onstage for an unforgettably intimate evening of worship and celebration.
Join Amy Grant, Sally Lloyd-Jones and Ellie Holcomb for The Stories and Song Tour as they explore God’s narration, inspiring the audience to recognize the Master Story He is telling in each of our lives.
First Woman to Enter Boston Marathon? Runs It Again, 50 Years Later
Q Conference: Where Christians gather to engage the most difficult conversations in our culture –
would love to see you here? Nashville, TN: April 26-28, 2017 – this is for everyone — moms, dads, nurses, teachers, pastors
we loved this: a community celebrates what they created by working together: #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
You are cordially (scratch that!) CASUALLY invited to come in your sweatpants and join the Never Unfriended (sweatpants) book club. It’s free! And it’s totally casual. Sign up here to join us.
the whole earth is full of His glory #HisBeautyHeals
Carol Quintanilha/Loiro Cunha
Carol Quintanilha/Loiro Cunha
Carol Quintanilha/Loiro Cunha
a welcome and beautiful interruption to a city’s normal day #HisBeautyHeals
it’s quite simple, yet extraordinary at the repair cafe: neighbor helping neighbor #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
photo: Meredith Richmond
She Fell Off a Cliff: a miraculous story of survival we had to share
serious soul fuel for the weekend – #youcandoHardThings
tears: on a mission to spread love to kids with cancer… #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
their words of grace and forgiveness shared here? please don’t miss
Post of the Week from these parts here
… it’s kinda a strange thing to hear that most kids want to grow up to be famous. And this one’s conversation to have when you’re bending low in dirt, planting small seeds, dirt under your fingernails:
3 Truths about Platform No One Ever Tells You & the Thing About Fame We Have to Keep Talking About
As a mama of a little Heart Warrior — kinda undone with this one:
“God has something big in store for me. I can’t wait to see where He takes me.”
An extraordinary story of love, sacrifice, and rebirth. #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
Take the Dare, Join the Revolution, Pick Up The Broken Way
on repeat here this week: You’re a good, good Father – it’s Who You are
…so, here’s the thing, God — just thank You for spreading
Your protecting shield over us at the end of this day.
Shielding us from the worry that keeps on pressing in,
from the fear that creeps in from behind,
from the dark that seeps up the edges.
Thank you that right now, even now, You “spread Your protection over [us]… You cover [us] with favor as with a shield.” Psalm 5
Just, really — thank You for shielding us tonight, so we can rest
and not be worriers —
because You are our protecting Warrior.
For we know that worry is practicing the absence of Your presence.
And that might just be the best secret to a good night sleep:
lay all those fears & worries to rest in Him.
[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.
April 21, 2017
3 Truths about Platform No One Ever Tells You & the Thing About Fame We Have to Keep Talking About
W e plant seeds here on the farm, kneel and put hands in the dirt.
From dust we have come and to dust we will return — we’re all just dust.
One of the kids kneels in the dirt, looks up, and asks:
“So, I asked this kid yesterday what he wanted to be someday? And he said he was going to be a famous player. Why do all the kids want to be famous? Is that kinda the point of everything — to become famous? What if I just — wanna be a farmer?”
I mention that to the kid:
That when plucky Jennifer Lawrence tripped in her festooning white gown, trying to get up on that platform to get her Oscar—the world kinda fell in love a bit more for her stumbling, blessed humanity.
Because, really now, who teaches you how to hold up the piles of taffeta and take the stairs for an Oscar?
Who teaches anyone how to stand up and be famous?
It just isn’t done—or at least, if you check out the headlines in the checkout aisle, it’s rarely done well.
Because the thing is, no one is meant to really stand on platforms.
Sure, everyone’s got a platform under them—every parent, every creative, every businessperson, every person who is standing somewhere, near someone.
Sure, the movers and shakers would have us thinking that a platform is what elevates your visibility above the crowd so your message finds its your audience.
But there’s a deeper current of Truth running through the cosmos:
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
And in a world where there are 93 million selfies taken a day and counting — the strange thing is, for all the striving to be seen: The more exposed we are, the more unknown we can feel.
Fame and feeling noticed —- isn’t the same as being known and feeling loved.
How do you tell the kids — that the truth is:
You don’t have to pursue fame to transcend your own mortality, because Christ pursues you and in Him you transcend all of time right into eternity.
The greatest venom of fame can be that you start thinking mostly about yourself — to the point of death by self.
And you’re not made to think mostly about self — you’re made to think about serving, about others, about giving away yourself.
It’s a conversation to have when you’re bending low in dirt, planting small seeds, dirt under your fingernails:
A platform is whatever one finds under one’s feet—and the only thing that is meant to be under a Christian is an altar.
The only call on a Christian is not to pick up a microphone, not to pick some stairs to some higher platform, but to pick up a cross and come die.
The only call on a Christian is to build every platform into the shape of an altar, to shape every platform into the form of sacrificial service.
Every platform, every microphone, every podium is meant to be a nail—fixing us to Christ, the only One lifted up.
The loamy earth is dark in our hands.
When our culture places a premium upon stardom — we live in perpetual dark.
Culture that is fixated on stardom misses the light of extraordinary people doing holy, ordinary work.
The sun is catching in the trees over the field, falling on the Farmer’s bent back, on the backs of the kids with their hands in dirt.
A boy looks up at his dad, smiles. And my heart kinda burns:
You will most deeply find yourself when you find yourself serving others — and looking up into the face of God.
The world tilts upside down and finally aright — when we see all platforms and the purpose of everything is simply taking on the form of service.
Serve from a real place:
A platform isn’t about remarkable marketing; it’s about serving in a remarkable way.
It’s about serving from a real place of humility, authenticity, and vulnerable transparency.
Cease striving to get to a higher, greater platform—and start praying to go lower to serve greater.
Jesus’ platform was a place of serving from His real humanity, as He walked and talked and broke and gave away His real life. The most remarkable platforms are those that are altars that leave the mark of the sacrificed Christ.
Serve a real need:
A platform is a holy place to kneel down and wash the very real wounds of the hurting. Jesus’ platform wasn’t about pushing his agenda or ‘product,’ but about caring for people’s afflictions and pain.
Serve real value:
A platform isn’t about self-serving, but is about humbly serving possible solutions. Jesus’ platform was about bending low to offer that which had real, eternal value.
I find a way to tell that kid kneeling down in the dirt:
Could have been the tulle and satin that made Jennifer Lawrence trip trying to get up to that platform. Might be what you see in checkout headlines and in the pages of the Good Book:
The soul was never made to carry the weight of fame.
