Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 29
July 19, 2023
When You ( & Your People) Need Comfort & Courage & A Real Hero For Your Story
Last time, she took her “Shero” doll, hand crocheted by her Great Aunt Maureen, the whole way with her when they rolled her away from us and into the operating room to saw open her sternum and get to her one brave heart.
So a few weeks ago, as she sat on her bedroom floor, pulling on her shoes in the early morning dark, before the long drive back to Sick Kids Hospital in the city and her appointment under the bright lights of the heart catheter lab, I grabbed her worn and ragged blanket, the one I brought with me to China to give her the first day I met her, the one she’s slept with every single night for the 8 years since – and I reached for “Shero,” the masked hero girl doll with all the spiral curls.
Roads that feel unfair,
can only be walked unalone.
“No….” She mumbled, shaking her sleepy head.
I wasn’t quite sure I heard her right?
“No…?”
“I don’t need Shero this time.” Her voice is soft, still waking, so I only raise my eyebrows, not asking her why she doesn’t need the hero doll with flapping cape.
I mean, the kid’s facing a day of pre-op, with ECGs and echocardiograms and x-rays and bloodwork, and then another day in the heart cath lab, with anaesthetic and an incision, and a 6 hour procedure with a medical team working on her heart, while we all pray that that one wee blood clot that’s lodged in a corner of her artery doesn’t stir but just keeps sleeping on.
I weep for the hard roads such a little human being has to walk but I’m bound and determined she will never face one of them on her own.
“Hard roads don’t need us to be a hero; hard roads need us to trust the Shepherd. Hard roads don’t need us to find a cape, hard roads need us to gaze into the true Savior’s face. “
It’s a sure way through this one life: Roads that feel unfair, can only be walked unalone.
When you know life is an uneven playing field, and in all the universe, the only level ground for any and all of us is at the foot of the Cross, then you pick up your Cross and carry it to, so more people feel carried and unalone as they cross all their uneven ground.
She stands up, shoes on, ready now to go, and leans over to scoop up the stuffed little lamb laying there at the end of her bed.
“No Shero – I just want my sheep.”
My eyes don’t leave our little girl’s face, her clutching the stuffed little sheep – and I drop Shero back into her basket.
We aren’t the heros of any of our stories – we are simply sheep in our story. Because:
Hard roads don’t need us to be a hero; hard roads need us to trust the Shepherd. Hard roads don’t need us to find a cape, hard roads need us to gaze into the true Savior’s face.
None of us are the heroes in our own stories but sheep who can trust the Shepherd with our story.
She reaches to take her worn blanket out of my hand, tucks her little stuffed lamb into the blanket, then tucks blanket and lamb into the crook of her one arm, while slipping the fingers of her other hand through mine. I smile, gently squeeze her hand, bend down to kiss her forehead, and we will go forward like this:
Surrender to being a sheep.
“Faith never knows the way through, the way out, or the way forward. It simply knows the Way Himself. “
Find deep comfort in being a creature.
Exhale with the relief and take the next step like this: love simply being a lamb. You do not have to know the way, make the way, find the way, clear the way, or be the way.
Faith never knows the way through, the way out, or the way forward. It simply knows the Way Himself.
The way through is not your work, it is the work of your Shepherd.
The problems are not yours to solve, this is the work of your Shepherd.
The dangers and challenges and valleys are not yours to navigate – this is all the work of the Shepherd.
And the Shepherd does not sleep or slumber, the Shepherd keeps watch, the Shepherd keeps working night and day, the Shepherd lays Himself down as the door of the fold, so nothing touches His sheep unless it passes by His watch.
“The work of the Shepherd is to take care of the sheep, and the work of the sheep is to take care to follow the Shepherd. “
The work of the Shepherd is to take care of the sheep, and the work of the sheep is to take care to follow the Shepherd.
The work of the sheep is simply to keep eyes on the Shepherd, to keep company with the Shepherd, to keep close to the Shepherd.
All through our day of pre-op in the hospital, when she lays down her bare arm for the needle of bloodwork, when she’s handed a medical gown for her X-ray, when she lays on a hospital bed for the ultrasound wand of the echocardiogram, for the electrode leads of the EKG, she’s got her wee sheep in hand. Come the 5:30 am start on the day she’s booked for the heart cath lab, I reach to turn off the alarm, and she reaches for the lamb.
In the moments before her medical team comes to administer a sedative, the nasal spray of dexmedetomidine, to ease anxiety before they roll her through those swinging doors, she clings to my arm and a little life riddled with all kinds of trauma knows all these wounds under skin that ache and bleed in ways that are hard to see.
“The Shepherd lays Himself down as the door of the fold, so nothing touches His sheep unless it passes by His watch… “
She finds my eyes, and hers read begging fear, and I gather her up and try to whisper comfort as her panic-tears stream and she white-knuckle grips my neck.
In all the aching world, what words can possibly soothe all the looming fears? What lines can untangle a knotted ball of tightening terror? What do you say when you’re desperate to soothe and somehow offer real comfort? What words can possibly do that?
In the end, this is at base, this Brave Song is all I know. I tuck strands of her tear-damp hair behind her ear and I sing low and quiet, gently rocking her in arms:
As the medical team tries to administer the spray, as she sob-fights against the sedative, as she desperately seeks some safe in a world of invasive pain, I hold her close and keep singing it brave, over and over, through my own brimming ache, gently wrapping her in the only thing that matters in the end, loaning her courage from the Lion of Judah Himself:
“Whatever comes to us
Comes through the Love who is God.“
Jesus loves you…. the Shepherd loves you,
Makes you strong… the Shepherd protects you,
In Him you’re brave… the Shepherd gives you Himself,
And you belong… the Shepherd takes you as His Beloved.
Nothing else matters more, nothing else can I give her that will mean more, and I sing it on repeat as she weeps and her lamb lays there with her blanket on the bed and I feel the burn of all this heartbusted world and all this love:
Your Shepherd lets nothing touch your identity as His beloved, your Shepherd lets nothing harm the safety of your soul for all eternity, your Shepherd will guide you through every valley, your Shepherd will protect you as pass through all the shadows, your Shepherd will lead you through every wilderness – this is the unending work of your undaunted Shepherd.
“Your Shepherd will lead you through every wilderness – this is the unending work of your undaunted Shepherd.“
Time and seasons, these are not in the hands of us who are lambs – these are under the care of the Shepherd King of the Cosmos who holds all the world in His hands, and makes His own heart the door of our sheepfold.
Whatever comes to us
Comes through the Love who is God.
When she finally gives way to a deep sleep there on my shoulder, I lay her gently down on the hospital bed, so they can roll her away into the heart cath lab — and I kiss her forehead one more time, tuck her blanket around her, tuck the little lamb in beside her.
