Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 248

How to Know God’s Will for Your Life: The Art of Fully Living [Giveaway for DSLR Camera]

When you are a musician and you stop counting — it’s like running around in the forest in the dark without a flashlight.

That’s what the piano teacher said to the kid at the keys.

Without counting, keeping the rhythm of grace,  life gets a bit like smashing into trees in the dark without a flashlight.

And a whole year like that? Can leave you beat up and bruised and a bit like the walking dead. Don’t ask all my years how they know.

That’s what the piano guy with the rumpled hair and the wrinkled cargos was trying to stammer out loud over ivories: Unless you count — you can’t see.

Unless you count, you can’t hear the rhythm — you can’t hear the lines of the song that will lead you out through the woods.

When you’re still breathing and you stop counting gifts — it’s like flailing mad in the slamming waves — and letting go of of the rope.

Everybody gets to decide: doxology — or drown.

Yesterday, Levi, he finds batteries for the flashlight at the back door. I lay out another fresh journal, fresh lines for a new thousand.  It’s what to do every January.

And yeah, last January 1st, somewhere over 5, 000 gifts now — I began again… to count another 1000 gifts. Because Every Single Day is Day 1, Begin Again Afresh.

Doxology — or Dark. Decide.

In February, these four farm boys peeled squash in the kitchen for their mama trying to rustle up something for dinner.

I stood on a sticking floor with peels all over the counters. I saw them.

Farm Boys with shoulders broadening into future men. I heard them. Farm boys with deepening voices, ribbing each other. I memorized them. Here. In the Kitchen. A witnessing of grace. I didn’t take it as a given — I counted it as gift. #72 to be exact.

By May, the Farmer’s planting corn seeds.

I’m scratching out words about The Greatest Gift, falling hard for Him and His love story that is our story. I listen to a spring rain fall on the cabin’s roof. All I can think, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” Counting one Thousand Gifts is summed up in counting Christ alone as the greatest gift.

I scratch that down: Rain on the cabin roof #433. Christ alone #434. 

Thanks is what multiples the joy and makes any life beautiful  — how can I not keep hungering for this?

I fly to Uganda in June.

I come home and am shaken wide awake to blatant gifts I’ve arrogantly assumed: #527 Hot showers. #528 Flushing toilets. #529 Children with tummies not bloated. I slip between my clean cotton sheets and see their faces and you can cry without making a sound.

Come the end of July, depression stalks, her and I on too familiar terms. I can see her shadow everywhere. She lurks at the edges, lunges from corners, threatening to get into my face, breathe too close in my space.

So I set the timer for three times a day and press depression’s audacity back with the sharp tip of a pen. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” #659 I write down verses, count His Word, that kind of Love, as supreme gift.

I see the sweet peas growing wild in the ditch. #684. Malakai carries a robin into the kitchen #689.

Picking up a pen isn’t painful and ink can be cheap medicine. My lungs remember how to breathe. Trust is the only thing that can really fill your lungs and keep you breathing.

In September, I write down whole long pages of: “hard eucharisteo — thank you, Lord, for…. ” and I murmur thanks to God over and over again for the hard things.

The things that flashed out, grabbed me by the jugular, snapped my neck back hard and locked my chest so I couldn’t heave breath for the pain. Kid scenarios that were ugly. My own responses that were worse. Loud and ridiculous drama. Nagging health messes that just cling like a leach. I get bold and dogged in thanking for the hard things. I’m fool enough to believe this is paramount. That which we refuse to thank Christ for — we refuse to believe Christ can redeem.

In November, when I ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, and she says “I just want to grow up and adopt orphan babies from around the world” — I blink back fresh grace and write that down — #929

When Jesus is more than merely useful — when Jesus is ultimately, supremely, beautiful — who doesn’t have time to slow and see and thank Him?

Are we Jesus-users?

Or Jesus-adorers?

When Jesus is beautiful to you — how can your life not be thankful to Him?

Come the messy still of the end of December, in the middle of a snow storm, I write down #1000 — seeing in storms.

And a year of chipped and cock-eyed gifts frames just that — The art of Living Fully:

Gratitude is not only a response to God in good times — it’s ultimately the very will of God in hard times.

Gratitude isn’t only a celebration when good things happen. It’s a declaration that God is good no matter what happens.

This is brazen. In a cynical world, this is blatant and bold and subversive. This is Truth.

The best artists discipline themselves to practice their art. The best life artists practice the discipline of gratitude — which makes their life art. It is an aching miracle — how true masterpieces are always painted in the dark.

New year, No Fear, New You? This gets real simple. Start here: Gratitude is the mother of all virtues — because it is the will of our Father in all things.

It always begins small.

Change always begins with the eyes. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.” (Matt. 6:22)  

No change happens until there is a change of perspective. 

The good life always wears the habit of gratitude. Its eyes are trained to really see reality. 

It does not wait and wonder if the the good will happen someday. It’s in the habit of seeing the good happening right now.

The good life is as simple a function of good eyes. As simple and painfully hard and as profound as training eyes in the habit of seeing the good in life. Counting gifts trains the eyes.  Wear the habit of gratitude — and you get to wear the good life.  

Live like life’s an emergency and your soul ends up dead. Life is not an emergency. It’s a gift. Why race past the gift? What else are you trying to get to — the presence of God is in this present moment.

Slow and see and unwrap the gift of your life — or your life will unravel.

I throw out 3 dry, dead pens before finding one to set out with the fresh journal. This is worth the effort. Doxology — or dark. Decide.

Seeing then slows into the savoring. Only when you slow and savor the moments, do you taste and see that the Lord is good. Bacon sizzling. Stars over frozen ponds. Kids peeling pomagrenates.

If you don’t slow to count the gifts in the moments, God in the moments — when exactly will you taste and see that the Lord is good? The losing of every battle begins when there is no time to taste and see and savor that the Lord is good. When you don’t have time to taste and see that the Lord is good — you begin to taste and believe that life is bad.

Whatever is going to happen this year — and who knows what is up ahead and how we need to be prepared — it is guaranteed to come down to this:

The enemy of your soul only has two battle plans. 1. Blind you to who God is. 2. And blind you to who you are.

And that’s the miracle that picking up a pen and listing gifts:  at the end of a year, over crumpled pages counting One Thousand Gifts — I can choke it back, brave and defiant straight into the wind, because my very cells know now for certain who God is… and I know for certain who I am: God is unwaveringly good — and we are unfathomably loved. That slays demons.

Real seeing and savoring, it always widens into the sharing. Because ultimately?

Real gratitude cannot be contained — it can only be shared. Real gratitude can not be contained. It. can. only. be. shared.

Real thanks giving always means giving expression to the thanks – on the lips, on a page, in a community, with your hands, your feet, your life.

There is no thanksgiving without thanksliving – it’s just thanksnothing.

Sharing the thanks — sharing the gifts — this is what divides the sorrow, multiplies the joy. 

[Download The Art of Fully Living here]

Hope keeps playing hymns at the off-tuned piano, her fingers keeping count to this steady beat of grace she hears in her heart.

And her mother keeps a count of her own, the days lifting like this beating of wings.

 

 

 

 

 

In every thing give thanks:

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus

concerning you…  1 Thess 5:18.

 

To Celebrate Joy Dare 2013 and 2014: Camera Giveaways

I only do a little something like this once a year, but wouldn’t sharing a bit of joy be a good way to look FORWARD to a No Fear New Year?

So let’s crank open the rusty comment box and cheer each other on — FORWARD! This is the year we FLY!

And a Little Giveaway today to launch #1000gifts2014?

[scroll down to enter for the camera]

Enter today to win:

a signed copy of One Thousand Gifts,

a signed copy of the new One Thousand Gifts devotional & numbered journal to record 1000 gifts in 2014

and One Thousand Gifts: A DVD Study with study guides for your own gathering [This is the year we FLY!]



a turquoise nest pendant with necklace offered by our son Caleb

just wave in the comments box today with one thing you are thankful for (yes, the comment box is OPEN!)

Reading via email or in a reader: click here to join our Comments Celebration

For another entry (or two):

Tweet or share this Facebook status update:

Dare you: Count #1000gifts in 2014. Who doesn’t take a dare to Joy? {the free camera would be bonus} http://bit.ly/1fdm6JT #JoyDare … and then leave another comment here for each share?

Entries for the Books/giveaway package will remain open until January 10th, 8 AM EST.