The frame of a soul was never made for fame. The frame of a soul was made to serve.
Fame can only be carried by the One who could carry the weight of the world on that Cross.
“You know what I think, Son?” I turn to the boy planting his seeds in dirt. “I think if you could talk to Jennifer Lawrence or all the famous players in whatever big league they’ve landed in? I think they’d tell you all the same thing….”
I lean over, lay a few more seeds into his open hand.
“I think everyone should get rich and famous and get all the things they want — to find out that none of that’s the answer that they really want.”
And the boy half-grins and nods, plants his small seeds in the warm dirt.
And there’s a way to believe in the value of The Seed Life, a way to believe in the eternal answers found in small things that do the best work in hidden ways.
The boy and I and his dad, we plant seeds, the knees of old jeans worn and dirt-laden with the bending, with the brave beauty of going lower.
April 19, 2017
how shame can be quietly destroying your life [and how to destroy it]
Susie Larson’s mentor once told her that she has an up-front ministry with a behind-the-scenes heart. Like me, Susie is an introvert, wired for solitude and reflection. And it’s in that place, her passionate, powerful prayer life was born. She’d say that this is the place where she gets the most done in the world. This is the place where God reminds her who she is to Him. And this is the place where her heart beats in rhythm with His, which compels her to pray bold, tenacious prayers and to ask for the impossible that the world might profoundly know that God is present and personal and loves deeply. It’s a grace to welcome Susie to the farm’s front porch today…
The other day, my son Jake called to chat.
Even during his wandering years, he called regularly to sort through his questions and concerns.
This particular day he struggled to understand why it’s so difficult for him to receive generous gifts from others.
We revisited an experience from his teenage years.
Though typically reliable and obedient, he made a costly choice one winter night.
Long story short, he pulled into a parking lot, spun around in the snow, hit a concrete structure, and caused about three thousand dollars’ worth of damage to my truck. He was devastated. I was stunned.
We sat down as a family and processed what happened.
Jake’s little brothers asked him questions and he humbly answered them.
Kevin leaned in with fatherly strength and said, “Son, you’ve just taken a huge withdrawal from the ‘trust’ account. We have to deal with the consequences of this costly choice.
However, I want you to know something: Your account is not empty. We love you. We still trust you and respect you. You are a trustworthy son.”
Now I sat on the edge of my treadmill and held the phone close to my ear. “Jake, do you remember what you were doing when Dad said those words to you?”
He whispered, “Um, no. I don’t.”
I continued, “You gripped the arms of the chair and looked down at your feet. You couldn’t even look up at him.”
Jake went silent on the other end.
“Honey? Are you there?”
His voice cracked. He whispered, “Mom, I always knew you and Dad handled that incident brilliantly, but I couldn’t exactly remember how it all played out that day. Something got in me when I made a choice that so defied the things I care about most. I could never imagine that I’d do what I did. I’ve never really been able to get past it. Oddly, I had no idea that my posture was so shut down when Dad spoke to me. I faintly remember his words now, but they sure didn’t go in back then.”
“That’s shame, son. That’s what got in you that day. It’s shame. Could it be that underneath your strong work ethic is a heart that doesn’t believe that God might want to lavish a goodness on you that goes beyond your efforts or even beyond what you think you deserve?” My voice cracked as I asked such probing questions.
Again, more silence from Jake.
Then, my big, husky, first-born son started to cry. I sucked in a sob.
“Oh, honey. Can I just tell you? I love you so much. And that shame? It’s not from God and it’s not from us.”
We both struggled to find words.
He then asked me, “Is this what has held me back all these years? Is this why it’s difficult for me to receive out-of-the-ordinary kinds of gifts? And why I don’t ask for your help or for God’s? Because of shame?”
“I think so, honey. But imagine how delightful your relationship with God could be if you learned to approach and even pursue Him with assurance and confidence, convinced that He’s good and that He has set His affections upon you.
I’d say, right now, you’re missing the best parts of this relationship. But what joy for you to discover an unhindered, joy-filled relationship with your Father who loves you and loves to lavish His goodness upon you!
Doing so will affect every aspect of your life: your work, your play, your bike riding, and your morning coffee with your wife.”
How often does shame keep us from audaciously running into the arms of our Father not only to receive grace just after we’ve blown it, but to dare to ask for things we could never earn, deserve, or acquire on our own?
After my conversation with Jake, I wondered:
Is shame just a negative emotion and a skewed mind-set, or an actual parasitic force that drains life, takes life, and keeps us from the life God has always intended for us?
Consider what’s true about some of the mind-sets we often embrace:
It’s not humility that compels us to shy away from God and ask little from Him—it’s shame.
It’s not integrity that keeps us from asking for God’s help when we need it—it’s pride, independence, and shame.
It’s not noble to go without something that God has promised to provide—it’s an orphan-mentality rooted in shame.
It is not justice that keeps us far from God after we’ve blown it—it’s shame.
It’s not kindness that keeps us from ”bothering” God with our persistent requests—it’s either spiritual laziness or shame.
We don’t have to try and convince God to be good to us. In fact, He’s the one trying to convince us to receive and walk in His goodness.
Here’s what’s true for the person who is in Christ, and is therefore, His joint-heir:
We are recognized in the heavenly court and have every right to appear before the King, assured of His glad welcome. (See Ephesians 3:12; Hebrews 4:16)
We have an Advocate—Jesus Himself. He intercedes for us day and night. We’re not bending the ear of an unrighteous judge in effort to get his attention. (See 1 John 2:1; Hebrews 7:25.)
We have the affection and attention of our star-breathing God who loves us and intends to finish what He started in us (See Psalm 18:6; Philippians 1:6.)
I used think of being shameless in only negative terms: someone with no social awareness or sense of common decorum, someone with no fear of God and no concern for others.
And while that alarming aspect of our culture is growing by leaps and bounds, let’s not throw out its counterpart: Shameless—audacious, unconcealed, undisguised, transparent, unashamed.
Jesus invites us into His presence without shame, without our past baggage, without the need to cover ourselves or to be someone we’re not, without the enemy’s constant taunts in our ear telling us we’re not enough, and without the self-deprecating slurs we constantly hurl at ourselves.
Jesus wants us, invites us, into His presence, expectant and full of faith —
full and free, healed and whole.
Susie Larson is a talk radio host, national speaker, and author of twelve books. Drawing from thirty years of journaling, trusted author and radio host Susie shares the secrets to effective prayer. She will help you put into action the powerful combination of a humble reverence before God and a tenacious hold on the promises He gives His beloved children, drawing you closer to God and changing how you see yourself and your circumstances.
