Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 49
March 12, 2022
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend [3.12.2022]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Let’s not let the everyday routines numb us to the miracle of living every day! Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything. Never, ever give up…there really is hope, even for us.
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”Luke 12:27
Photo by Anna Cosper…some bits of budding hope to end your week…
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Upworthy (@upworthy)
…serving others and making them laugh, all at the same time…
Finding ways to #BETHEGIFT to those in need…
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Pupworthy (@pupworthy)
This smiling farm friend is sure to bring a smile to your face today!
…no matter where you are,
you can always find a way to be the hands and feet of Jesus…
View this post on InstagramA post shared by COWS (@cows_my_love)
Just a little uncontainable cuteness to end your week on…
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Upworthy (@upworthy)
Need a little weekend motivation?
This 7-year-old motivational speaker is sure to do the trick!
…oh the JOY of God’s creation!
What a gift of beauty this man worked to give the people of his community!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News & Stories (@brightsideofig)
This man had never gone sledding before this stranger invited him to-
the JOY in his face is contagious!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News Movement (@goodnews_movement)
His face says it all!
We can’t help but rejoice with this child and his forever family…
…the Word of the Lord-
the Word that lends to a way, The Way.
Read how this man found his way through tragedy.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by 𝗠𝗮𝗷𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 (@majicallynews)
The daddy/daughter dance she’ll never forget…
…the joy of music,
bringing hope to those who never thought it possible…
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Daily Good News! (@delightfulnews)
…sometimes, all we need is someone to walk alongside us and tell us we can do it
–
step by step.
The most beautiful thing we can give our children-
hearts to serve others for the glory of God!
Weary traveler, restless soul, be lifted up in knowing you are not alone…
Clinging to the Cross… this cross in my hand, praying this prayer with The Keeping Company
Join us as we walk the SACRED way together –taking a prayerful, reflective Lenten Journey
from Ash Wednesday right up to Easter Sunday.
Whether you’ve never intentionally walked through this season of Lent before Easter, or if your heart desperately longs for it every year – may we gently and intentionally walk with you?
Forty days – on the way of the Way Himself.
For a beautiful, reflective, immersive experience – including audio devotions delivered right to your email, along with other exclusive content – join our journey, and see all the lovely and helpful free gifts we’re so very humbled to share with you, our friends, with simply pre-ordering WayMaker
Last weekend to Pre-Order WayMaker and Join our Audio Lenten Devotionals Emailed Right to You
Beautiful artwork by Katy RoseAbsolutely gorgeous free downloadable print, one of the many free bonus gifts included with the On The Way Lenten Journey, free when you Pre-Order WayMaker.
Lighting this candle every night on our Advent & this Lenten Wreath from The Keeping Company every night is my favorite practice of this season, focusing & turning my heart …to keep company with Him.
Keeping hope alive: Lessons of Hope Learned in the Storm
Storms happen to all of us sooner or later…
Hope comes when we remember His promise to be with us until the end of the age. He will never abandon us to ride out the storm on our own.
“With God, hope is always justifiable. God will slice an ocean of waves in half to find a way to be with you.
Where there seems to be no way—is exactly the way to miracles.”
This is the very last weekend (!!!) to Pre-Order our next new book: WayMaker
$75 of Free Gifts When You Pre-Order WayMaker
As our family’s way of thanking you, we’d really love to get all of these gifts into you hands
These pages, this one — is especially for you,
for everyone on a hard road, & looking for a real honest way through:
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ann Voskamp (@annvoskamp)
Honestly, all our heartache, grief, suffering, obstacles, they all come in waves. There is no controlling life’s storms; there is only learning the way to walk through the waves.
In WayMaker, the most tender, vulnerable love story I know how to tell – there is this deeply practical, daily compass that points the way through to the places we’ve only dreamed of reaching, by a way we never expected.
