Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 149
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 ]
February 21, 2017
how to be one of the ones who we all need right now: #stego
I once stood in a room awash in the palest light falling tired through worn sheer curtains.
And one woman stood in front of that window, cupping her child like she was holding a part of her heart, and I could hear her singing this lullaby, like it was her baby’s heartbeat, like it was all the questions pounding in our broken hearts:
When I am lost, who will come and find me?
When I forget who I am, who will come and remind me?
When life tries to break me, who will come and remake me?
Who knew how long and loud those three questions would reverberate through my weary veins? For months, I’ve been there. Who knew that everything would turn around to be about those three haunting heart beats? Find me, remind me, remake me?
You can love your life and your people and feel the strange, lingering ache of loneliness in your bones. If you were crumbling a little bit every day — who would take the time to come find you and remind you?
Who would stop what they’re doing to come see how your heart was beating, how you were being brave to keep being?
So many people just trying to get somewhere, to get something done, they don’t really have time for anyone.
We can all have longer to-do lists than we think have time to love.
I have stood in rooms and been startled by this feeling that had lodged in my heart without me inviting it in, without it ever introducing itself — but there it was:
It can be terrifying to feel the singular loneliness of feeling deeply unknown.
You can stand in crowded, loud rooms of tinkling glasses, flowing with raucous laughter and smooth lines, and you can wonder when that feeling will end — or wonder if you have always lived with a low-grade loneliness.
The poverty that’s most easily forgotten but most deeply felt is the poverty of friendship.
While the February winds blew in here the other week, I sat with a woman and a cup of steaming tea and maybe these days we’re all just looking for safe places more than ever. Maybe right now, we’re all parched for safe people.
Now, I had sipped my dark Earl Gray and I had told her I was just fine and she had looked up and smiled:
“It’s never fine to say you’re just fine.
Real friendship says: You have a safe place at the table — to lay your whole heart down on the table.”
So I’d exhaled into her smile and aren’t we all just looking for a safe place these days — and the words spilled:
“You know why you’ve become a safe place for me?
Safe people let you come unmasked, unafraid, unreserved.
Truly safe people let you come with your truest self — and truly accept you.” The wind’s whistling around the window and the steam from the tea is rising.
“That’s rare. Because usually? Usually people want their own agenda — more than they want to hear your authentic heart.
Usually, we want other’s hearts to be a certain way, beat a certain way — so we can have our own way.” How many times have I done this?
It’s hard — to let people’s hearts just get to beat the way they are — and safely hold them as they are.
Sometimes, we try to manipulate hearts to beat the way we want — rather than letting people’s hearts communicate what they need.
It takes courage just to listen to a heart — exactly as it is — and not try to manipulate its beat.
Sometimes it’s tempting to drum our thinking into others — instead of letting people march to their own drum.
We get to be like Jesus to people as they march to their own drum. And it’s only Jesus who gets to change drums.
It’s strange how the world, your day, can feel like a minefield. I tell that to my friend.
I don’t tell her how there’s this lump burning like an ember in my throat, and I’m getting weary of being brave, how health needs for your children can chafe you a bit raw, how adoption is this beautifully messy renovating of your world, how every step forward can feel like battling hurricane winds and the whole world around you can feel like it’s fracturing angry and polarizing and loud.
And she whispers it to me:
“Stego — I will always be your stego.”
Stego — it’s shorthand for: I’ll be your safe place.
How can one word mean — what we all need?
“It’s a Greek word that comes from that verse “Love bears all things…” Love stegos all things.
“To bear,” stego in the Greek — stego literally means a thatch roof.
Love bears all things like a roof bears the wind & the rain and the winter & the winds. Love is a roof.” ~The Broken Way
Stego — it’s short hand for: I’ll be like a roof to you. I’ll be like a home to you. I’ll be a safe place when you feel like you have no place.
When you need a place to go — I’ll be your stego.
When you’re tired of how the winds blow — You can count on me as stego.
When you feels like life’s been whipped into a tornado — you have a place to go, because I’m always, always, always your stego.
Love bears all things because love is a roof, love is making a safe place, love is always feeling like there’s a home to come in out of winds, love is stego.
It comes like the quietest breath through the spruce trees standing in the ebbing snow:
People have broken hearts — so expect brokenness.
People have broken hearts — so accept brokenness.
The world may feel broken and the headlines may feel loud but there are people who break the winds, who are a roof, who are Stegos in storms.
The February winds in the orchard keep warming, the sun braving winter, growing stronger — a testament that winds and winters and ways can always change.
And the reaching limbs of the spruce trees are their own kind of stego — making places that break the wind.
