Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 156

one creative & unexpected way to revitalize & reenergize your quiet time

It’s worth asking — what inspires you or energizes your faith? There really are a myriad ways for us to keep our time with God fresh. Bible journaling is one powerful invitation, drawing the heart into God’s Word, and closer to Him. Jann Gray  travels the country holding workshops to share her love for illuminating the text in her Bible with what God is writing on her heart. It’s a grace to welcome Jann to the farm’s front porch today…

guest post by Jann Gray

Every Bible I have ever owned has become the repository of all sorts of evidence that I have met with God on the pages of His Word.

If you were to do a quick flip through one of my Bibles, you would find that sermon notes, prayers, word studies, and cross references have been scribbled in the margins and that words and even whole paragraphs have been underlined, circled, and color coded.

These marks on the pages of my Bibles were not put there to distract from the Word of God — but rather to remind me of who God is, as I studied and meditated on His Word.

It now also contains illustrations—a creative expression that I call illuminated journaling.

Bible journaling is an expressive way to study the Word of God by writing or drawing on the very pages that inspire our creativity.

It was my love of photography and the way a picture can transport me back to the moment that a precious memory occurred, which has led to my love of journaling in my Bible using words and images.

Journaling like this captures the moments I have met with God on the pages of His Word and allows me to return to that meeting again and again—refreshing my memory and reinforcing the truths I have learned.

Illuminated journaling allows me to capture my own picture—a selfie if you will—of myself with God as we stand together admiring the work of His hands.

Sometimes the picture is of me before I knew what the future would hold. Sometimes it is of the celebration of completing a task. Other times, it captures the moment when the truth finally sank in and I got it. Still others record the time I missed it yet again.

As I flip through the pages of my Bible, I see where I’ve been and anticipate where He will lead me, and I rejoice in His constancy, presence, and love for me every day, every moment of my life.

And if my fickle heart even tries to forget, I have the evidence right there on the pages of my Bible that He never forgets, never fails, never leaves, and always loves. Click and there in the viewfinder of my Bible is our silhouette . . . Him loving me and me loving Him right back.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and tell you that I think this could be the single greatest thing that you can do to improve your personal relationship with Jesus! As bold as that sounds, my personal experience (and the experience of hundreds of my friends) gives me the confidence to want it for you, too!

But, to be totally transparent, there have been times when that curiosity in God’s Word waned.

I remained in love, but I got distracted by life.

I got distracted by ministry. I got distracted by sin. I got distracted by thinking I could rely on all the work I put into getting to know those words in past years.

I began to approach the Bible with familiarity and slowly decreased how intensely and intentionally I pursued the Word, . . . and I was unaware that there was so much more. Bible journaling has brought me back to a place of curiosity and exploration in the Word of God.

Bible journaling has not just reinvigorated my Bible study, but also brought me to a new spiritual depth.

The art and the words placed on the pages of my Bible instantly bring to my present memory the impact they had on me when I first learned them.

They literally renew my mind.

Sometimes people are uncertain about their ability to journal in their Bibles.

They worry about not being creative or not knowing where to begin. But there’s something important to remember: You absolutely are a creative person! We were each made in the image of God and He is the ultimate Creator!

Creativity is not just found in cream of the crop artists, designers, dancers, singers, writers, doodlers, and illustrators.

Creativity is in you. This spark of creativity was placed there by God. You are the only one who can present a sacrificial offering of your creativity back to Him.

Don’t miss that opportunity.

The paralysis of perfection and uncertainty of beginning are reasons that I love encouraging new journalers to sit a bit with the Inspire Bible. The Inspire Bible has more than 400 beautiful Scripture art illustrations printed in the margins that help even the most timid journaler to be confident and successful.

It is a melding of the latest coloring interest and Bible journaling. The Inspire Bible takes the uncertainty out of it—you can just open it and begin drawing or start with the beautiful end papers that have additional line-art illustrations for coloring.

All you need to do is pull out your colored pencils and begin. You will also find plenty of room to add your own illustrations, doodles, and hand lettering.

Once you begin, you will look forward to bringing the line-art illustrations to life with your choice of color and color medium, and soon you will forget that you were at all nervous in the first place.

The most important thing is just to start! 

It could happen for you — or for those you love–  as you exhale with these pages — a deepening of relationship and intimacy with God almost immediately. 

And that could come as a gift too — like the richness of old family photo albums, this looking forward to returning to the familiar pages and remembering in great detail the impact God’s Word has had on all the days — all of a life.

 

Jann Gray has been part of the Bible journaling movement almost from its inception. Her 25-year background as a missionary with the Josh McDowell Ministry has given her a unique perspective into how God is using Bible journaling to draw people into a fresh and vibrant relationship with Him through His Word.

Inspire is a single-column, wide-margin New Living Translation Bible that will be a cherished resource for coloring and creative art journaling. It is the first Bible of its kind―with over 400 beautiful line-art illustrations spread throughout the Bible. Full-page and partial-page Scripture art is attractively displayed throughout the Bible, and the illustrations can be colored in to make each Bible unique, colorful, and customizable.