And the true Hero of the story, the Shepherd, His eyes and heart never leave his flock, the ones He saw straight through everything and gave His own heart for.
The bright lights in the heart cath, all down the hospital halls, all hum, my heart and hers reverberating in brave song too, part of the flock learning to trust the Shepherd.
When you’re desperate to give comfort,
give courage,
give Christ –
that’s what to give,
because that’s one really needs:
New school year? New camp adventures?
New big hard things to face, for all of us?
When you & your people are trying to find the way through all the things that intimidate – you need a song on repeat, that you know by heart… to make the heart brave.
No words matter more, for all the bigs and littles in our life, than Your Brave Song.
July 17, 2023
The Night is Not Your Enemy
A dear, trusted friend first introduced me to Alicia Britt Chole and her writings. We both look forward to the day we can enjoy good talks, long walks, and great cups of tea together. Alicia is no stranger to disillusionment and spiritual pain, which makes her writings on the nights of faith wonderfully lived-in and relevant. It’s a grace to welcome Alicia to the farm’s front porch today…
Guest Post by Alicia Britt Chole
Perhaps it began on the front porch. Or rather, on the front porches. My family moved every year to a new city as my dad pursued a new dream. Growing up, the happy constant was the love of my parents and a few traditions like this one.
Denying the night’s place in our faith silences one of faith’s wisest teachers and creates an unsustainable version of what it means to follow Jesus.
Dad worked all day and most weekends, so this was a night tradition. Every once in a while, we started early if we happened to notice the lightning. But most times the tradition began when we heard thunder in the distance. Then Dad’s eyes would brighten as he announced, “A storm is coming!”
When I was little, Dad would scoop me up in his arms and carry me. As I grew too big for scooping, he would hold my hand as we hurried to take our positions on the porch. Then, facing the storm in the darkness, Dad would tuck me under his arm as we sat together in silence.
Sometimes (depending on how porchy the porch was) we stayed outside for the entire storm. But always, we would stay as long as we could, enjoying the wind, rain, “thunderboomers,” and light show together.
Our generation has simply lost that truth in our shared illusion that faith always needs full sun to flourish; in our unquestioned assumption that spiritual growth prefers the happy day and shuns the not-so-happy night.
Since I was small, I have associated night-storms with an invitation to spend time in the safe arms of my dad.
That association eventually—but not immediately—transferred from my earthly dad to my heavenly One.
My earliest years as a follower of Jesus were filled with little night and lots of daylight. The first night-storm in my faith actually took me by surprise, and I initially interpreted it as a faith failure instead of an invitation to enrich my relationship with God.
Such disconnects between the night and growth, nearness, and love have shipwrecked many souls.
Misinterpreting the night and overwhelmed by spiritual pain, we cut anchor and lose, or abandon, our confidence in God, in our ability to follow God, or in the community of God’s people.
This may be where you are right now. If so, please know that you are not alone. And you are not as far away from home as you may think or as it may feel. The night is not your enemy.
In fact, it never has been.
Pre-fall, pre-sin, pre-conflict . . . the night was one of the original residents of Eden. Which means that in the beginning, walking with God required day-faith and night-faith.
Our generation has simply lost that truth in our shared illusion that faith always needs full sun to flourish; in our unquestioned assumption that spiritual growth prefers the happy day and shuns the not-so-happy night. Consequently, we avoid the night, viewing it as spiritual-formation misfire or a senseless waste of time and potential.
This error is certainly not new, as even a brief reading of the counsel of Job’s friends can confirm. But in any age, when an error is elevated to the status of belief, creed, or doctrine, its power to undermine faith is amplified. Untruth can never heal. And truth—not optimism or daylight—is what genuine spiritual growth craves.
Denying the night’s place in our faith silences one of faith’s wisest teachers and creates an unsustainable version of what it means to follow Jesus.
But, facing the darkness together, I realized that night-storms are survivable when we view them as relational.
So, if truth is looking a little fuzzy,
Or hope is sounding more than a little hollow.
If you are trying in vain to silence the questions,
Or find yourself each day just going through the motions.
If it feels like your faith is barely holding itself together,
Or if you have not felt anything in what seems like forever.
If you love God but are unsure if you still like Him,
Or are growing weary of those people who hang out with Him.
Please do not bail yet.
Join me in hope as we explore the gain in spiritual pain.
Hope is really what my dad gave me on the front porch through many years of storms.
Yes, the night was dark and I could not see my way through it. But, facing the darkness together, I realized that night-storms are survivable when we view them as relational.
Your nights are filled with holy invitations to grow your love for God. Love is refined—it is made purer and richer—through trust. On those front porches over the years, the storms could be scary. But my trust for Dad outweighed what I could see and hear.
So I encourage you to resist the urge to outrun or outgun your nights by moving faster, singing louder, or working harder to stuff your soul with distractions.
Instead, risk reclaiming the night as an unexpected friend.
Your night will not last forever, but within it, there is priceless treasure that is too weighty to be held by sunshine.
Dr. Alicia Britt Chole is a speaker, award-winning author, and mentor. Her raw faith and love for God’s Word holds the attention of saints and skeptics alike. Alicia’s favorites include thunderstorms, honest questions, and jalapeños. Other works Alicia has written include Anonymous: Jesus’ Hidden Years and Yours, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast, and The Sacred Slow: A Holy Departure from Fast Faith.
Alicia‘s newest book, The Night Is Normal: A Guide through Spiritual Pain, is the overflow of thirty years of study. In this life work, Alicia normalizes the night and then offers dozens of practical and soul-full tools for navigating disillusionment with God, with yourself, and with others.
[ Our humble thanks to Tyndale Refresh for their partnership in today’s devotional. ]
July 15, 2023
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend [7.15.2023]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Come along with us here because who doesn’t need a bit of good news?
Let yourself smile, be crazy inspired, laugh, love & really live the gift of this life
just a little bit more this weekend…
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
Jacqui Wakelam – Photographer
Jacqui Wakelam – Photographer
Jacqui Wakelam – Photographer
Jacqui Wakelam – Photographer
Jacqui Wakelam – PhotographerMakes you just want to pour a cup of tea and delight in a summer moment, doesn’t it?
The legacy of Tim Keller … a must read for all of us
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News Dog (@goodnewsdog)
A mama — always engrained in her deep, to love deep and love large
This 93 year old Grandma and grandson finish their quest to all U.S. National Parks
–what an inspiration to love our people well! #BeTheGift
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Joel (@joelbarger_)
Have you seen the latest newly-erupting volcano in Iceland? And don’t you just want to pause in silent awe at the Magnificent Creator of it all?