For the marriage that seems impossible, for the woman who longs for a child of her own, for the parents who ache for the return of their prodigal, for the sojourner caught between a rock and a hard place, and for the wayfarer who feels as though there is no way through to her dreams –It’s really possible: We can encounter the WayMaker in surprising ways and even now, the Way is making the way to walk through waves and into a life more deeply fulfilling than even our wildest dreams.
Get WayMaker and hold a compass that doesn’t just point to the way through –
but shows the way to a whole new way of being!
The way the WayMaker makes may not make sense to you —
but you can’t see how every way is connected to the way of everything else.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ann Voskamp (@annvoskamp)
No matter how our hearts break —
we are always going to make it.
Because we have a WayMaker who is with us in it.
And a free printable for you from the WayMaker Art Collection when you pre-order WayMaker
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 11, 2022
Lessons of Hope Learned in the Storm
A career missionary and full-time sailboat dweller, Grace Fox models what it means to say yes to God. For her, writing is an act of obedience and worship. Drawing from her experiences in missions, living on the water, and grandparenting eleven precious little ones, she offers wisdom and insights that draw readers near to God’s heart. Her new book contains 90 devotions that offer hope to those whose minds are on overload. Sounds like something we could all use right now. With pleasure, I welcome Grace to the farm’s front porch today.
Guest post by Grace Fox
Living on a sailboat year-round has taught me more than a thing or two, especially since I grew up as a landlubber. One lesson I’ve learned is this: Storms happen. It’s not a matter of if but when.
“The storm swirls, sudden and strong, and leaves us struggling to find hope and keep that hope alive.”
On one occasion, Sailor-Man (better known to most people as my husband, Gene) and I spent a weekend exploring the islands off British Columbia’s coast. Sunshine and gentle breezes made our getaway a mariner’s dream. When morning dawned on the last day away from our marina, Sailor-Man checked the tide charts and weather app to ensure we’d have a safe voyage. Everything looked good, so we raised the anchor and set sail. We were homeward bound, happy and rested after our mini-vacation.
A couple hours later, we reached the Straits of Georgia. And that’s when everything changed. Wind whipped the water into whitecaps. Our vessel tilted at a crazy angle. I grabbed the nearest handhold and hung on for dear life.
Life’s like that, isn’t it? One minute the sun shines, and the next—whammo! A phone call brings news we didn’t want to hear. A text delivers a message we never expected to read. We make a heart-breaking discovery or receive a heart-wrenching diagnosis. Wind from every direction batters us, and waves threaten to topple us. The storm swirls, sudden and strong, and leaves us struggling to find hope and keep that hope alive.
I experienced a storm of unimaginable force upon the birth of my second child. Sailor-Man and I were missionaries in Nepal at the time. When our baby girl was born with a heart defect and hydrocephalus—too much water on the brain—doctors said she needed life-saving surgery. “We can’t meet her needs here,” they said. “You must return to North America on the first available flight.” There was only one problem: because I’d had a C-section, the international airline considered me a medical risk, and the agents refused to issue me a ticket. Regulations said I’d have to remain behind for at least another week.
When our newborn was three days old, Sailor-Man wrapped her in a blanket and slipped a bottle of breast milk into the diaper bag slung over his shoulder. I kissed my baby and cradled her for a few more moments, trying to memorize her features before Daddy and daughter headed to the airport to catch a flight to Seattle.
““Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with Thee” threw a lifeline to this young mother drowning in the sea of uncertainty, and I clung to those words for dear life.”
Wind and waves threatened to topple me into the frigid water of fear in the hours following their departure. “God, our lives have just flipped upside down!” I cried. “What’s happening here? And what do You want me to learn through this?”
God answered my panicked pleas by placing hymn lyrics in my mind. Truths such as “Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with Thee” threw a lifeline to this young mother drowning in the sea of uncertainty, and I clung to those words for dear life.