If you would like to know more about the Inspire Bible, visit InspireBible.com. You’re also invited to visit IlluminatedJournaling.com to read a sample chapter, watch free tutorials or register for an online Illuminated Journaling Workshops to help you begin your own illuminated journaling adventure. This could be the year to meet Him in a fresh and reviving way with the Inspire Bible

[ Our humble thanks to Tyndale and their partnership in today’s devotion ]

Light the Candles. Advent Readings. Second Sunday: PEACE. [VIDEO experience]

Join us on the farm with lighting the candles for the Second Sunday of Advent? Reading via email? Just click on the video below or right here

Disclaimer: This ain’t all together or professional slick or anything… Just a simple, homemade video, taped by our Hope-girl, because God pressed it hard on our hearts to make a space for folks who may not have a community to celebrate the wonder and beauty of Advent? If you’re looking for an updated, fresh story, professional version, it’s our humble joy to serve you here

Don’t miss Him this year? Hush the hurry & find the holy?



Journey with us? Through all of December with  The Greatest Gift , named the Best Devotional of 2014  & NYT bestseller  (free download of 25 ornaments with the book) —  or the brand new family read aloud edition, The Evangelical Publishing Association’s Best Inspirational Book of 2016 & NYT Bestseller, Unwrapping The Greatest Gift  — a fresh, all new unwrapping of The Love Story — your love story … … God starting a Christmas revolution, us all turning toward Jesus.

And if you’d rather a professionally recorded, beautiful DVD Christmas experience here on the farm? There’s the professional, all-fresh material of  The Greatest Gift DVD Experience to truly hush the hurry and find the holy in December:  4 weeks of Advent: 4 holy sessions. Taped on the farm. At the woods. In the barn. By the manger.  Come away from the whirl. Come into the candle light. Into the snow falling. Into the quiet of the barn & the depths of His Love.
Sit in the straw, in a circle of flickering candles, and feel the illuminating awe of God’s Word through the unfurling of the greatest love story ever told — Christmas’s full love story, right from the beginning of  His-Story, like you’ve never quite heard it told before.
Next Sunday, come join us? The Joy Candle …  
Related: The quiet joy of having  The Greatest Christmas : How to Have the Best Christmas … and where to find our wooden advent wreath 

Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [12.03.16]

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 right here: 

Tiina Törmänen
Tiina Törmänen
Tiina Törmänen

enjoy a long walk?

us holding onto each other —  knows no boundaries

during this season when God was born: the miracle of life displayed in 12 different creatures

glory!

voted some of the best wildlife photos of the year

okay, this kid is really on to something when it comes to gifts

kinda deeply beautiful: 100 year old twins: still inseparable

serious question: what if we all lived this way?

Heart fireworks: adopted sibling photo series: family’s about love, not DNA

love what matters – yes!

Kevin Wolf

what happened in this photo here? just had to share

at 91? what he does from breakfast until dinner? incredible #BeTheGift

they started to #ShareKindness at age 4: see what they’re up to now #betheGIFT

you’ve got to meet him: Deon, a cop in LA

Lara Carter Photography

70 years?! There’s a lot to celebrate here!

because honestly — we all need a friend

…nothing slows us down through Advent like this 24 Day Advent Wreath —because there’s no missing Jesus this year. 

okay, no stress allowed —  because it’s just all about sharing

let’s give all the happiest gift of more Jesus this year:

The Greatest Gift … &  Unwrapping The Greatest Gift —

and over at the The Greatest Christmas there’s a  whole library of free printable ornaments, Christmas cards, gift tags, gifts boxes, scavenger hunt,   and more —

our gift to you for The Greatest Christmas! 

you’ve just got to know that there’s always hope for things to get better in the world

this is the best: high school honors an unsung hero

UNICEF

all my heart & Post of the Week from these parts here

Dear Children of Aleppo: The People of the World Needed to Tell You This 

thinking he’s on to something here: get what’s inside, out

Want to preach Gospel to yourself every day through December?

Free Stress-Free Holiday Sticky Notes for Your Soul, right here: No Stress Holiday Manifesto

O Come, Emmanuel

Grab a copy of The Broken Way: Experience Deep Transformation

maybe we all can open our hearts too?

  [ Print’s FREE here: ]

December! The Best GIFT calendar!

Tis the holly, jolly season now to GIFT it forward!

Because this past season? Maybe has been tender with pain, bruised with division & battered with opinions — and now is the time to all reach out our arms & give one intentional kindness, grace, gift forward today, each day… & be part of JOY TO THE WORLD! 

Be the GIFT — give forward the grace you’ve tasted, the comfort you’ve known, the love you’ve felt, give forward a bit of intentional kindness. We could start a revolution of kindess — choosing to Give It Forward Today — #BeTheGIFT

Right here December’s GIFT calendar — daily prompts to intentionally give it forward today.

[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]

‪ Dare to fully live!

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.

when your heart needs a fresh start

Couldn’t love this woman more — Liz Curtis Higgs, a humble, wise (and funny!) author of 35 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 14 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

In my early attempts at writing I used exclamation points like condiments, sprinkling them all over the page.

