Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 148
March 3, 2017
how to soften your sharp edges with just three simple words
Every now and then, we lose track and go astray, at times wandering, at times rerouting, at times taking shortcuts – or even long cuts. And sometimes we find ourselves drifting, directionless, perhaps wondering if the path beneath our feet is one worth staying on at all. Rachel Macy Stafford has a gift for bringing us back home to what matters most. With breathtaking vulnerability, she articulates the ache for belonging and peace most of us cannot; her words offer us the communion which we desperately need to receive – if we are to cultivate daily peace and positivity in our stressed-out lives. Only love today are words which Rachel recites like a prayer and performs like a duty. Only love today are words which have become her way of life; and the way of life for Rachel’s readers who are now finding their own way back to what matters most thanks to the honest, inspired, timely message of her latest book, ONLY LOVE TODAY. It is grace to welcome Rachel to the farm’s front porch today.
guest post by Rachel Macy Stafford
I f you needed to lose weight, what would be most motivating?
You’ve put on some pounds. I’m not buying you any more clothes until you lose weight.
Or:
Let’s take a walk after dinner. I’ll let you make the salad.
I love you just the way you are, exactly as you are.
If you needed to learn how to swim, what would be most motivating?
I don’t want to hear your crying. Don’t be a baby!
Or:
I’ll be right by your side. You can do this. If not today, we’ll try again tomorrow.
I love you just the way you are, exactly as you are.
If you needed to practice better hygiene, what would be most motivating?
What is that awful smell? It’s a wonder you have any friends.
Or:
Let’s go to the store and pick out some deodorant. Your hair smells so good when you wash it.
I love you just the way you are, exactly as you are.
If you are a bit clumsy and disorganized, what would motivate you to be more responsible?
Not again! You are either losing things or making a mess.
Or:
Everyone makes mistakes. That’s how we learn. It’s no big deal—just get a rag and clean it up.
I love you just the way you are, exactly as you are.
At times in my life I have been overweight, scared to swim, smelly, and disorganized.
During those times, I could have used some encouragement. So when I saw the boy being dismissed from the pool because he was scared to swim, I cried with him. His father really wanted him to learn to swim. He thought reprimanding him and ignoring the boy’s cries would motivate him to try harder.
At times in my life, I thought this too …
About a little girl and her musical instrument,
About a little girl and her frequent messes,
About a little girl and her leisurely pace,
About a little girl and her reluctance to try new things.
“Play the song again; you’re not trying hard enough.”
“Another spill? Are you serious?”
“How many times do I have to tell you to hurry up?”
“All the other kids have learned to ride their bike. It’s high time you did too.”
With every sharply delivered word and every disapproving glare, that girl got smaller. Less confident. Less capable. Less shiny.
And one day she spoke the words of a defeated soul.
“I just want to be good, Mama,” cried the little girl who once loved to strum her beloved ukulele. Then she placed the instrument at her feet, wondering if she should even be strumming at all.
Over time, my constant critiques and exasperated breaths had led her to believe she was no good.
Over time, I’d broken her beautiful spirit—the one that radiated her God-given light.
Motivating? Not so much.
I could no longer deny the damage I was inflicting.
It was time to stop being so hard on my child; it was time to stop being so hard on myself. My inner bully, the voice that pushed me to ridiculous standards and glorified perfection, had to be silenced.
I prayed for the strength to stand up to my inner bully, but God gave me something more. He gave me a powerful three-word mantra to fight back.
Whenever a critical thought would come to my mind or mouth, I’d cut it off with the words, “Only love today.”
At first, I found myself saying the mantra as frequently as every few minutes—but it was working!
Within days of adopting the only love today mantra, I noticed a change in my heart and my home.
As my inner barriers began to diminish, my ability to respond more lovingly, more patiently, and more gently grew. My tightly-wound inner fiber began to do something I never thought would be possible; it began to soften.
By responding to others and myself with more compassion, patience, and acceptance, I began to see less in black and white and more in color.
I had no idea my loved ones had so many colors until I began to soften so they could shine.
The following vow is something I wish I’d made a few years ago—but perhaps it’s right on time for you. Perhaps it’s right on time for us all; I can’t help but believe our world could use a little softening right now.
Perhaps, in time, we’ll be able to look at ourselves and each other and say, “I love you just the way you are,” the way God loves us.
Perhaps instead of witnessing pain and condemnation in public and private places, we will see love and compassion in action.
Let it begin with us.
My Vow to Soften
I’ve had enough of my hard edges. I’m tired of straining my voice.
I’d like to loosen up and laugh a little more, be positive rather than negative.
I’d like to feel the upward curve of my lips.
I’d like to surrender control of things over which I have no control.
I’d like to let things unfold in their own time, in their own way.
I’d like to participate joyfully in this fleeting life.
I’d like to be softer
toward him,
toward her,
toward me.
Thus, this begins the process of my softening.
And this is my vow:
I vow to listen to opinions – I don’t always have to be right.
I don’t always have to agree or have the last word.
I vow to hand over the hairbrush, the pile of laundry, the school project,
the task before me. “How would you do it?” I will ask.