You can see all the lost sparrows gathering there safe.
The Stego life — that’s changed my life: the unexpected, life-transforming revolution of everything, when we took The Broken Way.
This one’s for all of us who are looking for Stego — looking for a safe place.
This one’s for those who dare to take The Broken Way… into abundance
Come encounter God in the next two weeks with Rebekah Lyons, Christy Nockels, and I? We’d absolutely love to meet you: Winterville, NC; Nashville, TN; Cordova, TN; Sugar Land, TX; Arlington, TX; Tulsa, OK; Leawood, KS; Eau Claire, WI; Naperville, IL; and Lynchburg, VA.
Let’s live broken and free: brokenandfreetour.com
February 20, 2017
You are Free: Be Who You Already Are
I spent more than a month with Rebekah during the year this book, these words, grew like a flame in her heart. Together, we poured over Scripture in a kibbutz outside of Jerusalem; literally walked the Emmaus road under stars; and prayed for our hearts to burn within us, that we might recognize Christ whatever road he had us on; stood under an arching double rainbow in Colorado and boldly trusted God for all of His promises; got down on our knees, our faces, broke our hearts before the heart of God under a Rocky Mountain rain. Her book releases tomorrow, and the words she penned isn’t an idea—it’s an incarnation. Rebekah has enfleshed this freedom and I’ve witnessed it firsthand: Rebekah’s Freefall to Fly has transformed her into a blazing harbinger of desperately needed reality: You are Free; Be who you already are. Is there a message that your soul needs more? It’s a grace to welcome Rebekah to the farm’s front porch today…
Please, God, heal my heart.
The prayer surfaced without warning, and once I spoke the words, there was no turning back.
A dam broke, releasing tears bottled up for decades. These five words surged repeatedly in rhythm as I knelt on the cold shower floor, tears mingling with the water streaming from above.
Blame travel fatigue, or sleepless nights in random hotel rooms, or the weight of speaking on mental health issues.
My heart was spent. I was at the end of my reserves. I wanted only Jesus.
I should have seen the signs leading to this moment.
I’d wrapped up a week of teaching in California and stumbled back to my room for pj’s and comfort food.
As I was inhaling a cheeseburger in a darkened hotel room, I began to watch a talk online by Ann Voskamp. Ten minutes in, the Spirit spoke truth to my heart, and I sat bolt upright in bed with her words.
“Those who keep score in life just want to know that they count.
When you work for an audience of One, you always know that you count.”
Was I restless because I hadn’t learned to serve this singular audience? Was I keeping score?
I awakened to the truth.
I was still striving.
After a speaking engagement, I’d often go back to my hotel room and second-guess my delivery, or worse, check social media stats. When the numbers spiked, I spiked. When they dipped, I dipped. How did I measure up? Was I enough?
During the year prior I’d discovered that:
Calling is where your talents and burdens collide.
I’d discovered my gifts, and named my burdens, but without freedom, I was cheapening this calling with a prettier version of striving.
I was copying, competing, and comparing. I would soon burn out.
I realized the humiliating truth: I was desperate for public affection. I hustled for it.
Although I’d been freed from chronic anxiety, I knew the truth—I was not operating out of freedom in every area of my life. My heart was full of questions.
I kept probing, half-asking God, half-asking myself, “Do I count? Do I matter?”
Then I finally sensed God’s prompting,
You matter to Me; is that enough?
Silence.
“For some reason I’m not doing this for an audience of one,” I admitted.
So I’m not enough?
“Yeah; You are kind of not enough. Why is this the case?”
I heard the truth in my heart:
I didn’t believe God’s love was enough.
In my youth, I felt rejected, unseen, unheard unless I performed. So I put every effort into saying and doing all the right things to earn love from others and from God. Although I didn’t have words for it then, I believed I was not worthy of love unless I earned it, especially God’s love.
The pain of this revelation was a grace; it showed me all was not well in my soul.
No amount of public affection would heal my wounds. No number of roads traveled, would heal my own heart. God was gentle with my confession, He whispered this truth:
Public affection cannot heal private rejection.
The realization that I was still held captive laid me bare, and I collapsed to the floor, heaving huge sobs. He gave me eyes to see I was still living in bondage, held captive by a deeper wounding. All my striving for success was an attempt to matter, to count.
Please, God, heal my heart. The words landed with weighted hope.
God was so gracious, so kind. My heart was broken. I’d spent years bandaging it, but the pain could only be healed by the One who created me. Sitting on the floor, I confessed right then and there.
God, I’m sorry I’ve made the world’s approval my idol.
I’m sorry I care more about what others think of me than about what you think of me.