If you ever feel like you could be doing more for God, or like you might not be doing enough–
These words are crucial. Spiritual Burnout, Chronic Anxiety, and the Stress of “Making Your Life Count for God”
“I’ll praise in the valley
Praise on the mountain
I’ll praise when I’m sure
Praise when I’m doubting”
Ready for a totally new way to embrace the power of intentional daily gratitude — in a way like you never have seen or known before?
Introducing…our year-long reflective Gratitude Journal,
Gratitude and Beatitudes, which includes:
~gorgeous space to count 1000 gifts over the course of a year
~unique format that allows you to reflect & look back every single day over the cumulative gifts from the previous days and months of your year
~thoughtful prayers and reflections that guide you through the powerful words of the Sermon on the Mount
~beautiful illustrations inspired by the flora, fauna, and historical architecture from ancient Israel where Jesus walked and preached
~start at any point in the year!
“How do revivals achieve lasting influence?” How is the Holy Spirit moving after Asbury? Listen here
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Kenzie Kober (@kenziekober)
These women! What champions and inspiring lovers of God! And who will be your women?
View this post on InstagramA post shared by NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@nbcolympics)
34 years old, MOM OF THREE, and national hurdle champion?! This is just the best!
Award-winning black and white photos from around the world — these are a true feast for the eyes.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Dana Mentink (@dana_mentink)
Oh, to live with joy like him! This is too good.
Looking for a Summer Respite?Don’t miss: “How to have a Daily Reading Retreat & 10 Spiritual Formation Books”
Summer’s are for hammocks & campfires & dipping toes in water — & for daily reading retreats.
If you want to read more, have daily reading retreats, & read (or even listen while in the hammock!)
10 of the very best books for your soul this summer — start here:
How to Read More, have Daily Reading Retreats & 10 Spiritual Formation Books to Change Your Life
Gather all your ideas and books for your next daily reading retreat habit!Do your Future Self a Favor & Read this one…“Why Our Lack of Rootedness is Slowly Killing Us”
Find out why it’s so crucial we get roots… and this just might change EVERYTHING
< big ol’ grins >
God our Fortress–and how our perspective really matters. A really good, soul-good read.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News (@globalpositivenews)
Wow! His determination is simply inspiring!
Last Chance to Grab Your Very Own, Full-Of-DelightGrace Case
Grab your very own Summer Grace Case full of intentionality and beauty and amazing finds from Ann & friends.
This quarter’s Grace Case includes:
Waymaker Shopping Tote — made in India
Turkish Cotton Throw Blanket — made in Turkey
“Waymaker” book — by Ann Voskamp
Classic Insulated Tumbler — made in the USA
Aviator Sunglasses– made in the Netherlands
It’s the very best subscription & perfect for Summer reading!
100% fair trade, 100% profits support vulnerable young women through Mercy House Global.
Oh the glory! Grab a warm cup and come along with us?
“If I could have anything
Let me be an offering”
[from our Facebook community – join us?]
There are people enduring unspeakable suffering — while they bravely wear a smiling mask and say hardly anything all as their hearts literally break and the world keeps prattling on and on and on about all things trite.
There are roads ahead of us that are dauntingly steep and seem unnavigable— & yet we relentlessly try to keep up & not fall behind everyone else seemingly sailing by with a blithe wave & not a piddling care in the world.
There is grief and there is loss and there is diagnosis and gravestones and mounting bills and exhaustion and depression and crisis and what is the most important thing for a soul to ultimately know?
At the heart of the universe, is the face of God smiling love over you.
What is most important in the universe isn’t eschatological or philosophical — it’s about a Love that’s unconditional.
The most important story of the world is this: the unconditional love of God.
The most important headline of the universe is that the heart of God is for you.
The most important reality is that nothing can ever happen to change the reality of God’s love for you.
At the heart of the whole universe and the holy Word are the words that are the very heartbeat of holy God:
For God so loved the world — you — that He gave Himself … and for you who believe in a purifying, perfect, protective love like His, you get to live forever with Divine Love Himself.
Father God loving you, Jesus Christ saving you, Holy Spirit wooing you — the Triune God never stops working all things into the good of being closer to you because of unassailable delight in you, *and the good of getting to be with you.*
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.
July 14, 2023
Why Our Lack of Rootedness is Slowly Killing Us
The man looked me straight in the eye and flat-out told me:
Cut yourself off from what truly delivers sustenance — and nothing can truly deliver you.
“I didn’t send you a sympathy card to mark the one year anniversary since your Dad was killed, and I didn’t send you cut flowers for graduating with your masters from Wheaton. But I packed my bags and I came. I came to plant you a garden.”
He came over 4,000 km last May with a hat and gloves and a precisely folded list of flowers that he’d researched that were up to the task of weathering my harsh winters. I kneeled beside him as Bill bent down and turned our earth, because the man knew that the soul, more than anything, needs the gift of rootedness in a world of cutting and slashing, hacking and severing and being detatched from whence we came.
When I tucked our littlest girl into bed last week, she turned toward the windowsill by her bed and bemoaned the dying flowers browning and drooping there in a cup she’d filled with water right to the brim.
“No matter how much water I keep putting in this cup – all these flowers still just keep getting browner,” she swept dry, crumpled petals from along the windowsill into her hand and held them out toward me like proof.
“Adding dirt and water does not equal roots. Life is more than just add water and dirt — every life needs roots. Why add all kinds of nutrients to your life, if you negate the source of your life? “
“Oh, Sweet – this is a cup of cut flowers,” I tucked one of her strands of hair behind her ear. “Cut flowers aren’t planted in dirt – so they eventually die, no matter how much you water them.”
And with that, she slipped out of her bed with dead petals in hand, and I’d assumed she meant to patter barefoot out to the kitchen to let the dead petals fall soundlessly into the garbage can – but in a moment she’d pattered back with a cupful of dirt she’d scooped out of the potted citrus tree. She sprinkled the dirt into her cup of flowers.
“There! Dirt!” She grinned – and I felt cut to the quick.
Adding dirt and water does not equal roots.
Life is more than just add water and dirt — every life needs roots.
Why add all kinds of nutrients to your life, if you negate the source of your life?
Last spring, when Bill and I were working on planting my flower garden out beside the front porch, the researchers for the American Bible Society’s annual State of the Bible were pouring over the year’s survey statistics, and finding “it hard to believe the results. The data said roughly 26 million people had mostly or completely stopped reading the Bible in the last year…. ‘We reviewed our calculations. We double-checked our math and ran the numbers again … and again,’ John Plake, lead researcher for the American Bible Society, wrote in the 2022 report. ‘What we discovered was startling, disheartening, and disruptive.’”
Cut yourself off from the source of your life — and eventually it’s impossible to fake your life.