I vow to step aside and respect a new approach.
Success might be difficult to see at first; I vow to keep looking.
I vow to be more accepting of quirks, mannerisms, and differences.
I vow to be more accepting of tastes and styles unlike my own.
I vow to remember he is in the process of becoming; she is in the process of finding her way. And they are more apt to do it if I stop telling them how.
I vow to regard “weaknesses” as unripened strengths.
Inner gifts can be nurtured when I stop plotting ways to alter, change, and “improve.”
I vow to greet my family and myself with a loving smile,
no matter what happened yesterday.
I vow to pause before correcting.
I shall take a moment to consider if the mistake even needs to be mentioned at all.
I vow to be a voice of encouragement in a demeaning world.
I vow to be a silver lining spotter in my family’s little world.
I vow to be softer today than I was yesterday—a softer voice, a softer posture, a softer touch, a softer thought, a softer timetable.
By being softer, I can hear more, learn more, feel more, and love more.
At last I will fully see his colors, her colors, and my own.
Perhaps it will be for the very first time.
The colors might take my breath away,
bring me to tears,
or offer long-awaited peace.
I shall soften in order to illuminate the colors of the soul.
I shall soften so the human being within me and beside me can shine.
Rachel Macy Stafford has one goal: help people choose love as much as humanly possible. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Hands Free Mama and Hands Free Life, as well as a certified special education teacher and inspiring speaker. Millions find solace and direction in her weekly blog posts and supportive Facebook community.
Only Love Today, Rachel Macy Stafford’s newest work of heart, releases on March 7th. In it, and through her most honest writing yet, she reveals her own struggles to hold onto what’s most important, and make what’s most lasting the first priority in her every-day life. Her soul-building words remind us that we already possess the tools and insights we need in order to find our way back to what matters most. No matter where you flip open this read-anytime, read-anywhere book, you’ll find one of the most necessary elements of a centered, grounded life: encouragement.
This life affirming book offers us a blessed opportunity to learn along with Rachel, and to know what it is to feel less alone and more divinely aligned with peace – even in the midst of the chaos of life. Preorder your copy today and receive a collection of bonus gifts by emailing your receipt to rachelmacystafford@gmail.com.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
March 1, 2017
because sometimes you want to take back Lent & a broken world & your breaking heart: A Free 40 Day Lent Devotional Journey
So, I nod to all these people with these crosses right on their foreheads, pass them on the street.
People wearing these sooty crosses right there on their faces, right above their eyes. Right there on their heads, the shaping of their minds.
Like they want to be known and marked and boldly counted, come what may, as one of His.
There are these sooty crosses smudged on countless foreheads and that’s what is murmured like a brave and honest refrain around the world today, words from our Genesis beginning:
Dust you are and to dust you will return.
Dust.
Humanity was formed of dust and our human bodies will return to dust.
It’s like this early echo of what will be said over all our graves: “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
There’s hardly falling snow in the orchard. The trees are white and perfectly still out in the woods. There’s dust on the windowsills by the stove.
Wiping down the sills and the countertops and the stove, it’s like a refrain in my head: We’re all just dust. Just dust.
And if I’m only dust — just my love alone in the world will not be enough.
If love is all we need in this world — I’ve got a problem.
Because, honest? Our love isn’t enough to absorb the evil that decapitates men’s heads, evil that rapes little girls, evil that steals and sells children as sex slaves.
There’s real active evil that’s not simply people acting — there’s real evil that’s more than a social construct, that’s more than someone’s bad choices, that’s not from any heart in this world, that’s not from any place in this world, that’s not from any mind in this world — there’s a supernatural evil that slithers into the corners of this world and pythons around hearts and minds until it strangles out the light and we scream against the dark.
The only Love that can come take down the kind of evil that’s invaded our world, has to come from beyond the walls of the world.
The only Love that can crush undeniable evil is the undeniable love of the Cross.
When you’re just dust — your love alone will not be enough.
Super evil can only be absorbed by a supernatural kind of Love.
The kind of love that sings Kumbayah can’t shake a swaying candle at this kind of otherworldly evil — only an otherworldly Love that lets the hammer ring and took on the iron of the nails, that bore the weight of the world on that Cross, can torch straight through the hellish dark of this kind of evil.
Sometimes, for the love , your heart can’t love— which is exactly why Jesus offers you His.
He offers.
The whole story isn’t “Everyone’s in.” It’s “Everybody’s invited.”
Everybody’s wanted. Everybody’s loved. For God so loved the world.
Our love will eventually fail and leave somebody out — but Cross love never fails to take all the willing in.
His Love has no boundaries — and then He binds all the beloved to Him, to shape them to be like Him.
And He knows the only way for your love to be transformed to be like His — is for Him to give you a heart transplant. For Him to give you His heart.
When you don’t think you can forget the evil that’s been done —
When you don’t think you can forgive the evil that’s been said —
When it’s His supernatural heart beating in you — it lets you supernaturally love in a heart beat.
Only the undeniable love of the Cross can crush undeniable evil.