To Enter for 2013′s Nikon D90 DSLR camera:

Did you take the Joy Dare and count your own 1000 gifts in 2013? If you counted 1000 Gifts in 2013 — {all 1000 gifts counted in 2013} — enter for the same model of camera that’s sitting here on our counter — a Nikon D90 {& 18-105 mm f/3.5-5.6G Zoom Lens included.}

{To enter, thanks for all 1000 gifts must be counted in 2013.But don’t worry if you didn’t get to 1000 — we’re going to do it again in 2014 and share the joy of another camera by December 2014. Scroll down for more info. This is the Year we FLY!) If you counted 1000 gifts in 2013, enter for the camera like this:

1. Post a photo of you holding up your entries of 1000 Gifts over in the Facebook Gratitude community  (it could be a photo of you with entries from  your 1000 Gifts Journal, a screenshot of your blog, or you holding up your mobile device with the 1000th entry from the free 1000 gifts app? Just any photo of you (or screenshot) with the way you recorded your 1000 gifts)

2. After you’ve shared the joy of counting 1000 gifts and the dare to really live on the Facebook page….

come back and leave a comment here with the Subject heading: CAMERA … and what the Joy Dare has meant for you…  

Entries for 2013′s  Nikon D90 {& 18-105 mm f/3.5-5.6G Zoom Lens will remain open until January 10th, 8am EST.

Annnnnd… to enter for 2014′s Nikon D90 Camera!

Are you ready to make this the year you FLY? Count your own 1000 gifts in 2014 … How?

1. Check out the whole year’s Joy Dares! 3 prompts everyday adds up to more than #1000gifts!

2. or… Blog your 1000 gifts, or tag #1000 gifts on Instagram, or join us on Mondays and link up to the list on your blog, or record a legacy of your 1000 gifts in the new numbered journal, and, if you’d like to be entered into the monthly draw for a JOY BASKET mailed out to you (including a $100 Amazon gift card), share your gifts everyday in the Facebook Gratitude community  (everyday we post 3 prompts of what gifts you could look for #JOYDARE!) … and next December (after recording only about only 3 gifts a day) …  be back here to enter for the camera!

What do You Get when you Count 1000 Gifts?

Write 1000 gifts and keep a gratitude list and the research proves this is what you really get:

1. a relative absence of stress and depression. (Woods et al., 2008)

2. progress towards important personal goals (Emmons and McCullough, 2003)

3. higher levels of determination and energy (Emmons and McCullough, 2003)

4. closer relationships and desire to build stronger relationships (Algoe and Haidt, 2009)

5. Increased happiness…. by 25% — (Who wouldn’t want 25% more happiness!) (McCullough et al., 2002)

Who doesn’t want all that? Begin counting — just 3 gifts a day  — This is year we FLY!

{Consider turning off music by clicking the speaker bar near the bottom of  the left margin?}

Doxology — or Dark? We Decide: This is the year we FLY!

Related:

One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

The 60 DAY DEVOTIONAL with 1000 numbered journal: 

One Thousand Gifts Devotional: Reflecting on Finding Everyday Graces

Selections from One Thousand Gifts: Finding Joy in What Really Matters

One Thousand Gifts: A DVD Study

One Thousand Gifts Gratitude Journal 

Entire 12 month Joy Dare collection

Favorite blankets pictured: Hand and Cloth

Nest Necklace from our son, Caleb — This is the year we FLY!

Join the Comments Celebration Here! Farm’s front door is wide open!

Click here to download the FREE EASTER / LENT Devotional: The Trail to the Tree{please give it a few moments to download… thank you for grace!}

Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us: The Jesus Project #MemoryProject2014 *UPDATED: Printable Bookmark with List of Verses

When in Rome… yeah, that….

When in Rome, do as the Romans.

2013 was this slippery year of that — living in Romans, doing as Romans.

The Farmer and I would crawl into bed, bone tired and hurting, lay there murmuring phrases of Romans 1 to each other…

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God… “

Set apart for the Gospel…. Set apart for the Gospel.

Memorizing His words, turning them over in our minds, in our mess, like raw-cut, unearthed diamonds, this is what rotated us.

I had muttered that one night to the Farmer laying there weary — It is only the turning the lines of Scripture that turn me around. Nothing else has the sheer strength to do that.

Every line of God’s Word is like an axle — turning the soul around, moving the soul forward. Getting me there. Without it, my life has no forward motion — I just ram hopelessly about in the same ruts.

For a year, I worked at not letting time or tasks get in the way of letting the axle turn…

In March, Lizzie and I served at a conference called, yeah, that: Set Apart … we stumbled and laughed and hung on and recited our Romans verses to each other… set apart for the Gospel….

Come summer, Romans 8 was a soundtrack playing loud and steady and sure in my head: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…”

To-do lists could yell at me at the end of the day. Emails lingered, piled unopened. Resolutions splayed neglected. But what the heart knows by heart can heal and hold the heart, and His Word would come again like the lullaby of a strong, rhythmic heartbeat to me laying there wide awake… would come pull me close to thrum of the very heartbeat of God: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…

To stay on track, every heart needs to know a soundtrack by heart.

Laying a life up against the chest of His Word, and hearing the steady beat of His heart, is the only soundtrack that strengthens the human heart.

Come the end of summer, when the wheat was coming off, when we were behind in The Romans Project, as is our typical Modus operandi, when we pressed in close to Him to memorize the lines  of His song, the rhythm of His heart right there at the end of Romans 8, I felt the burning lump in my throat — how in the world did the likes of us end up with a love song like this?

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

[And there it was -- my life verse:]

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? …

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come … will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God hands you lungs when He hands you His Word and says — These are not idle words to you, they. are. your. life.

What you really know by heart is what your heart really knows — and what you really live.

The steady beat of His word is the only thing that gives a strong rhythm to our days.

That’s what happened: The lines memorized were lifelines, were cords that bound our hearts to the strength of God’s.

A year of groping through The Romans Project… and I didn’t expect it like this: I fell more in love with Him all over again. I kept learning to live loved. I kept learning to exhale.

Come the end of the year, there was the Tree. And the lights and the lingering and a baby in a manger and I said with a whole lot of the world: I just wanted Jesus. That’s what I said.

And then the wonder Christmas had whispered it right into the pragmatism of my New Year:

Is Jesus merely useful to you — or is He ultimately beautiful to you?

When Jesus is merely useful to me, I want Him to move my world.

When Jesus is ultimately beautiful to me, it’s my heart that is moved – and this begins to change the world.

When I see Jesus as useful, He’s a gadget to make my life better. When I see Jesus as beautiful, He’s a joy that makes me live better….

That’s the question that moved me from one year into another:

Am I a Jesus-user?

Or a Jesus-adorer?

How does the church stop being a bunch of Jesus-users? And become a host of Jesus-adorers?

When did Jesus become more about business-like benefits to us instead of The Beautiful who calls us Beloved?

Looking for the beauty of Christ in the everyday isn’t some quaint exercise in poetry. It’s a critical exercise in staying alive. “Your new life, which is your real life, …. is with Christ. He is your life.” [Colossians 3]

And as we all wiped the vernix off a brand new flailing year, I stumbled across this gilded Bible.

Turning pages of illuminated Scripture, these lines of careful calligraphy, I slowed — caught my breath…

You could see it: how for centuries scribes spent their lives on His Word.  Because Jesus was beautiful to them.

I sat in the dark of a brand new year, an illuminated Bible in front of me, with this epiphany unfolding like new light:

For centuries …. Because Jesus was beautiful to God’s people — His Word was beautiful to God’s people. 

What if Jesus’ Word was more than useful to us? What if it was beautiful to us?

What if God’s Word was more than a manual in our lives — what if it was the masterpiece in our lives — that made our lives a masterpiece?

What if His Word was the art that we were captivated by — that freed us into the art of life?

That’s what I wanted a new year, a new memory project, to look like — I wanted Jesus The Beautiful — and His Beautiful Words.

So when I polled our wondrous little community about what we might memorize for 2014 – the book of James? How about 3 chapters from the Gospel of John? 52 topical verses for the year? or maybe just…  12 Soul-Sustaining verses?

So when I did this pathetic imitation of Richard Dawson’s “Survey Saaaays…” and it was clear:  The poll of God’s people overwhelmingly asked not to memorize a book of the Bible, not several chapters — but to memorize 12 Soul-Sustaining Verses, it was even clearer: We need Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us.

We need Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us ragamuffins who were facing battles every. single. day — and we are wild for a sword. 

We need Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us  – who need just a small change to make a big change.

We need Scripture Memorization for the Rest of us —  to get us through the rest of things.  “We want this to be a discipline we practice for the rest of our lives. Think marathon, not sprint.” writes Beth Moore. That’s what Beth said: “Never — NOT ONCE — have I ever known anyone to get to the end of a Scripture memory commitment and say that it didn’t make any real difference. Not. a. single time.”