I confess I’ve been blind to my grief and hurt and the aching void only you can fill.
You gently, in your perfect timing and love, have shown me this. What a gift! I praise you. Please forgive me and heal my broken heart. Make it new, as if it was never wounded.
Did I believe Jesus could do this for me? Do you believe He can do it for you?
What if we all felt freedom to start with a simple prayer:
God, I’m sorry I don’t live as if you are enough. I’m sorry I substitute achievement, or body image, or food, or sex, or anything for the freedom YOU bring.
What if we felt the freedom to confess our sins, our enslaving habits? I believe it would lead to the healing and freedom we so desperately want.
Confession is the gateway to healing, the route to freedom.
James teaches us this truth, writing, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” Confession means “[admitting] you have done something wrong, or [admitting] unwillingly that something is true.”
Christ isn’t threatened by our confession. He invites it.
He says to us, You are my holy people, whom I love. I came. I gave my life. I set you free. I’ve already done this. I’ve given you a purpose. I’ve made you to live in the freedom of that purpose.
Christ came, walked this earth, paid the price, bought us, and set us free.
He declares, You are free; be who you already are.
Let’s follow this Jesus together. Let’s allow Him to take us on a collective freedom journey, shall we?
Let’s confess to him, walk with him, and share the stories of the many ways he’s setting us free. Let’s live in the day-by-day adventure of sounding freedom’s call.
Christ doesn’t say you can be or may be or will be free.
He says you are free.
You are invaluable to the kingdom of heaven. God has appointed a specific role only you can play.
You are needed and wanted, chosen and set apart, beloved and worthy.
You will receive all power and glory when the Spirit comes upon you.
You will bear witness to everything Christ did to set you free.
This is your calling. You are free. Go. Help set others free.
Rebekah Lyons is the bestselling author of Freefall to Fly: A Breathtaking Journey Toward a Life of Meaning and a speaker who passionately shares her personal story of overcoming anxiety and depression. Her open and honest approach inspires others to discover and boldly pursue their God-given purpose from a place of freedom.
He says you are free. Do you believe it? In You Are Free, Rebekah invites you to: overcome the exhaustion of meeting expectations and rest in the joy of God’s freedom. Freedom is for everyone who wants it—the lost, the wounded, and those weary from striving.
It’s for those who gave up trying years ago. You are the church, the people of God. You were meant to be free. Discover the courage to begin again and use your newfound freedom to set others free.
Come encounter God in the next two weeks with Rebekah and I? Winterville, NC; Nashville, TN; Cordova, TN; Sugar Land, TX; Arlington, TX; Tulsa, OK; Leawood, KS; Eau Claire, WI; Naperville, IL; and Lynchburg, VA: Let’s live broken and free: brokenandfreetour.com
February 19, 2017
Links for 2017-02-18 [del.icio.us]
Our #1 Best-Selling Drone--Meet the Dark Night of the Sky!
February 18, 2017
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [02.18.17]
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 in Kilimanjaro — 13 women climbed Kilimanjaro to raise over 300K for a hospital in Rwanda
Esther Havens in Kilimanjaro –13 women climbed Kilimanjaro to raise over 300K for a hospital in Rwanda
Esther Havens in Kilimanjaro— 13 women climbed Kilimanjaro to raise over 300K for a hospital in Rwanda
I can never get enough of the extraordinary that she shares again and again
we couldn’t stop watching
This week’s Sticky Note for Your Soul:
Simply click here for free daily printables to encourage you…
plus a whole library of free framables and tools!
the depth of a mother’s love – and all ends well
Anita Jambor / Instagram
Anita Jambor / Instagram
Anita Jambor / Instagram
this photographer snaps all things ceilings right here: “because people never look up“
now this — is kinda brilliant….
In a world where women can unfriend each other with the swipe of a finger,
what if you knew the secret to finding and keeping lasting friendships?
we all just kinda desperately need to know that — we belong
Submitted by Kate Koreto via Facebook pexels.com
31 Quotes From Children’s Books That Will Inspire You At Any Age
couple’s second chance shows how loves outlasts death
believe it: I don’t know what you need right now, but I know there will be miracles.
had to share – just breathtaking
an important read: “As a Christian, I favor national security AND refugee care”
tears at this amazing story of faith and trust in our God our provider
how a deaf high school mascot is moving the crowds
A true friend knows your weaknesses but shows you your strengths; feels your fears but fortifies your faith;
sees your anxieties but frees your spirit; recognizes your disabilities but emphasizes your possibilities.