If there’s evil — not people acting, but real active evil — out to terrorize the world, attack young girls, take advantage of the vulnerable, blow us up and behead us — then Kumbayah love will never be enough — only Cross Love that willing offers itself for us as a Living Ransom will rescue any of us.
Because don’t ever be fooled: Cross Love that lays itself down is the only power that can lay the sharp edge of an axe right into evil’s head.
Cross Love that looks upside down, weak, surrendered and sacrificed is the only strong power that ultimately upends the evil and conquers the dark.
Only the undeniable love of the Cross can crush undeniable evil.
Either Jesus is the answer to the ultimate problems of the human condition — or there is no ultimate answer.
On the day after Ash Wednesday, there’s a wildfire of love in our bones…
maybe now is the time that there will be countless thousands of us who we will bend our knees at the great shores of history and let ourselves be counted as The People of the Cross.
Maybe that is all there is on the day after Ash Wednesday?
On the day after Ash Wednesday, The People of the Cross repent of wanting to be greatly known for anything other than for loving greatly.
On the day after Ash Wednesday, the People of the Cross repent of a love and life that does anything less than “Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.”
The People of the Cross repent of not daily, relentlessly, extravagantly loving our neighbour next door though we keep saying we want to change the world, and we repent of hating, avoiding, and dreading suffering though we say we want to be found worthy to suffer for the cross of Christ.
The People of the Cross repent of loving our agendas more — instead of interrupting our agendas because we love Jesus most.
Forgive us for our lack of prayer, because the very root of our lack of growth is almost always a lack of prayer.
Forgive us for more interest in the paparazzi, motion pictures & famous personalities and People Magazine than in praying for The Persecuted Church.
Forgive us for our lavish church building plans, instead of our plans to love lavishly as a church, forgive us for not serving the outcast but serving the outcast notice to go further away…
We repent of loving You, Lord, so little because we have loved ourselves too much.
Out by the barn this morning, you can see them from the kitchen sink —
They’ve gotten out the tractor and they’re clearing a path through the snow, finding a way through a strange wilderness of white, so that there’s this way through.
Maybe there’s a whole lot of us longing for a 40-Day journey through something more — more than we ever have before. Maybe because the world feels more like a strange wilderness that it ever has before.
Syria. Libya. Iraq. Paris. Denmark. Here.
Whatever we look at is what we become.
What if for 40 Days we looked to the Cross — so we might become Cross Love in a world caught in the cross hairs of war and heartache and pain?
What if we, for 40 Days, what if The People of the Cross looked to the Cross and prayed 1 Samuel 7:3 at 7:03? “If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods…and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out…”
And what if for the next 40 days we prayed repentance and redemption and revival and for The Persecuted Church and for the Church that is us, praying every morning from 7:03 until 7:14 and said our Amen with 2 Chronicles 7:14 : “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
What if we really committed to that kind of prayer for the next 40 days at 7:03? … till 7:14?
What if the next 40 days is asking The People of the Cross to do more than Give Up something — but to Take Back something?
Take Back taking up our Cross,
Take Back our time so we can turn back to our First Love,
Take Back our hypocrisy and our complacency and our apathy and Love Lavishly,
Take Back our excuses for not committing to Give Back every day in some tangible, real way — to the local food bank, to a woman’s shelter, to the refugees and the foreigners and the Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and to the forgotten neighbour next door with her meowing stray cat.
Maybe now is the time —
Now is the time to Take Back what it means to humbly and genuinely live the love of The People of the Cross.
There was once a spring here on the farm, long after the snow had melted out in the orchard and the cold had gone and the strange white wilderness had resurrected into green, that I had laid out in a field of the west of the barn.
And you could hold akehe dirt, dust, right there in your hand — dust holding dust.
And you could feel that dust and know that if were the kind of good soil to break open for the otherworldly miracle of seeds coming in on the wind —
that revival would rise right up from the dust, spread like love across the land …. like a Cross across the land.
The unexpected, life-transforming revolution of everything, when we took The Broken Way & dared to live cruciform:
This one’s for all of us who have felt our hearts break a bit for a brokenhearted world…
This one’s for the brave, who want to live like bread, broken & given, so they taste the most fulfilling feast…
This one’s for those who dare to take The Broken Way… into abundance
Related:
How to Use the Downloadable
40 Lenten Daily Card Devotional-Ornaments
“A Lent to Repent & Refresh: #PeopleOfTheCross”
Now could be a time of soul revival.
Each of these 40 mini cards are meant to be ‘sticky notes for your soul‘ — mobile faith, portable grace — 40 SIMPLE, small cards of prayer, intention, reflection and repentance, for your pocket, desk, kitchen sink, to carry around as a compass to orient to the irresistible beauty of Jesus, to the Cross, throughout the day.
Read the prayers slowly. Give each line time to do its work. Revisit the prayers throughout the day. Make space, physically and spiritually to sit with the handful of Scripture verses for the day. Linger with the Word. Reflect on them. Return to them throughout the day. Let them shape you. These 40 days will stir a deep soul revival to the extent that you return & revisit & let yourself be shaped by His loving heart, His Sacred, Living Word.