So there it was, a  bit of a messy plan:

Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us: The Jesus Project. We’d memorize the Soul Sustaining Words of Jesus. From the Gospel of John.

We’d start with just 24 verses (or you could choose just 12 of the 24) — all that would be rendered artistically, to make us see Beautiful in the Words of God. It would sort of be like this —  ”More Than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints… 24 verses that would chronologically unpack across the Gospel of John. We’ll memorize at least one verse from every chapter in the Gospel of John. Sometimes several verses from each chapter.

Over the year, we’ll offer another free download of “More Than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints. Or maybe two sets,  offered later in the year? So the community could memorize 1 set of 24 verses… or 2 sets — 48 verses from the Gospel of John. Or 3 sets — 72 verses? All The Beautiful Words of Jesus….

It would be this fluid experience, entirely self-paced: you could pace yourself and pick 12 verses, and memorize  one a month. Or you could hang up several “More than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints and memorize a few every week. You could share with the kids. Tape to the mirror. Stick in the car. We will tape ours  up to the blackboard by the kitchen table.

I believe it: What is beautiful in our lives is what actually becomes the most useful in our lives. We are drawn to beauty and Jesus is the Most Beautiful — so hang up His words as art.

And memorization just got a whole lot easier: Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us. 

And by the end of the year? We’ll have memorized at least 24 — 48? 72? — verses all chronologically from the Gospel of John.

We’ll have this sort of art gallery  of “More than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints  –

a humble hanging of prints… God’s Word imprinted right into our being. 

 

Download Bookmark [just if you are memorizing a verse a week? It's all fluid -- feel free to go at your own pace!]

[Next pack of "More than Useful: He is Beautiful" Memory Prints will be posted March 15th, and every Wednesday on the blog we will post a study and devotional unpacking that week's verse]

This would be the year that the weary souls would take wing on the grace of Soul-Sustaining Verses.

This would be the year that we would be just bunch of messed-up, broken-down people — with a sword. Because every. single. one. of. us. is  facing. one. hard. battle.   

Christ’s weapon against Satan in the desert was memorized Scripture. And if you aren’t memorizing Scripture — what IS your weapon in your battle? Where is your defence, your arrow, your hope? We have got to do this thing. It. is. our. life.

This is the year we pick up a sword, that we carry our arrows, that we take aim —-

This is the year that we would fly.

 

 

 

Ready to Fly this year?

Here are the Details:

1. The First of Saturday of Every Month and the Second Saturday of Every Month — we will talk about our verses. Recite them. Post video of us reciting?  Post the next Memory Prints for the chronological memorizing of certain verses throughout the Gospel of John. And encourage each other on!

2.Every Wednesday on the blog we will post a study and devotional unpacking that week’s verse

3. More free Download “More Than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints will be posted by March 15th. So download the next set of 24 verses March 15th, Lord willing. And keep memorizing His beautiful Word.

4. We will be sharing photos of where we are hanging our “More Than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints — come over to our FB community and share photos of where you are hanging yours memory prints?

5. That little poll I mentioned? The only overwhelming response? Just about everyone wanted a way to celebrate #MemoryProject2014 …. So!? We are dreaming up ways to celebrate our community memorizing the #JesusProject this year. Maybe a T-shirt to wear? A virtual gathering? Or maybe… we are praying… maybe some kind of missional trip/experience to celebrate how prints of His Word — have been imprinted on us. Pray crazy with us? 

5. THIS IS THE YEAR TO FLY! #TheJesusProject … is yours for the downloading and the flying!

Download your free “More Than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints of the Gospel of John right here:

Large Prints or the Small Prints and Bookmark with List of Scriptures … And memorization just got a whole lot easier: Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us. An art gallery  of “More than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints  –

a humble hanging of prints… God’s Word imprinted right into our being. 

Related:

Last year’s memory project –The One Habit God Really Wants for Your New Year {Roman’s Project} 

The Most Important Skill That Your 2014 Really Needs

 Liz Curtis Higgs and I reciting from Romans to each other

Previous memory projects:

2012 - Matthew 5, 6 & 7 (Sermon on the Mount)

2011 - Colossians 1-4

Click here to download the FREE EASTER / LENT Devotional: The Trail to the Tree{please give it a few moments to download… thank you for grace!}

Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us: The Jesus Project #MemoryProject2014

When in Rome… yeah, that….

When in Rome, do as the Romans.

2013 was this slippery year of that — living in Romans, doing as Romans.

The Farmer and I would crawl into bed, bone tired and hurting, lay there murmuring phrases of Romans 1 to each other…

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God… “

Set apart for the Gospel…. Set apart for the Gospel.

Memorizing His words, turning them over in our minds, in our mess, like raw-cut, unearthed diamonds, this is what rotated us.

I had muttered that one night to the Farmer laying there weary — It is only the turning the lines of Scripture that turn me around. Nothing else has the sheer strength to do that.

Every line of God’s Word is like an axle — turning the soul around, moving the soul forward. Getting me there. Without it, my life has no forward motion — I just ram hopelessly about in the same ruts.

For a year, I worked at not letting time or tasks get in the way of letting the axle turn…

In March, Lizzie and I served at a conference called, yeah, that: Set Apart … we stumbled and laughed and hung on and recited our Romans verses to each other… set apart for the Gospel….

Come summer, Romans 8 was a soundtrack playing loud and steady and sure in my head: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…”

To-do lists could yell at me at the end of the day. Emails lingered, piled unopened. Resolutions splayed neglected. But what the heart knows by heart can heal and hold the heart, and His Word would come again like the lullaby of a strong, rhythmic heartbeat to me laying there wide awake… would come pull me close to thrum of the very heartbeat of God: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…

To stay on track, every heart needs to know a soundtrack by heart.

Laying a life up against the chest of His Word, and hearing the steady beat of His heart, is the only soundtrack that strengthens the human heart.

Come the end of summer, when the wheat was coming off, when we were behind in The Romans Project, as is our typical Modus operandi, when we pressed in close to Him to memorize the lines  of His song, the rhythm of His heart right there at the end of Romans 8, I felt the burning lump in my throat — how in the world did the likes of us end up with a love song like this?

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

[And there it was -- my life verse:]

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? …

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come … will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God hands you lungs when He hands you His Word and says — These are not idle words to you, they. are. your. life.

What you really know by heart is what your heart really knows — and what you really live.

The steady beat of His word is the only thing that gives a strong rhythm to our days.

That’s what happened: The lines memorized were lifelines, were cords that bound our hearts to the strength of God’s.

A year of groping through The Romans Project… and I didn’t expect it like this: I fell more in love with Him all over again. I kept learning to live loved. I kept learning to exhale.

Come the end of the year, there was the Tree. And the lights and the lingering and a baby in a manger and I said with a whole lot of the world: I just wanted Jesus. That’s what I said.

And then the wonder Christmas had whispered it right into the pragmatism of my New Year:

Is Jesus merely useful to you — or is He ultimately beautiful to you?

When Jesus is merely useful to me, I want Him to move my world.

When Jesus is ultimately beautiful to me, it’s my heart that is moved – and this begins to change the world.

When I see Jesus as useful, He’s a gadget to make my life better. When I see Jesus as beautiful, He’s a joy that makes me live better….

That’s the question that moved me from one year into another:

Am I a Jesus-user?

Or a Jesus-adorer?

How does the church stop being a bunch of Jesus-users? And become a host of Jesus-adorers?

When did Jesus become more about business-like benefits to us instead of The Beautiful who calls us Beloved?

Looking for the beauty of Christ in the everyday isn’t some quaint exercise in poetry. It’s a critical exercise in staying alive. “Your new life, which is your real life, …. is with Christ. He is your life.” [Colossians 3]

And as we all wiped the vernix off a brand new flailing year, I stumbled across this gilded Bible.

Turning pages of illuminated Scripture, these lines of careful calligraphy, I slowed — caught my breath…

You could see it: how for centuries scribes spent their lives on His Word.  Because Jesus was beautiful to them.

I sat in the dark of a brand new year, an illuminated Bible in front of me, with this epiphany unfolding like new light:

For centuries …. Because Jesus was beautiful to God’s people — His Word was beautiful to God’s people. 

What if Jesus’ Word was more than useful to us? What if it was beautiful to us?

What if God’s Word was more than a manual in our lives — what if it was the masterpiece in our lives — that made our lives a masterpiece?

What if His Word was the art that we were captivated by — that freed us into the art of life?

That’s what I wanted a new year, a new memory project, to look like — I wanted Jesus The Beautiful — and His Beautiful Words.

