Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 34
April 11, 2023
How Does Resurrection Really Matter The Week After?
I thought of it much this past Resurrection weekend, and I can’t stop thinking about it:
Somebody I love is hurting excruciatingly, processing grief and loss by suicide, and we talked late last night and I had vivid dreams of people I’ve loved and lost and I woke with my heart aching in raw ways all over again.
What in this busted world does Resurrection Sunday
actually mean, on the hard, ordinary days now?
Missiles are killing wailing babes and fleeing civilians in Ukraine.
Young families we love, and are on our knees with, are beating back cancer stalking dangerously close with the stench of death.
What in this busted world does Resurrection Sunday now actually do, actually mean, on the hard, ordinary week after we stop greeting each other with “He is risen, He is risen indeed”?
How are we really the Rising People when we honestly can hardly keep standing for our losses and collective ache?
Wooden Hands From The Keeping Company
This much we know:
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, it’s verifiable historical fact that whatever the women, the first preachers of the resurrection, and whatever the followers and disciples of Jesus, experienced that Sunday morning and the days afterward, it was nothing less than life-changing and re-orienting, to the extent they were willing to risk their very lives to proclaim it and live into it.
The first witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection were headed one way — and then were so changed, they entirely changed life direction. After looking into the face of the resurrected Lord, they did a complete about-face and their whole lives turned to face a different direction.
That’s what Jesus’ resurrection does in the world now:
The Resurrection of Jesus begins the Revolution of this world, which means: Resurrection changes a life’s direction.
Resurrection reorients.
Resurrection changes our direction — from close-fisted to open-handed.
Resurrection reorients the hurt of this world in a different direction.
Resurrection is revolutionary because it changes our trajectory.
And it’s when Jesus’ still hanging on the cross that Jesus points that different direction. It’s the point of Jesus’s very last words.
Jesus’ last words were not “It is finished.”
He wasn’t finished when He said “It is finished.” The Word, who spoke 7 last lines on the Cross, still had 7 last words in His heart. The Dying God had one final thing left to say:
“Into Your hands, I commit my spirit.”
Everything is only finished when everything is entrusted into God’s hands.
With His last breath before death, Jesus says that the best place for His life is in the hands of God.
It’s Jesus’ last words before He died that point the way that His resurrection changes our life’s entire direction.
Resurrection changes a life’s direction from running after all kinds of ways to take things into our own hands, and turns us toward extending our own open hands to commit all things into God’s hands.
Resurrection changes a life’s direction from turning to pulling life toward our own expectations and way — to the surrendered direction of Jesus’ last words before He died — “Into Your hands, I commit…. “ this grief, that ache, this cry, this prayer, this … everything.
Resurrection changes our direction — from close-fisted to open-handed.
Were Jesus’ very last words of entrusting all into God’s hands actually the beginning of His resurrection story — and could trust like that be the beginning of ours?
The Resurrection proves it and changes all of life’s direction:
The only place that’s safe in the whole of the universe are the hands of God.
Only God’s hands can keep our souls safe.
That’s what resurrection does right now in the world, and that’s what the direction of the very last words that cross Jesus’ dying lips on the cross point to:
The hands that went to Calvary, that took the nails and a cosmos of pain to rescue you,
are the safest hands in the world to entrust your whole world to.
The hands that went to Calvary, that took the nails and a cosmos of pain to rescue you, are the safest hands in the world to entrust your whole world to.
Into Your hands, we entrust this begging hope.
Into Your hands, we commit this bruised and tender relationship.
Into Your hands, we entrust this impossible, into Your hands we commit this dream, this child, this heartbreak, this no way.
Resurrection happens wherever there is a long trusting in God’s direction.
From the instant of our rebirth at the foot of the cross when we entrust our spirits into His hands, till the last moment when our people pray at the foot of our bed, and they entrust our spirit into His hands — all of our lives are only fully lived in His hands, the ones scarred with our very name.
It’s only a life lived in the love of His scarred hands that can ever heal us.
And that’s what resurrection does now in the world: When our end comes, we aren’t merely committed back to the earth, we aren’t committed to an empty blackness, when the end comes, you are committed in one direction, into the holding hands of the only One who has ever loved you to death — and will love you into the forever life.
It’s when you realize your life is actually out of your hands, and is in His hands, then your heart can finally rest in peace — because can’t we deeply rest in trusting that He’s better at being God than we are?
When I’m up late, cleaning up some of the remnants of our Resurrection Sunday festivities, and the remains of our Easter celebrations, when I’m ruminating on a world that wonders when war will ever end, when traumatic death in on our street corners, in our own families, will ever pause, when I keep aching in a world where the sickness of suicide can poison a mind to think that death is a better way than life, I turn to the Farmer in the shadows of the kitchen and whisper,
“Can I just say it aloud? What if we all keep failing and falling, what if I keep failing and falling, what if death just keeps coming in all kinds of ways, for all of us?”
The Farmer turns in the kitchen doorway and looks at me from the doorway, the light from the front porch framing him:
“Ann, the truest reality is: — We don’t belong to that story. You don’t belong to that story. You belong to God.”
You don’t belong to despair, you don’t belong to sickness, you don’t belong to death, you don’t belong to failure, you don’t belong to war, you don’t belong to hopelessness or injustice or any dark story. You belong to God.
And all we long for, belongs in the hands of God.
We are never abandoned when we abandon ourselves to the hands of God.
The hands that placed the stars ,
The way you practice resurrection is that you practice slaying the hissing lies of despair. The way you practice resurrection is that you practice digging a hole to bury all the lies that you have to perform well enough to be loved at all.
Has your name etched right into His palms,
And when He rose from the dead,
He rose with His scars still, right under your name,
Because those scars punctuate the depth of His love for you.
Wendell Berry writes that our work in the world is to “Practice resurrection.”
The way you practice resurrection is that you practice slaying the hissing lies of despair.
The way you practice resurrection is that you practice digging a hole to bury all the lies that you have to perform well enough to be loved at all, practice burying the lie that you have to earn your worth, practice burying the shame that you fail and keep failing.
The way you practice resurrection is to practice the direction of your life, the direction of your hands: “Into Your, Lord, hands I commit — even this.”
Resurrection begins the revolution of the world, which changes the direction — turning us to directing everything from our hands into the hands of God.
Nothing changes your very life like making that the very prayer of your life, “Into Your hands, Father, I commit every part of my life.”
In the week after Resurrection Sunday, when I stand at the kitchen window with a cup of coffee, watching how this old hurting world turns outside my window, how the headlines turn, how my own aching heart turns, I practice it, the direction of my hands, the direction of the opening and closing of my hand — and the way of this one short prayer, again and again, in the same direction: “Into Your hands, Lord, I commit all my longings.”
And a rising and resurrection always comes with this direction, this deep belonging to God, soul-safe and entrusted to His kind hands.
What does it practically look like to follow the life-giving, vulnerable Way of Jesus?
What does it personally look like to form your mind, your days, your life, into the deeply meaningful, cruciform love of Jesus and entrust everything into His hands?
What does it powerfully look like to have a way of life, that actually lives the life-giving Way of Jesus?
The practical tool to begin true transformation for a different way of life start here: WayMaker
April 10, 2023
Learning to Take a Deep Breath & Praise God for Partial Miracles
Sometimes it’s tempting to wait until God answers our prayers exactly as we want before we praise Him or acknowledge His work in our lives. I am grateful for Mark Batterson’s reminder that God loves to hear our praises along the way. Whether our circumstances change as we hope or not, God is worthy of praise. Praising Him helps us remember that His answers to our prayers are always more miraculous than we can imagine—and always right on time. It’s a grace to welcome Mark to the farm’s table today….
Guest Post by Mark Batterson
Take a breath.
Few things are more mundane than breathing, yet few things are more miraculous. With every breath, we inhale half a liter of air, which contains 12.5 sextillion molecules. That’s more molecules than all the sand on all the seashores on planet Earth, including sandcastles.