I cannot recommend Susie Larson or her words to you highly enough — this woman is a gift to the church. A life-changing treasure of a book to revisit again and again — Your Powerful Prayers: Reaching the Heart of God with a Bold and Humble Faith.
[ Our humble thanks to Bethany House for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
April 17, 2017
when you’ve felt rejected
Adult friendships don’t come easily, do they? Christine Hoover knows this well enough. She discovered she’d been holding a shattered wish-dream of ideal friendship in her hands, and God Himself had graciously done the splintering because He had something real and rich to offer instead. A new picture of friendship emerged for her, one that she shares with us in her new book Messy Beautiful Friendship— It’s a grace to welcome Christine to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Christine Hoover
The words came through an email and, as I’d skimmed through, I at first assumed I hadn’t read them correctly.
My heart began beating quickly as I reread the first few lines and saw that, in fact, I’d read it right the first time.
The biting words sunk in deep.
A friend had misunderstood me and not given me the benefit of the doubt, and she was writing to let me know I had disappointed her.
We’ve all been hurt by someone we considered a friend, whether it’s an inconsiderate word or an unexpected betrayal.
I’ve discovered that when it happens to me, as it did through that email, it’s my natural tendency, like many others, to pull away, erect protective barriers around my vulnerability, and let the friendship fade into the background as if it never existed.
Sometimes, when the wound is especially deep, our tendency is not just to write the friend off but also to write friendship off.
We’re hurt so badly that we give ourselves over to cynicism, bitterness, and resentment and we wonder if friendship is worth the risk of wading through the emotions and hurts, attempting reconciliation, and making ourselves vulnerable again.
We are friendly and sociable at a safe distance, but heart-level friendship?
It’s too hard and too risky, or, as we’ve already established, it never quite lives up to our exacting wish-dreams.
With that ideal view in mind, it’s far too easy to feel insecure about or frustrated with reality.
I tend to want to cast the responsibility or the blame for my imperfect friendships on others, but it works both ways.
Sometimes I am the one who hurts others, something I inadvertently did this year.
Although my friend whom I hurt brought it to my attention, at first I remained blind to the way I was wounding her, wanting to blame her instead. But she brought it to my attention again, just as clear and gentle as the first time, and I finally saw what my protective barriers had kept me from seeing and how they had been used as weapons instead of defense.
This friend challenged me to stay in the friendship and work through our differences rather than keep my distance, something that felt risky to me but in the end has been worth it and, I know, honors the Lord.
Isn’t this what true, biblical friendship is about: being willing to love, forgive, and bear with those we might not necessarily always understand? And being willing to confess sin, inadvertent or not, and receive the grace that helps us grow?
This is certainly more what it’s about than dinner parties and game nights. Biblical friendship is what helps us grow; it sharpens us just as we are used by God to sharpen others.
Over coffee, a young woman in my church and I discussed these things together, about how we have this stubborn belief that friendship can actually be what we ideally picture in our heads.
She said she wished people would invite her to more things and talked about how it seemed like everyone was always getting together without her.
I said I sometimes envied certain relationships and resented that I wasn’t included in them. After confessing our self-focused thoughts to one another, our conversation turned to what true friendship is and what it looks like in reality.
Isn’t it, we said, an ongoing effort? Doesn’t it require commitment and perseverance?
Isn’t it having to deal biblically with our inevitable hurts, being quick to forgive, crossing life-stage boundaries, and refusing to put other women in categories?
Isn’t it pushing through discomfort and refusing to give up on people even when they disappoint us?
And perhaps the most important question:
Isn’t it the greater blessing to be a person who seeks this type of community rather than clinging to false ideals and waiting for it to just “happen” to us?
Instead of holding fast to our ideals, we need to cling to a new definition of friendship, one that allows for awkwardness and risk and fumbling through, because isn’t the road of true friendship paved by these very things?
Paul offers us a definition for friendship that we’d do better to cling to than our false ideals:
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. (Col. 3:12-15)
Paul certainly goes beyond vacationing together and making small talk and waiting for someone else to initiate.
He exhorts us to actively pursue being a godly friend to others—to actively pursue being patient, forgiving, loving, and being thankful for others as we relate to them.
We don’t do these things because we hope to get something in return, friendship or whatever else.
We do these things because that is how Christ showed His love toward us — and because biblical friendship will always model itself after Him.
The focus is on what we give to others — not what they give to us.
Christine Hoover is a church planting pastor’s wife, mom to three boys, and author of The Church Planting Wife and From Good to Grace. Through her blog, Grace Covers Me, she enjoys encouraging women to apply gospel truths to their honest thoughts, especially in the areas of grace, community, ministry, and friendship. Her work has appeared on Desiring God, The Gospel Coalition, For The Church, and Incourage.
Women long for deep and lasting friendships but often find them challenging to make. Her new book, Messy Beautiful Friendship: Finding and Nurturing Deep and Lasting Relationships, explores the joys and complexities of friendship among women. With stories of real friendships and guidance drawn from Scripture, Christine encourages women to intentionally and purposefully invest in one of the most rewarding relationships God has given us.
[ Our humble thanks to Baker for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
April 15, 2017
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [04.15.17]
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:
Esther Havens / Big Bend
Esther Havens/Big Bend
Esther Havens/ Big Bend
she captures the world like no one else I know
and the kids thought this was kinda rioutous — and memorable in a helpful kind of way
Craig Burrows
Craig Burrows
Craig Burrows
so God gets all the glory here — the invisible light that plants emit. stunning
huge smile
so we gathered ’round this one and had to share – who would have thought?
Chris Malacarne
Chris Malacarne
what a story — one doctor delivers 3 sets of healthy triplets just weeks apart:
he credits the successful pregnancies each woman had with their sense of camaraderie & willingness to be there for one another. #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
maybe hold on? what a view from this glass bottom pool 500 feet above the ground
Sujata Setia
Sujata Setia
Sujata Setia
anyone else with me? cannot get enough of this right here
we have boys who can’t stop talking about this: the roof over our head — maybe in our near future?
Skye Gould/Tech Inside
the most famous book in every state
you’ve gotta come see these instruments he’s made – 400 of them, with the parts collected from the garbage
really — beauty can be made from anything, anywhere
read this 3 times this week: 15 Little Ways to Deepen Your Relationship With Anyone
a place where forgotten happiness is awakened: so wish this was practiced everywhere
so psychologists studied: baking for others and the good it brings #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
A man who can break down and cry — is man who will break open his heart to let your heart in.