– William Arthur Ward
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
just kinda brilliant?! Let’s DO this — #beTheGIFT
Post of the Week from these parts here
The Real Truth about Romance & ‘Boring’ Men — and the Women who Love Them:
Redefining “Boring Romance”
Take the Dare, Join the Revolution, Pick Up The Broken Way
I Got Saved
check out Selah’s new album & get this song instantly right here!
… there are some of us who are sorta stuck here in the middle of the story, God, and we don’t know what the next chapter holds.
We’ve got no idea how our hearts are about to get broken or when, what the doctor could end up saying tomorrow, how the kids will turn out, or what’s on the next page or the one after that.
And when you’re stuck in the middle of the story? Well, honestly, it’s easy to feel at the end of your rope.
And You pull us close, real close: “I’d never forget you—never.
Look, I’ve written your names on the backs of my hands.” Isa49:16(MSG)
You’ve etched the very letters of our name, of who we are, right into You.
You haven’t forgotten us or this chapter or this story, and if You haven’t forgotten us, we’re not about to go forgetting that Your stories always work out in the end — and if things aren’t working out quite yet, it just means we’re not quite yet to the end. We’ll literally practice our faith — we’ll practice saying thanks in the middle.
Faith thanks God in the middle of the mess,
Faith thanks God in the middle of the night,
Faith thanks God in the middle of the story —
Because it believes in the relentless goodness of Him who will won’t stop writing till there’s good at the end of this story.
[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 16, 2017
why you need to know it’s never ever too late
I really couldn’t love this woman more – Liz Curtis Higgs, a humble, wise author of 36 books, is one of my soul sisters. Together we’ve memorized Scripture, celebrated Christmas at the Farm, and wandered Shaker Village in Kentucky. Author of the bestsellers Bad Girls of the Bible, The Girl’s Still Got It, and The Women of Christmas, Liz has presented more than 1,700 inspirational programs in all 50 United States and 15 foreign countries — but she’s about as down to earth and warm and happiest grace as it gets. I just love her, and love her for coming by today. Have a seat on the farm’s front porch with us?
guest post by Liz Curtis Higgs
Mary of Bethany knelt beside Lazarus, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks.
Her beloved brother lay on a narrow bed, his skin as dull and lifeless as his dun-colored tunic.
A twisted cord hung loose around his waist. His chest looked sunken, empty.
Mary wept in silence, smoothing her hand over his brow, longing for answers. We need You, Jesus.
He alone could heal her brother, make him well again, make him whole. If she sent word, would He come? Please, Lord.
Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. John 11:1
The original Greek tells us Lazarus was “weak, feeble.” He was not suffering from a common cold or an abscessed tooth. No, this illness held little promise of recovery. If you’ve lost a sibling, if you’ve walked in Mary’s footsteps, then you understand her sorrow.
Sadly, I know Mary’s heartache all too well.
When the first e-mail about my brother Tom appeared in my inbox, I assumed his liver disease was curable. Surgery. Medicine. There had to be a solution. He was fifteen years older than I was, but he wasn’t old.
This was the brother who took me canoeing, who showed me the beauty of nature, who talked our mother into letting me keep the kitten I brought home from the PTA festival. Tom was caring, funny, and wise, and he loved the little sister he called Rootie Toot.
As e-mails turned into lengthy phone calls, the reports grew dire. “Months.” “Weeks.” My sisters and I planned a trip west to see him, hoping Tom would rally and prove the doctors wrong.
We loved him desperately. But we could not save him and arrived too late to say good-bye.
Even now, years later, the missed opportunity and the tragic loss still weigh heavily on our hearts. It’s an ache that never goes away, a missing piece that can’t be replaced.
Mary of Bethany and her sister, Martha, surely felt the same way about their brother, Lazarus. Helpless, almost hopeless. Longing for their good friend Jesus to rescue him. Matthew Henry rightly said “the sickness of those we love is our affliction.” Mary and Martha shared their brother’s every wince of pain, every halting breath.
So the sisters sent word to Jesus,
“Lord, the one you love is sick.” John 11:3
Mary and Martha reminded Jesus of how much He cared for Lazarus, perhaps to ensure His swift response. After all, their brother’s Hebrew name meant “God has helped.” A reason to hope, then. A reason to ask.
What they clung to—and what we must cling to as well—is the Lord’s immeasurable and unconditional love.
He knows our needs and He meets them.
He sees our hurts and He heals them.
He understands our fears and He overcomes them.
While Jesus tarried by the Jordan, two women in Bethany watched their brother slip away from them. His final hours are not described in God’s Word, but we can imagine what they were like. Agonizing for Lazarus. Devastating for his sisters.
In our darkest moments, when we cry out to God and wonder if He’s listening, He sometimes whispers, Wait.