Cut yourself off from what truly delivers sustenance — and nothing can truly deliver you.
Workouts can only do so much if you don’t get the Word in. Eating clean isn’t the same as feasting on Living Bread for a soul cleanse. Lifting weights can only go so far, when it’s the Word Himself who can lift the weight of all your burdens and carry you all the way through.
“Blooms may be strikingly visual – but it’s roots that are decisively vital.“
Sever your roots and all the water and dirt in the world still won’t revive you.
Great optics is not organic growth. In this day and age, the two are too easily conflated.
Yet regardless of what any flashy screens or loud social streams or any pontificating huckster may be trying to convince the masses:
You need deep roots, not mere blooms, for real growth.
Blooms may be strikingly visual – but it’s roots that are decisively vital.
I pass by our little one’s watered and dirt sprinkled cup of very dead flowers every time I slip out to weed and water that flower garden my friend, Bill, and I toiled over last year, that’s now in full bloom this year.
“Humanity’s relationship began with God in a garden and a garden is where the soul’s relationship with God only grows deeper. “
The delphiniums along the picket fence shoot blue flame torches up into summer afternoons, and trumpeting yellow lilies keep heralding hope.
And all summer long, it’s this garden I keep retreating to when I need to find hope. Early morning, with a cup of coffee in one hand and the Word and journal in the other, or midday when the heat of all kinds of life challenges beg for the reprieve of stillness amongst blooms to know God is still on the throne, or at the end of the day when I at last fall into the front porch swing overlooking the flower garden, and linger a bit with my Maker in the cool of the evening.
In the garden, it’s one’s own soul that flourishes.
It can become one’s own rite of passage through summer: Go with hope to the garden where the roots underneath all the things prove that what you need to thrive is happening underneath all that you can see right now. Breathe in the glory of blooms. Rest in God. It’s the garden that grounds the soul in God, roots it in the Source, anchors one in a place to be still to hear Him speak. Humanity’s relationship began with God in a garden and a garden is where the soul’s relationship with God only grows deeper.
“Tending a garden is tending to your future self. In the garden, it’s one’s own soul that flourishes. “
There, God walks and talks, there “the Lord will continually guide you… and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden” Isaiah 58:11.
I’m not sure at what point I said it to my farmer husband, who well knows the worth of good roots and dirt:
Tending a garden is tending to your future self.
Caring for a garden today is caring for your future heartbroken self.
Nurture roots today – so it’s your soul that’s nurtured by many blooms tomorrow.
“What is hidden underneath the surface of things is what determines whether you go under or not. “
I’m not sure at what point the shift happened in our communities, but apparently: “One in four Americans has never read more than a few sentences of Scripture… and only 10 percent of Americans report any daily Bible reading at all.”
There is a whole world dying for lack of roots, who keep adding all kinds of touted nutrients to our lives but aren’t anchored and rooted in that which can feed the souls. Who cares enough to cultivate more spaces to open the Word and be rooted in God?
Unless a life is rooted in the Word, a life is slowly dying. Unless the focus is more on roots than blooms, there is no way to thrive. What is hidden underneath the surface of things is what determines whether you go under or not. “Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:7). Then you’ll be able to withstand any and all of the winds and heat and crises to come.
Digging into the Word is rooting yourself in the only reality that can dig you out of what overwhelms tomorrow.
The garden’s warm early first thing in the morning and finding a place amongst roots and blooms to simply open the Word and meet with the Maker is not only an interior remaking, a return to Eden, but a way to nourish your future self, to ensure you flourish.
Tend to your spiritual roots today is tending to your future self.
Digging into the Word is rooting yourself in the only reality that can dig you out of what overwhelms tomorrow.
Plant your life in the Word – and it’s your life that becomes the garden that blooms in ways you always dreamed of.
I send pictures of the garden’s new blooms to Bill on the other side of the country, because the man who came to plant me a garden knows how “the soil is the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all,” as the essayist and farmer Wendell Berry wrote.
Dust we are and to dust we shall return, but why would that cause any fear if the soul is genuinely rooted in Christ, the source and destination of us all?
Just last week, one of the heritage roses that had exposed roots, I planted it deeper, and it now looks about ready to bloom.
How do you find the way, even now, to the life you’ve always dreamed of — and trust that it’s not too late?
How do actually practically find way to to live that is receptive to the love of God even now in your story — so that you can actually persevere & grow toward joy?
What does it personally look like to form your mind, your days, your life, into the deeply meaningful, cruciform love of Jesus and let God love you in the ways He deems good and best?
What does it powerfully look like to have a new way of life, a new way of being that rests fully in the hesed lovingkind ways of God — especially now?
July 12, 2023
How to Read More, have Daily Reading Retreats & 10 Spiritual Formation Books To Change Your Life
The one who reads good words… becomes more like the Word.
If you read good words that have been tried & proven, it turns out that when your life is tried, it will be proven good.
The more you read, the larger your soul grows, and the more your soul encompasses, the more joy you’ll come to know.
And if you read good words that have been tried and proven — it turns out that when your life is tried, it will be proven good.
Summer is for hammocks and campfires and growing beauty from the earth and dipping toes in water — and for daily reading retreats, just setting a timer for 30 minutes, and curling up with rich reads that feed the soul.
And even better yet?
Rich reads that are read aloud to you.
10 Soul-Good Spiritual Formation Reads for this summer —
that change the very shape of your life:
For Grief: A Grace Disguised
(I have lost count how many times I have returned to this one, underlined this one, written down quotes, and felt comforted by this one.)
“The quickest way for anyone to reach the sun and the light of day is not to run west, chasing after the setting son, but to head east, plunging into the darkness until one comes to the sunrise.”
For Soul Refreshment: As Kingfishers Catch Fire
(I return to this book and listen to this book on the regular, an absolute lifetime favourite)
“The Christian life is the lifelong practice of attending to the details of congruence — congruence between ends and means, congruence between what we do and the way we do it, congruence between what is written in Scripture, congruence between a ship and its prow, congruence between preaching and living…”
For Doubt: The Reason For God
(I have recommended this book countless times, shared several copies, listened to multiple times… brilliant!)
“The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”
“It is no more narrow to claim that one religion is right — than to claim that one way to think about all religions (namely that all are equal) is right. We are all exclusive in our beliefs about religion — but in different ways.”
For Life: CS Lewis Essential Audio Library
(The complete works of C.S. Lewis lives on my desk — this is a volume to do life with. A lifelong friend.)
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud.”
For Healing: Gentle and Lowly
(I have shared so many copies of this book & my own copy is worn right down. Bound to be a classic. Five star.)