My poor readers! Exhausted by the end of the first paragraph! Whew!

I’ve since learned to dial things down, but I do get excited when I find an exclamation point in the Bible:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

It’s all I can do not to stand up and shout, “Ta-da!”

So, mind if we unpack this one? It’s the first verse I memorized as a new believer, when I discovered God can make all things new.

Therefore,… 2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore is a summary word, taking into account all that came before it. This portion of the letter to the church at Corinth is about reconciliation. About being Christ’s ambassadors. About looking at our sisters and brothers of the faith through a new lens.

Therefore says, “Because of all Christ did for us, consider this.”

…if… 2 Corinthians 5:17

If is an open door, revealing endless possibilities and overflowing with hope. Jesus often used this word in His teaching: “if you have faith” and “if you knew the gift of God” and “if you remain in me.”

If makes us stop and ask, Who is this verse meant for? Am I invited?

…anyone… 2 Corinthians 5:17

Ah. Anyone definitely includes you. Whether we’re talking “any man” (ASV) or “any person” (AMPC), the pathway to eternal life is clearly lit, and the Lord Himself beckons us forward.

…is… 2 Corinthians 5:17

I know, I know. “Is, Liz? You’re focusing on the word is?” Absolutely. It’s the pivotal word in this verse. Either a person is or is not a follower of Christ. Though we are always growing in our faith, each of us has a defining moment.

That moment is defined by God, not by us.

When Jesus asked Peter, “Who do you say I am?” and Peter responded, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” the Lord didn’t congratulate Peter for being wise or clever. Instead, Jesus told him, “This was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17) Peter made his confession of faith by God’s power alone.

I AM declares that I am. Not the other way around.

…in Christ,… 2 Corinthians 5:17

Some translations give the little word in a bit more muscle—“belongs to” (CEV), “united with” (CJB), “joined to” (GNT). The One in whom we live and move and have our being is what matters, which is why the word in cannot stand alone.

When we are in Christ, and He is in us, we are transformed.

…the new creation has come:… 2 Corinthians 5:17

God doesn’t just clean us up, fix us up, straighten us up. He recreates us in the image of His Son. He starts from scratch. He makes us new. In Christ we become “a new being” (GNT), “a new person” (NLT), “a new creature altogether” (AMPC). In Christ we get “a fresh start” (MSG).

What does that look like in real life? There are as many answers as there are people.

For me, a changed life decades ago looked like this:

I stopped drinking alcohol and started going to church.

I stopped using drugs and started reading the Bible.

I stopped sleeping with strangers and started making real friends.

I stopped running away and started putting down roots.

I stopped pretending I had all the answers and started asking God questions.

Through it all God loved me. That was the realization that undid me, in the best sense of the word. It shattered my misconceptions. It trampled my pride.

God didn’t just rock my world. God blew my world apart and then rebuilt it from the ground up.

…The old has gone,… 2 Corinthians 5:17

First, the icky stuff from our old lives must be pried from our stubborn hands and cast aside. Old habits, old ideas, old lies. My inclination is to tuck such things into the deep recesses of a drawer. Just in case I need them later. Just in case I miss them.

God has a better plan. He makes certain those old things have truly “gone away” (CEB) and “the past is forgotten” (CEV). Gone means gone. History. Out of sight, out of mind, out of reach.

Gone means good riddance. Really good.

…the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17

See how the zippy exclamation point grabs our attention? The Greek word here is also rendered “behold” (ASV), “see” (NRSV), and my favorite, “Lo!” (WYC). Getting rid of the old would be exciting enough, yet God also brings in the new. A new gift, a new talent, a new calling.

Is it time to put aside something old, beloved?

To let go, to walk away, to start over?

Even now He is bringing new life to your doorstep.

Make Him welcome.

Let Him in.

 

Liz Curtis Higgs has one goal: to help people embrace the grace of God with joy and abandon. She’s the author of 35 books with 4.6 million copies in print, and her latest is 31 Verses to Write on Your Heart. In her new book, Liz offers a deeper, richer understanding of thirty-one treasured verses, a fresh look at how these timeless truths can impact our lives, and thirty-one creative ways to keep them in our hearts forever.

In 31 Verses to Write on Your Heart you’ll find words of hope you’re looking for when your faith needs a boost or a friend needs encouragement. Chosen by more than a thousand women as their favorite verses in the Bible, each one is worth learning, worth sharing, worth remembering. Liz is all kinds of brilliant and this gem of a book is a one every hearts needs — for all of us to come back to again and again. 

Links for 2016-12-01 [del.icio.us]

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You So Have Miracles In Your Pocket: The Absolute Best Christmas Gift List

Turning the calendar page early this morning in our warming farm house, and there it is, in all it’s fullness —

This is the season of Advent, of coming, of the coming Kingdom of God.

This season of the coming of God, this Advent — it begins a new year for the church calendar, a fresh start.

We begin again now. With the lights shining, with the table set for the feast, with all the preparing of room and of hearts and of gifts.