“We don’t need lyrics on a screen or a band onstage to praise God. All we need is breath.”
Take another breath.
As we exhale, it may seem like our breath vanishes into thin air, but the molecules that make it up still exist. In fact, the air that we exhale catches prevailing winds and circles the globe at the same latitude in about two weeks.
Take one more breath.
To activate rest and relaxation, you have to breathe deeply. A deep breath recalibrates body, soul, and spirit.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. That is the last verse in the last psalm (Psalm 150), and I love it for lots of reasons.
First, if you’re still breathing, God isn’t finished with you yet. It’s never too late to become who you might have been.
“On one hand, the name, Yahweh, is too sacred to pronounce. On the other hand, it’s whispered with every breath we take.”
Second, this verse is also an open-ended invitation to worship. We don’t need lyrics on a screen or a band onstage to praise God. All we need is breath.
In Hebrew, the name of God is Yahweh. It was considered too sacred to say out loud, so the vowels were removed. All that’s left are consonants: YHWH. According to some scholars, YHWH is the sound of breathing.
On one hand, the name is too sacred to pronounce. On the other hand, it’s whispered with every breath we take.
It’s our first word, last word, and every word in between.
Part of my fascination with respiration comes from the fact that I had asthma for forty years.
After I prayed a bold prayer, one I had prayed hundreds of times before, God healed my lungs on July 2, 2016. I haven’t touched an inhaler from that day to this day! I don’t take a single breath for granted, but let me share one lesson I learned along the way: Praise God for partial miracles.
“Why not praise God every step of the way, even if it’s two steps forward and one step back?”
In Mark 8, we read about a two-part miracle that is both fascinating and encouraging. Jesus laid hands on a blind man, and the man experienced a miracle. His sight was restored, but not completely. People still looked like trees walking (see Mark 8:24). Let’s call it 20/100 vision.
This is where many of us doubt God instead of praising Him for a partial miracle. This is where many of us give up because we didn’t get the whole miracle.
Listen—even Jesus had to pray twice!
Some miracles happen in stages. These are the moments when we need to double down with prayer and fasting.
All too often, we withhold our praise for partial miracles and then wonder why the whole miracle never happens. Why not praise God every step of the way, even if it’s two steps forward and one step back?
Yes, on July 2, 2016, I prayed a bold prayer, and God completely healed my lungs. But the backstory involves a partial miracle.
A month before that, I hiked Cadillac Mountain in Maine. It’s certainly not the tallest mountain I’ve hiked, but I did so without the help of my inhaler. For me, that was huge! In fact, I went four days without using my inhaler, which was the longest such streak in my life at that point. I actually wondered whether the Lord had healed my asthma then, but I had to take my rescue inhaler on day five.
“Thank God before it happens; then see what happens!”
Having to take my inhaler knocked the wind out of me, pun intended.
But instead of focusing on the fact that I had to take it again, I decided to praise God that I went four days without needing it. I actually praised God for that partial miracle publicly at a prayer night. It was less than a week later that He healed my asthma! Coincidence? I think not.
Praising God for the partial miracle was a small step but a giant leap toward the double blessing of two healed lungs!
When you praise God for partial miracles, you are prophesying your praise!
Gratitude is praising God after He does the miracle. Faith is praising God before He does. It’s like a down payment on a miracle.
Thank God before it happens; then see what happens! That thanks might just have a domino effect.
Is there a partial miracle you need to praise God for?
Take a deep breath.
And praise the Lord!
Mark Batterson serves as lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC. NCC also owns and operates Ebenezers Coffeehouse, The Miracle Theatre, the DC Dream Center, and Capital Turnaround. Mark holds a doctor of ministry degree from Regent University and is the New York Times bestselling author of over 20 books, including Circle Maker, Win the Day, Chase the Lion, and Whisper.
Mark’s newest book, Please, Sorry, Thanks challenges us to recognize the power of words in our relationships, vocation, and dreams. As Mark reminds us, changing our words changes our world.
[ Our humble thanks to Multnomah for their partnership in today’s devotional. ]
April 8, 2023
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend [4.8.2023]
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 – Easter Edition – for you & your people right here:
Happy happy Easter from the farm!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ann Voskamp (@annvoskamp)
Only the Cross
“‘I don’t know where Jesus is,’ Mary said urgently. ‘I can’t find him!’
But it was alright. Jesus knew where she was. And He had found her.”
Gather the kids around and watch this one together!
… through tears,absolutely undone by His love
The Greatest Passion You (Or Humanity) Has Ever Known… & Why Good Friday Matters
Behold, your Lamb of God, who gives Himself to takes away the sin of the world — to take away your every sin and take you. God has always sacrificed for you. Love has always sacrificed for you.
Read the rest of the post“Oh, I have seen the Lord, I will speak of him
And nobody could talk me out of it”
a fun family recipe to try this Easter morning: Resurrection Rolls
a fun and meaningful (and tasty!) illustration of the empty tomb
photo credit: CompassionHow Easter is celebrated around the world, from our friends at Compassion
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Dave Adamson (@aussiedave)
oh this caption! what a stunning reminder!
turn it up for this one! < all hail King Jesus! >
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ruth Chou Simons (@ruthchousimons)
“His purposes are always for His glory and my good.”
< jaw. dropped. >
The staggering significance of the olive trees
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Jason Sobel (@rabbijasonsobel)
the Passover Lamb who took away the sins of the world
endlessly indebted – thank you, thank you Jesus!
you’ve got to watch this whole thing!
turn the volume way up – glory, glory, glory!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by God’s fingerprints (@godsfingerprints)
“I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”
John 13:15
View this post on InstagramA post shared by World Goats
(@world_goats)
don’t we all need to enjoy these little babies this weekend? < big wide grins >
photo credit: Compassion< grin >
You gotta read these quotes from kids in Ecuador. What they say about Easter is just the best!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Faithful Moms | Erika (@faithfulmoms)
Make your own Resurrection Eggs!
a fun & meaningful way to share the Easter story with your kids
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Hannah Brencher (@hannahbrencher)
just make sure you make it to the very last slide.
Hold tight, friends.
photo credit: Compassion“He died because He loves me.”
Join Raya as she celebrates Easter in Indonesia
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Kristi Hall Art & Design (@kristihallart)
the Cross that makes the way across…everything
Post of the Week From Around These Parts
“Let this Holy Week dismantle everything that isn’t about eternal things.
The Wednesday of Holy Week can either be “Spy Wednesday,” where our preparations for Easter betray Jesus, to buy what isn’t really worth it.
Or our Wednesday of Holy Week can be “Silent Wednesday” — where we quiet our hearts and retreat into the sacred silence and beauty of God.“
These words applicable for all our living, but especially important this week…
take a walk to the garden tomb this weekend
“He is not here. He is risen, just as He said.”
(Matthew 28:6)
Don’t miss Heidi Lee Anderson‘s recent guest post:
God’s Got Your Back
Read Rachel Anne Ridge‘s recent guest post:
What If Your Past Is A Present?
all because He LIVES!
glory, glory, glory… come along with us this beautiful weekend?
All that matters during Holy Week…is just friendship with God.
To wait with Him in the Garden…
to let Him kneel & wash your wounded places…
to stay with Jesus,
to keep company with Jesus,
to keep watch with Jesus,
right to the end.
He let Himself be forsaken of the Father —
so we in our sinful brokenness,
would never, ever, ever be forsaken.
All that matters today — is staying close to Jesus…
Today, we could stop & feel the humming Peace
of something sacred in our veins, enlarging our lungs.
Even in our darkest places—
look for it, feel along for it—
there is the light of Christ’s graces.
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
April 7, 2023
The Greatest Passion You (Or Humanity) Has Ever Known… & Why Good Friday Matters
This is the hour He pours out His passion for you.