It’s a hard word to hear yet comforting as well.
It means He is there, He is with us, and He has a plan, even if it is not our plan.
Then Lazarus’s heart stopped beating. The brother they loved was gone.
So hard, my sisters. So hard.
All hope abandoned, Mary and Martha prepared their brother’s body, anointing him with myrrh and wrapping him in graveclothes. According to Jewish custom, a corpse was to be laid in a burial cave as quickly as possible. The sisters could not delay. Besides, if Jesus did walk through their door, it would be too late.
But with the Lord it’s never too late.
Mind if I say that again?
With Jesus it’s never too late.
Never too late for Him to mend a relationship you thought was broken.
Never too late for Him to help you get clean, get sober, get a new start.
Never too late for Him to work a miracle in your life.
He’s on His way, beloved.
Liz Curtis Higgs has one goal: to help people embrace the grace of God with joy and abandon. She’s the author of 36 books with 4.6 million copies in print, including The Women of Christmas, and 31 Verses to Write on Your Heart.
In her latest release, The Women of Easter: Encounter the Savior with Mary of Bethany, Mary of Nazareth, and Mary Magdalene, you will meet three women named Mary, each of whom has a life-changing encounter with Jesus. Your mind and emotions will be engaged and your faith strengthened as each scene unfolds, preparing your heart for a richer, deeper Easter experience. A seasoned Bible teacher and award-winning novelist, Liz combines her storytelling skills with a thorough verse-by-verse study of Scripture as together you explore the remarkable lives of The Women of Easter. This is one read you won’t want to miss this season.
Jennie Allen, founder of IF:Gathering and best-selling author of Nothing to Prove, said, “Liz Curtis Higgs has an incredible way of giving us a fresher, deeper understanding of God’s Word. In The Women of Easter, she takes us right into the days surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, where we find our contemporary concerns reflected in the faces of the women who witnessed His ministry firsthand. And we see for ourselves the love of a Savior who laid down His life so that we might live free. This book is the perfect companion for Easter and beyond!” Liz has also created a free Leader’s Guide to use The Women of Easter as a Bible study.
[ Our humble thanks to Waterbrook Multnomah for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
February 15, 2017
if God is good, why is it sometimes hard to really enjoy Him?
Trillia Newbell looks for how God is at work. She writes about the truths of who God is and how he loves us, while also leaning in on the difficult aspects of life and faith as well. She knows what it is to be “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” in this broken world…holding fast to the unshakable, joy-inspiring work of Christ. In her new book, Enjoy, Trillia writes about delighting in the daily gifts of God to his children, which ultimately point us to the Giver. It’s a grace to welcome Trillia to the farm’s front porch today…
The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
But what if you are in a dark season of the soul?
Last year I had such a season and for the first time in my life it was terribly hard for me to sense God’s presence and, frankly, enjoy Him.
For the first time, I joined the Psalmist’s cry in Psalm 42; my tears were my food day and night and all the day long, they said to me, “Where is your God?”
What I came to learn during that time was that God wasn’t hiding from me.
He was there.
Maybe that’s you.
Maybe you are in a similar season and wondering where is your God.
Delighting ourselves in God’s good gifts is an important task for the Christian.
As we pursue and involve ourselves in the enjoyment of relationships, food, nature, and all the other wonderful gifts God has given us, you and I can learn how to enjoy God, acknowledging Him as the Giver of all good things.
This has to be a deliberate choice because we tend toward an attitude of consumerism in which we just take what’s been made available to us.
But when we pause and learn to delight in these areas, we also learn to delight in God and give proper thanks and admiration.
We can worship God while preparing a meal, riding a bike, or listening to a symphony.
We delight and give thanks not solely because He gives good gifts but also because He is God.
Over the past fifteen years, I would easily have claimed to have always enjoyed God to one degree or another. The thought of struggling to be glad in God—to find contentment in knowing Him and His goodness and rejoicing in that—was really foreign to me.
Have I always rejoiced in suffering or difficult circumstances perfectly? No. But more times than not, I would have been able to fight through to faith.
This particular season, however, was the first time I struggled to do so.
Thanksgiving and Christmas were just around the corner, and I knew this season would be a time of both rejoicing and sorrows. My husband and I had experienced losses in our family—both of our older siblings had passed away. The holidays seemed uniquely grim to me this year.
I wasn’t looking forward to all the rejoicing that I knew would be going on around me, but more than that, I was struggling to remember God’s character.
If God is good, why do so many hard things happen?
I could tell you all the theological answers. But I needed more than words—even the good gift of God’s Word.
I needed the gift of faith that would come only from the Giver of good gifts—God Himself.