God didn’t promise that my daughter would live, but I knew in my heart that He would be faithful to walk alongside my family no matter what happened. He would give us everything needed to survive this unexpected turn of events. He would strengthen us. He would give us wisdom. And He would give us peace. His peace (John 14:27). The peace that enabled Him to face a storm of epic proportion and say, “Not My will, but Thine, be done” (Luke 22:42 KJV).
My friend, we live in a world that struggles under sin’s curse. In his book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, Timothy Keller puts it into perspective: “The basic premise of religion—that if you live a good life, things will go well for you—is wrong. Jesus was the most morally upright person who ever lived, yet he had a life filled with the experience of poverty, rejection, injustice, and even torture.”
Storms happen to all of us sooner or later. Wind and waves strike often when least expected and in ways we would never choose, and we wrestle with shock, fear, grief, and even disbelief that something so painful could touch us. But here’s the thing: even in the darkest hours, we can keep hope alive because of who God is.
God is faithful. He gifts us every morning with a fresh supply of His love, wisdom, and compassion (Lamentations 3:23).
God is a promise-keeper. He always remains true to His Word. He is forever and fully reliable; therefore, we can trust Him for a good outcome (Psalm 145:13). It might not look like we wish it would, but it is good from an eternal perspective.
“God is a promise-keeper. He always remains true to His Word.”
God is our provider. He knows our needs—emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual—and He will see to it that those needs are met. He will do that because that’s who He is (Philippians 4:19).
God is present. Hope comes when we remember His promise to be with us until the end of the age. He will never abandon us to ride out the storm on our own (Matthew 28:20).
Recalling who God is anchored me through the week-long separation from my newborn and the next several years filled with surgeries, hospital stays, and occupational therapy. Fortunately, that storm eventually subsided. My oldest daughter is now a woman who loves the Lord and finds hope in Him to face whatever storms come her way.
But life being what it is, I’ve experienced other storms since. They’ve come and gone, sudden and strong, and each has taught me a thing or two. One lesson remains constant, no matter the force of the wind and waves: even in the darkest hours, we can keep hope alive because of who God is.
*****
Grace Fox has written twelve books and is a member of the First 5 writing team for Proverbs 31 Ministries. She also co-hosts the podcast “Your Daily Bible Verse” and co-directs International Messengers Canada, a missionary sending agency with staff in thirty-one countries. Her passion is to connect the dots between faith and real life by helping others learn to love, understand, and apply God’s Word. The storms of life often strike when least expected. They hurl us into uncertainty and leave us longing for rescue. In times like this, we need the hope God’s Word offers, and we need it in snippets our overloaded minds can absorb. Keeping Hope Alive: Devotions for Strength in the Storm delivers. Ninety meditations offer bite-sized nuggets of encouragement, a sentence prayer, a point to ponder, and a thoughtful quote by someone who’s survived the storm.
(Our humble thanks to Tyndale Publishers for partnership in this devotional today)
March 7, 2022
Where is God in My Pain?
A Pediatric Emergency Room Doctor, Lina AbuJamra uses the same skills serving patients in the ER as she does helping people build their faith and manage critical decisions. Her new book Fractured Faith is a healing balm for the fractured heart of the spiritually wounded. Lina’s gut-wrenching vulnerability and gentle truth telling makes her the perfect friend you want to walk with you in difficult seasons. It’s a grace to welcome Lina to the farm’s front porch today.
Guest post by Lina AbuJamra
At a highlight in my Christian ministry, I hit a wall. You can call it a dark night of the soul or tell me it’s a phase that most Christians go through, but one thing I can assure you: the unraveling of one’s faith is anything but funny. The deconstruction of one’s faith is anything but easy.
“It’s never easy to embark on a different road even if that road is the right one.”
Over the last few years the deconstructing of one’s faith has become common among Christians and not just something that happened to me. Christians all over the world are asking difficult questions about their faith. We have questions that defy platitudes. Questions that challenge what is taught as dogma in the church. Questions borne out of pain that refuses to go away without an answer. They gnaw at our souls and, if remained unanswered, these questions will lead us down the path to doubt. Then like a wound that’s covered with a bandage without proper care, it starts to fester. Eventually, a dismantling of our beliefs begins to take place.