“The deeper into weakness and suffering and testing we go, the deeper Christ’s solidarity with us. As we go down into pain and anguish, we are descending ever deeper into Christ’s very heart, not away from it.”
“If you are part of Christ’s own body, your sins evoke his deepest heart, his compassion and pity. He takes ‘part with you’—that is, He’s on your side. He sides with you against your sin, not against you because of your sin. He hates sin. But he loves you. We understand this, says [Thomas] Goodwin, when we consider the hatred a father has against a terrible disease afflicting his child—the father hates the disease while loving the child. Indeed, at some level the presence of the disease draws out his to heart to his child all the more.”
For Fear: Rejoice and Tremble
(This author is a favourite who has profoundly shaped me formationally)
“For the filial fear of God is the soul of godliness and the essence of the new life implanted by the Spirit.
It is the ultimate affection and the very aroma of heaven.
It is the affection that expels our sinful fears and our anxieties.
It is the affection that expels spiritual lethargy.
To grow in this sweet and quaking wonder at God is to taste heaven now.“
For Understanding the Gospel: The Day the Revolution Began
(This book was a read for my Master’s at Wheaton and it was provocative and paradigm shifting in profound ways. Unforgettable.)
“Jesus died for our sins not so that we could sort out abstract ideas, but so that we, having been put right, could become part of God’s plan to put his whole world right. That is how the revolution works.”
For Interior Work: The Way of the Heart
(My copy of this is so worn — a true companion on the Way.)
“Only in the context of the great encounter with Jesus can a real authentic struggle take place.
The encounter with Christ does not take place before, after, or beyond the struggle with our false self and its demons.
No, it is precisely in the midst of this struggle that our Lord comes to us and says, as he said to the old man in the story: ‘As soon as you turned to me again, you see I was beside you.’”
For Joy: The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life
(Reading this was transformative for me — and now witnessing the change in our daughter as she’s reading it, carrying it everywhere? A must listen!)
“It is a law of the spiritual life that every act of trust makes the next act less difficult. Trusting becomes like breathing, the natural unconciousness of the redeemed soul.”
“You have trusted Him as your dying Savior; now trust Him as your living Savior. Just as much as He came to deliver you from future punishment did He also come to deliver you from present bondage. Just as truly as He came to bear your stripes for you has He come to live your life for you.”
For Brilliance: Orthodoxy
(A must read that I keep returning to year after year.)
“Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the less it is blind.”
“Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian.”
“Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial. Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul.”
The words you make time to read when you don’t really have much time, will be what makes you when you really have much trouble.
The words you make time to read when you don’t really have much time, will be what makes you when you really have much trouble.
So choose the life of a reader — who gives up lesser things, to support your habit of turning pages to turn your one life around, who makes shelves and stacks by the bed and bath and backseat to hold ideas and dreams and stories and whole beautiful and better worlds.
Choose the life of a reader who reads words that have marinated in minds and on pages long enough that they have catalytic power to resonate and detonate into glory that you can’t overestimate.
Pick the life of being a reader who hungers for beautiful words more than baity-headlines, who lingers with deep ideas more than simply scrolling shallow streams, who lets the quiet of a book be a shell to hold up and hear the reverberation of one’s own soul, more than letting the crashing waves of all the incoming of life sweep one’s soul further out to sea.
Of all kinds of lives? Pick the life of a reader who reads lovely lines out loud and writes them down to get them into neurons and marrow, who works and walks while listening to words because you know your soul was made by the Word for words.
Listen to Free Audio Books this summer!Make this the summer of your own easy daily Reading Retreats — just a few minutes a day of your own retreat, listening to a book, and choose the life of reader! Audible is offering a 3 month free trial, for both new customers or past customers, which means you can get any of these books, (or all of my books absolutely for free), or listen to millions of other books that are available to you with this free offer!
Click here to get the free trial & free audio books
You will be able to download one free book a month, for three months — perfect for your own reading retreats this summer!
(And if you decide Audible isn’t for you? You can easily cancel with the click of just one button, but the books are yours for free, forever!)
CLICK HERE to get the FREE TRIAL & FREE AUDIO BOOKS
HAVE YOUR OWN DAILY READING RETREATS: Just 30 Minutes a Day
Echo Dot — put it any room and just tell it to “Read my book”
and it will start reading aloud your next Audible read. (At this kind of sale, we have a few, to read books to in bedroom, kitchen, window seat etc!) Our absolutely favourite (indoor or outdoor … & inexpensive) hammock – to curl up and read or listen to a book. We just
flip a quiet 30 minute timer
— for our own Reading Retreat and read for just 30 minutes! This
blanket! I have literally given away dozens
— my favourite gift to give! — and
we have at least 3 and curl up together on the couch with this blanket for our 30 minute reading retreats!
I gave this
100 Books Poster to 2 of my favourite voracious readers this year
— and it was received with glee!Best
headset for listening
–after much research, the Farmer has this headset and listens daily with these!This
Reading Journal
is perfect to track the progress of your 30 minute reading retreats, as it has space for an index, reading tracker, book review, favorite books & authors, books read & still to read, list of want-to-reads and book challenge section. The more you read, the larger your soul grows, and the more your soul encompasses, the more joy you’ll come to know.
ENJOY READING RETREATS THIS SUMMER WITH FREE AUDIO BOOKS
July 10, 2023
Want a Uniquely Fresh, New Way to Practically Start a Habit of Gratitude & Transform Your Life?
When this new way of engaging counting gifts & growing my gratitude muscle came to me, & I worked out a new way to count gifts- — I was frankly, beyond ecstatic! So it’s a wild delight to welcome our oldest son Caleb and his lovely wife Melba, of The Keeping Company, to share something that’s been in the works for awhile, an absolutely fresh, uniquely creative, new way to engage a daily habit of gratitude, grace, and glory, in the form of recording simple gifts. What a thrill to welcome them, and this fresh concept, to the farm’s wide front porch today!
Guest post by Caleb and Melba Voskamp
“Morning glory! Shine for Jesus!”
No matter where I am in the world, every morning that I am not in the same house as my parents, a text pings through on my phone, usually around 7am.
Every single day that I am not with my mom, she texts me to tell me good morning. Most mornings, with the occasional variation, the text includes that one simple but profound line – shine for Jesus.
It’s a message I’ve internalized in more ways than one over the course of my life, and one I continue to strive for daily.
The sanctuary of the church where Caleb and I exchanged our vows, and where I spent my childhood, prominently displays Matthew 5:16 on the rear wall. This verse is the primary view you encounter as you exit the building, and I’ve laid eyes on it countless times, the most unforgettable of which was when I walked the aisle for the first time as the new Mrs. Caleb Voskamp.
“Let your light shine…so that God might ultimately be glorified.”