What the world sees as the end of the year, the church sees as the beginning, because this is always the gentle, kind way of the Kingdom of God: the last shall be first and the first shall be last, and all things are gloriously upside down in the Kingdom of the King.

We want buckets full of things, but in the domain of God the main thing is to kindly pour your bucket out only to be fulfilled in the most meaningful kind of way.

There’s my Mason jar of wheat seeds sitting there in the kitchen windowsill.

And Advent, it comes like a seed, like a seed floating in air, soundless and gentle, without brash demands or bellowing fanfare. This season of God comes like a seed that grows us into a healing joy.

Advent comes like a small whispering, like a beckoning in, like a reaching hand that welcomes you to come.

Yes, Advent is about His coming — and He invites you to quietly to come. 

Come give in the smallest of ways, like He came small and gave Himself to you — and you get joy larger than life. 

Come feel love — by being love.

Come find your healing — by being part of the world’s healing. 

Yeah, tis the holly, jolly season now to GIFT it forward — to Give It Forward Today — to be the GIFT, to share the gifts, to love all the quietest giving that turns around and gives us all the greatest feast!

Because this past season?

Has been a season tender with pain, bruised with division and battered with opinions — and now is the time to all reach out our arms and give one intentional kindness, grace, gift forward today, every day, because now is the season that we live broken and given like bread because this is how we’re given a feast of love, of connection, of community, of communion.

Now is the season that in all our brokenness — we get to become an abundance of joy.

This Advent, the coming Kingdom of God — it comes through us. The Kingdom of God comes through our open, reaching hands, through our intentional gifts of grace, through our giving it forward today and becoming the gift.

Tis the season for us to come — come together as one body, as one hope, as one family that loves.

This is the season of miracles — when there are miracles in our own pockets right now.  

“If your hand is willing, you could pull out a small miracle out of your pocket, a small gift — a note that made a soul stronger, a cup of something warm to soothe someone’s knotted places, a hand to help someone up, open arms just to embrace the overwhelmed and whisper grace.

Carry pocket miracles out into the world, and you’re guaranteed to find the miracle of less stress in your pocket.

These acts of kindness, they were like counting gifts, but even better. There are small miracles in  your pocket that you can pull out—and let abundance in.

It’s the most upside down thing—and it can shake you awake, it can heal you.  

Feel the breaking in of the Upside-Down Kingdom: dare to be broken and given and it breaks a bit of your own brokenness.

Yes— today we all carry around pocket miracles.

The bread that we give to feed another’s soul is what miraculously feeds ours.”

~excerpt from The Broken Way 

December 1st here and it’s the season of miracles… and now we each begin again — GIFTing each other every day with these small intentional acts of givenness — GIFTing each other these pocket miracles, the miracles we each have in our own pocket.

And you can feel it — how this coming closeness of God through brokenness to each of us, this is the miraculous gift that never fades.

That moves like a miracle into us and then through us and out into the waiting world.

Snow’s falling here today, like soundless, floating deeds of fresh ways.

Print out the Best GIFT list for Christmas — daily small ways to be a GIFT, carrying around pocket miracles 

Download Your December G.I.F.T list and #BeTheGift cards here & take the dare to a beautiful life — dare to know you carry pocket miracles

The Broken Way

 Need freedom not only beyond the fear & pain, but actually  within it?

Pick up your copy of The Broken Way — and break free.

Find all kinds of free tools at thebrokenway.com

when you’ve got to know that there’s always hope for things to get better in the world

She’d dropped her voice when she told me that first Sunday of Advent that the kid had tried to kill himself.

That there had been texts, photos of a rope, proof of how it was going to be done.

And then this call to 911.

This was the part that she didn’t have words for.

Her hands flailed a bit, like she was drowning, like her flooding tears were drowning her, and she choked and flailed, reached for words to steady herself, as if she could just find words, she could drag herself up out of the depths.

How do you make words stretch around an entire ocean of ache?

When your heart is detonated on an unassuming morning and this whole dam lets go and you’re swept away in this flood of pain?

She stood there in front of me like a woman underwater, like a woman underwater who kept talking, as if words were coming out, as if I could hear them, but there were no sounds. Only this death gurgle.

There was nothing that seemed right except to look right into her eyes and not look away. Death gurgles can’t be helped up to air by words, by mere, smothering words.

Death gurgles only gasp relief with the gift of presence, by someone taking you close, lifting you with the soundless warmth of themselves.

I reached for her hand. We found our legs and stood. We went for a walk. Yeah, no chocolate therapy. Neither one of us drink. So you do what teetolaters and 40-something women who don’t need anymore calories can actually do – I asked her if she had time to step into the conservatory down by the river.

The butterfly conservatory on the first Sunday of Advent. The first Sunday of Advent when everywhere there is this lighting of the Hope candle. When hope rattled more like a death gurgle in her and the boy was somewhere in the bowels of a pyschiatric ward where they try to wrench you from ropes and bed sheets and your own strangling demons.

Maybe if she saw the lighting and flying, maybe she could believe in things unseen?

I held the conservatory’s door open for her.