This crucifixion moment in history is an international, global, cosmic event, this heralding Jesus as king not to only one people, but as King of the world, the Cosmic King whose very Kingdom is not of this world.
He bears His cross for you, but it is you He is carrying.
Slung across His bloodied, pulpy shoulders, that cross beam weighs more than 100 pounds.
But the brokenness and sinfulness of the world, your world, crushes Him immeasurably.
That’s what Pilate had inscribed: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,” on a placard that was customary for the condemned person to wear, stating name and nature of his crime. But that was the charge: not that He merely claimed that He was the King… but that He actually was.
Written in three languages, Aramaic, Latin, and Greek, this moment in history is an international, global, cosmic event, this heralding Jesus as king not to only one people, but as King of the world, the Cosmic King of the universe whose very Kingdom is not of this world.
Love came down — and Love laid down.
Artist: ValázquezArms flung along that cross-beam, the supernatural hands that flung stars across the canvas of whole galaxies are slam-nailed with a spike that was formed from the iron ore that He Himself created in the depths of the very planet He came to visit.
God with skin on comes to this sod, God with skin on visits this planet, God with skin on is more than theology — God with skin on stepped into literal geography to experience personal intimacy with you.
When He lays His own shredded back down on the wood, He does it not because He was forced, but because the Lamb of God willingly lays down His life, for His friends, for you, to cover your brokenness and sinfulness with His perfectness, to cover you with a robe of rightness and make you His bride.
The One who is Love, is slain by love, for love, Love-slain for you.
Arms flung along that cross-beam, the supernatural hands that flung stars across the canvas of whole galaxies are slam-nailed with a spike that was formed from the iron ore that He Himself created in the depths of the very planet that He came to visit.
And then God in the flesh lets seven-inch spikes pierce the heels of His feet, the only feet to ever have walked across teeming waves, to become the very only Way, your only daily way.
Three unadorned, ardent words. Like another three words, like this is Christ’s cosmic:
“I love you.”
Artist: CaravaggioAnd right in the center, there’s the linchpin of everything, the Passionate King: He who is centre of the universe, centred in history, centred between hope & all kinds of hell, centred between God & all of humanity, centred between restoration & all kinds of condemnation, centred between abandonment & at-one-ment.
The Apostle John’s letter need not explain or embellish the horrors of crucifixion, it simply states the most arresting story:
The created crucified their Creator.
Cicero, the Roman noble, spoke of crucifixion as unspeakable, as worse than beheading or burning: “What shall I say of crucifying…? An act so abominable it is impossible to find any word adequately to express.”
There are no words when you slay the Word.
Humanity crucifies God.
It’s not hate that drove us to crucify God. What caused the crucifixion of God is all our other flimsy loves, all our cheaper passions, all our love-affairs with all the betraying things of this world — that all stirred the passion of God to lay down His bare beating heart on the altar of that wood to woo and win us back to Him.
God surrenders to death by crucifixion to create communion.
The whole of the world is represented here in this moment, with Jesus at the centre:
On one cross, to the side, there’s needy repentant who’s saved… and on the cross on the other side, there’s the self-reliant who’s unsaved.
And right in the center, there’s the linchpin of everything, the Passionate King: He who is centre of the universe, centred in history, centred between hope and all kinds of hell, centred between God and all of humanity, centred between restoration and all kinds of condemnation, centred between abandonment and at-one-ment.
Artist: Bronzino For six agonizing hours, the God who hung the sun, hung in the sun, while ravenous vultures circled and swooped and swiped at His open flesh, but love drove Him to the very nth degree and death to let nothing pluck us from His hand.
When He who gave breath couldn’t bear to heave one more searing breath, the only One who can dwell in a human heart suffers an explosive heart-attack of love for you.
He’d been the one to bend low to kiss warm breath into the lungs of humanity and now, naked and physically fastened to a wooden pole, His every heaving breath is a fireball of agony ripping through lungs, until He who gave breath can’t bear to heave one more searing breath, and the only One who can dwell in a human heart suffers an explosive heart-attack of love.
Your Lamb bleeds out… for you.
Behold, your Lamb of God, who gives Himself to takes away the sin of the world — to take away your every sin and take you.
God has always sacrificed for you. Love has always sacrificed for you.
Sacrifice in Hebrew, korban, literally means to draw nearer. The passion of God, Love Himself, has always sacrificed Himself for you, to always make a way to be nearer to you, intimate and close, to take care of you.
He took fire so you could walk free. He took violence so you could be victor. He took hell, so you could be healed. Your sin hurt Him far sharper than any spike and He let the horrors of satan take a swipe at Him so that every one of our horrific sins could be wiped clean.
Artist: CaravaggioBehold, your Lamb of God, who gives Himself to takes away the sin of the world — to take away your every sin and take you. God has always sacrificed for you. Love has always sacrificed for you.
This is the moment He came for: The Lamb bleeds dry on a Cross, to birth a new kind of family into being in the cosmos. His very own.
Christ let Himself be bound to the Cross, so that our hearts could be bound to His forever. This moment is the remaking of the cosmos. This moment is the remaking of the ultimate meaning of relationships. He was conceived into skin, for the passion of the Cross, to conceive a communion of passionate followers to be with Him always, the body of Christ, the family of God, with an Abba Father, with our brother, Christ, with our very own Comforter, the Spirit, with a family of brothers and sisters, kin, around the globe, and all through history.
This is what makes this singular day in history not only good, but unequivocally the best:
At the Cross, He offers to cover all your shame and covers you with a new family name: Christian.
Because of the Cross, you get the gift of a new family and the gift of being found not guilty.
Through the Cross, He takes all your brokenness and erases all your deepest aloneness.
Back at the moment of His very first miracle, at the marriage feast of Cana, He had turned to His mother and whispered, “Woman, what have you to do with me? My hour is not yet come” (John 2:4).
And then, throughout the rest of the Gospel of John, his mother Mary is a quiet, humble follower, faithfully, though namelessly, following Jesus in the company of other disciples — until this moment. Until this moment when she shudders now in the gruesome horror of Golgotha — when His hour has actually come.
He shed His blood to make you His blood. You get to never be abandoned because He abandoned everything to be with you, and His atonement on the Cross was for at-one-ment with you.
And when Jesus sees His mother who swaddled Him as a naked babe, now witnessing Him crucified as a naked man, He whispers it between cracked and bloodied lips,
“Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”
From His earthly beginning, to here at His earthly end, Jesus doesn’t call her Mother — she who loves Him the most intimately, is ultimately known simply as a follower in the family He is loving to death, to give new life, a follower who said right from the Son of God’s very first miracle, “Whatever He tells you, do it” (John 2:5).
And now He gives her, His mother, to another disciple, and gives that disciple to her, as her son, and He blesses them as a family of followers that goes beyond blood kinship, because He went beyond and gave His blood to graft them into His very body.
He shed His blood to make you His blood.
You get kinship, because of His crucified Kingship.
You get to live forever in a new kind of family of love, because the Son of God loved you to death.
Artist: Carl Heinrich BlochThe veil in the temple tears from top to bottom, because the heights of Heaven couldn’t contain His divine love for you. And now, in this moment, you get to walk straight into the deepest Love you’ve ever known.
You get to never be abandoned because He abandoned everything to be with you, and His atonement on the Cross was for at-one-ment with you.
Isn’t this more than not merely Good Friday, but Best Friday, because what could best being loved to death and back to like this?
How could anyone keep a love like His to themselves when He gave all of Himself, how could anyone be shamed to share a love like this when He took all of our shame, how could anyone hesitate to hold back the good news on Good Friday, when He let go of everything to hold us for forever?
The passion of your pashal lamb for you forever seals it with a tender kiss: You will now never be passed by, and, because of His Love, the angel of death and blame and shame will pass over you forever.
And Jesus cried, “It is finished, it is done, it is complete“…
because His love for you is forever complete.