“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father, who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16
Let your light shine…so that God might ultimately be glorified.
Shine for Jesus, for His is the glory.
“Let your light shine” comes to us from the Sermon on the Mount, the paradigm-shifting sermon that spans three whole chapters in the gospel of Matthew. In a break from His traditional parables, Jesus – rather bluntly – introduces us to an upside-down kingdom where the weak are strong and the last are first.
His sermon is not composed of His usual parables, nor is it a stark ethical rule book, but rather a beautiful and profound depiction of the blessed, abundant life available through His grace, and how to achieve it.
There are few practices more deeply transformational or more deeply tied to that abundant, blessed life in Christ than the practice of daily counting blessings, of daily gratitude – profound gratitude, born of grace which gives rise to joy, the overflowing of our thankfulness springing up from the knowledge that God loves us and keeps His promises to us regardless of whether we deserve it… and overflowing in a fountain of joy and hope infused with divine assurance.
“It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich – Dietrich Bonhoeffer.”
Esteemed theologian Deitrich Bonhoeffer writes, “In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”
He recognized the profound power that gratitude can have to transform the Christian life. C.S.Lewis frames gratitude in a similar way, urging us to give thanks in all things: “We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.”
The physical act of recording gratitude on a consistent basis has the power to utterly transform our lives and completely shift how we exist in relation to God and the rest of creation.
What if we entered into the transformative act of a life of counting blessings as we daily enter into the blessed life Jesus promises when we live out the words of the Sermon on the Mount?
“Scriptural gratitude is recognizing the kingdom of God within us and around us, regardless of our worldly circumstances.“
What if the lens of the blessed life of the Sermon on the Mount gave us eyes to see the blessings and gifts in our own life in surprising, profound, life-changing ways?
The idea of consistently giving thanks, seen through the lens of Sermon on the Mount, creates a healing, hopeful frame for daily life. Scriptural gratitude is not merely finding things to be thankful for in our present circumstances. Rather, it is seeing the world and our lives in the light of God’s Kingdom, understanding that even in suffering and hardship, there is divine purpose and blessing.
Scriptural gratitude is recognizing the kingdom of God within us and around us, regardless of our worldly circumstances.
Above all, Scriptural gratitude is intentional.
Intentional daily gratitude is not about ignoring life’s difficulties or sugar-coating pain and brokenness; it is about recognizing God’s presence and grace within difficulty or pain.
Intentional daily gratitude gives perspective that aligns our suffering with the values of God’s kingdom — love, trust, compassion, humility, and grace. Through consistent gratitude, we are drawn into a transformative journey towards the heart of God, and into a fuller, richer experience of life in His kingdom. As we cultivate a heart of gratitude, our suffering may not change, but our perspective does.
“As we cultivate a heart of gratitude, our suffering may not change, but our perspective does.“
Intentional daily gratitude is the language of humility, the music of the meek. It is the prayer of those who take nothing for granted and considers everything a gift. It is the expression of a heart that has understood the meaning of Jesus’ call, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Those who nurture gratitude daily are those who, in their humility, understand that the ground beneath their feet and the heavens above their heads are sheer gifts.
They are living the echo of the Sermon on the Mount, recognizing that even the mundane miracles of existence are divine benedictions, waiting to be unveiled.
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So every morning after that text pings through, I do my very best to shine for Jesus… and that’s been happening in a fresh new way!
I sit down with my journal and my Bible, and I read, and I write, and I count gifts and blessings, noticing and recording God’s gifts and presence, grace, and unfailing faithfulness in all the little areas of my life… and I write those 3 gifts down (or more!, besides that day’s date and month. And this time softens the stress of the day, it soothes my anxieties, and it nurtures a deep desire to seek more of God, more of Scripture, and more of His presence in my life. Every day becomes an opportunity to reflect Jesus’ divine light in our lives, illuminating the world around us.
And then the next morning, after my mother’s text to shine for Jesus, I turn the page of my Gratitudes and Beatitudes journal, to the next day’s page, to record another 3 gifts — so that each day of the month, I’m turning to a new page, and eventually, at the beginning of each new month, I return to the beginning of the journal, and continue recording that day’s gifts, so that as I count gifts, day by day, I find myself reflecting on God’s gifts from the same day of the month, from all the previous months, providing a cumulative gift experience, as I see how God provided with good gifts on the 10th of the month, last month, and the 10th of the month the month before that!
This entirely fresh new way of counting gifts, not only lets me see and reflect back on how God has blessed and given gifts on this day of the month in all the previous months, but it’s literally growing my trust in God’s goodness, igniting my heart in a blaze of love for how kind and good God is!
As we express gratitude – outwardly, consistently, intentionally – we get to be a reflection of God’s light, a reflection of His kingdom, a reflection of His glory in the world, and our own worlds!
This intentional, fresh new way of expressing gratitude can seep into the marrow of our beings, setting our hearts aglow with divine love, bringing us closer to the heart of God, and revealing to us, little by little, the extraordinary beauty of an ordinary life touched by His divine grace.
Ready for a totally new way to embrace the power of intentional daily gratitude — in a way like you never have seen or known before?
The Keeping Company is offering now, (with free shipping in the US!!!) a singularly fresh and entirely creative, year-long reflective Gratitude Journal, Gratitude and Beatitudes, that not only gives you a gorgeous space to count 1000 gifts over the course of a year, but is uniquely formatted in a way that allows you to reflect & look back every single day over the cumulative gifts from the previous days and months of your year, to grow your sense of trust and joy in God’s provisions — all while guiding you prayerfully through some of the most life-changing words of all of Scripture, the Sermon on the Mount.
This creative new journal, Gratitude and Beatitudes, will entirely reset and reboot your daily habit of gratitude in a completely new way — so you can intentionally count gifts in a fresh, transformative way & find meaning and joy in the seemingly ordinary, turning each moment into a celebration of His divine grace.
July 8, 2023
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend [7.8.2023]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Come along with us here because who doesn’t need a bit of good news?
Let yourself smile, be crazy inspired, laugh, love & really live the gift of this life
just a little bit more this weekend…
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
Tobias Bjorkli – Photographer
Tobias Bjorkli – Photographer
Tobias Bjorkli – Photographer
Tobias Bjorkli – Photographer
Tobias Bjorkli – PhotographerGive these a slow re-scroll? The earth is so full of His glory.
Have you ever been told to “dream big” or that you “have what it takes” to make a big impact?
You *definitely* don’t want to miss these words…
“If your life feels too small”
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Dr. Matt Townsend (@drmatttownsend)
4 habits of happy couples — and these are well worth a listen
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Praise on TBN (@praiseontbn)
Your past or family history does not have to define your future – this is just really good news
Ever looked in the mirror surprised at how old the person in the mirror looks? Turns out, you’re not alone! This is just too interesting…
“The puzzling gap between how old you are and how old you think you are”
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News (@globalpositivenews)
Now this is just the best!