So when I polled our wondrous little community about what we might memorize for 2014 – the book of James? How about 3 chapters from the Gospel of John? 52 topical verses for the year? or maybe just…  12 Soul-Sustaining verses?

So when I did this pathetic imitation of Richard Dawson’s “Survey Saaaays…” and it was clear:  The poll of God’s people overwhelmingly asked not to memorize a book of the Bible, not several chapters — but to memorize 12 Soul-Sustaining Verses, it was even clearer: We need Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us.

We need Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us ragamuffins who were facing battles every. single. day — and we are wild for a sword. 

We need Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us  – who need just a small change to make a big change.

We need Scripture Memorization for the Rest of us —  to get us through the rest of things.  “We want this to be a discipline we practice for the rest of our lives. Think marathon, not sprint.” writes Beth Moore. That’s what Beth said: “Never — NOT ONCE — have I ever known anyone to get to the end of a Scripture memory commitment and say that it didn’t make any real difference. Not. a. single time.”

So there it was, a  bit of a messy plan:

Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us: The Jesus Project. We’d memorize the Soul Sustaining Words of Jesus. From the Gospel of John.

We’d start with just 24 verses (or you could choose just 12 of the 24) — all that would be rendered artistically, to make us see Beautiful in the Words of God. It would sort of be like this —  ”More Than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints… 24 verses that would chronologically unpack across the Gospel of John. We’ll memorize at least one verse from every chapter in the Gospel of John. Sometimes several verses from each chapter.

Over the year, we’ll offer another free download of “More Than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints. Or maybe two sets,  offered later in the year? So the community could memorize 1 set of 24 verses… or 2 sets — 48 verses from the Gospel of John. Or 3 sets — 72 verses? All The Beautiful Words of Jesus….

It would be this fluid experience, entirely self-paced: you could pace yourself and pick 12 verses, and memorize  one a month. Or you could hang up several “More than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints and memorize a few every week. You could share with the kids. Tape to the mirror. Stick in the car. We will tape ours  up to the blackboard by the kitchen table.

I believe it: What is beautiful in our lives is what actually becomes the most useful in our lives. We are drawn to beauty and Jesus is the Most Beautiful — so hang up His words as art.

And memorization just got a whole lot easier: Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us. 

And by the end of the year? We’ll have memorized at least 24 — 48? 72? — verses all chronologically from the Gospel of John.

We’ll have this sort of art gallery  of “More than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints  –

a humble hanging of prints… God’s Word imprinted right into our being. 

 

 

This would be the year that the weary souls would take wing on the grace of Soul-Sustaining Verses.

This would be the year that we would be just bunch of messed-up, broken-down people — with a sword. Because every. single. one. of. us. is  facing. one. hard. battle.   

Christ’s weapon against Satan in the desert was memorized Scripture. And if you aren’t memorizing Scripture — what IS your weapon in your battle? Where is your defence, your arrow, your hope? We have got to do this thing. It. is. our. life.

This is the year we pick up a sword, that we carry our arrows, that we take aim —-

This is the year that we would fly.

 

 

 

Ready to Fly this year?

Here are the Details:

1. The First of Saturday of Every Month and the Second Saturday of Every Month — we will talk about our verses. Recite them. Post video of us reciting?  Post the next Memory Prints for the chronological memorizing of certain verses throughout the Gospel of John. And encourage each other on!

2. More free Download “More Than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints will be posted by March 15th. So download the next set of 24 verses March 15th, Lord willing. And keep memorizing His beautiful Word.

3. We will be sharing photos of where we are hanging our “More Than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints — come over to our FB community and share photos of where you are hanging yours memory prints?

4. That little poll I mentioned? The only overwhelming response? Just about everyone wanted a way to celebrate #MemoryProject2014 …. So!? We are dreaming up ways to celebrate our community memorizing the #JesusProject this year. Maybe a T-shirt to wear? A virtual gathering? Or maybe… we are praying… maybe some kind of missional trip/experience to celebrate how prints of His Word — have been imprinted on us. Pray crazy with us? 

5. THIS IS THE YEAR TO FLY! #TheJesusProject … is yours for the downloading and the flying!

Download your free “More Than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints of the Gospel of John right here:

Large Prints or the Small Prints  And memorization just got a whole lot easier: Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us. An art gallery  of “More than Useful: He is Beautiful” Memory Prints  –

a humble hanging of prints… God’s Word imprinted right into our being. 

Related:

Last year’s memory project –The One Habit God Really Wants for Your New Year {Roman’s Project} 

The Most Important Skill That Your 2014 Really Needs

 Liz Curtis Higgs and I reciting from Romans to each other

Previous memory projects:

2012 - Matthew 5, 6 & 7 (Sermon on the Mount)

2011 - Colossians 1-4

Click here to download the FREE EASTER / LENT Devotional: The Trail to the Tree{please give it a few moments to download… thank you for grace!}

The Most Important Skill that Your 2014 Really Needs

Spun. 

Some guy with a mullet and loud voice had lobbed that one word my way back before the 21st century.

In all his 1989 wisdom, he had flicked his feathered hair back and snorted over a soggy cheeseburger in our hick town high school cafeteria and said “Yeah, that girl is right spun.“

2014 dawns 25 years later.

Marty McFly isn’t supposed to show up until 2015.

And it turns out that the prophet with the mullet has a point: I’m sorta spun – spun out by kids, by demands, by needs, by life.

The calendar fills like a pothole in a torrential gulley washer of a downpour.  The laundry basket keeps overflowing — okay, flooding — the mudroom.  There are the shelves spilling and the fridge emptying and the stove burning. And somewhere, there are people who can make New Year’s resolutions.

What if you just want your New Year’s Resolutions to be about One Revolution?

What if you just want to make one turn in a spinning world and find the certain equilibrium of center again?

On the second day of a new year, I can see it in the middle of a messy table –

what’s sitting there small and still at the center of the Advent wreath, the center of everything spiralling and spinning:

The Life Line of Jesus.

Even our calendars circle around this theology of time:

Thanksgiving, eucharisteo, always, always, precedes the miracle – and Thanksgiving always precedes Christmas, the miracle that Jesus comes, and right into our mess. And Christmas must precede the New Year, God with us — or our messes would have no hope for a new year, no hope for anything being made new.

I pick up the Jesus at the centre, turn the smallness of Him over in my hands… I hold the memory, the seed.

And the wonder Christmas whispers it right into the pragmatism of my New Year:

Is Jesus merely useful to you — or is He ultimately beautiful to you?

When Jesus is useful to me, I’m looking for a genie in a bottle, to give me the life I want.

When Jesus is beautiful to me, I’m looking for His face in my life, to give Him the love I feel.

When Jesus is merely useful to me, I want Him to move my world.

When Jesus is ultimately beautiful to me, it’s my heart that is moved – and this begins to change the world.

When I see Jesus as useful, he’s a gadget to make my life better. When I see Jesus as beautiful, He’s a joy that makes my heart sing louder….

Am I a Jesus-user?

Or a Jesus-adorer?

I turn that nativity Jesus over again and again in my hands. Jesus-user? Am I a user? How does the church stop being a bunch of Jesus-users? When did Jesus become more about business-like benefits to us instead of The Beautiful who calls us Beloved? The lights are still serenading in the tree.

And I wrap my fingers around that nativity Jesus in my hand.

Looking for the beauty of Christ in the everyday isn’t some quaint exercise in poetry. It’s a critical exercise in staying alive.  

“Your new life, which is your real life, …. is with Christ.

He is your life.

When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you…”  ~ Colossians 3 MSG.

In a new year, the only hope of a new me, is only Christ in me.

The most important life skill to have in 2014 is to live aware that Jesus is the only life I have.

Nothing will happen this year apart from Him. Nothing will be remade, nothing will be transformed, nothing will be satisfying apart from Him. Jesus is the only life I have. His shed blood is the only blood I have. His given heart is the only heart I have. His identity is the only real identity I have.

The most important skill to have in 2014 is paying attention to Jesus — nothing else is worth spending your one beautiful year on.

The only real self-help you can ever really muster is preaching Jesus to yourself.

I sweep needles out from under the Christmas tree, and it’s like finding the needle in the hay stack, finding what I need for a new year. It’s all getting simpler:

Just  be with Jesus. Listen to Jesus. Rest in Jesus. Wait for Jesus. Be Loved by Jesus. Wonder over Jesus. Live through Jesus.

When who Jesus is overwhelms you — nothing that happens can overcome you.

Steep your soul in Jesus and nothing is too steep to overcome.