Then at day’s end, to quietly hang that day’s compass/card/ornament on a Lenten/Easter Cross Tree, a powerful visual of how we are the People of the Cross, people literally saved through Christ’s sacrificial love on the Cross — people whose lives are literally shaped by our repentance at the foot of the Cross, shaped by the hope, grace, redemption, supernatural love and resurrection we find through our King’s Cross.
This could be a Lent to repent. To refresh. To revive.
This could a season to fix our eyes on Jesus as He goes to the Cross —
And become those who go to the four corners of the world with His supernatural love because we are The People of The Cross.
Links for 2017-02-28 [del.icio.us]
Our #1 Best-Selling Drone--Meet the Dark Night of the Sky!
February 28, 2017
how to be intentional about building our best word-robe
This woman’s blog was one of the first I ever read and she’s never stopped being a mentor to me. Karen Ehman and I have prayed for and cheered each other on as neighbors across the Canada/Michigan border raising kids, loving our husbands, and trying our best to tap out words on the keyboard that will glorify God and help his people. Her latest words are a follow-up devotional to her New York Times Best-Seller about our mouths, Zip It! will empower us to use our speech to bless, not to badger; to encourage, not to embitter; to praise, not to pounce. I’ve invited Karen to pull up a chair on the farm’s porch today. (And be sure to read to the end to find out about her #DoingLentTogether community on Facebook who, instead of giving up chocolate, are giving up using their words wrongly.)
Quick….think about your bedroom closet.
Is it orderly and clutter-free, reminiscent of a Pinterest pin from a professional organizer?
Or does it appear more like a clothing bomb recently went off sending shoes, sweaters, and other apparel flying about?
And how did you select the articles you find hanging inside? Did you meticulously select, buy on a sudden impulse, or inherit an item as a well-worn hand-me-down?
When it comes time to weed out your closet, how do you determine whether to keep something or pass it on to Goodwill? Sometimes these decisions are so difficult that one prominent organizational expert has made oodles of cash giving advice on the sorting process using one pithy four-word question:
“Does it spark joy?”
Thoughts that go into our heart closets are very much like these clothes; sometimes carefully chosen and sorted. Other times they’re rumpled and dirty hand-me-downs that we toss haphazardly into the corner.
In fact, we make additions to our heart closets way more often than we do our real closet.
Here is how it might go:
When we see something on Facebook about a friend, we develop a thought about them.
When we goof up and miss a meeting, an opinion about our self goes into our heart closet. When we read the Bible and soak up the Scriptures, more thoughts take up residence.
Then later, when it is time to verbally respond, something finally comes out of the closet. At this moment, it’s as if we are making a decision on what we will wear.
If you are asked, “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” chances are you already have plenty of phrases in your word-robe to choose from.
For decades you’ve been depositing thoughts—both true and false.
The responses you will choose are already hanging inside, defining who you think you are. There’s no time to quick buy something new or toss away an old item. You must respond promptly. And when you do, you’ll select something you added to your word-robe closet at some point in time.
Moses had to select from his word-robe when God told him to go speak to Pharaoh.
God had already spoken to him in a burning bush, turned his staff into a snake and back again, and afflicted—and then healed—his hand of leprosy. These miraculous acts should have deposited grand thoughts of “God is awesome,” “God can do anything,” and “God will be with me” into his heart, but instead Moses pulled out this ugly, faith-lacking response:
“Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue” (Exodus 4:10)
He selected an unflattering garment that he’d been wearing for years, adorned with a cut-rate label of “poor speaker.”
He responded by using thoughts about His weaknesses instead of thoughts about God’s strength. His heart-closet contained so many ill-fitting assumptions that he was unable to quickly don the name-brand truths from his Creator and Designer, Yahweh.
So what does God do? God responds to Moses by speaking about Himself. Not about Moses.
“The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” Exodus 4:11-12 (NIV)
You’ve heard the phrase, “Think before you speak”? This is almost good advice. Many times we have already been thinking before we speak.
The question is, is it a truthful thought you are thinking before you speak?
What good is it to think before you speak if your thoughts are shaped by self-deprecating lies or inaccurate views of God’s power?
Here is what is good and helpful: We must think truth before speaking. Even better, we must think truth about God.
What we think about God (and about our self!) forms a little at a time over a long period of time. Just like our bedroom closet contains items from many different seasons (or sizes) in life, our heart-closet will house a word-robe we’ve fashioned over the course of our life.
Word-robe building begins with all the thoughts we buy into.
Have you gone shopping lately in the Designer department?
Have you had your beliefs tailored by the Master to fit and flatter and shape your unique character?
If you had to reach into your heart closet and put on the very best promise of God during one of the biggest responses of your life, what would it be?
What words would be hanging in there waiting to be worn?
Today, purpose to put on the promises of the Master Designer.
They will be sure to spark joy. They will be tailored to your unique personhood. And most importantly…
They will look fabulous on you.
Karen Ehman is a New York Times bestselling author, Proverbs 31 Ministries speaker, and writer for Encouragement for Today an online devotional that reaches over 4 million women daily.