The Problem of Exceptional Thinking and this just hit me straight in the heart.
“We are not the heroes of our stories anyway. Jesus is.“
just heard this song and oh my
give this one a listen…
“These tears would just be tears fallin’ down my face
And this hurt would just be hurt with no healing on the way
Thank You, Jesus
Heaven changes everything”
Our family listens to hundreds of audio books on the farm every year as we work out in those fields and Audible is offering a 3 month free trial, for new customers or past customers, and I’m crazy delighted because this means you can get any or all of my books absolutely for free — including my newest book WayMaker (!!), which I recorded for you, to read to you on a walk, in the garden, the kitchen, the car, as you go about the work and beauty of your life, making your way from point A to point B — because “the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few,” as Jesus said.
We are all pilgrims on a journey, but only some come to actually know the Way.
Of course, my books are but a few of the the millions of books that are available to you with this free, limited time offer.
Click here to get the free trial & free audio books!
You will be able to download one book a month for free, for three months — perfect to reorient, renew, reset this summer!
(And if you decide Audible isn’t for you? You can easily cancel with the click of just one button, but 3 audiobooks are yours for free, forever!)
CLICK HERE FOR FREE AUDIO BOOKS
Just really, really love this!
“Why We Should Read Poetry”
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Jaclyn | Easy & Healthy Recipes (@holistic.foodie)
peach season coming right up? these are just the perfect little, adorable weekend treats
what this girl scout troop made up entirely of girls living in NYC’s homeless shelters do to help others in need? simply remarkable!
what a powerful moment!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by The Shade Post (@houseofculturetv)
You just have to listen to this!! This really is heavenly…
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Live a Life you Love Today (@ourhappilyeverafterlife)
yep, yep, yep!
This mom of 9 is unstoppable – just wow!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Jenny Williams (@thelaundrygarden)
just a peaceful, beautiful breath of fresh air—come along too?
Come along with us and inhale the beauty of our Creator?
This right here–song for your heart this weekend
“You are not hidden, there’s never been a moment
That you were forgotten…”
[from our Facebook community – join us?]
God’s invitation to know Him is an invitation to still and simply let go –
let go – of all the fears and worries that have a hold of us – so He can hold us.
Still – and let go of what has hold of you.
Still – and let it all fall away – so you can see the Way Himself, who is your Way.
Still – and let go of all your control and rest in how your very own kind Father is in control.
Be still and know that He is God means:
The fear of any storm falls away when we still long enough to be in awe of God.
The way through any sea – is to only have eyes to see Him who walks on waves.
It’s only when we finally still, that we can finally let go, and let God be God,
so that we are finally led into the way to real peace.
What would happen today if every time you felt a need to hustle –
you hushed your soul and stilled?
What if you saw every need to hurry –
to be a warning light on your internal dashboard –
to still.
When you take time to still, you aren’t falling behind,
you are letting everything else fall away,
and letting God alone be your Way.
You know you are on the way, the sacred way, when you know:
Stillness is how the soul embraces God’s will.
And lets go of our trying to be our own gods still.
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.
July 6, 2023
Free Audible = Get my books for free
When the heat of July finally gives way to a good summer rain falling across our fields of wheat and sheep?
It feels like a real invitation to curl up on the front porch swing with a blanket, a cup of tea, and a soul good book.
We are all pilgrims on a journey, but only some come to actually know the Way.
Which is the absolute perfect opportunity for you to join me: Audible is offering a 3 month free trial, for new customers or past customers, and I’m crazy delighted because this means you can get any or all of my books absolutely for free — including my newest book WayMaker (!!), which I recorded for you, to read to you on a walk, in the garden, the kitchen, the car, as you go about the work and beauty of your life, making your way from point A to point B — because “the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few,” as Jesus said.
We are all pilgrims on a journey, but only some come to actually know the Way.
(Here’s what some people have said about coming to know the Way, as they listened to the the audio version of WayMaker:
Why Listen to WayMaker
WayMaker is my most vulnerable, personal book yet and reading it aloud for you was a tender, intimate, deeply moving — and transformative experience —- and I pray it will also will be for you. Where my voice finds the very contours of your heart and you feel seen and heard and known — and know the Way’s very real heart for you.
Of course, my books are but a few of the the millions of books that are available to you with this free, limited time offer.
Click here to get the free trial
You will be able to download one book a month for free, for three months — perfect to reorient and renew this summer!
(And if you decide Audible isn’t for you? You can easily cancel with the click of just one button, but the books are yours for free, forever!)
Our family listens to hundreds of Audible books on the farm every year as we work out in those fields of wheat and sheep , and we truly hope listening to (free!) audio books is as much a life-giving, life-transforming rain of blessing over you, as it daily is to us.
All of us are always on a journey of wandering, always seeking a way to find One who is seeking out us.
It was one of the ancient church fathers, Thomas Aquinas, who said every human is ultimately “Homo Viator” – a human wayfarer, a journeyman on pilgrimage, always on their way to someplace, something, someone.
All of us are always on a journey of seeking, of wandering, of wondering, always seeking a way to find One who is seeking out us.
And wherever you are right now? Whatever is on your horizon?
The Way is always waiting for you — to make a way for you, to be your Way through.
Click here to get the free trial & the audio of WayMaker for FREEJuly 1, 2023
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend [7.1.2023]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Come along with us here because who doesn’t need a bit of good news?
Let yourself smile, be crazy inspired, laugh, love & really live the gift of this life
just a little bit more this weekend…
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
Esther Havens – Photographer
Esther Havens – Photographer
Esther Havens – Photographer
Esther Havens – Photographer
Esther Havens – Photographeroh the joy! simply contagious, isn’t it?
The wonder! The glory! Simply awe-struck by this Yosemite phenomenon.
“Let the fire fall” — do NOT want to miss this one!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by †God Cards – Postive Posts (@godcards)
a reminder we all need over and over and over…
Loving the poor through Christlike love–really great article on rethinking and loving like Jesus
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Emma Heaphy (@wordsof_emmaheaphy)
If you’re a mama with babies still home, or a grandmas with grandkids… it’s a really beautiful perspective. It’s the start of a beautiful love story.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by House Beautiful (@housebeautiful)
Now this is just plain smile-worthy
“I’ve counted all my reasons
They just keep adding up
I can’t afford to hold back
The sum of all my love…
You are worthy
Most worthy”
18 Summers? How To Slow Down Time & Even Now, How To Have More Time Than You Think
This is the only, only way to slow time and make the most of every single moment you get with your precious babies:
The one way to really slow time and gain all you can with your babiesView this post on InstagramA post shared by Donna Whelan (@jacobs_mammy)
This is just the happiest thing I’ve seen all week! To bring a smile to you and yours!
oh oh oh!! why this teacher keeps an empty chair in his classroom and this is the most powerful symbol! Thank you brave teacher!