Maybe that fresh white canvas of 365 days that I am terrified to ruin?

The commitments, the kids, that I fear I am going to fail?

The impossible mountains that lie ahead of me?

It was like the Father hushing all my fears as I stepped into a new year:

“Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you?”  2 Corinthians 13:5

Mount Everest in front of you?  But “Christ Jesus is in you!”

The wilderness stretched before you?  But “Christ Jesus is in you!”

The Red Sea staring like a wall ahead of you? But “Christ Jesus is in you!”

When your new year is about making a revolution around to be taken with Jesus — you are given everything you need to keep your resolutions.

Caleb’s at the back door, headed to the shed, when I holler after him, ask if he can make me a bracelet like he did last year – a bracelet with one word.

A bracelet for the woman who had been described with that one word: spun.

“That’s all you want on it? Just that one word – Jesus?”

Yes – Just that One Word: Jesus.

Just –

Jesus.

No Additives.

Pure Grace.

All you need.

When I long for nothing else, desire nothing else, hope for nothing else, but Jesus — I have everything I ever hoped for.

This isn’t Sunday School cliché – this is real world oxygen. Try standing at a grave without Him. Try walking out of the doctor’s office without Him. Try picking through the minefield of life without clinging to Him. Try it – who knows how 2014 could explode?

Jesus is not only our only way back to truly finding God — He is our only way back to truly finding ourselves.

So on the second day of the new year, I wear His name on my wrist to remind me who I am. I pray His name gets pressed right into my paper thin skin. I pray I get branded. Marked. I don’t know what else a new year needs: Intimacy with Jesus results in ultimately being like Him.

What had Ignatius said?

“My dear Jesus, is so deeply written in my heart, that if my heart were to be cut open and chopped to pieces, the name of Jesus would be found written on every piece.”

That. The world can wax loud. The world can go ahead and explode. Just give me that — Let the name of Jesus be written so deep into me that my heart could explode and His name would be found on every shard. 

All there is to see is Jesus.

For others to see Jesus in me. For me to see Jesus in others.

All there is to be is Jesus.

For everyone, the call is to be Jesus. And to respond to Jesus in everyone.

All there is to mirror Jesus. Mirror to everyone the face of Jesus… And see everyone as mirroring the face of Jesus.

“Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus…”  Col. 3:17

“Whatever you do, work willingly, as though you were working for the Lord Jesus…” Col. 3:24

Whatever you do, do it as Jesus.

Whatever you do, do it as to Jesus.

The New Year just got ultra-simplified:

Do everything as Jesus.

Do everything to Jesus.

8 words.

And the grace to actually do the everything?

Just One Word: Jesus.

I spin one bracelet, with my one word for the year, on my wrist…

The world — the year —  could spin…

and even if it spun like it might explode…

the year had a love holding like an anchor at the center and we’re all held….

 

 

Related: Change Your Prepositions and You Change Your Life

Tomorrow, Lord willing, the New, Easy Doable Scripture Memory Plan that keeps Jesus at the center…

The whole collection of this year’s Joy Dare – to keep Jesus at the center of everyday…

Caleb’s offering to make sterling silver bracelets here for you... so you may wear your one word for the year

The book: My One Word for the Year: Change Your Life With Just One Word

My Previous One Word Names for my years:

The Year of Eucharisteo : The Year of Communion : The Year of Yes: The Year of Here

The Year of Koinonia

Click here to download the FREE EASTER / LENT Devotional: The Trail to the Tree{please give it a few moments to download… thank you for grace!}

Why the Future is Bright: A Year in Photos

From calendar page to calendar page,

the moments are our lives

and the years are blinks.

And she stood at the sink and looked back at the year just past….

And in a circle of days, all things being from Him and through Him and to Him,

she smiled brave.

Looking back, it had been hard and it had been beautiful and it had been ugly and it had all been grace.

And looking forward, she would smile braver. This would be the year of No Fear. She would murmur it: “Happy No-Fear New Year!”

She preached Gospel to herself:

Sure, Mount Everest might loom in front of you, that mountain you have to climb in the next 364 days.

But the deal is: Every mountain that every Christian ever faces, the Lord levels with sufficient grace: The Lord Will Provide.

You don’t have to climb mountains named I Will Perform.

You don’t have to climb mountains named I Will Produce.

Jesus flattens that mountain before you with His Grace: The Lord will Provide. With enough strength. With enough wisdom. With More Than Enough of Himself.

More important than you trying to muster up sufficient grit and determination for the new year — is that you simply accept His sufficient grace and liberation every day.

She turned to her Farmer and winked what she was going to live: “Happy “No-Fear New Year!”

She stood in the bold light of it:

The future is as bright as the faithfulness of God.

 

Related: 

Coming this week, Lord willing:

The New, Never Been Done Before, Doable Bible memorization plan with free printables this week…

New One Word encouragement with a twist,

and coming on Monday, drawing for the Nikon DSLR D90 camera, and beginning a  new year of a new 1000 Gifts and toward next year’s camera?

A Grace Plan: A Doable Plan for Life-Change in 2014 

How to Move Forward into the New Year — when you feel like you Failed the Last Year

2012: Year in Photos

2011: A Year in Photos

2010: A Year in Photos

2009: A Year in Photos

Click here to download the FREE EASTER / LENT Devotional: The Trail to the Tree{please give it a few moments to download… thank you for grace!}

A Grace Plan: A Doable Life-Change Plan for a New Year, A New You: With Printable

So I’m a mess and we’re all failures — at least all the honest are.

And the truth is, no one ever runs before they take baby steps. 

So I scratch down these 25 points, like my own sanity manifesto, and there are a thousand ways in a thousand seasons to make a life glorify God.

I scrawl out mine, which would be different than yours, and make a place for it on the fridge and it’s not a law, but a scaffolding for the shaky, struggling days.

I don’t write it as a checklist, like these are things I have to do, one right after another, but I write the manifesto, fluid, like limbs on a tree, to reach for just the next one I need right now, whatever that is. I cant’t do it all, all the time — just the. next. thing. right now, at this time.

And I write it in big letters, right at the top, what I need to whisper on the days when I don’t know how to keep going because everything’s going wrong: Forward!

Because I keep bungling the day and it’s  what that piano adjudicator said when Hope-girl muddled through her piano piece:

“So you forgot some notes! Fear and old habits and people pressure and your own interior playlist can do that — to all of us. But! When the piece started to fall apart?

You fell forward, Hope. You didn’t fret about the music behind you — you focused on the next bar.”

Hope had nodded slowly, like a dawning, smiling.

The adjudicator looked down the row of girls and budding pianists and said it with this steady beat.

“We are all going to botch it somedays. We all sometimes get the notes wrong. But the song only goes wrong when we keep thinking back to the wrong notes.”

“When a piece starts to fall apart — fall forward. Fall forward into the next bar. Moving forward is what makes music.“

And I sit there at the end of the year, on the end of the bed before the sock drawer with a lapful of holey, mismatched socks, and I can hear it, these notes that I might wear like a habit —

Failing? What feels likes failing is really gaining experience. Keep moving Forward!

Falling apart? Fall forward into His arms — falling forward is the only way you make music. Keep moving Forward!

Fearful? Fear is always the first step of faith. Keep moving Forward! 

Whenever you are lost, forward is always the way Home.

So, it’s there on the fridge for all the days when I just need some kind of a map, and for all the days in between, my 25 Point Sanity Manifesto.

Forward!

1. First things first: Word in. Work out. Work plan.

Open your eyes every morning and just do three first:

Word in: Get into God’s Word and let it get into you.

Work out: Work out. Even  5 minutes of moving is better than nothing. (baby steps! together we can do this!)

Work plan: Write out the work plan. And then work the plan.

2. “What a heart knows by heart is what a heart knows”

Write your memory verses on a sticky note, on a chalkboard, for your pocket.

Because when you are memorizing Scripture, quiet time with the Lord — becomes all the time. (Who doesn’t want that?) [New Scripture memory project coming up this week, so stay tuned. It's like nothing we have ever, ever done before! #StayTuned! #Excited.]

3. Flame first.

Light a candle first thing in the morning.

So you remember: You are the light that is put on a stand so that it gives light to everyone in the house.

4. Your work is art: it needs a soundtrack.

Find your music.

Play your music.

Sing your music. This is profound.

Vincent van Gogh said: “When sailors have to move a heavy load or raise an anchor, they all sing together to keep them up and give them vim. That’s just what artists lack.”

5. Step on the Snake Before Breakfast

Before breakfast, crush one hard thing that is tempting you to think there are impossible things.

Before breakfast, crush that one thing and prove that all things are possible with God.