I prayed like never before and doubted like never before.
One of the things I kept remembering was that God says He will finish the good work He began in me.
If God’s Word is true, then regardless of how much I doubt, He’s not going to leave me there.
As always, the Lord proved faithful.
After several months of lamenting, which felt like a decade, the Lord brought me out of that dark season and gave me fresh faith.
Why am I sharing this with you? Because I know the idea of finding joy in God and delighting in Him might seem difficult at times, maybe even most times.
Your circumstances or feelings may be clouding the truth of God’s Word. You may not sense His nearness. I understand.
There were moments when I wasn’t even sure I was a Christian. But then the Lord would cause me to fall on my knees yet again in prayer, crying out to Him—reconfirming to me that He has me in the palm of His hand.
I’m His daughter, and He will never let me go.
Sometimes God lets us come to the end of ourselves — in order for us to enjoy more of Him.
That makes sense to me.
When there’s nowhere else to run, we can run to our Savior.
As we look to what it means to enjoy God, we are, in many ways, also losing ourselves.
We gain something far greater when we are most concerned and obsessed with the One we’ll be concerned and obsessed with for all eternity.
Trillia Newbell is the author of Enjoy: Finding the Freedom to Delight Daily in God’s Good Gifts, Fear and Faith: Finding the Peace Your Heart Craves and United: Captured by God’s Vision for Diversity. She is currently Director of Community Outreach for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission for the Southern Baptist Convention.
How often do we miss or minimize the good gifts of God that we’re given each day? Do we even feel the freedom to delight in those gifts?
February 14, 2017
The Real Truth about Romance & ‘Boring’ Men — and the Women who Love Them: Redefining “Boring Romance”
S
o not every guy proposes with lip syncing, rolling cameras, and a choreographed entourage.
Yeah, kids — so what if the guy I married, your Dad, didn’t?
He just pulled that beat-up Volkswagon Rabbit of his over in front of Murray Reesor’s hundred acre farm right there where Grey Township meets Elma Township, pulled out a little red velvet box, and whispered it in the snowy dark: “Marry me?”
“He didn’t even get down on one knee or anything?”
You kids of ours, you can go ahead an ask it incredulous, like there’s some kind of manual for this kind of holy.
And I’ve got no qualms in telling you that: No, he didn’t even get down on one knee – it was just a box, a glint of gold in the dark, two hallowed words and a question mark.
“Boring.”
I know. When you’ve watched a few dozen mastermind proposals on youtube, shared them with their rolling credits on Facebook, marvelling at how real romance has an imagination like that.
Can I tell you something, kids?
Romance isn’t measured by how viral your proposal goes. The internet age may try to sell you something different, but don’t ever forget that viral is closely associated with sickness – so don’t ever make being viral your goal.
Your goal is always to make your Christ-focus contagious – to just one person.
It’s more than just imagining some romantic proposal.
It’s a man who imagines washing puked-on sheets at 2:30 am, plunging out a full and plugged toilet for the third time this week, and then scraping out the crud in the bottom screen of the dishwasher — every single night for the next 37 years without any cameras rolling or soundtrack playing — that’s imagining true romance.
The man who imagines slipping his arm around his wife’s soft, thickening middle age waistline and whispering that he couldn’t love her more…. who imagines the manliness of standing bold and unashamed in the express checkout line with only maxi pads and tampons because someone he loves is having an unexpected Saturday morning emergency.
The man who imagines the coming decades of a fluid life – her leaking milky circles through a dress at Aunt Ruth’s birthday party, her wearing thick diaper-like Depends for soggy weeks after pushing a whole human being out through her inch-wide cervix, her bleeding through sheets and gushing amniotic oceans across the bathroom floor and the unexpected beauty of her crossing her legs everytime she jumps on the trampoline with the kids.
The real romantics imagine greying and sagging and wrinkling as the deepening of something sacred.
Because get this, kids — How a man proposes isn’t what makes him romantic. It’s how a man purposes to lay down his life that makes him romantic.
And a man begins being romantic years before any ring – romance begins with only having eyes for one woman now – so you don’t go giving your eyes away to cheap porn.
Your dad will say it sometimes to me, a leaning over – “I am glad that there’s always only been you.” Not some bare, plastic-surgeon-scalpel-enhanced pixels ballooning on a screen, not some tempting flesh clicked on in the dark, not some photo-shopped figment of cultural beauty that’s basically a lie.
“The real romantics know that stretchmarks are beauty marks and that different shaped women fit into the different shapes of men souls and that real romance is really sacrifice.” ~The Broken Way
I know – you’re thinking, “Boring.”