This choked me up this weekend:” “You hear a lot about leadership. How does God lead? How does the Prince of Heaven show us true leadership? He steps out Heaven, takes the form of the lowliest servant and kneels and washes the dirt off our feet.” ~Sally Lloyd Jones
I just absolutely love these people: Commemorating the ten-year anniversary of the beloved Jesus Storybook Bible – music, art and story come together onstage for an unforgettably intimate evening of worship and celebration. Join Amy Grant, Sally Lloyd-Jones and Ellie Holcomb for The Stories and Song Tour as they explore God’s narration, inspiring the audience to recognize the Master Story He is telling in each of our lives.
beautiful: seeing in color for the very first time
a money experiment that may surprise you: unforgettable
The Power of Prayer, of our God: a story of survival that has doctors saying it’s a bonafide miracle
this one’s for every nurse out there – we can never thank you enough
Wycliffe
so good: How Single Women Became an Unstoppable Force in Bible Translation
Female missionaries have propelled the movement to bring Scripture to every tribe and tongue.
always remember: just keep swimming
deeply powerful: thoughts on how to best start our days
a compelling interview with Simone Biles: ‘How my parents made a difference’
this is just so good — read several times: What Good Friday teaches us about cynicism
2 years after a huge act of kindness? he’s now found his calling #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
Keep returning to this: Hard Holy Week? What He Asked Us on Maundy Thursday Changes the World, the Church & Every Broken Heart
YES: We Believe
As Jesus Christ lies in the tomb, tomorrow is coming!
Post of the Week from these parts here:
… you know, it’s kinda hard when they call a week Holy Week — because a whole lot of things can go wrong. And can I just confess: I can be the woman who praises Him like a Palm Sunday when it goes my way — and who complains loud like a Good Friday when it doesn’t. Honestly, we all need space to be real:
When You’re Kinda Struggling Through Holy Week — and don’t feel holy at all –
Take the Dare, Join the Revolution, Pick Up The Broken Way
…God cries because His people cry for things that won’t bring them more peace.
The people that praise Him quiet on Palm Sunday on the way into the city — are the same crowd that cry “Crucify” loud on Good Friday when it doesn’t go their way.
Don’t believe things can change? Just look at Palm Sunday — to Good Friday — to Resurrection Sunday. Always believe, always keep hoping — things can change.
And yeah — I can be the woman who praises Him quiet when it goes my way — and who complains loud when it doesn’t. This is what happens when God doesn’t meet expectations. When God doesn’t conform to hopes, someone always goes looking for a hammer. I can bang my frustration loud.
And it’s really true: what brings us more peace is always more praise.
There are days when Christ comes to me in ways that look as lowly as coming on a donkey and I’m the fool who doesn’t recognize how God comes.
God enters every moment the way He chooses and this is always the choice: wave a palm or a hammer.
Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday — and the only way to live a holy life is with palms open wide. To live given and hidden and surrendered — cross-formed.
[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.
April 14, 2017
World Seems Kinda Ripped Apart & You’re Tired of Feeling Torn? How Good Friday Meets All Our Hard
Our Pastor calls one year to ask if I’d write a moment through the eyes of the mother of Jesus? So I write down words… and imagine the mother of our Lord… fingering the bloody tunic of her Son.
Son…. Son of God… Son of mine…
God.
Why?
From the beginning I have watched and I have listened and I have pondered all these things quiet in my heart — but now I have to ask:
why?
Why didn’t You come down from that Cross in all Your power and Glory?
Why didn’t You blind the chief priests with Your divine radiance?
Why didn’t You still all their blasphemous tongues with the army of the heavenly host, with Your burning holiness, with Your flaming sword?
Isn’t that who You really are?
Oh Son — why?
I know… I know.
Only Your blood flow can extinguish the flames of hell.
There was no other way.
How could You let a lost world burn?
You took fire so we could walk free. You took violence so we could be victors. You took hell so we could be healed.
Sin hurt You far deeper than the spikes.
And You let the horrors of satan take a swipe at You so that all horrific sin could be wiped clean.
And You knew it all along.
You were conceived into skin for the Cross — the cave of that manger beginning glimpsing the cave of Your Messiah, martyred endings.
You who had no beginning, You were born for this, for the blood —
that we might be reborn to life.
Oh Son….
I know… how could You have been our Saviour if You hadn’t known suffering?
How could we have worshiped You if You weren’t wounded?
How could we bow to You if You were not bruised?
We could only believe in You because You have lived in us — in our mangled world, in our aching pain, in all our hurting humanity.
You alone are the God for us — because You alone are the God who has been one of us. You felt what we feel, You touched the death that we know, You came to us as Immanuel: God with us.
I remember when Joseph first told me… that the angel had told him that You would be called Immanuel… God with us.
I started weaving your robe right then.
The loom work was soothing, the shuttle slipping back and forth, like rocking, a lullaby. And I dreamed of You and holding You and how someday You would wear this cloth…. this tunic without seams.
It’s tradition, what all Jewish mothers give to their sons when they leave home: a seamless robe.
And I began Your one-piece before I even beheld You and I wove late through the nights, under that circle of moon and I thought of You who has no beginning and no end, You from which all things are from and through and to… and I gave you the robe and I watched You walk this sod and I was there.
I was there at Calvary and I stood near that Cross with my sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas and with Mary Magdalene and I saw you heave breathe.
And I saw the blood trickling down from the iron pierced holes in your feet and I saw the soldiers take Your clothes… this one-piece robe… and I hardly breathed… and I heard them say, “Let us not tear it.”
And when they already had tore you right through…
“This all happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”
And I heard you say, your voice gurgling blood, “Dear Woman… here is your son.”
And I went home with John, my mind thinking of you torn and your one-piece robe still whole…
How You let your side be ripped open that our lives need never be split into sacred and secular.
How you were slashed that our lives could be seamless — all holy.
That the veil in the temple rents in two because of You, and there is no longer a divide between the common and the hallowed and the whole earth is full of your glory and You are the continuous, unending, divine thread that weaves through all of the world, holding all together… even when you, Son, are rent apart.
And hanging naked and blood smeared and dirt defiled, You nodded slow and You said yes — You gave us your one-piece robe of seamless holiness and You clothed us, the filthy ones, in all your white righteousness.
Your blood wasn’t enough.
Your buying us back wasn’t enough.
Your being our brother wasn’t enough.
Nothing short of dressing us beautifully and calling us Beloved would be enough.
O Son…
That I’d take up this cloth that You give me and be who You name me — Beloved.
That there’s no more being torn in a million directions — that no matter what pulls, I have a one-piece life life in You: One direction, One purpose, One audience, One Love, One Joy — a one-piece life — all holy, all meaningful, all offered to You.