6. Stay in the pool

Michael Phelps said it in an interview: “You’ve just got to stay in the pool longer than others.”

Set the timer. Get in the pool. Stay in the pool. Do your work. Don’t get distracted. Don’t flit from one thing to another and back.

Don’t get out of the pool, don’t leave your work, until the timer goes. The way to win is to stay in the pool.

7. Clean a space = clear headspace

Keeping the workspace clean, clears your headspace to think.

8. Go Slow. Life Zone. Life isn’t an Emergency: It’s a gift.

Life isn’t an emergency. It’s a gift.

Life’s so extraordinary it warrants going slow, held in reverential awe.

Only the slow see their lives. Which makes it seem longer and richer.

9. Make Laughter Your Chocolate

The more you laugh, the longer you live. You can’t afford not to laugh more. Watch this. Make laughter your chocolate.

10. No songs without rhythm

Every song needs a rhythm; every week needs a routine. Tie certain tasks to a day or another activity.

Always memorize after breakfast or always make a double batch of soup on Saturday.

Your life makes music when you play a string of tasks always together.

11. On 25, Take 5

For every 25 minutes “in the pool” working – take 5 minutes off. Live by pomodoros. Really. Life-changing.

12. Unplug to plug into your purpose

Only if you want to plug into peace and purpose and your big picture – then unplug for certain hours everyday.

Constant connectivity effects productivity like a marijuana high.

13.Watch Your Nos & Your Yeses will take Care of Themselves

Everything you say yes to, you say no to something else.

Are your yeses forcing you to say no to what really want to say yes to?

Don’t have guilt over a no – because every no is saying a better yes.

14. Daily Stillness Appointment

When is your 5 minute stillness appointment everyday?

Write that midday time in stone. No cancellations allowed. For 5 minutes midday, be still and cease striving.

Know He is God and the day looks very different.

Slow down: You only pass by this way once.

15. If the Heaven’s Declare, get out there.

The whole of the sky and the world is speaking endlessly of His glory.

When you step outside and listen, your soul revives. You need that.

You really need one walk outside a day. Even it’s just out the door to get the mail or walk the dog around the block or a walk around the yard before you have to get in the car.

16. Work on your Wall before Noon

Like Nehemiah who worked on rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, build your wall, building whatever God has uniquely called you to — a particular work project, a creative project, homeschooling, homemaking, a ministry. Everyday before noon, work on your wall, laying down 3 stones before noon.

If you don’t intentionally work on your wall, the tyranny of the urgent can make your life a rubble heap.

17. Envision the End Goal

Like God gave Abraham a vision of the stars of the sky and told him he would have that many children, hang up a picture so you always have a vision of your goal.

18. Everyday, not Every Now and Then

Random acts of greatness pale in comparison to habitual acts of faithfulness.

It’s not what you do every now and then, but what you do everyday, that changes everything. 

Do something at the same time everyday and you find yourself a new person.

19. Hard Stops

The only way to get anywhere safely is to make complete stops.

Make hard, complete stops at set times throughout the day to pray. Otherwise you’re risking a crash.

9, 12, 3, on the hour, might be times to set an a gentle, chime alarm for – and just stop and pray.

Praying at set times throughout the day is how both Jesus and the early church lived their days: God marking time.

20. The Holy, Happiness Habit {Count Gifts}

All research says that giving thanks is guaranteed to make you 25% happier. Who. Doesn’t. Want. That.?

Write down 3 things a day you are grateful for. Hunt for His glory. Look for the beauty. Count 1000 gifts.

Thank Him for this is always, definitely, 100% God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Start the year afresh with the new 60 Day Devotional with fresh numbered pages to write out 1000 thousand gifts, that makes JOY POSSIBLE *wherever* we are.

Take the Joy Dare!  Make right where you are your happy place. [Counted  1000 gifts this year? Enter the draw for a new Nikon DSLR D90 camera next Monday on the blog.... And begin counting  1000 gifts today for next year's draw of a new DSLR camera!]

21. Ebenezers for the Efforts

Mark little milestones! Celebrate! The little things!

A treat at the end of the day, end of the week, end of the project, end of the term.

Hang a bunting. Taste something sweet. Take a happy, thumbs up picture to mark your progress!

Make an album of a year, of the process, of the overcoming.

22. Father Affirmations

You need these everyday. Whisper them aloud, who you really are if you are IN Christ:

I am complete in Christ. Colossians 2:9-10

I have direct access to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4:14-16

I am free from condemnation. Romans 8:1-2

I am assured that God works for my good in all circumstances. Romans 8:28

I am free from any condemnation brought against me and I cannot be separated from the love of God. Romans 8:31-39

I am confident that God will complete the good work He started in me. Philippians 1:6

I have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

23. Breathe

Breathing in and breathing out like this will radically change the quality of your life. Breathe.

24. Hard and Bad Day? Hot Bath

An evening routine of a hot bath at the end of the hard and bad days?

Yes.

25. Rest so you can have the rest of God.

Sleep is more than your friend — it’s your God-given fuel.

Tomorrow always begins with the night before, so turn in early so tomorrow can turn out well.

And A Grace Plan unfolds a bit of hope….

with the exhaling relief of daily being more grateful for what is than feeling guilty for what isn’t…

 photo credit 1 and 2

 

To Download the Manifesto in aqua and brown : 

in  grey, burnt red, mustard   :  in various colors : 

in black and white : in red, black and white

 

Related posts for the manifesto to make sense:

Forward!

Daily Printable Work Plan (as photographed here on the clipboard)

Scripture Memorization: The Romans Project [New Scripture Memory Project Coming this week -- unlike ever before! #Easy #Doable. #Exciting. #Soul-Necessary. #StayTuned]

How not to get distracted online

Life isn’t an emergency. It’s a gift.

What does “On 25 take 5″ mean

How to make hard, complete stops at set times to pray

How to really Breathe

Moving FORWARD with my  60 Day Devotional with fresh numbered pages to write out 1000 thousand gifts, that make JOY POSSIBLE wherever we are … and, Lord willing…. coming this week: The New, Never Been Done Before, Doable Bible memorization plan with free printables this week… New One Word encouragement with a twist, Year in Review, and coming on Monday, drawing for the Nikon DSLR D90 camera, and beginning a new year of a new 1000 gifts and toward next year’s camera?  Forward! The future is as bright as our Father’s faithfulness.

Click here to download the FREE EASTER / LENT Devotional: The Trail to the Tree{please give it a few moments to download… thank you for grace!}

How to Move Forward into the New Year… when you feel like you failed the last year

How Maggie Pluim knew to ask that question, I’ll never know.

Grace has it’s unending ways.

True, I had told her straight up that I had no intention of showing up for the church’s annual New Year’s Eve party with Marian Brubacher’s caramel popcorn and Viola Gingerich’s raspberry punch and Mr. Vaness’ countless rounds of Dutch Blitz.

“So— you’re just not celebrating New Year’s Eve this year?“

Maggie just straight up asks me, and I’ve got the phone cradled like an awkward appendage between my shoulder and ear and I’m putting away the Farmer’s socks.

Maggie’s talking loud over kids on her end banging out “Go Tell it on the Mountain” on a sagging keyboard.

“Yeah.” I ball up matching grey socks with the obligatory Canadian red stripe, stuff them into that organizing shoe box in the Farmer’s top dresser drawer. “I’m not ready for a new year and moving forward. I want a do-over on the last year.“

I don’t tell her that sometimes it’s not the moving forward that is the hardest — it is to keep moving forward. Just ask Lot’s wife.

“You really wanna a do-over on this last year???” Maggie’s running water, crashing pots in her sink. Her kids are belting it out now — “…. over the hills and evvvverrryywhhhhereeee.”

“Beecauuse? …” Maggie cuts the water quiet.

I sink down on the edge of the bed, pile of holey socks in lap. The snow dusts the grey limbs of the apple trees in the orchard. The dog’s at the edge of the field barking like an incessant lunatic at some imagined shadows in the woods.

“Because…” I finger a threadbare hole in a sock I should have thrown out last year.

“Well…. do I tell you that this last year was the year I didn’t lose 10 pounds, forgot every morning for. a. year. to exercise, didn’t finish reading the Bible, failed to write what I really wanted, never got the basement backroom gutted, rammed about in the same ruts on rinse and repeat, only read half as many books to the kids as I’d planned, and missed living up to what I’d named this year?“

Regardless of how shiny any life looks like from the outside, the honest and the Lord look on the bare heart.

We all are failures — at least the honest of us are.

That dog could be barking at a lot more than imagined shadows out there.