Artist: Peter Paul RubensAnd the Lamb of God takes His last breath on the Cross for you and the veil in the temple tears from top to bottom, because the heights of Heaven couldn’t contain His divine love for you.
And now, this moment…. you get to walk straight into the deepest Love you’ve ever known.
* * * *
April 5, 2023
Why Holy Week Wednesday Really Matters: How to Have a “Silent Wednesday” Instead of a Judas “Spy Wednesday”
It’s just a few days before Easter, a few days before everyone sheds their old grave clothes to be decked out in beauty and a bonnet for Easter Sunday morning, when she turns to me and says,“I just really wanna buy something that’s beautiful and lovely.”
That’s what the woman tells me. You could see that look in her eyes, looking for something lovely.
Something new and shiny and lovely, that catches the light in it’s own way.
Sometimes we want to possess lovely things — because we’re still figuring out that Love is a Person.
Love is a person and the Wednesday of Holy Week is the only day of Holy Week that Scripture is silent about and doesn’t tell us exactly what that person, Jesus, actually did.
Which is why the Wednesday of Holy Week is often called “Silent Wednesday.” Knowing He’s about to face deep, unfathomable suffering, on the cusp of the very end of His earthly life, Jesus quietly retreats into the silence and solitude of beautiful intimacy with His Father.
“Something — beautiful,” is what the woman said, “I just want something really beautiful.”
Maybe, you know —a silky new blouse? Slimming. Shimmering — just a bit.
Draping across the shoulders to make her look like a rising, like an unexpected super nova that stops the unsuspecting dead in their slack-jawed tracks. Just a bit.
Beautiful, handmade Cradle-to-Cross wreath from The Keeping Company
Felt Easter Eggs from Mercy House Global, made in Kenya by Street Hope
Beautiful, handmade Cradle-to-Cross Wreath from The Keeping Company
Maybe she could just click through a dozen rabbit-hole sites, order a bit here, a bit there, and go ahead and fill a closet full of all the lovely things.
When you know love is actually about self-giving, like Love gave Himself— then maybe the loveliest things are not about self-having?
“Your life is only a blink long —and then you wake up to the forever that your life chose.”
“Somedays — I just want all the beautiful things, you know? Floral and chiffon, all in filtered warm light.” She’d turned, caught light of her own.
I know exactly what she means, and I have asked it of myself: Do we want a curated stream of beauty to somehow make sense of our own chaotic stream of consciousness?
And then a woman turned to me in a car last week, and asked me what I didn’t see coming in the least.
“So what do you want your life to really be about?”
Her question left me hushed and silent.
Your life is only a blink long —and then you wake up to what forever that your life chose.
And then we’d pulled up and the GPS announced that we had arrived at our destination. She opened the car door. And I sat there, silent, fixed and yet a kind of jarred, broken, staring out the windshield, heart unshielded. Exposed.
What do I really want? What do I want my one life to really be about? Even the calendar this week is turning to look toward Jesus and what He did with His one life. Because He wanted to live given into an intimate relationship with us most.
What you most want — is what you most love.
And what you love — is what you’ll ultimately have for all eternity.
And I’m thinking:
“Any craving for the beautiful — is really a craving for Jesus.
Doubtful that you’re thinking of pretty Instagram streams when you’re standing at the river of Life flowing like a torrent of glory from the throne room of God.
Doubtful that you’re standing at the feet of Jesus, thinking you wanted more threads in your closet when you could have been about more souls in the Kingdom.
But there is no doubt:
Beautiful things can genuinely be made into meaningful things, beautiful can definitely be made into faithful things, and certainly, thank God Almighty, there is no definitive black and white line in the sand between beautiful and meaningful.
But there are times when instead of trying to forcefully all see the monied-beautiful as ministry-meaningful… we may be better to simply seek out the most meaningful — and see that as the most beautiful.
Meaningful over beautiful.
The most fulfilling lives actually see the meaningful — as the most beautiful.
Any craving for the beautiful — is really a craving for Jesus.
And maybe: A tragic life is a life driven by social media likes instead of Christ-motivated loves.
“You were meant for greatness — and greatness is about loving greatly. And living greatly given.“
Because honestly —
It would be a travesty to have a life about only collecting all the beautiful things — instead of recollecting that we were made for greater things.
You’re meant for more than collecting beautiful sea-shells. You were made of the beauty of intimacy — relational intimacy with God and with people.
When I light the candles on the lenten wreath, the flames waver.
While the Wednesday of Holy Week has Jesus spending His last hours in silence and solitude with God, Judas is in the midst of what is called “Spy Wednesday,” where he spies on his intimate friend, sells his friend, His Lord, for 30 pieces of silver.
Judas sold Jesus, the One who came to set the captives free, for the same amount of coin that it would take to buy one slave.
Judas betrayed one of his closest friends, to buy what he’d thought was worth it — only to realize he’d sold his soul and made his own soul a slave to the dark.
In the darkened shadows, the candles of our lenten wreath are disappearing, melting lower, giving themselves into light.
Let this Holy Week dismantle everything that isn’t about eternal things.
The Wednesday of Holy Week can either be “Spy Wednesday,” where our preparations for Easter betray Jesus, to buy what isn’t really worth it.
Or our Wednesday of Holy Week can be “Silent Wednesday” — where we quiet our hearts and retreat into the sacred silence and beauty of God.
On that Holy Week Wednesday, Judas decided to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver: How does what we buy betray the worth of Christ?
What if instead of spying about, so we can be buying more — we made space for a sacred silence with God to encounter the glorious beauty of God.
You were meant for greatness — and greatness is about loving a great God greatly. About living greatly given.
I sit before the flames of the lenten wreath with the wooden silhouette of Jesus carrying a cross around the wreath, around the world, around time and the cosmos and at the heart of the universe is a servant bending low, giving away His heart, never doubt this.
“God doesn’t call us to an impressive life — He calls us to an important life.”
The most beautiful life is a given life.
A life given to God, given to our people, given to community, given to those in need — is what gives our lives deepest beauty.
God doesn’t call us to an impressive life — He calls us to an important life.
A life of importance isn’t found in a life that’s impressive, but in a life that presses into the ways and heart of Jesus.
Beautiful, handmade Cradle-to-Cross Wreath from The Keeping Company
Felt Easter Eggs from Mercy House Global, made in Kenya by Street Hope
Felt Easter Eggs from Mercy House Global, made in Kenya by Street Hope
Beautiful, handmade Cradle-to-Cross Wreath from The Keeping CompanyOn the Wednesday of Holy Week, candle flames flicker brave, flicker on against the dark, and there is time to simply still and make intentional space for silence and prayer.
On the Wednesday of Holy Week, Judas turned toward having 30 pieces of silver to spend — but Jesus spent the day with the beauty of God.
Silent Wednesday is for taking time to intentionally turn off the world, and hushing our souls, and lighting a candle, and sitting with His Love Letter, His very Word, and paying attention to the beauty of the heart of the only One who has ever loved us to death and back to the realest life in His Love.
Silent Wednesday is for the free beauty of taking a walk under some trees, soaking in His glory, and having a prayer walk in silence with the One who never stops whispering your name, beckoning you to Himself.
Silent Wednesday is for making time for the beauty of worship.
Silent Wednesday is about pausing to gaze on the beauty of God, the only loveliness and beauty who ever fulfills, because Love is a Person and His name is Beautiful.
The beauty we all want to buy is only found when we spend time with the beauty of God.
The most beautiful lives — live for the most meaningful.
You weren’t meant for self-gratification. You were meant for soul greatness, in communion with a Great God.
Why settle for immediate gratification – when you are called to eternal greatness?
I met a woman once who said she wanted to buy what was beautiful.
But then her soul turned around — and decided to pay attention to all the broken and beautiful ways to live what is meaningful.
Her people said that she had no idea how she became, quietly, silently, beautifully, over time, more and more like light.