It’s what hit you when you first stepped into the glass dome — the lightness of the air in here. Here, for a moment, she could breathe here. The waterfall kept murmuring of things coming from somewhere else. Wings, everywhere wings, lighting and lifting, a thousand wings.

She did put one foot in front of the other. This can be biggest brave.

And what she was feeling were actual facts — the boy had been pummelled. People who should have loved him had abused him of all dignity. Places that should have carried him had mercilessly, mockingly crushed him. Promises that should have helped him up had laughed loud and kicked him in the gut. How busted up can you be before your only future is to bust up everyone else?

How do you sand down the razor shards of a shattered heart and piece them together enough so they don’t go around blithely slashing everyone else? How do you hope unlikely things because you love someone to death?

We stood for a long time and stared at the chrysalises.

Thin sheens hung by threads. It didn’t seem possible – that out of silken threads, wings unfolded wet. But we watched it happen.

There were no words. Simply witnessing. We sat at the waterfall. We waited.

“A blue one….” she said it quiet.

“I need just one photo of a blue morpho butterfly, and then we really have to go.” Yes, the morpho butterfly — whose very name means changed. We all need to believe that things can change.

So we tried.

Like wanna-be hunters on some scam safari, weilding cameras for just one shot, we slunk up quiet to this bloom with its mouth opened like a candy bowl of tempting nectar, we snuck behind that lily and this leaf, and the whole farce was good comic relief, us looking more like bad detectives in a cheap 1970’s rerun. Everywhere morpho butterflies slapped shut their inner blue wings, stared back steely at us with their drab outer brown wings.

Please, Lord – just give her one open spread of blue wings. For crying prayers out loud, just a bit of hope to take out of here.

We waited. Did what the wisest have always done: Waited and Hoped. And the morpho butterfly just outwaited us.

Flitted blue now and then, always a flash on the periphery, glanced us with possibility, but wherever we spun, it locked us out with a determined bland brown.

We’re standing there with our waiting cameras and our frames of brown, without a hint of blue —

and I look over at my friend and you can read it like a headline, her flat resignation.

Like she’s struggling to breathe again.

A walk through a butterfly conservatory that was supposed to be this metaphor of hope — is fast turning into this mockery of hope.

Sometimes believing in a miracle feels like living in a mirage. You can feel like a fool, walking around with your pitcher. Waiting for a picture.



Really, God? Really?

“My battery is about dead…” She looks down at her camera. She doesn’t have to tell me that there’s a lot more deadened than that. “Let’s go.”

I turn my camera off, nod. What else do you say to a woman who just can’t stand the teasing evasiveness of hope mocking her one moment longer?

So I duck under some leaves across the conservatory walkway and a conservatory park ranger brushes past me and I look for the door – and the park ranger whispers: S.T.O.P.

“One of the morphos has landed on you. Right on you.”

I don’t move. I turn slow to look for his stubborn outer brown wings.

“And he’s wide open blue.” The park ranger kneels. “You don’t understand — they don’t do this. They’re the ones that don’t land on people. And they about never rest in their wide open blue.”

My friend nods, she knows, mouth wide open, raising her camera, she knows.

She clicks, snaps, shoots, takes more. More people stop, take more photos. The park ranger asks for my camera, takes a few more. “You don’t understand,” he whispers… “it’s about impossible to get photos of them with their wings in their open blue.”

I nod – whisper it over the indigo wings open there on my shoulder: “And then sometimes — the impossible unfolds into the possible.”

I look over at my friend… who is brimming. Spilling.

Tears are never a sign of weakness. Tears are always the sign of an open heart.

And I mouth it to her, like it’s more certain without any sound, like I don’t want it to slip away from either one of us:

“HOPE.”

It’s the first Sunday of Advent. Hope candles are lit everywhere. God is giving you Hope. 

Hope — for you. 

For you with the kid that seems to have no way through, for you with the heart beaten right down, for you with so much black in front of you that you can’t find the light, for you who can’t see tomorrow being any glint bit better than today —

Hope lights on you and Hope’s just up ahead nodding that it’s going to be okay — you will be okay.

My friend, she’s nodding at me. Nodding at this wide open blue butterfly on my shoulder. And her face is right wet, an ocean of ache running like a waterfall of hope now, right off the edge of her chin, and she chokes it out — “How could we ever not believe? How can we ever not hope in impossible things now?”

The butterfly refuses to close its wings — refuses to do anything but remain open. 

And I nod yes, yes because it’s a paradox: the way to hold fast to what you’re hoping for, is to hold that Hope with openness.

With openness, hold fast to that Hope —  for if the Hope ebbs away, you become a broken wing who cannot fly.

No matter how we’re hurting — it’s only when we lose hope that the real horror happens.

She’s shoulder wracked, wet, heaving with the relief of it and I pull her close and pray like we’ve been touched, like He’s come near the very first Sunday of Advent and Hope candles blazing everywhere unwavering and there’s a boy who can believe — and live —  and there’s a weary woman who’s rising and there’s Christ who comes to give us the gift every one wants more than anything — a future and a hope.

“25 minutes.” She whispers. “That morph butterfly has sat on your shoulder for almost 25 minutes.”

And I nod. Of course.