That I’d wear a One-Piece life and see Your face in a thousand faces, in a thousand humble and unseen places, and all my life would be all with You. And the moon will shine round and the threads of all my moments will shine with Your glory. And this one-piece life — that it’d be all be for the One and True God alone…
I swaddled You in the beginning…
And now You hold us and robe us in You.
Related:
How What He Asked Us on Maundy Thursday Could Change the World & The Church & Every Broken Heart
April 13, 2017
Hard Holy Week? What He Asked Us on Maundy Thursday Changes the World, the Church & Every Broken Heart
“There’s a reason He called us His Body and not His Estate.”
That’s what Tib Pearson told me.
Tib with his Red Wing workboots and worn John Deere hat and hands weathered and etched like a greying cedar rail.
“A Body is connected with sinew and vein — and an estate is divided with fences and line.”
He said it with his hands, the way a man of the land does, and you could see how his hands knew rusted wire and gnarled barbs and how to free things caught in fences.
“You gotta cut down the fences – or you cut up the Body.”
I’m not saying Tib knew anything, really.
Just maybe saying something about how to open up the earth and suffer a bit, so there is yield, how the Christ had commanded on Maundy Thursday, maundatam Thursday, Thursday of the new mandate, that command of the Last supper:
“A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34–35)
The way we live that?
You’d think it was some flimsy, take-it-or-leave-it suggestion.
You’d think disciples are actually known by the number of points of their creeds, or the acceptable books on their shelves, or the right conferences on their calendars, or the approved names they drop in the church foyer.
You’d think Christ’s own were known by who they avoid, who they disdain, who they call out, who they label. You’d think being known by your love was being known as a liberal instead of a Christian, and there are thousand things backward about this.
Do you tell a man like Tib Pearson that you think we’re all getting torn apart?
That it feels like someone is trying to rip us sisters apart at the holy limbs, that love is laughed at as the anemic brother of muscular truth, and that acerbic rhetoric seems like the blood flow through the Body, not love?
I told Tib flat out once, that I thought a woman was teaching something false, that she was leading sisters astray, mudding up their minds and their one wild heart.
I’d lay in bed at nights staring at the ceiling, churning, desperate to protect the Church, to keep the Gospel pure.
And there was Jesus in the weeks before Calvary, Christ crushed beneath that Cross, begging that prayer of Maundy Thursday:
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message….
that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity.
Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20–23)
Only those who love, are sent by Christ.
Without love — Christ didn’t send you.
Who will keep His new commandment and who will be the answer to Christ’s prayers? Who will love as He lived?
And I once laid awake for weeks, thinking of how someone took some of the broken pieces of my own story and misunderstood them and what they said of me, broke more of me, and I won’t lie — the whole thing, it cut to the quick, right there under the rib, razor sharp. I’ve bled for a long time.
Sometimes your scars bleed quietly long after everyone thinks you’ve healed.
I believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him as the Only Way, truth and light and the Cross as my only hope and salvation and the Word of God as a pure word, a sure word, the only inerrant, infallible Word.
I believe it is only people who are fallible and interpretations that are errant and studying the Word of God – is about having the Word of God study us.
Sometimes instead of shooting someone a clarifying question – we shoot arrows. I thought my heart might bleed to death.
The Farmer, he pulled on this t-shirt “My Wife Rocks” – not his typical farmer vernacular or his typical farmer attire – but it was his broken way of standing with me, dying for me, and he just drew me close when the pain of it all made it hard to keep standing.
I had laid awake at night and it hurt to inhale.
And I groped around that thought and I repented and prayed I wouldn’t forget: Christians need to be most careful with words if we are the most Christ-full.
And what a heart knows by heart is what a heart knows and mine pounded out in the dark, the memory of Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers – for they will be called children of God.”
If I didn’t live peace – whose child would I be then?
It took me several nights of laying awake — but finally once night — I got up out of bed. My fingers trembled but wasn’t His command to love one another anyways and I tapped out an email to that person whose words had bled me open. I sent an invitation to dinner.
Not a rebuttal, not an explanation, not a defence.
I invited their whole family to come over and sit across the table. When a relationship starts to break down, instead of breaking fellowship — always ask to break bread.
The Body of Christ has a thousand angry opinions, a thousand fractions and divisions and circles, all these cliques of circles, all these walls. But not one of us are not broken.
And acknowledging our own brokenness is what makes high walls between people crumble. Because when you are broken – it’s always your pointing finger that is broken. You can’t point at anyone else anymore as the only sinner.
Brokenness breaks us from our need to be “right” and breaks us open to our need to extend the grace we have been given.
And when I saw their email responding to mine to break bread, I closed my eyes —
and I prayed hard and I was shaking scared when I opened their words because you don’t know when a fence might be built or tore down.
I read the words there on my screen:
“I want to send you an apology… Something happened inside of me when I saw your name in my inbox.
I had neglected to remind myself — that you are a real person and, not only that, but a sister in Christ.
I can’t deny that somewhere in my mind lurks this insider and outsider kind of thinking which somehow encourages me to extend greater courtesy to one group than another.”
And I put my hand on the screen and laid my head down on the table and there’s no shame in saying I cried hard.
Insider and outsider kind of thinking – all these walls, all theses barriers, all this pain.
While I was yet sinning directly against Him, Christ reached out wide to me and directly took the nail and literally drained Himself for me .
Though we may theologically disagree with one another, aren’t we still called to be nice to one another?
If we truly believe someone’s soul is in danger — why do we demonize them instead of evangelize them?
And laying there in the dark, thinking about how one fence had been torn down by love, and how I could tear down another fence and love a sister different than me — He can give you eyes to see and it’s like you can read the writing right there on all the walls between us:
Obedience to the law of Love is the most expedient way to preach the gospel.
There’s Christ in the weeks before Calvary, Christ crushed beneath that Cross, and what did He do but live the law of love?
What does God do but live the law of love: “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
God loves while we sin, God holds out His hand to the disobedient, and love is what makes God the most potent of all. Love is the the most radically subversive activism of all, the only thing that ever changed any one.
We never have to be afraid to love — as if love might gag truth and kill God.
Love never negates truth. Because love never silences Truth.
Love is the very foundation of Truth: without love, Truth crashes, a clanging gong. Without love, Christ didn’t send you.
Love is the language of Truth and grace is the dialect of God and Truth is only understandable if spoken with understanding love.
Christ prayed that new mandate on Maundy Thursday, that we might be brought to complete unity — and unity doesn’t mean that we paper over our differences. It means we open the papers of His Word and dialogue, not open fire and destroy.