How in the world do you step hopeful into the next year when you tripped messy through the last year? How do you stand brave with all the smiling rest and ring in the new year when the old year still feels a bit like a millstone around the neck? What if everyone else is making New Year’s resolutions and you just want New You solutions?

“Remember Hope-girl’s piano piece at the Festival in the fall?” I’m saying it quiet now, more to me than to Maggie.

I can tell her this when I can’t bare my telling heart.

Our Hope-girl had sat in the front row like on death row, waiting for the piano adjudicator to call her name.

Beside her sat this wisp of a Mennonite girl in a long skirt and longer braids who had played her piece like a cheery lark. The girl smiled, swinging her sneakers back and forth blithely.

Hope wrung her hands.

Wrung her hands like a prayer that couldn’t find words. Wrung her hands like hope can be wrung out of nothing. She had said it just before we walked in here, as she’d slung open the van door with her music books, “Last chance to break my ankle and get rushed to the hospital and not. have. to. do. this.”

It doesn’t take much of a leap or rocket science to see how she’s my daughter.

In the adjudicating stillness after the Mennonite protege’s piece, and before Hope’s name was called, you could see Hope, sitting there in the front row, waiting there in her cowl-neck sweater, that patch of bare skin there below her neck, pounding — pounding like one caged, frantic sparrow — and there was no wringing that could set it free.

I sat there and watched it, a helpless witnessing, and I’d never seen terror so tangible — her bare, terrified heart pounding right out of her bare chest, and you could see it, throbbing and moving, fear pounding its wings right there in her, and I tried to catch her eye, to somehow cup her face sure with my eyes, but she couldn’t see me for the drumming of her heart in her ears.

When her name was called, she went to the piano bench.

She pushed it back to make room for the full length of her. Her whole pounding heart filled the whole soundless space.

Her music was with the adjudicator. She must play the whole piece from memory.

She waits at the keys, not moving, waiting for her heart to calm, to hush. I close my eyes tight. Mothers know how to pray for the moving of mountains.

Hope waits. It always does. But when the silence is so expansive it’s awkward and her fear hasn’t shrunk small, Hope does what she has to and she reaches out her hand for the piano and finds that first note. I can see — her fingers shaking.

The first few bars come from memory. Then steady, into the refrain. Then a stumble. Then a finding and high notes, trembling. Can she remember what comes next? I look up to the ceiling.

And then — a faltering, off-tuned and wincing. A silence. I can’t look down, only up, up, whence does our help come from.

Hope tries one note. No. Not that one. Quiet. Hanging. Heavy. Then this note? Haltingly, maybe.

Then the next string of notes, a few more, a high chord.

She finds her way again into the familiar refrain and I look down to see her close over keys, her body in the music, her shoulders and arms and back all feeling the song.

She is carrying the song and the song is carrying her and we are being carried forward, slow and certain and faster and surer, and then the finish, the flourish. And she sits. Sometimes you can hardly trust your legs, trust turning and taking the next step.

“It was what the adjudicator said to Hope at the end.”

I can hear Maggie draining the sink. There’s a blue jay at the far end of the orchard. The dog’s still barking all pained…

At the end, the adjudicator had stood there with all of their marks in hand and she’d smiled at Hope and asked it gentle, “Do you know what you did so perfectly right, Hope?”

Um…. Right? Uh….no. Hope looks down at the floor, shakes her head. Hope’s whole body is saying it: Right? What about any of this was perfectly right?

The adjudicator bends a bit to find Hope’s eyes, tries to pull her up with her smile.

“So you forgot some notes! Fear and old habits and people pressure and your own interior playlist can do that — to all of us. But! When the piece started to fall apart? You fell forward, Hope. You didn’t fret about the music behind you — you focused on the next bar.”

Hope had nodded slowly, like a dawning, smiling.

The adjudicator looked down the row of girls and budding pianists and said it with this steady beat.

“We are all going to botch it some days. We all sometimes get the notes wrong. But the song only goes wrong — when we keep thinking back to the wrong notes.”

“When a piece starts to fall apart — fall forward. Fall forward into the next bar. Moving forward is what makes music.“

And I sit there at the end of the year, on the end of the bed before the sock drawer with a lapful of holey, mismatched socks, and I can hear it, these notes that I might wear like a habit —

Failing? What feels likes losing is really gaining experience. Forward!

Falling apart? Fall into whatever. comes. next. Forward!

Fearful? Fear is always the first step of faith. Forward!

Whenever you are lost, forward is always the way Home.

And in a fallen world, I fall forward into a New Year, and I fall forward into Christ’s safe arms and it is safe to trust. He is safe to trust.

“Exactly.” Maggie’s still there on the other end of the line.

“Moving forward is what makes music. And that list that you’re running around in your head? Of all that you got messed up and wrong in the last year? That ain’t the list to be playing, Ann. Because I read this game-changer of a book all about joy right where you are ….” I can hear the tease in Maggie’s voice.

“And the real list that you need on replay is that gratitude list — that list of all His gifts in the last year. Playing the list of God’s gifts is what makes music….” Maggie’s on a roll.

“And the truth is: Your New Year doesn’t need to-do lists like it needs to-God-be-the-glory lists!“

The dog stops barking at shadows in the woods.

I can hear her girls in the background, “GOOOOO teelll it on the Mountain!“

And Maggie hollers happy: “FORWARD!“

And with Maggie Pluim, I laugh yes to all this unending grace and leave it there on the dresser –my 60 Day devotional journal and its pages to write out the best list — His love list —

there pressed forward to the new page —

the pen laying out for Day 1 and #1…

And there’s the utter release of being more grateful for what is than feeling guilty for what isn’t —

The moving forward always happening in the relief that

all the guilt is covered by His grace.

::

::

::

“But one thing I do:

forgetting what lies behind

and straining forward to what lies ahead…

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

~Phil. 3:13-14

 

Related: Moving FORWARD with my  60 Day Devotional with fresh numbered pages to write out 1000 thousand gifts, that writes His grace over our guilt … and, Lord willing….this is the plan this week:

1. The New One Word for the year (Last year’s One Word…)

2. The New Scripture Memorization Project… and celebrate how we did with our Romans Project

3. Free Printables for New Year, New You Sanity

4. The Year in Review (last year’s year in review)

5. and for Next Monday: Did you count One Thousand Gifts in 2013? Then we’ll crank open the comments here for you to wave & we’ll draw one winner of a brand new Nikon D90 {& 18-105 mm f/3.5-5.6G Zoom lens included}.… because joy is a function of gratitude, and gratitude is a function of perspective, a way of seeing.

Click here to download the FREE EASTER / LENT Devotional: The Trail to the Tree{please give it a few moments to download… thank you for grace!}

Only The Good Stuff: Sharing the Links for the Full Life

December around the World… ….

exhale and take a 5 minute world vacation to celebrate everywhere.

Here’s the skinny on chocolate chip cookies –

Many creative ways to make the just-right chocolate chip cookie for you.

Options, options, options for the most particular cookie eater!

The power of our words: 

A breast cancer survivor’s story on ‘taking the dare’ with

One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

And how it changed her life

How to read the Whole Bible in… a year? Or two years? A Plethora of  options..

Our Hope-girl’s favorite Bible this year:

Real-Life Devotional Bible for Women: Insights for Everyday Life

They said YES!

Just — smiling through tears…

A college acceptance you will not soon forget.

Pairing up the needy with the needed.

How one young college student goes to extraordinary lengths to find a family for the holidays.

An unforgettable dog rescue that will pull at the heart

Life is happening — right now.

A good read for those who are shy in front of a camera

Which is many of us, yes? Embrace this new year with family photos that include you!

5 things to consider doing before 8am

The common trait that’s been discovered in many CEOs, government officials, and world leaders

Let’s bring in the new year together!

Fun printable props for the whole family!

10 Printables for New Year’s Eve Reflecting….

(many of the links are updating to 2014 versions… we will be doing this as a family…)

The book I have on my nightstand right now…

by an author who has mentored me for years:

Pursue the Intentional Life

A beautiful story of peace beyond understanding.

Hope, faith and unshakeable courage in the face of terminal cancer. What an amazing young woman.

This has been on repeat around here this Christmas!

Christmas Worship by Paul Baloche is one of our favorites for sure!

{Consider turning off music by clicking the speaker bar near the bottom of  the left margin?}

Just in case you haven’t seen this one?

Friends – being the G.I.F.T.!

{Consider turning off music by clicking the speaker bar near the bottom of  the left margin?}

So — what WILL you do with today?

This is worth pondering…those beans are a gift!