The very least you can do with your life is welcome in Hope. And He has a name.

And the very best you can do with your life is build a life with Hope.

Live right under a roof of Hope.

Sure, hope feels risky. Sure, hope feels like you’re under a fragile roof that could implode, a roof that could get ripped off and leave you staring up at the sky.

But then you’d just stand and look and trust you were meant to see stars.

You’d just stand and look and trust that you were meant to soar. 

The morpho butterfly  rests with these open wings on me.

And we rest with these open hands in Him.

And we walk on through, the winged thing never leaving, never leaving, never closing, and it’s a bit like what Dickinson said, but different, and it all still clings to me–

“Hope is the thing with wings

That lands at the end of you

And shows you how to open to possibilities

So you never close again.”

 

 

Related:

‘There is always hope’ (beautiful artwork) from StudioJRU

How to Have the Best Christmas (video)

The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas

Click over to The Greatest Christmas and Check out our whole library of free printable ornaments, cards, gift tags, gifts boxes, Sticky Notes for Your Soul, Advent Calendars and more — our gift to you for The Greatest Christmas! 

Links for 2016-11-29 [del.icio.us]

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Dear Children of Aleppo: The People of the World Needed to Tell You This on #GIVINGTuesday

Dear Bana & the Kids in Aleppo…

When we heard that you’re eating grass, and garbage… that there’s only a few days left till your starvation… while we were all swollen with how much turkey and cranberry and pumpkin pie we ate this past weekend — we all needed to come find you and look you in the eye.

When you, Bana, you tweeted to the world what you’re seeing through your little seven-year-old eyes, and we read what you typed: “Last message – under heavy bombardments now, can’t be alive anymore. When we die, keep talking for 200,000 still inside,” we hardly breathed and we needed to hold out our hands to you.

The anger of this world cannot and will not make us deaf to the cries of our children. 

UNICEF

National Post

Photo: Reuters

dunyanews.tv

ABC Reuters

And then when you tweeted, Bana, that you lived through the 100 bombs that drop like death’s open jaws from the sky over the Syrian city of Aleppo every single day, tweeted that you lived: “Tonight we have no house, it’s bombed & I got in rubble. I saw deaths and I almost died” — the world knew then, Bana:

 The world is willing to die to some comfort so that the children of Aleppo can live. 

Because the world heard you howling that you don’t want to die.

That it isn’t time for you to die just yet.

The same stars that we all sleep under — do they hear your cries too? Do the stars hear better than the world does?

Do they hear how you whimper through the nights, listening for the warplanes growling low enough to devour your dreams, your believing, the last brave beat of your one hoping heart.

Do you know that it’s the time of year when we talk of following the stars to a Child, a Child who all the powers wanted to kill?

And you know that it’s the letter writing time of the year? The world writing letters about all the things that we want — gizmos and gadgets and presents underneath the tree — but it’s your letter to the world that we can’t stop  stop hear ringing like an aching in all our ears.

The letter where you, the people of Aleppo, ask the world what good is the United Nations when the children in one nation are dying —  because the people of the world won’t unite in believing there aren’t other peoples children, only all of our children. 

The letter where you, the people of Aleppo, ask the world what good is human rights laws when there are humans living where everything is going holocaust wrong. 

The letter where you, the people of Aleppo, look straight into the camera and straight-up beg the world:

“For almost six years — during which more than 500,000 people have died — we have wondered what the world was doing. Don’t look back years from now and wish that you can do something; you can still.”

We can still, Bana, we can still, Children of Aleppo — we can light candles this Advent and know there is something we can do still in the midst of this holocaust of bombs and besiegement and brokenness.

Baraa Al-Halabi/AFP/Getty Images

Photo by Karam Almasri/NurPhoto/Sipa USA

UNICEF/Al-Issa

KARAM AL-MASRI/AFP/Getty Images

Because this is the time of year where we prepare room, where we make room, where there’s enough room in our hearts to believe in the glorious impossible.

There’s enough room for all of you Children of Aleppo to not be wiped from the face of the earth because of our indifference, our apathy, our warring desecration of each other. 

There’s enough room in our hearts to not be consumed by more stuff but be consumed by more caring.

Because the world can’t afford to lose you, Bana, and Children of Aleppo.

We can’t afford to lose the music only you can make, the ideas only you can have, the inventions and dreams and hope the world can only be if we do whatever it takes to keep you with us here and from the relentless hound of death and it’s screaming bombs.

this warring world into your lungs.

We’re shattered that for all of your short years in this huge home that we call the world, you’ve only known death and destruction, you’ve only known fleeing and running and everywhere, closed doors.

We could have done better,  Bana, and the Children of Aleppo.

You’re begging us all to do better now.

We’re sorry. We’re all sick with sorry. 

It may be nauseatingly hard for us all to look at that photos of your bloodied bodies, Children of Aleppo —- but, this Christmas, you’re seared into all of our collective hearts, because the undeniable truth of it is: We can turn a blind eye to the needy all we want, but it could have turned out that we were the needy.