It could happen like this: We could stop confusing unity with unanimity. God’s people may not have doctrinal unanimity, but we must have definite unity, if we’re ever to have deep credibility.
The eminent theologian, J.I. Packer, he had prayed like my friend Tib, for the “visible church as a single worldwide, Spirit-sustained community, within which ongoing doctrinal and denominational divisions, though important, are secondary rather than primary.”
True, there is always this tension between practicing Unity and preaching Truth – but it is the tension of two people hanging fiercely on to each other, like the tension of a bridge, that the Gospel might go forth into all the world. If we let go of each other — the Gospel goes nowhere.
What can wound Christ more than Christians cannibalizing each other?
I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to agree together, to end your divisions, and to be united by the same mind and purpose.
For members of Chloe’s household have made it clear to me, my brothers and sisters, that there are quarrels among you.
Now I mean this, that each of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” or “I am with Cephas,” or “I am with Christ.”
Is Christ divided?” ~1 Cor 1:10–14
Is Christ divided?
Puritan Richard Baxter in his work The Reformed Pastor
brazenly wrote:
“He that is not a son of Peace is not a son of God. All other sins destroy the Church consequentially; but Division and Separation demolish it directly…”
Division and separation demolish the Church directly. Tib Pearson, he knows what every farmer knows. If you want a field to yield, you have to tear out the fences.
Is the internet, is the Body of Christ, too scared to break down walls and reach across lines? Aren’t I chief among sinners? Scared that if I reach out to that person– some will conclude that I agree with all of their theology.
What if I was just loving the person?
That’s how the enemy tries to cut the Body with two wires:
If you disagree with someone on one point – then you must disdain or dismiss them entirely. And if you acknowledge or affirm someone – then you must agree with them entirely. This is a lie. Break it.
Having Christian convictions can’t ever negate having Christ’s compassion.
Christ was never scared of guilt by association.
Sure, the watchdogs asked, “Why does he eat with sinners and tax collectors?”
Because He was loving them.
Maundy Thursday’s there on the calendar today and Christ carries His cross and this is the call of God in this hour to the Body of Christ in this world: Instead of drawing dividing lines in the community of Cross believers -– the broken are called to demolish the walls of division.
And we are the sisters who can’t be torn apart, who rise up with Beth Moore’s wisdom: “We break our sinful stereotypes in Christianity the same way we break them in the world – we get to know people we’re prejudiced toward.”
We are God’s people are done with ghettos and are on fire with the good news.
We are the People of the Cross who are ready obey the mandate of the Thursday before Good Friday, who live the new commandment of Maundy Thursday and find one woman different than we are and us broken people who start breaking down walls and we reach out to someone of a different denomination, a different political leaning, a different nationality, a different culture, a different orientation, a different skin color –a different religion.
We are the People of the Cross who take seriously enough the commandment of the Last Supper to love one another — that we invite someone to our table from the other side of the fence.
We are God’s children who break bread together — to break down walls.
We are the People of the Cross who instead of waging attack on the implicit issues of another’s faith life — spend our lives openly encouraging an explicit faith in the living Christ. We are God’s people who really believe the Bible, that “The Lord knows those who are His” (2 Tim. 2:19), and we could be the ones who stop judging and simply make our lives about the joy-filled proclamation of knowing Him and making Him known.
We could be His people called to be Peacemakers and Rift Menders and Fence Destroyers, the ones who know that the brokenness of humility is the secret to community and the harshness of pride is what builds walls of division.
We could be the ones in Christ who are done with fearing guilt by association and ready to live grace by association.
Why be afraid of guilt by association – when if we don’t associate beyond the walls, no one will ever come to know the wonders of His grace?
We could be the ones who know that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Gal.5:6)
The people who know not just in our cerebral synapses but in the chambers of our bravely pounding hearts: that if we have right doctrine, but have not love, we are nothing more than a clanging gong.
I could tell Tib that.
That the only barbed wire the Body ever knows is like those barbed thorns pressed into His brow.
How that Maundy Thursday Lord, that Good Friday Christ, broke His own body on that cross to break down the walls of hostility that separate us all.
This Holy Week — taking the way Jesus takes to abundant life… the beautiful & healing Broken Way
April 11, 2017
When You’re Kinda Struggling Through Holy Week — and don’t feel holy at all
So, my Grandma Ruth, she told me if you found a man who’d weep over a story — that was a man you could marry.
The morning of Palm Sunday, the porridge boils over and burns on the stove.
A girl here tries on three dresses, slumps into the kitchen and declares she has nothing to wear. A younger girl here can’t find her something for her hair — only this mangled bow one that’s missing the barrette. Caleb points out that someone’s dropped their orange peels all down the back garage steps.
I’m strangling down a frustrated rant.
Malakai, reaching for milk for his porridge, slips off his chair and splits his lip right open on the edge of the table.
There is blood dripping on our kitchen floor on Palm Sunday — for real.
[image error]
And on the kitchen table, there’s a bent silhouette carrying a cross.
He’s nearing the Story’s climax.
Twice, Jesus weeps in the Story.
When He saw where death had laid out Lazarus, when he saw his friend’s tomb, when he stood with the crying Mary, His Spirit moved like over the face of the waters, and water ran down the face of God.
That’s what Grandma had said: A man who can break down and cry — is man who will break open his heart to let your heart in.
Jesus wept.
He had loved Lazarus.
Our God is the God to find comfort in because ours is the God who cries… the God tender enough to break right open and let His heart run liquid and He is the river of life because He knows our heart streams. One day He will wipe all tears away because He knows how the weeping feel: He has loved us.
I hold a crying Malakai and his bloody lip on a messy Palm Sunday and our tears and love mingles with God’s.
Palm Sunday — the second time in the Story when the pain breaks Him and when the palm branches wave, our God weeps: When Jesus approached Jerusalem, “he wept over it and said, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace…”
If only you had known what would bring you peace…
We want more comfort — and He offers us a Cross.
We want more position — and He offers us purpose.
We want more ease — and He offers us eternity.
God cries because His people cry for things that won’t bring them more peace.
The people that praise Him quiet on Palm Sunday on the way into the city — are the same crowd that cry “Crucify” loud on Good Friday when it doesn’t go their way.
[Don’t believe things can change? Just look at Palm Sunday — to Good Friday — to Resurrection Sunday. Always believe, always keep hoping — things can change.]
And yeah — I can be the woman who praises Him quiet when it goes my way — and who complains loud when it doesn’t.
This is what happens when God doesn’t meet expectations. When God doesn’t conform to hopes, someone always goes looking for a hammer.