Like all the meaningfulness of His light.
If you are considering how to have a meaningful, Memorable Easter, Consider Our Free library of printables & tools to retreat into the Beauty of His Presence:
Sign Up / Sign In to our beautiful library of freely given resources to encounter more of the beauty of God(the Easter Resources are found under “Free Tools”)
April 4, 2023
What If Your Past Is a Present?
If you are feeling tethered to your past, like you aren’t measuring up in the present, I invite you to soak in the words of today’s guest post from artist, author, and life coach Rachel Anne Ridge. Rachel devotes her days to helping others discover who their loving Creator made them to be, encouraging them to live fully present in each moment. It’s a grace to welcome Rachel to the farm’s table today . . .
Guest Post by Rachel Anne Ridge
“Leave the past behind” is a common piece of advice, or as Pumba said in The Lion King, “Put your behind in the past.” That’s easier said than done.
Rather than trying to forget your past, honoring it grants you the freedom to visit.
Often, we find ourselves stuck in old patterns, memories, and hurts that keep us from moving forward in our lives. Rather than trying to forget your past, honoring it grants you the freedom to visit.
My friend Jenny’s childhood was marked by instability. Raised by a single parent who struggled with addiction, Jenny took it upon herself to make sure her younger siblings had clean clothes to wear to school and did their homework at night.
Jenny was popular at school, but she never invited any friends over because she was too embarrassed. She became so adept at hiding her personal life that when she became an adult, she almost convinced herself of an alternate story about her past—a carefree childhood filled with adventure and fun.
But by the time she finished college and landed her first job, an overwhelming sense of sadness sometimes kept her from getting out of bed in the morning. She berated herself for not being able to “get it together” and be confident and carefree like everyone else. The more she tried to fit in with her young professional friends, the more miserable she became.
By sharing her story she began to own it, and the shame she’d carried for so long slowly started to lift.
One day, after watching some children ride their bikes with joyful abandon through a park, her tears began to flow. When she couldn’t stop crying, she knew it was time to seek help.
Jenny found a therapist who helped her unpack the story she’d kept locked inside. Even though it was difficult, she opened up about her past and something began to shift inside. By sharing her story she began to own it, and the shame she’d carried for so long slowly started to lift.
For the first time, she was able to see her past in a new light and offer kindness to the girl who once held it all together, instead of judging the woman who just couldn’t do it any longer.
Shame keeps us from believing that we are worthy of living to our fullest potential and inhibits our ability to imagine the beautiful gold we can bring to the world. Of all the things that can keep us stuck, shame takes top prize for shuttering our minds to hope and to limitless thinking.
The past is made sacred by telling the stories, honoring what you lived, endured, and survived.
Shame keeps us from believing that we are worthy of living to our fullest potential and inhibits our ability to imagine the beautiful gold we can bring to the world.
The past brought to the altar stands as a testament to resilience; the juxtaposition of pain in a holy place gifts us with the tenderness we need to offer ourselves. It makes space for a joy to break through and echo to the rafters that you are here, you have arrived, and you are alive.
You are here.
You are alive.
You have arrived at the altar of celebration for this very moment.
Now. It’s good to take a breath and be present to your present.
Close your eyes for a minute and imagine your present being festooned with wreaths of flowers and ribbons as a ceremonial thanksgiving for simply being here.
Inhale.
Exhale. Ahhhh.
I can almost smell the roses and honeysuckle around my neck. What about you?
Henry David Thoreau wrote, “The meeting of two eternities, the past and future, . . . is precisely the present moment.” Perhaps there should be a thunderclap at such an intersection.
Ascribing honor to the present is a simple practice of mindfulness. It is an intentional act of creating space for gratitude for each breath, for the ground beneath our feet, and for the opportunities that stand ready for us to embark upon.
Instead we are loading the dishwasher (hey, it’s not going to load itself), or scrolling on social media, or simply passing through the present moment preoccupied by the future or distracted by the clamor of our times.
We are certainly not accustomed to thinking about two eternities meeting while sorting socks and trying to figure out why that grass stain is still on your child’s jersey even though you used bleach.
Right now is often so mundane and forgettable.
Ascribing honor to the present is a simple practice of mindfulness.
It is an intentional act of creating space for gratitude for each breath, for the ground beneath our feet, and for the opportunities that stand ready for us to embark upon.
And that can happen even when we are going about the everyday activities of our lives. It’s an acknowledgement of the gift of now. It’s what my donkeys Flash and Henry do best: They fully appreciate each moment, every mouthful of fresh grass, and each ray of sunshine as it comes.
I remember an incident when my oldest daughter, Lauren, was a toddler. I had dressed her in her play clothes, and then lifted her onto the counter so I could gather her fine red hair into a tiny ponytail on top of her head, Pebbles Flintstone style. With the ponytail secured, I set the comb down, and we wrapped our arms around each other tightly, swaying back and forth.
I looked into her bright blue eyes, and we held each other’s gaze for a long, long while. I want to hold this in my memory forever, I thought. This girl, this red hair, this little apartment . . . everything. I breathed it all in, and I knew then that Lauren shared this intimate connection with her mommy in a special way too.
Being mindful of the present doesn’t try to create magical moments out of the mundane or attempt to force meaning into every single minute, but it does celebrate the life that allows for the mundane…
Ascribing honor to the present is a posture of humility and gratitude that uncovers a treasure trove of rewards: It relieves stress and cultivates peace, creates a more positive mindset for solving problems, lowers blood pressure, gives us a sense of groundedness, and helps us gain much-needed perspective, says Dr. Robert Emmons, one of the world’s leading scientific experts on gratitude.
Being mindful of the present doesn’t try to create magical moments out of the mundane or attempt to force meaning into every single minute, but it does celebrate the life that allows for the mundane to exist by placing a “thinking of you” bouquet upon the day’s contents. It creates an atmosphere of abundant living that infuses both sock-sorting and deal-signing with a sense of gratitude instead of entitlement.
Ascribing honor to the meeting place of eternity past and eternity future finds a sacred home within a sanctuary filled with a community that’s present with you.
Adapted from The Donkey Principle: The Secret to Long-Haul Living in a Racehorse World by Rachel Anne Ridge, releasing from Tyndale House Publishers in April 2023.
Rachel Anne Ridge is an author, professional artist, and inspirational speaker. Her books Flash: The Homeless Donkey Who Taught Me about Life, Faith, and Second Chances and Walking with Henry: Big Lessons from a Little Donkey on Faith, Friendship, and Finding Your Path have delighted readers with their entertaining tales and poignant lessons. A certified life coach, Rachel works with individuals and organizations to discover their creative gold through hands-on workshops, retreats, and coaching. Rachel is a mom to three adult children, and Nana to five grandchildren.
Her latest book, The Donkey Principle, is a delightful blend of short reflections and original illustrations, with a central, timely message for readers who often feel like donkeys living in a racehorse world: Embracing your inner donkey is the key to overcoming obstacles, creating lasting change, and achieving meaningful success. It’s about understanding your unique strengths and using them to mine all the gold that’s within you.
[ Our humble thanks to Tyndale Publishing House for their partnership in today’s devotional. ]
April 3, 2023
God’s Got Your Back
If you’ve ever faced a trial that took your breath away, Heidi Lee Anderson gets it. She was thrown the biggest curveball of her life when she was diagnosed with cancer at age 23. Wondering where God was and how He could ever use this for her good and His glory, she held on in faith and waited expectantly for our faithful God to show up. Not only did she meet her now-husband while sharing her testimony during chemotherapy, but even though doctors told her she may not be able to have kids, fast-forward to today and she lives her days kissing the cheeks of her four beautiful children as often as she can (you know, before they say, “Moooom, stop.”). Now, Heidi encourages other women with the same comfort God gave her, always reassuring them that no matter how things look right now, those in Christ can trust the promise of Romans 8:28 and know it’s not only going to be okay—but P.S. It’s Gonna Be Good. It’s a grace to welcome Heidi to the farm’s table today…
Guest Post by Heidi Lee Anderson
Ever been blindsided by bad news?