The whole world murmurs our repentant beckoning, Children of Aleppo: We are with you, Aleppo, we are with you. #WithAleppo

Why —  in the name of Almighty God — could we believe that Emmanuel, God is with us — and that God doesn’t want to be with them?

How in God’s name can there be distance or indifference between the children of God?

If it’s only by abundant grace that any of us are here — and there’s abundant grace for us — then, by God, there’s abundant grace for all of us.

There’s always enough hope because dreams always last longer than the dark.

And there’s always Love enough, hope enough, God enough, to fight all the dark. This is what the stars all know. 

And this is what drives us to our pens and our phones and our keyboards, Bana and Children of Aleppo, to ask lawmakers to listen, to ask the world to see, that causes us to all link arms in brave ways, to band together and say World, open the way for aid, open the roads for a way, The Way, open all our hearts to grab hands and stand with the children of Aleppo.

Because this we believe:

‘With-ness breaks brokenness.

That’s why Emmanuel came — the one whose very name is God with us — because with-ness breaks brokenness.‘ (~ excerpt from The Broken Way)  

So the people of the world stand #WithAleppo — because there are dreams enough for this dark, there is light enough for this dark,  there hope enough coming even now for you.

The people of the world stand #WithAleppo — because there is no bureaucracy or excuse or reason that can render us impotent, that can paralyze us in helping the wild-eyed or the littlest because people of all faiths know a Love that is infinite.

The people of the world stand #WithAleppo — because now is when we’re string up lights and we’re committed to bringing Light into this world because the Light came for all of us —  you believe us, Bana and Children of Aleppo, right?

The people of all faiths stand #WithAleppo — because now is when we sing along with the radio,  Joy to the Word…  and… Come, O Come Emmanuel… we don’t just believe these things, but we live these things — you believe us, Children, right?

Because, Children of Aleppo, you are our family who live in our home that’s called the world and why don’t you get joy too and doesn’t Emmanuel mean to come to be with you too, through each of us — and Love isn’t some impossible theory to us but the theology we’re actually called to incarnate. 

So people of the world, of all faiths, stand #WithAleppo and call on our governments to take action at an international level, including in the UN General Assembly, to provide practical support to facilitate the delivery of aid to the civilians and children of Aleppo.

Because even if this is what is written on leaflets that are being airdropped on the children of Aleppo:

The world needs to tell Aleppo — this is not true. We have not left Aleppo to their doom. And we do offer our help. We are the world & we are #WithAleppo.

The people of the world stand #WithAleppo on #GivingTuesday because the Kingdom of God begins to destroy the domain of death when people of all Faiths give their word, give their prayers, give their hands, give their voices to the begging children of Aleppo.

Because if the Church cannot be a place that cries with hundreds of thousand of children facing slaughtering, then the Church cannot say it is with God.

And yes, if God is with us, who can be against us — but what does it matter what we’re against, if we’re not with God.

Once I sat at our breakfast table in the thin early light,  Children of Aleppo, and I saw a fawn run right up to our window and press his head right up against the glass because there were guns firing everywhere in the woods.

I looked right into the deer’s begging wild-eyed fear, Children.  I couldn’t look away.

The people of the world stand #WithAleppo and we won’t looking away from your wild-eyed terror, Children of Aleppo, we won’t.

The stars hear.

And the world sees, O little Town of Aleppo, little Children of Aleppo,

how in your dark streets it can shine, a coming, clearer Light — the hopes and prayers of all the world —

can meet with you even now.

Signed —

The People of the World — #WithAleppo

 Sign Letter Now

[ Thank you for letting your voice be counted & heard by the international community that you & the world are standing #WithAleppo ]

#GivingTuesday … #BeTheGIFT & stand #WithAleppo — let’s prove that the world does care & together, lets feed some of Aleppo’s Children for Christmas. Little Bana is counting on us.

How to grab the hands of the children & stand #WithAleppo

1. Sign this petition & letter above from the People of the World, People of all Faiths or sign over here at WithAleppo.com

2. This #GivingTuesday, give here or here, to get aid to the children of Aleppo, of Syria. 

3. and hang on your tree to remember to pray & fast for the Children of Aleppo, so your Advent is #WithAleppo.

4. Post a picture of you with your #WithAleppo ornament on FB, Twitter and IG  — and ask your people to stand for the children, to stand #WithAleppo, so the governments of the world see that we care, so that we are where God is — with His children crying out to be heard. 

5. With-ness breaks brokenness. Move your people, your faith community, to pray and fast and light a candle & raise your voices to stand #WithAleppo.

That’s why Emmanuel came — the one whose very name is God with us — because with-ness breaks brokenness.

And the children of Aleppo are begging us to help them break free. 

What We Really need on CyberMonday is CyberLove: How to Hear a Heart Drop

This Michigan mama’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 we’ve stirred soup, raised children, loved our husbands, and tried our best to make our homes and lives reflect the heart of God. Her new book Listen, Love, Repeat shows us how to live an other-centered life in the midst of our self-obsessed world, reflecting the good news of the gospel as we do. Karen pulls up a chair on the farm’s porch today to teach us how to lean in and listen to others, gaining a glimpse into their hearts, and then respond with an act of kindness. Listen, Love, Repeat—it isn’t just a clever title. It’s the way that my friend lives. Now it’s your turn to start. It’s a grace to welcome Karen to the farm’s front porch today…

guest post by Karen Ehman

I never tire of reading the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life.