Want help in watching your words? Grab a copy of Zip It! The Keep It Shut 40-Day Challenge where you will find that each of the forty interactive entries includes a Scripture verse focus for the day, a story or teaching point, and reflection questions with space for readers to write their answers and thoughts. Zip It empowers readers to put into action the advice and commands of Scripture concerning the tongue. And be sure to get the details about a Facebook group where for 40 days during lent Karen Ehman will be leading a group that will be doing Lent together. The members of this community won’t be giving up chocolate or chips, but instead will give up using our words wrongly! A book for this season: Zip It! The Keep It Shut 40-Day Challenge.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
February 27, 2017
How A Remarkable Life Equals a Thousand Unremarkable Steps
What if living a life of greatness for God is not about doing a few great things, but instead living a life of holy redundancy—showing up faithfully day after day in the seemingly little things? What if our greatest investments are faithfully raising our family, building a God-honoring career, cultivating a healthy heart, and developing strong friendships? In his book, Dream Big, Think Small, Pastor Jeff Manion builds upon what he has observed through thirty consistent years of ministry: a remarkable life is built by taking a thousand unremarkable steps. It’s a grace to welcome Jeff to the farm’s front porch today…
As believers, we want our lives to count.
We long to do great things for the kingdom of God.
However, greatness is rarely achieved by doing great things, but instead by doing good things repetitively.
The tragedy is that, while waiting for great opportunities to come along, we miss out on a parade of good opportunities that march steadily by. Goodness is largely ignored because it seems too common, too mundane, too everyday.
Consider the way this plays out in a small community.
A town mourns the death of three teenagers killed in a car accident.
Tragedy struck with screeching tires and twisting metal. The horrific news sweeps through the high school with the devastating shock of a tsunami. Bouquets and handwritten notes form a spontaneous memorial at the intersection where the cars collided. Tragedy strikes.
Conversely, goodness rarely “strikes.” It arrives on the stage with little drama.
In the same community that experienced the awful accident, a devoted coach painstakingly builds a cross-country program for middle school girls. For a dozen seasons, she forges diligence, teamwork, and confidence. While some of these girls are the products of affirming, encouraging homes, others will remember their seventh-grade cross-country coach as “the first person who believed in me.”
Twenty years pass.
Ask a thirty-three-year-old woman from the community what influences impacted her while she was growing up. Reflecting for a moment, she answers, “The Accident” and “The Coach.”
But these arrived at different speeds and in radically different ways.
Tragedy strikes. Goodness grows slowly.
As I reflect on my own life, I recognize the formative impact of both jarring tragedy and steady love.
I awakened one November morning in my seventh-grade year to learn that my mom had been killed in an automobile accident during the night. The sudden loss of my mom is the singularly most defining event in my early life, and yet, my life was also profoundly shaped by my mother’s steady presence and deep affection. I remember her laughter, her gracious eyes, her presence when I raced home from the bus stop and barged into the house.
From my earlier moments, I believed that I was securely loved.
The snail’s pace at which goodness travels will require extreme devotion to the journey.
Goodness demands staying power. The question is whether we will summon the requisite endurance for a slow, faithful, consistent outpouring of love.
I believe this is why the apostle Paul urged an early community of Jesus’ followers:
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)
Paul addresses the issue of weariness because a life of goodness can be tedious and redundant.
It involves bringing ourselves again and again, often to the same tasks and often to the same people. The repetition takes something out of us. It drains our energy. Paul was writing here of a kind of weariness that leads to calling it quits.
Awaken one morning and breathe the prayer, “Lord, today I offer my life to You.”
The next morning, do it again. And again. And again. Eventually, is there not a real temptation of awakening one day and muttering, “This is getting really old, I just don’t feel like doing this anymore”?
On such a morning, it is imperative to remember the law of the farm.
We will reap a harvest, if we do not give up.
How I wish Paul had selected a different metaphor. Perhaps something with a little more speed, quicker results. But, no, Paul went with farming. Because you can’t rush a harvest. You plow, you plant, and you wait.
I believe the farming image can radically adjust our expectations. Sometimes a life of positive impact is about as interesting as watching a garden grow.
Goodness grows slowly.
It arrives through the repeated kindness of the diligent faithful.
It arrives quietly, traveling the slow path of devoted love.
Dream Big but Think Small.
Day by day, one loving act of kindness after another, you have an opportunity to grow a life of greatness.
So keep showing up. Keep planting.
Do not grow weary in doing good. The harvest awaits you.
Jeff Manion is the Senior Teaching Pastor of multi-campus Ada Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he has served for over thirty years. He is the author of The Land Between, Satisfied and recently released book, Dream Big, Think Small.
Filled with his trademark inspiring stories and insightful biblical teaching, Dream Big, Think Small challenges you to explore the spiritual prescription of steady faithfulness. Following the principles of perseverance, intentionality, and discipline outlined in this book, you will see lasting and astonishing results in your spiritual health, within your marriage and family, in the quality of your work, and in a more authentic ability to honor God with your life. Jeff’s great joy is digging deeply into Scripture and passionately teaching the story of the Bible in a clear and relevant way.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
February 26, 2017
Links for 2017-02-25 [del.icio.us]
Our #1 Best-Selling Drone--Meet the Dark Night of the Sky!