One day, you’re on the phone with your dad; the next, he’s in the hospital.
One week, it’s same old, same old at work; yet the very next Monday, HR informs you your position’s been cut.
One year, you’re celebrating an anniversary—in your marriage, at church, or in remission—but flip over the calendar and you’ve signed divorce papers, your church doors have closed, or a routine scan has revealed your worst nightmare.
I get it. With no family history of cancer, I was thrown the biggest curveball of my life when I heard, “You have Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”
But we aren’t the only ones who have had the rug pulled out from under us.
Have you met Elisha?
One night, he went to bed in peace; the next morning, his servant went outside to do . . . what men do when they go outside. I won’t pretend to know. Instead of inspecting the driveway for cracks, though, he’s met with enemy troops, horses, and chariots surrounding the city.
You may feel lonely, in a dark spot, your mind consumed with doubts and heart filled with fear—but whenever that’s the case, remember you’re only looking at the shields and swords of the Syrian soldiers.
NOT EXACTLY A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES.
He sprints back inside in his skivvies, and in complete helplessness, shakes Elisha awake shrieking, “What will we do now?” (2 Kings 6:15).
Maybe you’re asking the same thing today too.
Because of _________, you’re caught off guard, facing a battle much bigger than yourself, and with no plan of attack, clear next steps, or resources at your disposal, you’re panicking. “What do I do now?”
Don’t miss it: Take your eyes off the shaking servant and narrow in on Elisha. Instead of giving into panic or crumbling into despair, this guy hasn’t flinched or budged an inch. Rather, completely calm and totally collected, he reassures his servant blowing in a bag, “Don’t be afraid! For there are more on our side than on theirs!” (2 Kings 6:16).
Are you scratching your head too? Looking out the window, we can count along with his servant, and sure, we may not be good at math but 1, 2 vs. . . . 1, 2, 3, 4 . . . yeah, how’d you get to that, Eli?
Elisha doesn’t even dignify that with a response. He just waves his hand. “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” (2 Kings 6:17). And that’s when his servant looks up and sees an entire hillside around Elisha filled with horses and chariots of fire.
SAY WHAAAAAAAAT.
Elisha wasn’t oblivious—he saw this too, but he also saw so much more.
To be clear: God’s angel armies surrounded Elisha and his servant as they slept peacefully the night before and when their enemy camped out on the nearby hillside just as the rooster crowed. Circumstances looked worse the next morning, but spiritually speaking, circumstances remained the same.
Elisha could see this whole picture, but his servant could not.
What do we see today? Only our physical circumstances with our dilated pupils?
Because those thousands of soldiers fully trained to wipe out the entire town by nightfall were what Elisha’s servant saw. Elisha wasn’t oblivious—he saw this too, but he also saw so much more.
You may feel lonely, in a dark spot, your mind consumed with doubts and heart filled with fear—but whenever that’s the case, remember you’re only looking at the shields and swords of the Syrian soldiers.
However, God calls His people to “set [our] minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2, NIV), which includes recognizing the full reality of our situation—physically and spiritually. Just like Elisha, not only does “the angel of the Lord [encamp] around those who fear him, and delivers them” (Psalm 34:7, ESV), but “he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go” (Psalm 91:11).
The only factor that matters is God, who alone holds the final word, and we have the privilege and powerful position to look up to the heavens knowing He’s got our back.
This is the confidence God wants not just for Elijah but for all of His people to realize and live in. Not to give into panic or succumb to the enemy of today, but declare, “Though a mighty army surrounds me, my heart will not be afraid. Even if I am attacked, I will remain confident” (Psalm 27:3).
God didn’t remove Elisha’s enemy, and the angel army didn’t slaughter the Syrians, either—both could’ve easily been done, and let’s be real, PREFERRED. God instead illuminated His presence and showed Elisha and his servant all the help they had in the spiritual realm—and that backing was all they needed.
Is it for us, too?
All odds may be against you, and things may not look great. I’ve so been there. But even when your demise may look probable, remember . . . so did Elisha’s defeat in the face of these Aramean soldiers. The only factor that matters, though, is God, who alone holds the final word, and we have the privilege and powerful position to look up to the heavens knowing HE’S GOT OUR BACK.
O Lord, open our eyes and help us see.
Heidi Lee Anderson is a writer, speaker, and stay-at-home mom. While crafting Instagram devotionals and writing kids’ curriculum, she’s a master at cleaning up Cheerio spills and building LEGO towers while simultaneously chugging coffee like a Gilmore. Heidi has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from University of Northwestern, MN, and has spent her career doing ministry—from teaching hundreds in kids’ ministry to writing daily devotionals, Bible reading plans, and small group curriculum as a content developer. After being diagnosed with cancer, Heidi’s fuel is now to make sure that Christ followers realize, know, and claim the sure promises God offers—in the mundane, amid the heartache, and on top of the highest mountains.
Life was all good until . . . you got that hard diagnosis, a relationship started to fall apart, or a bill, loss, or disappointment came out of nowhere. In each chapter of her insightful, conversational, and humorous book, Heidi not only draws from her own journey, but explores the life of different Bible characters like Gideon, Esther, Martha and more, who posed the same questions we ask today.
[ Our humble thanks to Tyndale Momentum for their partnership in today’s devotional. ]
April 1, 2023
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend [4.1.2023]
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:
Warren Keelan – Photographer
Warren Keelan – Photographer
Warren Keelan – Photographer
Warren Keelan – Photographer
Warren Keelan – PhotographerThese views! Take a moment and breathe in the beauty of this–
For your Good Friday – absolutely do not miss this. The timeline of events on Good Friday–follow along, hour by hour, and turn your thoughts to Jesus, in preparation for Sunday.
Simply stunning! 2023 World Nature Photography winners. Just wow!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Lisa Bevere (@lisabevere)
Become fearless by loving fearlessly – such great words!
These deeply needed words
from a pastor who has pastored the Farmer & I through some of our hardest days.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ester Ramirez (@esterramirezphotography)
Take a minute to breathe in this beauty
“How immigration Can Revive a Christian Nation” – really, truly this is worth your time
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Sarah E Koch (@sarah.e.koch)
Oh these words–just what we needed!
What Your Holy Week Tenderly Needs:…whatever we are facing this season, this Lent, never doubt it: Hope is actually here.
Next week is Holy Week, and however hard this next week is, this was Jesus’ hard week & He overcame & if we come to Him, we can too:
What Your Holy Week Tenderly Needs: Meaningful (Free!) Tools for a Memorable Easter
Don’t Miss Our Favorite Lent & Easter Family Activities –To Have the Most Meaningful & Memorable Easter Yet–
1. Have a Christian Passover Meal :for when Holy Week is far from perfect, and you just need a perfect Lamb
2.
Make an Easter Garden:
for when you need a garden getaway in the middle of Holy Week
3.
Set out Three Bowls & a Crown of Thorns
for when you’re feeling spiritually dry during Holy Week
Find all the Resources & Activities HERE
Don’t Forget Your Very Own Lenten Wreath
Join our family in this meaningful tradition?
The beautiful, handmade cradle-to-cross wooden wreath for Lent & Advent
from our favorite–The Keeping Company
GET YOURS HERE
Now this is the best! This little boy so missed doing yard work with his dad who was deployed – so these amazing neighbors stepped right in. #bethegift
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Show Hope (@showhope)
What a gift she was! “May we never stop learning from her kindness.”
View this post on Instagram
Oooh! Aren’t these the cutest little fluff balls?!
When the Northern Lights showed up & showed off in the UK – spectacular!
This one is stunning & needed! A podcast episode on “How God’s Daughters an Create for His Glory” & creating in an age of technology. Definitely worth a listen!