Can you see it again – how your grandfather stood over your grandmother’s grave and brushed away his heart leaking without a sound down his cheeks?
50 boring years.
50 unfilmed years of milking 70 cows, raising 6 boys and 3 girls, getting ready for sermon every Sunday morning, him helping her with the zipper her dress.
50 boring years of arguing in Dutch and making up in touching in the dark, 50 boring years of planting potatoes and weeding rows on humid July afternoons, 50 boring years of washing the white Corel dishes and turning out the light on the mess – till he finally carried her in and out of the tub and helped her pull up her Depends.
Don’t ever forget it:
The real romantics are the boring ones — they let another heart bore a hole deep into theirs.
Be one of the boring ones. Pray to be one who get 50 boring years of marriage – 50 years to let her heart bore a hole deep into yours.
Let everyone do their talking about 50 shades of grey, but don’t let anyone talk you out of it: Commitment is pretty much black and white.
Because the truth is:
Real love will always make you suffer. Simply commit: Who am I willing to suffer for?
Who am I willing to take the reeking garbage out for and clean out the gross muck ponding at the bottom of the fridge?
Who am I willing to listen to instead of talk at?
Who am I willing to hold as they grow older and realer? Who am I willing to die a bit more for every day?
Who am I willing to make heart-boring years with? Who am I willing to let bore a hole into my heart?
Get it: Life – and romance — isn’t not about one up-manship — it’s about one down-manship.
It’s about the heart-boring years of sacrifice and going lower and serving.
Real love isn’t about how well you perform romantic gestures. It’s about how well you let Christ perform your life.
Sure, go ahead, have fun, make a ridiculously good memory and we’ll cheer loud: Be a creative romantic — but never forget that what wows a woman and woos her is you how you purpose to live your life.
I’m praying, boys — be Men. Be one of the “boring” men – and let your heart be bore into. And know there are women who love that kind of man.
The kind of man whose romance isn’t flashy – because love is gritty.
The kind of man whose romance isn’t about cameras — because it’s about Christ.
The kind of man whose romance doesn’t have to go viral — because it’s going eternal.
No, your dad did not get down on one knee when he proposed – because the romantic men know it’s about living your whole life on your knees.
There are Valentine’s Days.
And there are the quiet romantics who will take out the garbage without fanfare. There will be the unimaginative calendar by the fridge, with all it’s scribbled squares of two lives being made one. The toilet seat will be left predictably up. The sink will be resigned to its load of last night’s dishes.
And there is now and the beautiful boring, the way two lives touch and go deeper into time with each other.
The clock ticking passionately into decades.
Our daring story of taking the life-transforming way of boring love, of taking The Broken Way…
This one’s for those who dare to take The Broken Way… into abundance
Come encounter God and live broken and free: brokenandfreetour.com
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February 13, 2017
the one word that could change everything about your marriage
This man’s words have mentored me, our family, a whole generation — because he turns everything & looks at it through fresh eyes. Gary Thomas and his wife got married fully expecting dramatic days and dynamic opportunities–but what if God planned to take them through decades of quiet years and simple obedience? What if God’s primary intent for a marriage isn’t to make you happy . . . but holy? Gary has written how our marriage is more than a sacred covenant with another person. It is a spiritual discipline designed to help you know God better, trust Him more fully, and love Him more deeply. Now he’s back exploring an aspect of marriage by focusing on a word he found “hiding in plain sight”: cherish, as in “I promise to love and to cherish until death do us part.” Exploring what that word meant changed his marriage so much that his wife Lisa writes in the foreword, “Just hearing the word ‘cherish’ makes me want to hug Gary, give him a kiss on the cheek, and say thank you.” I think we’re in for something special when we remember that we didn’t promise to just love our spouse, but to cherish him/her as well. It’s a grace to welcome Gary to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Gary Thomas
“My dove, my perfect one, is the only one.” Song of Songs 6:9
Just this morning as I was in my study, I heard my wife gradually waking up.
My heart went out to her. I hadn’t seen her yet, but just knowing she was moving and awake flooded my soul with new affection.
I knew she’d walk into my office, still partly-asleep, come up to my chair for a hug, and then shuffle out of the room.
It’s literally one of my favorite things that happen almost every day.
Did I ever dream that marriage could be like this, thirty years in, where simply hearing my wife wake up would emotionally move me?
Probably not, because it wasn’t like this in the first decade of our marriage, or even the second.
Lisa and I have always loved each other, but the last several years we’ve discovered a hidden promise we made that we had forgotten about.
Re-embracing that promise has deepened our love and added a new element to our relationship.
We realized we didn’t just promise to love each other on our wedding day.