5 year old girl gets adopted by family that fostered her for thousands of days. What a gift!
We need a different narrative, a shift in our perspective of motherhood.
“Many of our taglines overemphasize the pain of motherhood to the exclusion of the delight.”
And this just might change everything.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Reshma Saujani (@reshmasaujani)
here’s to embracing risking and failing
Take a moment with this one– a poem about the beauty of a mother’s love for her child
Some great tips on prayer when it feels like you’re just talking to the ceiling.
How to pray—for people who don’t.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Redeemer City to City (@redeemerctc)
–grace upon grace upon grace–
How to Not Waste Your One Life, But Make the Most of the Time You’ve Got Right Now: Do This (Part 2)
None of us want to waste our time. We all want to live with deep intention. But how do we really do that?
And we’ve had more than our fair share of life milestones this past month and I can’t stop revisiting this time last summer when words on a faraway mountainside gravestone marked me deeply. And this… this is how to really live:
How to Not Waste Your One Life, But Make the Most of the Time You’ve Got Right Now: Do ThisGlory, glory, glory! This is just what my soul needed…
This song on repeat — He is more than able
“You are more than able
You are more than able
Who am I to deny what the Lord can do
Can you imagine with all of the faith in the room
What the Lord can do?”
[from our Facebook community – join us?]
…just for today — DO. NOT. WORRY.
“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Matt6:34 MSG
Just for today: Be a prayer warrior—not a panicked worrier.
Worry is just the facade of taking action — when prayer really is.
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.
June 30, 2023
How to Not Waste Your One Life, But Make the Most of the time You’ve Got Right Now: Do this (Part 2)
I’m not sure why — maybe because there have been more than a few life milestones marked here this past month? — but I keep revisiting last summer in my mind, and what happened last June when we ended up flying within 4 degrees of the Arctic Circle, to take up the invitation of one of my dearest classmate friends from grad school at Wheaton, to visit her in the Faroe Islands — and she surprised us with this hike up this farm mountainside where the infamous character James Bond apparently died, in a movie ironically named, No Time to Die.
Enjoying the moments of your life — is what enlarges your life.
And it was this wildly strange thing to find yourself sitting on a peak with wandering sheep on this tipsy top edge of the world & kinda half-smiling at the very real gravestone for the imagined Bond, with that etched abbreviated exhortation of Jack London’s full quote:
“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
Visiting Farmer John who owns the sheep farm on this edge of the world, where the James Bond movie was filmed: John @kallsgardur 
Farmer John’s sheep farm where the James Bond movie was filmed: John @kallsgardur
I had looked over at my grinning Farmer, and all these glorious grooved lines of time lining his face, an underlining of a lifetime of our memories, and I tried to memorize this moment here at the jagged raw cliff at the end of the world, and there’s this feeling it:
When you make time into love, you conquer time, because Love is what goes on forever and without end.
Do not waste your days wanting more days.
It’s like the wind at the top of the world hushes everything, to ask the only question that matters:
What’s the wisest way to live before you die?
The wisest way to live is to know you have no time to waste.
When you realize that time is all you have, you realize all that you don’t want to waste your time on.
Because:
You don’t have a house… all you have is time that you spend investing into where you live.
You don’t have a vocation… all you have is time that you choose to give away to a vision, a work, a dream.
You don’t really even have a family or children or your people, in the sense that you don’t have, possess, own them … all you really have is time, fleeting time, to say you love them.
All time is for, is to love — because Love is for forever.
That is to say: When you make time into love, you conquer time, because Love is what goes on forever and without end.
When you realize all you have is time, all you have is one decision: What ways can you make your time into Love?
Running my hands along the engraved lines of the granite gravestone marking the end of Bond, that imagined spy, I can hear the windswept top of the world whispering its secrets to those of us with very real graves coming sooner than we could ever imagine:
Use your time only for what is useful, and it’ll be your very soul that’s left feeling used.
Enjoying the moments of your life — is what enlarges your life. You don’t have to waste your life wanting more days — when you can simply enjoy the days you have more.
Use your time for more than just what is useful, but for partnering with God to make all things beautiful, and you won’t have anything to fear at your funeral.
The greatest function of humanity is to not merely exist, to not merely exist for self, to not merely exist for enjoyment, the greatest function of humanity is to exalt the God who exists, who births stars and everything into existence, and make all of existence about the beauty of enjoying Him.
The way to live and not merely exist is to make every moment simply about deeply enjoying — deeply enjoying the relentless love and beauty of God.
Because He knows:
Enjoying the moments of your life — is what enlarges your life.
You don’t have to waste your life wanting more days — when you can simply enjoy the days you have more.
Farmer John sharing with us on his sheep farm where the James Bond movie was filmed: John @kallsgardur
When you realize all you have is time, all you have is one decision: what ways can you make your time into Love?
Now is the time, right now:
Enjoy drippy ice cream and hollyhocks swaying in front of crooked picket fences and laugh too loud with someone today and feel how joy expands your lungs with life while there is still time.
Enjoy the glory of sky over you, and earth under you, and the wonder of Almighty God in the finiteness of you — and feel how He must love you to make His home in you.
Enjoy this moment and the way the light’s warm at your feet right this instant and you will, if you’re unexpectedly blessed, get to hear you love’s footsteps, through the house, as they come your way even again today, and you will find their eyes and you will smile, and your heart will explode a bit, that you get all this miracle at least one more time.
Enjoy all this amazing grace, and make every second of all your time into the love that lasts forever.
Every moment that we love has eternity in it.
At the top of this big ole windy world, James Bond’s very real gravestone may have written it in granite, that we aren’t here to merely exist, but to live, that right now we have the time to live, fully live.
And you can feel it, there within, written across your ole thrumming ticker, written there by the finger of God, eternity written right into your fiercely beating heart.
Every moment that we love has eternity in it.
Read Part 1 of Series on How To Best Use Time:
Part 1: 18 Summers? How To Slow Down Time & Even Now, How To Have More Time Than You Think
Looking for the way through to a deeply meaningful life — that doesn’t waste your only life?
“If there’s a deep disconnect in what we believe and how we actually live —
is it maybe because we’ve forgotten the way to live actually and intimately connected to God?
Our walk will only match our talk when we live attached to His heart.
This is how we live, fully live, live the love story of our dreams.
This is the way of all the epic Love stories.” ~ from WayMaker
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