–this song on repeat for Easter and our tender hearts–
Post of the Week From Around These Parts
What all our hearts really need in pain and suffering… for us in pain, for us facing survivor’s guilt–
this one’s for us all:
What’s the Answer to All This Suffering?
When You Need Answers for Your Broken Heart
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Kristin Nave | All Things Bible
(@shelovesbible)
Yes! Yes, yes, yes!!
On the awe of God — and these words are inspiring and powerful and just what we need.
How this teen turned tragedy into hope & still found so much generosity – we all have something we could learn from this young woman.
– Okayyy! Making hearts soar & dreams come true! –
The sweetest! < tears >
For all our aching hearts this week:
In a world of heartbreak & tragedy & disaster, do you ever wonder, what real good does prayer really do?
Maybe this weekend needs the real power of prayer:
Does Prayer Really Matter In the Face of All Kinds of Disasters?
On The Book Stack At The Farm
Strong like Water: Finding the Freedom, Safety, and Compassion to Move Through Hard Things—and Experience True FlourishingDon’t miss Aundi Kolber‘s recent guest post:
The Way Through Pain and Trauma
My Utmost for His Highest: Modern Classic Edition
Read recent guest post from Macy Halford:
Ignite a Passion to Know God Better
Front Row Seat: a video series from The Gospel Coalition for pastors’ wives
Read recent guest post from Kari Olson:
Front Row Seat: Encouragement for Pastors’ Wives
We’re here! We’re here this week! Won’t you come along and see this beauty with us?
We have nothing if we don’t have you — yes!!
[from our Facebook community – join us?]
The battles you’re brought to,
God’s already fought through.
You get to be still and rest in God
because He’s still God
and will do the rest.
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.
March 31, 2023
What Your Holy Week Tenderly Needs: Meaningful (Free!) Tools for a Memorable Easter
It’s only a couple of days until we’ll wave our pine branches we’ll go find in the woods — yeah, no exotic palm fronds here on the farm — and we’ll sing our Hosanna! Hosanna! — literally Save Us! Save us!
And the truth is: In a hard world, in Christ, we can still be soul-safe.
I try to keep the news a bit at bay, but most of our grown kids children sit down at our dinner table eager to slice and dice the headlines like they are ready cut up their pork chops, savor what is good, and then spit out any bones.
While they discuss all the things, I light the candles on our Lent wreath.
“Whatever cross we’re carrying grows light when we let Jesus carry us.”
We’re nearing the beginning of the Holiest Week of the year.
I move the figurine of Jesus carrying the cross forward on the Lenten wreath. His back’s bent, His shoulders bearing, His heart breaking. Jesus never stops crying with us. I linger, memorize Jesus’ cross-carrying silhouette.
Whatever cross we’re carrying grows light when we let Jesus carry us.
However hard this next week is, this was Jesus’ hard week & He overcame & if we come to Him, we can too.
40-Day Lenten Wreath from The Keeping Company
40-Day Lenten Wreath from The Keeping Company
40-Day Lenten Wreath from The Keeping CompanyNo one knows what this week will ask of us, or next week, or the week after.
But I can’t stop thinking of what my friend, Sam, said to me a while back when I asked him: “What does cruciform love looks like in this season?”
What does it look to live formed and shaped like a cross at this particular moment?
I thought he would talk about living surrendered. I thought he would talk about living given. I thought he would say something practical, but at least something I expected.
“Love that’s truly cruciform, is truly vulnerable enough — that the heart gets hurt.”
My breath kinda caught.
“God is love — thus only He gets to define love. And He defines love as cross-shaped, cross-formed, stretched out, formed into a reaching givenness that leaves the heart breathtakingly vulnerable.”
The One who gives life, who gave us His life, is never calling us to stay in abusive, dangerous, toxic places, because He is about giving life, and being life-giving — but outside of those circumstances, He calls us to consider what it means for a life to be cruciform in life-giving ways, in all kinds of places and ways.
Cruciform love bares its vulnerable heart — and willingly bears the cost.
Cruciform love isn’t afraid of pain — because it trusts there’s more to gain.
I pick up the cross-carrying wooden carving of Jesus headed to Calvary and there it is, there is Love Himself:
God is love — thus only He gets to define love.
And He defines love as cross-shaped, cross-formed, stretched out, formed into a reaching givenness that leaves the heart breathtakingly vulnerable.
The journey of this historic, painful Holy Week carries us all into a kind of holy of holies:
Unless love is formed vulnerable enough to be open to suffering and loss — it’s not cruciform: it is malformed.
No matter what this season may hold, we can keep practicing being vulnerable with people, keep practicing being vulnerable with what we’ve been given, because isn’t this how we keep practicing our faith? Isn’t that what love ultimately always means: you leave yourself vulnerable.
It’s always been the Christ-followers through the ages who have practiced their faith to serve and love others even when it’s vulnerable.
The Christ-followers who have practiced their faith to vulnerably give up convenience and comfort, even when it means real loss. And it’s the Christ-followers who have followed the Love-Man Himself who opened wide His arms to leave His heart vulnerable enough to hurt — so others could be healed.
“How can our hearts not be called to make real sacrifices — when that’s exactly what His heart did for us?”
When patience wears thin or hope seems to fade or expectations kinda crack, when the family down the street runs out of grocery money or when our personal and collective grief overwhelms, it’s Christ’s true followers who show up and find ways to love vulnerably enough to bear the cost.
The trials may be under our roofs, in our relationships or expectations, or our communities, our cities, our global family, but the bottom line is:
How can our hearts not be called to make real sacrifices — when that’s exactly what His heart did for us?
40-Day Lenten Wreath from The Keeping Company
40-Day Lenten Wreath from The Keeping Company
40-Day Lenten Wreath from The Keeping Company
40-Day Lenten Wreath from The Keeping CompanyThis week & next, the Love-Man not only shows us how to live cruciform love — He will be a current of cruciform love through us especially when we don’t know how.
Because:
When you leave yourself vulnerable, real love never leaves you.
“Cruciform love is formed vulnerably enough to lose comfort — because this is the only way true Love wins.“
The kids have moved on from discussing the news. The serving bowls of greens, of beans, have moved around the table. The figure of Christ will keep moving on through Holy Week, moving toward Calvary. And it’s my own broken heart that’s deeply moved.
Cruciform love is formed vulnerably enough to lose comfort — because this is the only way true Love wins.
The wooden silhouette of Jesus bows low before the candles all lit. And the heart within burns with the realization:
Christ will rise victorious this week — but it will look like the vulnerability of surrender.
And even this week, we can all rise victorious — if we practice the art of vulnerable love.
There at the center of the table, the Lenten wreath’s candles flicker and wave, like they know what could save us all even now.
Three Resources for a Meaningful Holy Week:(Get all our Easter Resources, and our entire library of printables and tools when you subscribe)
1. Have a Christian Passover Meal :for when Holy Week is far from perfect, and you just need a perfect Lamb
Free Printable to download for everything you need for a Meaningful Meal at Home…
Family program for a deeply meaningful Family EasterFree Menu CardTable Card2. Make an Easter Garden:for when you need a garden getaway in the middle of Holy Week
Download the Free Printable instructions for creating a Grace Garden for Easter
So the thing is, back there in the beginning, we all had this shattering fall in a garden.
And we mark it on the calendar, Christ, falling in the garden of Gethsemane.
Christ, righting our messy fall.
So we put our hands into dirt, and we remember our garden fall and His garden grace,
And we make a Grace Garden for Easter.
for when you’re feeling spiritually dry during Holy Week
Download the Free Printable with full instructions
After Palm Sunday and before Good Friday, that’s what we eat — the almonds and the figs and the fruit, because by Grace, God can get a fig out of even this dry stick.