We also promised to cherish each other: “I promise to love and to cherish until death do us part.”
Love speaks of sacrifice, commitment, service, selflessness—all essential elements if a marriage is going to go the distance.
But cherish speaks of delight and adoration.
I don’t want my wife to think we live in the same house because the Bible says I can’t leave her; I want my wife to be cherished, to know she is “my dove, my perfect one, the only one” and that I would never want to be with anyone else.
A pastor asked seven men, “How many of your wives love you?”
Every hand went up.
He then asked, “How many of your wives like you?”
Every hand went down.
Each one of these men felt loved; none felt cherished.
That reality changes the tenor of a relationship; it eclipses the harmony and leaves you playing your marriage with only half an instrument.
Aspiring after a cherishing marriage has opened new realms for Lisa and me. It has drawn us closer. It has made our relationship and thus our home that much more pleasant.
There’s a certain delight when you truly cherish someone you live with.
If you cherish your spouse, it’s a treat just to see them—or to hear that they are awake.
Cherishing feeds itself.
One way to distinguish “cherish” from “love” is to consider the ballet. A ballerina has to be strong, athletic, and balanced. The moves are physically demanding. But those skillsets aren’t all that different from that of an NFL linebacker, who also must be strong, athletic and know how to stay on his feet. What sets the ballerina apart is the grace, the beauty, and the poetry.
Love is the athletic strength of marriage—unquestionably the supporting spiritual foundation of any union.
Cherish is the grace, the poetry, and the beauty of enjoyment. It takes your marriage to another level and makes it not only beautiful to dance, but beautiful for others to watch.
Just as 1 Corinthians 13 celebrates love, so the Song of Songs celebrates cherish:
Love is about being gracious and altruistic. “Love is patient, love is kind.” (1 Cor. 13:4)
Cherish is about being enthusiastic and enthralled. “How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume more than any spice.” (Song of Songs 4:10)
Love tends to be quiet and understated. “[Love] does not envy, it does not boast.” (1 Cor. 13:4)
Cherish boasts boldly and loudly: “My beloved is radiant and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand.” (Song of Songs 5:10)
Love thinks about others with selflessness. “Love is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking.” (1 Cor. 13:4-5)
Cherish thinks about its beloved with praise. “Your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.” (Song of Songs 2:14)
Love doesn’t want the worst for someone: “Love does not delight in evil.” (1 Cor. 13:6)
Cherish celebrates the best in someone: “How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful!” (Song of Songs 1:15)
Love puts up with a lot: “[Love] always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Cor. 13:7)
Cherish enjoys a lot. “His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely.” (Song of Songs 5:16)
Love is about commitment. “Love endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:7-8; ESV)
Cherish is about delight and passion. “Your name is like perfume poured out.” (Song of Songs 1:3)
Here’s the good news—in fact, the great news.
Cherishing our spouse is something we can learn to do.
There are habits, mindsets and actions we can embrace that slowly build a cherishing marriage.
The same God who cherishes the imperfect us is more than capable of empowering us to cherish our imperfect spouse.
As kids grow older and live their own lives and build their own families; as coworkers move on to new businesses, friends move away to new callings, and neighbors move to new houses in new cities; it is so fulfilling to have one person that I am called to cherish, and to be cherished by, above all others.
Our house felt so full over Christmas with all of our children filling up all the bedrooms and even my office, and then it felt so empty one week later when they all left many great memories, a couple loads of dirty linen, and the inevitable forgotten shirts, hairbrushes and makeup that will need to be sent out to Seattle, Philadelphia, and Boston.
I hugged Lisa that first alone-again evening and said, “Thank you for being my primary family now. Thank you that I don’t ever have to say goodbye to you as long as both of us are on this earth.”
Since I cherish her above all others, that is a very sweet place out of which to live.
There are many good things to do and many noble things to seek on this planet and in this lifetime:
cherishing and being cherished by your spouse is among the very best.
Gary Thomas’ writing and speaking focuses on bringing people closer to Christ and closer to others. He holds a Master’s degree in Systematic Theology from Regent College and an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Western Seminary. As the author of 18 books, including the best-seller Sacred Marriage, Gary serves as writer in residence at Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas.
Every man and woman wants to be cherished by their spouse. Gary’s most recent book Cherish, explores how couples can make that happen. Certain attitudes, habits and mindsets can help couples grow beyond merely ‘gritting their teeth’ and hanging into there into a new delight in each other and a new joy in their relationship by unleashing the power of cherish in their marriage. Give yourself the gift of a deeply meaningful marriage: Highly recommending, Cherish: The One Word That Changes Everything For Your Marriage.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
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