{Consider turning off music by clicking the speaker bar near the bottom of  the left margin?}

At the end of the year? Do I ever need to reflect on this…

{Consider turning off music by clicking the speaker bar near the bottom of  the left margin?}

 

That’s all for this weekend, friends. 

Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.

Give Thanks. Love well. Re - joice.

Share Whatever Is Good. 

Click here to download the FREE EASTER / LENT Devotional: The Trail to the Tree{please give it a few moments to download… thank you for grace!}

The One Way You Can Keep Opening the Presents [a story in photos]

So it came and went and she didn’t get it all done.

And the basement was a mess and two of the boys got into a squabble and there was no ham, only soup, and somebody slammed a door — hard.

And she’d smiled thinly… and then smiled relief.

The One coming to the manger, is the Messiah who assures you: It. Is. Finished.

He came to do it all… so you don’t have to have to stress at all.

She exhaled — The point of Christmas — the truth that ushers you into the New Year — is exactly that: you can rest in His perfection— because He embraces you in your imperfection.

Her greatest gift was He loved her just for being — not for doing.

Come Boxing Day, the days after, she stood in her kitchen with pots all over the counter, and burnt pans soaking in the sink and just decided:

She wouldn’t let anything ever come box up the wonder that God. Is. With. Us.

He entered the world right at a muck pile — so we wouldn’t ever be left alone in ours.

That’s what she preached to herself: Whatever mess I am in… I can exhale relief: I have a Messiah who meets me in it, won’t leave me in it, will carry me through it.

There is nothing to fear: God. is. Here.

Christmas — Christ. with. Me. — is just beginning… the greatest gift that always fits, that never goes out of style, never wears out or breaks down or ever, ever fails. That’s why we get to re-joy-ce and re-joy-ce now, always.

“Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

So she picked up the scrubber and that burnt pan and she murmured thanks, just for one gift at a time.

She kept her rhythm by this counting of gifts.

And it was in this attitude of gratitude that she could feel the grace of it:

Yesterday …. was our Lord’s grace.

Tomorrow….  is our Lord willing.

Today…. is our Lord’s gift —

which is why everyone,  everywhere, calls right now the present.

 

 

Related:

some favorite Christmas things on sale …

The One Thousand Gifts 60 DAY Devotional: a 60 day devotional … with numbered journal to count 1000 gifts to never stop opening presents

 

Click here to download the FREE EASTER / LENT Devotional: The Trail to the Tree{please give it a few moments to download… thank you for grace!}

The Christmas Tree that Blew Our Minds… & Hearts

I haven’t the faintest clue who noticed it first.

Maybe it was Levi, when he got clocked in the side of the head by one of the limbs when he was just trying to get to his seat at the table.

“Um…. why is this tree growing out?”

He’s rubbing his head like he’s trying to start a fire, like he’s searching for an epiphany that won’t blow out.

(November Upside Down Tree)

(Christmas Eve Upside Down Tree)

“Hey…” Malakai’s craning his neck from his seat, from his plate at the table, looking up at our upside down Christmas tree hanging from a wooden beam over the table. “The little upside down tree does seem like it’s growing… bigger.”

We hung the upside down tree in November… a cluster of branches. 

And by Christmas Eve…. it’s all…. reaching out.

I can see it –the tips of the cedar are curling, drying and curling. “Feel the tips, Mom?” I can reach one of the branches from my chair — the tips of the upside down tree feel like a …. searching…

And I can feel it like the lighting of a match —

It’s because it’s hanging upside down.

Right side up — the tree would start curling down, shriveling up dry.

But because it’s hanging upside down:

It’s not curling down — it’s curling out.

When it’s upside down — it’s dying doesn’t make it grow smaller — but makes it grow larger.

I don’t pass down the potatoes.

If you hang your life upside down, if you live the upsidedown Kingdom, your life never dies, it’s never small — it reaches out. It grows larger.

I cradle the phone between my shoulder, my ear, tell my mother while I wash the pots after dinner.

“The tree in the living room? The pretty one with lights? It’s shedding like a molting dog – needles everywhere. But the little upside down tree? In it’s dying – it’s not getting smaller – it’s curling out — reaching out — getting larger. You wouldn’t believe it.”

Or maybe you would… maybe that is exactly what really believing really is — reaching out.

Mama interrupts my blathering epiphany. “Ann — your granny.”

I stop trying to scrape chunks of crusted cauliflower off the dented up enamel bowl. “Yes, Granny — she’s okay?”

The granddaughter of Irish potatoe famine immigrants, she’s a spry 94. She washes her white curls in a bluing agent. Her lungs have had 25 years of healing after a lifetime of smoking. Her once 5 ft 10 spine is now crumbling, degenerating. Morphine is her daily fuel.

Who knows if she knows Jesus?

“The flu brokeout in her nursing home the beginning of the month. She was quarantined to her room. So I’ve called her everyday to pass the time…”

“Uh huh…” I’m back to scrubbing out cauliflower.

“I didn’t think she’d say yes — but I asked her if I could read to her?” I can hear Mama sipping — tea? “With her macular degeneration, she can’t read anymore, so I was hopeful? That maybe I could read to her devotions from The Greatest Gift?” I stop scrubbling.

“She. said. yes.” Mama punctuates the words. “She’s listening to me read the Scripture passage. Then the devotional. She’s answering the reflection questions – and then letting me pray with her.” The scrubber drops out of my hand.

“Somedays she asks to do another one.”

The tap drips loud.

Who has words?

“I just reached out to her…. I just kept reaching out to her.”

Hang your life upside down — and your life grows larger. … beautiful.

Climbing ladders of doing doesn’t make your life grow bigger —

it’s reaching out with loving that makes your life grow bigger — better.

 

The last devotional of The Greatest Gift, the one for the 25th of December, for Christmas morning, was written 30,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere en route to Uganda.

I had found an internet connection in Kampala, Uganda, sent the last devotional about The Greatest Gift back to Chicago, Illinois, and went to walk some red dirt.

Went to sit in a hut, went and listened to little Anna tell Hope-girl and I how she picked white ants from her bedroom floor to eat. She showed us the pot of swarming ants. We lean and nod.

And all I can think while I get a ham out for Christmas dinner, is of Anna and her ants.

How Anna had taken us by the hand and walked us out by the goats, out past the neighbors who lived right behind her, the mama sweeping her dirt step clean.

How I had stopped behind Anna’s house and kneeled in front of one little boy who only had no shoes, no pants, only a tattered shirt pulled over his head.

I am standing in my kitchen, ham out on the counter, the lights of the tree shimmering behind Shalom pressing out sugar cookies, and thinking about what’s under Christmas trees everywhere –

and remembering standing behind Anna’s hut looking at the only toy that was under one tree in Africa, under the the big eyes of one little boy in Africa.

And everywhere Christmas trees blink.

They blink startlingly awake.

Christmas trees blink and really see Who He is, how He is in the face of a child, blink and see the joy of loving Him in the eyes of one little boy, a little boy with wires bent into a truck, his only toy, eyes begging to God that we aren’t playing games with what we say we believe.

There is a lonely old woman in a nursing home and someone gets the greatest gift of reaching out to her.

There is a half naked little boy in Africa with one toy and a whole lot of needs and there are families that won’t be denied the joy of getting the greatest gift by being the gift to him… to Him.

There are warm cups and loud kids arguing over what gifts to give from the Compassion gift catalogues and there are kids in slums and kids with dirty water and kids with no clothes and kids praying we give what Jesus would give this Christmas.

And there are Christmas trees down the street. Down the street and across town and blinking awake to joy right there in your house, trees that can happily turn upside down in the hearts of all the willing Body of Christ and the branches, the limbs, can all reach out, all our Christmas growing larger… greater… even more beautiful now.

Only what you have given away will ever give you joy.

When you give to the least of these, you give to the Greatest of All and get the greatest joy.

There may well be hands giving without loving — but all the loving open their hearts to give well. The Greatest Gift is given – and received – in this.

And you can see it under the branches of that upside down tree reaching out, that one heart ornament —

“I  found the One my heart loves….”

And the Babe in the manger is held.

 

 

Related:

Sponsor a Child through Compassion as your Christmas present to Jesus —

and I’d love to send you a free copy of The Greatest Gift… to thank you for being the gift back to Jesus.



Compassion Gift Catalogues

Also:

A Letter to the North American Church: Because it is Time

How to Be Beautiful — and Have a Beautiful Home and Life

Why You Are Where You Are: For Such a Time as Now

An Internet Love Story: How to Live Free

Click here to download the FREE EASTER / LENT Devotional: The Trail to the Tree{please give it a few moments to download… thank you for grace!}