A bowl of Figs – because the authentic Christian life has got to be more than leafage. Faith has to have fruitA bowl of almonds – almonds, from a dry rod that budded and blossomed, white almond flowers unfurling this impossible faith by grace. And we remember that these brittle, dry days — they can be kindle for burning bushes and God can come upon the dry bones and they can bud and blossom. And we can eat almonds and taste miraculous fruit from limbs just surrendered.A bowl of toothpicks – dry, like dead trees.And a small grapevine wreath – a circle like a crown.Every time we need to repent, we slip a toothpick into the wreath.I finger the sharp edge of one brittle point.
And I slip in a toothpick thorn, repenting of fruit that isn’t and believing in Him who is, and it’s there in these hands, this snapped, withered wood that will bear the impossible life and right everything again.
This hope encircling like a crown… Get all our Easter Resources, and our entire library of printables and tools when you subscribe Sign Up / Sign In to the Resource Library
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What does it practically look like to follow the life-giving, vulnerable Way of Jesus?
What does it personally look like to form your mind, your days, your life, into the deeply meaningful, cruciform love of Jesus?
What does it powerfully look like to have a way of life, that actually lives the life-giving Way of Jesus?
The practical tool to begin true transformation for a different way of life start here: WayMaker
Ignite a Passion to Know God Better
Have you ever been rocked to the core after reading something profound? A phrase or two that gives you chills, causes you to pause, or perhaps you ruminate on for the next few days, weeks, or even months. It grabs hold of you. That’s what My Utmost for His Highest does . . . it takes the Scriptures, asks the probing questions, and ignites a passion to know God better. In our world of easy-peasy, feel-good spirituality, these words invite you into the deeper truths that cause soul reflection and engaging conversations. They did for Macy Halford at the age of just fifteen when she started reading My Utmost for His Highest, and they still do today as she has now adapted these timeless truths into this Modern Classic Edition. It’s a grace to welcome Marcy to the farm’s table today…
Has there ever been a book quite like My Utmost for His Highest?
“My utmost for his highest. To be all for God; to act with boldness, expressing Christ in every word and deed. This, Paul says, is how to walk through life unashamed.”
from My Utmost For His Highest-the Modern Classic Edition
Since it first appeared in England in 1927, the so-called golden book of Oswald Chambers has traversed languages and countries and denominations to become one of the best-selling daily devotionals of all time.
Published ten years after the death of its author, a Scottish preacher who lived and died in relative obscurity, it has established itself as a living document, playing a vital role in the daily spiritual experience of millions. It is a classic, to be sure, but one which lives on the reader’s bedside table rather than the collector’s shelf.
I received my first copy of My Utmost for His Highest when I was fifteen, but I was aware of it long before then.
It is a book that sat on my grandmother’s bedside table, and on my mother’s; a book that was spoken of often during the coffee hour following Sunday service or at the Wednesday evening Bible study.
In the place and time where I grew up—Dallas, Texas, in the 1980s and ’90s—Chambers was so well known and so well loved that people referred to him simply as “Oswald,” and for them that name had become synonymous with his most famous book. “Have you read Oswald today?” people would ask.
The conversations that would follow were so lively and immediate that I remember being shocked when I first learned the basic details of Oswald’s biography. He wasn’t, as I’d supposed, a pastor one might hear on the radio; you wouldn’t find him on a speaking tour of local libraries. He was a painter-turned-preacher of no specific denomination who’d been born in 1874 and who’d died during the First World War.
“The journey isn’t a journey of reason or debate. We can’t think or argue our way through it. It is a journey of surrender, of abandoning ourselves to God, absolutely and forever.”
from My Utmost For His Highest-the Modern Classic Edition
Yet it didn’t take me long, after I began reading Utmost, to understand Oswald’s appeal. My grandmother had warned me that I might find him challenging at first, but had urged me to give him a chance. (Her exact words, if I recall correctly, were “Oswald ain’t easy, but he’s worth it.”) The challenging part was true enough.
Utmost was full of ideas drawn from theology, philosophy, and psychology; its language was sophisticated and fairly dated. In many places, though, it was entirely accessible. Each entry contained some gem—some profound reading of Scripture, some meditation on the Holy Spirit, some astute advice on living the life of a Christian disciple—that made Utmost seem as though it had just been written, and just for me.
If there is a single quality shared by all classic works of literature, it must be timelessness—a word which surely describes My Utmost for His Highest.
It is a forever book, a book that will always belong to right now. Why, then, a new version? Does it even make sense to speak of “updating” a book that belongs to forever?
Summarized briefly, the story of Utmost is the story of a Scottish preacher, Oswald Chambers, who fell in love with an English stenographer, Gertrude Hobbs, in 1908 on a boat bound for America. He was going over to preach, she to look for secretarial work.
Almost immediately, the two discovered that they shared numerous passions: a passionate interest in Jesus Christ, a passionate interest in Christian discipleship, and a passionate interest in the written word. On this journey, Oswald gave Gertrude the name she would go by for the rest of her life—Biddy, from B.D., for “Beloved Disciple”—and the two dreamed up their future publishing endeavor.
In one of his earliest letters to Biddy, Oswald wrote:
It will be such a meagre home we will have, you and myself going heart and soul into literary and itinerating work for Him. It will be hard and glorious and arduous. I want us to write and preach; if I could talk to you and you shorthand it down and then type it, what ground we could get over! I wonder if it kindles you as it does me!
Oswald and Biddy wed in England in 1910, after which they took jobs at a Bible college on the outskirts of London that was dedicated to training missionaries for fieldwork. (This is why numerous entries in Utmost speak to the missionary life.)
“My best for his glory. At first, the call comes gently. Then it grows louder, until finally God produces a crisis in our lives that demands we make a choice. For or against; yes or no; stay or go.”
from My Utmost For His Highest-the Modern Classic Edition
Oswald gave lectures and sermons; Biddy took notes. In 1913, their daughter, Kathleen, was born, and in 1915, following the outbreak of the war, the family decamped to the Egyptian desert, where Oswald was to serve as chaplain to British troops. In the desert, Oswald continued giving talks, and Biddy continued writing them down.
When he died, in an army field hospital in 1917, following surgery for appendicitis, Biddy had amassed enough notes to fill more than fifty books. This is precisely what she went on to do, dedicating the remaining forty-nine years of her life to bringing Oswald’s teaching to the world.
My goal, then, for this Modern Classic Edition of My Utmost for His Highest has been to bring clarity and readability, while preserving Chambers’s message and voice.
In several instances, I’ve gone back to the original sermons and lectures from which the excerpts were taken in an effort to grasp their wider context. The vocabulary has been updated, though many choice “Oswaldisms” remain.
Throughout, my aim has been not only to honor Oswald’s intentions for the messages in Utmost, but also Biddy’s. It seems fitting to give the final word to her—the woman responsible for bringing Oswald Chambers’s words to the world.
“It is because,” Biddy Chambers wrote in her foreword to the first edition, October 1927, “it is felt that the author is one to whose teaching men will return, that this book has been prepared, and it is sent out with the prayer that day by day the messages may continue to bring the quickening life and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”
May they continue to do so.
Raised in an evangelical household by her beloved grandmother and mother in Dallas, Texas, Macy Halford graduated from Barnard College, began her career in journalism in New York City, and now resides in Strasbourg, France. Her Christian upbringing and her secular environment stirred questions in her soul as she read My Utmost for His Highest every day. She eventually quit her coveted job at The New Yorker and wrote her heartfelt story, My Utmost: A Devotional Memoir, exploring her upbringing and understanding of faith while pondering the deeply profound teachings from Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional.
Macy took these time-honored and treasured words, beloved by millions around the world, and carefully adapted them for today’s readers in this Modern Classic Edition. Her sincere desire for this devotional is to preserve Chambers’ message so that every reader can open this book, be drawn into the beautiful challenges on the pages, and move into a deeper and more profound understanding of God.
[ Our humble thanks to Our Daily Bread Publishing for their partnership in today’s devotional. ]
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