February 25, 2017
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [02.25.17]
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 / Zambia has the best sunsets in all of Africa
Esther Havens/ Two girls playing together in Zambia
Esther Havens/ A boy stands on a hill in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley
when I sit with this woman’s photos, the world stops & exhales
why they’re traveling the world with their kids in tow
Anita Jambor/ Instagram
Anita Jambor/ Instagram
Anita Jambor/ Instagram
anyone else wanna visit here too?
grin.02
a grocery story that is seeing things in a different light
the best
Words are powerful and they have consequences. Join my friend Karen Ehman for a #DoingLentTogether Facebook community who, beginning Ash Wednesday, March 1, won’t vow to give up chocolate or chips, but instead will give up using our words wrongly.
Click here to enjoy the lovely free printable of scriptures and encouragement to gently remind us to use our words to bless, not to badger; to encourage, not to embitter; to praise, not to pounce. Anyone else in!?
beautiful
Ginny Sheller
Ginny Sheller
Ginny Sheller
too beautiful not to share with you
thank you, Tim Tebow
a good read right here: The Creative Upbringing. Raising Adults Who Ask Why
come see how’s he giving — and hoping to maybe change a life
could not love this more: #beTheGIFT
Mercy House Global
Mercy House Global
Mercy House Global
please consider being the GIFT?
We have the opportunity to look into the eyes of a teen mom and her child and say–yes. And it matter very much. We are tempted to think our yes is insignificant and maybe it is in this great big world of need, but it’s enormously important that we say yes anyway.
“So, yeah. We need you. But mostly, we need Jesus” please don’t miss this post?
this Canadian ad is going viral around the world:
when the best of us stand up, our nation stands a little taller
suited for good: why a family run business is giving new suits away for free
What if there was an evening that’s like handing you own keys to break free?
Think exhale. Think holy space. Think candles. Think more Jesus.
Think music that sounds like the voice of worship and grace and the beauty of cruciform freedom: with Dove Award Nominated vocalist Best Female Artist of the Year, Christy Nockels.
Think gloriously, powerful moving words about breaking into the free that’s all yours right now: with Rebekah Lyons, author of You are Free.
Think of an unforgettable evening daring to take The Broken Way to abundant freedom.
Think more joy, more peace, more Jesus.
Christy, Rebekah and I, we’re so excited! Do we get to exhale relief & inhale breaking free with you?
This farm girl will be humbly and gratefully looking for you: TheBrokenandFreeTour.com
If you have opinions about #refugees–or if you aren’t sure what to think –this is helpful
when the search for wisdom and truth leads to a young girl
How he’s living his life? #beTheGIFT
Post of the Week from these parts here
how to be one of the ones who we all need right now: #stego
Take the Dare, Join the Revolution, Pick Up The Broken Way
on repeat here all week: Let it Be Jesus…for me to live is Christ
…so every time you feel the ache of the world today, whisper “Jesus” … & invite your Tender Healer close.
“Jesus… healed their bruised & hurt lives” MT9:35MSG.
Jesus is the doctor of the Body & there is no disease He cannot heal; no brokenness He cannot mend; no trouble He cannot carry.
Come close, Jesus, touch us today. Touch our wounded places with Your Healing heart.
Believe it: Our most meaningful purpose can be found exactly in our most painful brokenness. Brokenness happens in a soul so the power of God can happen in a soul.
The whole suffering world rings with the comfort of it, how His nailed scarred hands cup our faces, hold our hurting hearts & He whispers: “I know… I know. Me too. Me too.” We are never alone. Never, ever alone.
[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.
February 24, 2017
when everything about life feels a bit up in the air — how to make that the best kind of life
I’ve got no idea who went ahead and pulled out a Sharpie marker and circled a bunch of dates on the calendar, but there it is, dates with Sharpie ink ringing around them like circling vultures.
Dates for doctor appointments and drop-dead deadlines and dream days that have sort of been lifelines.
My shoulder’s been dislocated like a bad set of scraping tectonic plates all week and I’ve been walking around with soggy ice packs that keep leaking down my back.
“I know why you’re shoulder’s out, Mama,” some clever, grinning kid pipes up at the dinner table as I keep shifting this dripping bag of snow. “It’s cause you keep going around shrugging your shoulders, saying: ‘Who knows?’”
Yeah, kid, let’s go with precisely that.
Who knows what’s coming out of those doctor appointments?
Who knows if things can come together for this dream or that plan or in time to make that date?
Who knows if signatures will happen in time, who knows if people on the other end of phone calls will say yes, who knows if things are just going to up and fall apart and who even knows if… what looks like it’s falling apart —
is actually falling together?
I crawl into bed with a snow bag under my shoulder pressed, this pack that keeps leaving spreading wet circles everywhere like it’s up and relieved itself.
“It’s kinda feels like — our whole life is up in the air.” I whisper it to the Farmer like I’m looking for relief of my own.