I can bang my frustration loud.
The Pastor would say it on Sunday — that the people’s Hosanna was a cry that literally meant “Save us! Save us!”
Jesus weeps because we don’t know the peace that will save us. What brings us more peace is always more praise.
There are days when Christ comes to me in ways that look as lowly as coming on a donkey and I’m the fool who doesn’t recognize how God comes.
God enters every moment the way He chooses and this is always the choice: wave a palm or a hammer.
How many times have I wondered how they could throw down their garments before Him on Sunday and then throw their fists at Him on Friday? But I’m the one in the front row:
If our thanksgiving is fickle, then it turns out that our faith is fickle.
I stroke Malakai’s forehead. Press mine to his.
“Can we just go get up and try again, Mama?” Malakai murmurs it, takes the cloth from his lip and I see the wound. Wipe his wet cheek.
I hold him. Just hold him long at the beginning of Holy Week, with these tears on the fingertips. Ready for praise on the lips. Keeping company with the Christ who cries, His heart broken wide open to let us in.
And this Holy Week, there’s a woman who wipes the drool from her father’s chin and carries him down the hall to the toilet.
And there’s a mother who lays down bits of her singular life to wash the bowls and the underwear of the teenager calling her a whore.
And there’s a missionary far away from a microphone or a spotlight, who bends in a jungle, in a brothel, in a slum, in a no-name, unseen part of the globe, and nobody applauds.
Are the realest sacrifices of praise not the ones shouted at the beginning of Holy Week, but the secret, sacred rites, that are gifts of praise that are given back to Him, gifts to Him and the world, offered with no thought of return on investment — just given when the only spotlight is His light — and your one flaming heart?
Maybe Holy Week is the week you ask yourself:
Who’s defining the terms when it’s an honor to be awarded by people
and a sacrifice to be called by God?
Maybe the call of Holy Week — isn’t so much about trying to carry your Cross across a lit stage… but to carry your daily Cross down the Via Dolorosa, to take the broken way of suffering.
Maybe the best way to let your life be a genuine Hosanna to Him — is to live given in places where it’d be easy for no hosannas to ever be sung.
The word “altar” comes from the Latin ‘altus’ meaning high — because real altars are not where crowds see and applaud the sacrifice. But real altars and sacrifice are where only Him in the Highest Heaven sees.
And I nod to our boy at the beginning of Holy Week, “Yes, yes… let’s — try again.” And the kid slides off my lap.
And there’s this walking together in into Holy Week, daring to walk with this brazen, unwavering thanks to Him that bends low enough to serve in hidden ways.
The way to worship Christ is more than raising your hands like you’re waving palm branches — it’s stretching your arms out like you’re formed like a Cross.
True worship isn’t formed like a hand-waving crowd — true worship is formed cruciform.
Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday — and the only way to live a holy life is with palms open wide. To live given and hidden and surrendered — cross-formed. Cruciform.
The silhouette of Christ there on the table, He carries a cross, leans forward like He’s leaning into a story, leaning into a glory story that could be ours.
Who doesn’t want choke up, about weep, that we could marry our vision to His, our hearts to His?
April 10, 2017
One Free, Easy, Passionate Habit to Reboot Your Marriage
For almost 30 years now, Steve Arterburn has been helping others build new lives in Christ. Through recovery programs, Women of Faith, and his syndicated radio show, New Life Live!, Steve’s life has been dedicated to living out 2 Corinthians 1:4, comforting those in trouble with the comfort he received himself. In the Mediterranean Love Plan, Steve explores the seven elements that make-up passion and shares practical ideas to increase your romance with life and your partner. Some of the elements might surprise you, but all are based on Scripture, research and then backed up with examples from the most romantic countries in the world. It’s a grace to welcome Steve to the farm’s front porch today…
I was raised in the middle of nowhere, out in West Texas. You could go your whole life out there, thinking you weren’t experiencing beauty out there.
Birds sit on telephone poles because they’re prettier than the trees.
Bees die trying to pollenate plastic flowers stuck in pseudo-gardens around houses.
It is so arid, there are more tumbleweeds than flowers, more dust storms than raindrops.
There are some locals who will argue with me, I’m sure; people who think mesquite trees are pretty, who wax eloquent about the sunsets over cow pastures that reach into forever, who think red dirt is artistic. I’m happy for them. It’s just not my thing.
What felt like a void of beauty, did give me an even deeper appreciation for beauty wherever I did see it.
Misty and I have talked about how important beauty is to us, so we fill our home with music, paintings and flowers.
We also camp, sit by a lake, jog, walk, ski, and do our best to live our lives surrounded by natural beauty whenever possible.
I am convinced it’s one of the reasons why our marriage is rich with passion, even as we are busy in the nitty-gritty of raising a houseful of children.
We find that when we refill our depleted tanks with beauty, it inspires us to better love life and appreciate each other.
The things we typically describe as beautiful-art, music, the human form, home décor, natural scenery, and even pleasing aromas-have one thing in common: they enter through our five senses and evoke feelings, memories, and moods that seem to bypass conscious, logical processing.
Beauty goes straight to the emotional center of our brain, enhancing our moods and creating conditions for loving encounters without our having a single conscious thought about it.
When we see or hear something beautiful, the experience opens our hearts and transports us to serene and happier states of mind, leaving us refreshed in spirit and inclined to be more generous to others. Natural and cultural beauty can have the same effect the sun has on flowers, opening people up like petals to receive warmth and light.
Then, with open hearts, we’re ready to give love.
By surrounding yourself with beauty, in all its forms, you can profoundly ignite feelings of passion and romance. Aristotle said, “Beauty is the gift of God.” Indeed. It is especially a gift to couples longing to experience the spark of romantic passion.
It’s a big plus on the passion front if you can live in a beautiful natural setting or get to one regularly on foot or by bicycle. The transformative power of nature’s beauty goes beyond romantic novels set in Mediterranean locales.
Research on the power of nature shows that our brains are “wired to fire” in relaxed pleasure when exposed to beautiful scenes of nature-the perfect state for falling in love with life and each other.
Maybe — Going for a walk everyday is the way for our every day marriages to walk into more passion?
Here are some amazing things that natural beauty does to enhance our lives:
Nature is healing.
Being in nature, or even viewing scenes of nature, reduces anger, fear, and stress and increases pleasant feelings. Exposure to nature not only makes us feel better emotionally; it contributes to our physical well-being, reducing blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones.
Nature is calming.