Although I love reading from both the Old and New Testaments, I would be perfectly happy just to sit and soak in the Scriptures that give eyewitness account to what Jesus did while on Earth.

The Gospels make Jesus come to life in HD. (Wouldn’t that be the best reality show of all?)

Although He was the Son of God and on a very big mission, Jesus was never too busy to notice.

He lived alert.

He could be among a crowd of thousands and yet focus in on one weary soul who needed a look, a word, or a touch.

Sometimes, even while on his way to do something that seemed grand and important, He turned his attention to what appeared to be lesser requests.

Because Jesus wasn’t about doing big things. He was about doing the right thing. And often for Him, the right thing was noticing one simple soul.

Mark 5 records such a scene for us. A large crowd was gathered. A ruler of the synagogue named Jairus was among one of the people who wanted to see Jesus, and he had a desperate request. His daughter was dying and he longed for Jesus to come and heal her. Jesus agreed. There wasn’t a lot of hoopla surrounding his decision.

He didn’t draw attention to what was about to go down—posting it on Twitter with the hashtag #miracleontheway, or uploading a pic on Instagram with a really cool filter for effect.

We are simply told in Mark 5:24, “So Jesus went with him.”

As they journeyed to the place where Jairus’s beloved daughter lay dying, crowds pressed in all around Jesus. In the throng was a woman. The Bible says of her,

“She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’ “(Mark 5:26–28)

And so she reached out to touch Jesus—she and multitudes of others who also were reaching for the Savior. But her simple, frantic touch didn’t escape His notice.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” His disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’” (Mark 5: 30–31)

Trembling, the woman admitted it was she. Jesus responded, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering” (Mark 5: 34).

This story has always fascinated me. The way Jesus took time—while in the middle of a crowd of people—to notice just one person and meet her need. The need of a seemingly insignificant person. She wasn’t important like the synagogue ruler Jairus. In fact, we aren’t even told her name. Yet she was not unimportant to Jesus.

Could we try to be more like Jesus, this perfect man who was never too busy to notice someone who needed His touch?

He could peek into the heart, respond with love, and then do it all over again the next time He encountered someone who simply needed to be seen.

Souls all around us every day are longing for someone to notice them. They may feel alone or ashamed. Afraid or apprehensive.

The simple act of noticing someone as they journey through life can lovingly mirror the behavior of God.

But in order to behave like Jesus did, and spread the healing balm of his love, we must be willing to drop our agenda—or at least put it on hold—to reach out and touch those who need it most.

Of course you and I aren’t Jesus—who knows our hearts entirely—but we can learn to show others Jesus when we intentionally listen for heart drops.

A heart drop is when a person, either directly or in a cryptic way, gives you a tiny glimpse into their heart.

It may be through actual words, or you may pick up on a feeling, perhaps sadness or loneliness.

Or maybe you sense anxiousness or worry in the tone of their voice when they bring up an upcoming medical test or job interview.

It could even be a simple preference or “like” of theirs, such as their most-loved high-maintenance coffee drink.

Hearing a heart drop is a way of listening between the lines, gaining a glimpse into another soul’s longings.

When we hear a heart drop, we can brush it aside and go on our busy way. Or, we can respond with an act of kindness.

It may be words of reassurance, a clever small gift, an act of service, or gift of your time. Even that complicated coffee drink delivered on a day when someone needs a reminder that they are seen and loved.

Hearing a heart drop is an art we can intentionally cultivate. It can lead to the most wonderful times of encouragement as we make it our habit to listen and to love.

Today we also have many demands calling for our attention.

Crowds of people and projects press in.

Whether at work or at home, we are often on our way to do something grand.

But Jesus is calling us to stop and notice. To live alert. To give a special touch that may heal a heart or cheer a weary soul.

Rather than trying to do something grand for God, let’s embrace the obscure instead, obeying when we feel the Holy Spirit tapping us on the heart, calling us to engage with another or to cheer and encourage.

I once heard it said that Jesus’ real ministry was the person He found standing in front of Him.

Who is that for you today?

There they are now. Come on, let’s be brave and live like Jesus.

Lean in.

Listen.

Love.

And then?……………Repeat.

 

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. Married to her college sweetheart and mom of three, she resides in the boondocks of central Michigan where she enjoys cheering for the Detroit Tigers and processing life with the many teens and young adults that gather around her kitchen island for a taste of Mama Karen’s cooking.

Her latest book Listen, Love, Repeat: Other-Centered Living in a Self-Centered World, is full of ideas for scattering kindness to family, friends, strangers, the “necessary people” who help you get life done—even the difficult people in life. (She shows how to hug a porcupine and squeeze a skunk!). Kinda an amazing book for this season: Listen, Love, Repeat: Other-Centered Living in a Self-Centered World.

[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan and their partnership with today’s devotion ]