“Life’s kinda sorta supposed to be up in the air, isn’t it?” He murmurs it in the dark like he’s turned on a light.
“Yeah—maybe…” I’m chuckling in a melting puddle of icy-shoulder-numbness. “The abundantly good life is supposed to feel kind of up in the air.”
He finds my hand.
Life’s about pulling skin on Jesus on earth — and about pulling out all the stops against the powers of the air.
“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12
The house is a stilled quiet. I can hear the dog breathing out on the mudroom mat.
The real good life is meant to be up in the air — because life’s real battles are being fought up in the air — up in the heavenlies.
There’s a message from our boy: “Can you pray for me? Please?”
There’s a child in a hospital bed who we love with all our heart turning blue because her heart can’t keep going on like this. There’s cancer gnawing away at a mama who bows her head beside us every Sunday morning.
There’s women who I’d bleed for, who look numb and empty and who are going through the brave motions because you’ve just got to do the next thing even when nothing feels like it’s changing anything.
There’s a beautiful world of hurting crazy out there and our brave kids are in the centre of it, and our people are the bloodied wounded because of it, and our dreams and our hopes and our futures and our communities and our countries are hanging in the balance through it, and there is a war in the heavenlies and the man laying beside me is believing that if our lives aren’t up in the air where the battle is, our lives on the ground fail.
The tap’s dripping in the kitchen and I’m listening to the thrum of things.
The more indifferent we are to prayer, the less God’s power makes any difference in our lives.
The snow pack’s bleeding cold into the knots of my shoulder.
Prayers makes us slayers.
No weapon is more formidable to slay the dark and the demons, and prayer’s the weapon we wield to make everything else we do survive fire.
She who commits to pray, she goes the narrow way: her prayers circle demons and slay.
So go ahead, let our life be all up in the air. I can hear the wind out in the trees. The night sky’s stretching far above those spruce trees, like a shadowed battlefield.
Do not work so hard for Christ, that you make no time to pray to Christ. He is the lifeblood of all prayer, all work, all being, all communion. There’s moonlight catching the cross on the wall across from the window.
The calendar squares out there in the kitchen say we’re moving toward the third week of Lent.
What had Andrew Murray said? “Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal.
Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves, to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God.”
What of earth do I need to let go of, fast from, sacrifice completely, to reach for what is unseen, to reach for the One more life-giving than air?
I lay there in the night quiet for a long time… resolving, letting go.
Rain’s falling from above the spruce, the wind hissing through the orchard from the north.
I’d heard it once from an old farmer’s wife, how an eagle never takes a snake on the ground. An eagle always tears into the reptile with its talons and flies it into the sky. An eagle knows:
The way to win is to change the battlefield.
It’s from the heights, the eagle flings the snake into the air. A snake has no strength, no power, no way through air. Dashed upon rocks, the snake’s food for the victorious bird. When the battle’s taken to the air, there’s winning on earth.
I exhale in the darkness and I didn’t even know I was holding my breath.
Take every battle to the air in prayer — and God will take over your battles on earth.
The Farmer’s already asleep but I almost shrug, say it anyways, say what the universe knows:
“A life up in the air — can be a life up to the best things.”
Out in the orchard, the wind shifts toward the east.
There is a changing of everything —
when breath becomes prayer.
Related:
For this year’s lent wreath
Links for 2017-02-23 [del.icio.us]
Our #1 Best-Selling Drone--Meet the Dark Night of the Sky!
February 23, 2017
how the words ‘I’m with you’ can change a life
Winsome, hilarious, and filled to bursting with the joy of Jesus, Bob Goff is an inspiration to millions to go, be, and do love. When Love Does, life gets interesting. Light and fun, unique and profound, the lessons drawn from Bob’s life and attitude just might inspire you to be secretly incredible, too. It’s grace to welcome Bob Goff to the farm’s front porch today…
I don’t know what high school was like for you, but it was a really tough time for me.
I wasn’t getting girls; I wasn’t good at school; I wasn’t good at sports. I had this GPA you could count up on two fingers.
There was a guy that showed up in my high school. His name was Randy and he had a motorcycle, a beard, and a girlfriend. I kind of hated him, because I wanted a motorcycle, a beard, and a girlfriend.
He was with this outfit called Young Life and their idea is to reach out to high school kids and let them know about Jesus.
I kept him at bay, because that wasn’t my thing.
But he showed up at all my stuff and he really wanted to be my friend, and I really felt that was kind of neat.
Well, school wasn’t going that great. So I showed up on Randy’s doorstep on a Sunday morning because I decided, “I’m out of there, I’m not going to go to high school anymore.”
I knocked on the door and after a long couple of minutes, Randy shows up. I said, “Man, thanks for being a great friend. I really appreciate it. I need to move to Yosemite and climb rocks.”
He looked at me, kind of puzzled, and he said, “Bob, when are you going to go?”
I said, “Well, now.” And I pointed over to my Volkswagen.
He said, “Hang on a second.” He disappeared for a long couple of minutes. When he came back, he had a backpack over one arm and a sleeping bag under the other. He said, “I’m with you.”