God created us to be engrossed by trees, plants, water and other natural elements; we are absorbed with scenes in nature and distracted from pain and discomfort. (Have you ever been mesmerized watching a fish swimming in a pond or tank, the glow of a fire, a sunrise or sunset?)
Natural beauty can have a hypnotic, pain-lessening effect on the brain. Healthy distractions allow our brains and bodies a chance to rest from looping negative thoughts.
Nature is restorative.
Nature positively affects our well-being. In one study in Mind, 95 per cent of people interviewed said that after they spent time outside, their mood improved, and instead of feeling depressed, stressed and anxious, they began to feel more calm and balanced.
Other studies show that spending time in nature or viewing scenes in nature is associated with positive mood and psychological well-being, a sense of meaningfulness, and vitality.
Nature helps us to focus.
Time spent in nature or simply viewing scenes from nature increases our ability to pay attention.
Nature provides a much-needed break for overactive minds (like mine!) refreshing us for new tasks. Studies show that being outside improves memory and attention span by 20 per cent.
Nature ignites feeling of connection.
According to a series of field studies at the Human-Environment Research Lab, time spent in nature connects us to each other and to the larger world.
Another study found that urbanites who had trees and green space around their buildings reported “knowing more people, having stronger feelings of unity with neighbors, being more concerned with helping and supporting each other, and having stronger feelings of belonging than tenants in buildings without trees.”
Nature fosters optimism.
Because of the greater number of hours spent in front of some kind of technological screen, we are suffering from what some researchers are calling “nature deprivation.” Less time in nature and more time in front of TVs and computers yields higher rates of depression.
In fact, new studies are showing that too much screen time can make us cynical: too much screen time is associated with a loss of empathy and a lack of altruism.
Nature energizes us.
Research from the Journal of Environmental Psychology showed that being outside in nature “makes people feel more alive,” and this feeling of passionate vitality happens above and beyond the effects of physical activity and social interaction.
In fact, just twenty minutes in nature was enough to significantly boost vitality levels.
A wise couple who want to remain passionately in love for a lifetime will proactively and frequently appreciate the beauty around them.
Whether that beauty is found in nature, or in music, art, a good book, a daily walk, or in each other’s faces.
Once we become attentive to how to be a more passionate person — then we can find ways to overlap our passions in our marriage.
There’s an inner Romeo/Juliet in all of us that simply needs a little encouragement to connect with romance, passion and all the beautiful senses that God gave us to savor and enjoy.
Maybe going for a daily walk together in nature — is how our hearts naturally begin to step closer to each other?
When we let love bloom and expand our hearts, we become more beautiful, more passionate.
One feeds the other in an endless circle of passion.
[image error]Steve Arterburn and his wife Misty have written a book together to help couples grow closer and have the real intimacy in marriage that God wants us all to have.
In Mediterranean Love Plan Steve and Misty share “secrets” that help couples connect…except they’re not so much secrets as Scriptural truth we either might have forgotten or didn’t think we could apply them to our marriages.
They share how these fun-to-apply secrets have taken their own marriage from confused to confident, from discouraged to delighted– and how you can do it too. The teachings in Mediterranean Love Plan offer unique, ground-breaking answers to many age-old questions — to awaken the inner Romeo/Juliet in all of us.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
April 8, 2017
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [04.08.17]
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:
Marcela Nowak
Marcela Nowak
Marcela Nowak
what she finds in this city in the middle of the night
huge smile
okay: proof that dogs are better than a pillow
XL-Muse
for all of the book lovers out there? you’ve gotta come see this library
art out of anything
The Winners Of 2017’s Sony World Photography Contest: Must See!
because sometimes…we all need to be rescued #beTheGIFT
too good not to share?
Fill Their Basket Sale: everything here 50% off this coming week! don’t miss this!
50 Questions To Ask Your Kids Instead Of Asking “How Was Your Day”
the boys were wildly intrigued: art out of anything
powerful story: My body wouldn’t break…so I couldn’t heal
come after decades of marriage — he did this with all his love for her
As women sometimes we can fall into the trap of glorifying busy.
This Easter you’re invited into a quiet space, away from the hustle, where you can find true rest, even while the world races by.
20 good news stories — because maybe your heart kinda needs it
how these communities — are making sure no one feels alone
…at times it takes a team to help us finish. Crazy beautiful #beTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
lzf (Bigstock)
How to Survive (Maybe Even Thrive) in Life’s Most Vulnerable Moments
Q Conference: Where Christians gather to engage the most difficult conversations in our culture –
would love to see you here? Nashville, TN: April 26-28, 2017 – this is for everyone — moms, dads, nurses, teachers, pastors
Sellers turn down the highest bid on their home:
Weakness Will Change the World — Will We Let it Change Us?
after losing his legs serving his country — he found a new way to serve #BeTheGIFT
Andrew Richardson/Starbucks
We can all learn from this one —
A customer who thought she had been “less than cheerful” returned to Starbucks the next day with this apologetic letter:
“You taught this ole lady something yesterday about kindness, compassion & staying humble. I thank you. God bless you, today & all your days.” #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
The Unspoken Code of Motherhood: is changing lives
his heaping helping of kindness changed her life #BeTheGIFT
Amanda Brown
how this bride ended her wedding day? just — tears
he was honored for breaking up a fight – and how he used his 15 minutes of fame?
commending someone else
Couldn’t love this more — what happens when Hutterites sponsor Muslim refugees,
when people from two different cultures become family
#betheGIFT
Post of the Week from these parts here
… kinda hurts how you can turn around one day and your hopes and dreams have sorta burned up or been scorched a bit.
Happens to every single one of us, none of us alone.
You’ll Need This When Your Life is On Fire: When Your Hopes & Dreams Burn Down
The Myth of Scarcity & Living The Mystery of Abundance
…and because you so want to love right now —
Download your April 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.
New Multivitamin Series every-ish weekend: Eye in the Sky over Our Neck of the Woods
Our son’s Levi’s eye in the sky takes a gander around our neck of the woods each-ish week
Why showing up and choosing to #BeTheGIFT is kinda everything?
Take the Dare, Join the Revolution, Pick Up The Broken Way
I Will Trust in You
..long day & you’ve had big, hard things coming at you. You may not even be saying it out loud — but really? It’s hard to keep showing up when it’d be easier to give up.
But can you hear Him this evening?
“Just Call to Me. I guarantee I will answer you.
I will make you strong & brave.” (Ps.138:3MSG)
Ask Him — He will come & make you strong & brave for the Hard Things.
So that’s the plan as we look toward the evening hours ahead: Be Brave.
And do not pray for the hard thing to go away.
But pray for a Bravery to come that’s bigger than the Hard Thing.
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
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