I said, “You’re going to go with me right now?!” And he did. He just threw his stuff on top of my stuff and we jumped in the Volkswagen and we split.
We got to this beautiful place and started climbing rocks, right away. The adventure was on.
I loved that he was just with me.
Aren’t adventures a lot better when you are just doing them with someone? Somehow it makes quitting stuff not as scary when you’re with somebody, right?
There is something that happens, too, there’s something really beautiful when we quit things once in a while.
Do you ever feel like your life is just so filled with things that you can’t even move it around?
We get so much stuff in our lives we can’t even navigate anymore.
And I think Jesus, throughout Scripture, has people quitting stuff and finding stuff and quitting stuff.
So you know one thing that I do? Every single Thursday, I quit something.
There is something beautiful that happens.
It makes room in my life for Jesus to just suck beautiful things in. I can start navigating towards Him again. I don’t have all these fixed points. But you got to pick the right stuff to quit, don’t you? You don’t want to quit things that are beautiful and good for you.
What if we quit stuff? We don’t know what day of the week it was when Jesus came by the disciples and said, “Quit what you’re doing, drop your nets, and follow me.” I don’t know when in Exodus, Moses says “We’re out of here.” But I’m just so hoping it was on a Thursday.
It’s okay to quit stuff. It’s a beautiful thing. Just, quit the right stuff. That’s the trick.
Sometimes we get it wrong. And that’s the beautiful part about God with us.
Emmanuel, right? He says that even when we quit the wrong stuff, He’ll never quit us.
He’s with us, over and over again. We just need to not quit Him.
We need to quit thinking that if we make a mistake, somehow we’ve deviated from His plan.
You know what His plan is? Him! Just keep loving Him. We can just never, ever quit loving Him.
So we got to Yosemite Valley and we started applying for jobs, and I couldn’t get a job anywhere. I went to this outfitting store, and they said, “Do you have a high school diploma?” And I said, “Not really.” Ha ha. I went to a place where they made pancakes. I mean, like, who couldn’t make pancakes for a living? And I got aced out there, too. It was kind of a bummer to see a dream die.
There’s something beautiful about Randy and what he continued to say. And it was these three words: “I’m with you.”
Well, Randy didn’t give me a bunch of teachable moments. He didn’t talk to me and say what a screw up I was, or tell me next time how I should fix it.
There’s something beautiful when you’re with people.
They just know that. Randy held me closer than a brother, because he knew that I was a guy who needed to be held close.
Who is somebody in your life that you need to be with, holding them close?
Well, we decided we would leave. Randy again didn’t say much on the drive home. He didn’t wreck it. We got back to the block that he lived on and his girlfriend was over visiting, I guess, because her car was parked in the driveway. I followed Randy into the house.
I kind of felt invited in to his whole life.
When I walked inside there were a bunch of plates over here, and a microwave, and an Osterizer, and some wrapping paper. I was thinking, this isn’t Christmas and I didn’t think it was his birthday, and then the nickel dropped.
On Saturday, Randy had gotten married. On Sunday, I showed up on his door.
He didn’t see me as a distraction. He saw me as a kid who was about to jump the track and who needed somebody to be with him.
I love that of all the names that Jesus could have come up for Himself, He used the word Emmanuel. God with us.
Who could we be like Emmanuel to? Who has God dropped onto your porch? You’ve got to decide, “Are they just a distraction to me? Or are they what I’m all about?” Find somebody that needs a Randy, a you, in their life. Send them a message, and say “I’m with you.”
Who is it that has been a great Randy to you? Call them up or send them a text message right now, and say, “Thanks for being with me.”
What I realized about Randy is that he’d been with me.
He hadn’t just been with me to correct me or by having some Bible study.
But he was just actually with me.
I learned a lot about Jesus from Randy.
Because when Jesus said that He was Emmanuel, He said, “I’m with you.”
And love isn’t just something that is a bunch of rules or making all the right moves.
Love does.
Bob Goff is the founder of Love Does, a nonprofit organization that operates schools and pursues justice for children in conflict areas such as Uganda, Somalia, Iraq, and other countries. Bob is a lawyer and serves as the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Uganda to the United States.
The Love Does Bible study is a study about God’s love… and the most amazing thing about that is God’s love is different. It changes things. It’s active. It works. It risks. God’s love… does.
This dynamic five-week study explores a different aspect of God’s active love as seen through the stories of Bob Goff. Five video sessions expand on Bob’s teaching in the bestselling book of the same name, combing teaching elements with interactive creative elements. The study guide and DVD will help small groups, Sunday school classes, or even your whole church dig into each topic through a guided Bible study and small-group time with discussion questions, hands-on exercises, and further activities for participants to engage the content on their own between sessions. The Church Campaign Kit includes the book, DVD, study guide, and the Love Does Action Guide, a small booklet containing practical ideas for how you and your group can put the principles outlined in Love Does into action during the week. Tapping into this love requires a different skill set than what it takes to memorize answers for a test. This isn’t a love we can earn, buy, or win. It’s something bigger and better. It’s something we discover more about by “doing stuff.”
[ Our humble thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
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