The catalyst that propelled me down the path to deconstruction came at an unexpected time in my life and ministry. I was well into living out my calling as a Bible teacher at a thriving mega church and on the verge of publishing my first book when I got a glimpse behind the so-called “green room” curtain. What I saw was rotten and broken. What I saw made me walk away.
Thus began the slow deconstruction of my faith. Little did I know at that time how deeply the decision to leave my church would affect my faith. If I could have foreseen the pain that would come from that decision, I am not sure I would have left. If I could have predicted how isolated and abandoned I would feel in the years to come, I likely would have ignored my conscience and gone with the flow. Instead, I chose to lean into disruption; my conscience had finally overruled the status quo. Still, ask anyone who has tried it: it’s never easy to embark on a different road even if that road is the right one.
In those early days, I believed God would step in and do something dramatic to make everything right. I believed God would defend me and reveal the truth about the toxic leadership I had wisely left. I believed God would fix my problems and right my wrongs. The longer I waited, however, the more skeptical I became. God didn’t appear do anything for a long while.
Didn’t God care about His children?
Why wasn’t He executing justice where it was due? Where was God in my pain?
I looked for people to discuss my confusion, but the only ones I found were others who were struggling like I was. They were people like me who had more questions than answers. We recognized each other by the expressions on our faces in the lobbies of the churches we were visiting. If you’ve ever left a faith community, you’re familiar with that look. It’s one of weariness, of self-protection and guardedness.
Before long I started to question myself: Had I made a mountain out of a molehill? Should I have just sucked it up and stayed? I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was at the heart of my angst.
When it became too much to feel so much, I chose to go numb. I ignored my emotions. I became an expert on self-isolation and building walls. My faith began a slow deconstruction into disbelief. I felt ashamed, ashamed that I’d moved past blaming people to blaming God. Shame that what was once so easy to believe had slowly turned into a crisis of faith. Shame that all the teaching in the world, and all the teaching in the world that I’d taught, hadn’t saved me from this crisis of faith, this slow erosion of my faith.
If I could turn back time knowing what I now know, would I have left my church that sacred Sunday morning ten years ago? Ask me on a tough day when I’m feeling particularly vulnerable and self- protective, and I don’t think I would have. I would have chosen the comfort of safety. But I’ve learned that it takes guts to lean into the truth. It takes grit and the willingness to live honestly to admit the struggle you’re feeling.
“It’s only when you finally let go of all the clutter you believe about God that you can make room for Him in your life again.”
A friend asked me if I could think of anything good that came out of my season of deconstruction. My initial reaction was an adamant No! I wanted to forget every bit of that season in the dark. I thought of all the times I stood up to preach to others while I was privately wrestling with God, shaking with the shame of being found out. I relived every moment of unshed tears while I fought with God tooth and nail for answers. I mourned so many wasted days in the valley. But then it occurred to me that it was the very deconstruction of my faith that opened my eyes to God. It was the deconstruction of my faith that gave me a taste of His unconditional love and never-ending grace. It was the deconstruction of my faith that rebuilt me inside and out.
Over the last few years, I’ve found that the deconstruction of one’s faith has many flavors but one common theme: pain. Your pain may not be church-related at all. Your pain may be much more personal. Your hurt may have been born out of deep abuse. Your struggle may be the result of repetitive disappointment and unshakeable bad “luck.” Your wounds may be the result of something you did or something that was done to you. Your skepticism may be due to your dissatisfaction with the standard answers you’ve heard to life’s most difficulty questions.
It’s only when you finally let go of all the clutter you believe about God that you can make room for Him in your life again. When you stop long enough for God to reveal Himself to you as He really is, and not as you’ve made Him up to be, a slow reconstruction begins.
It happened to me. I know it can happen to you too.
*****
Lina AbuJamra is a pediatric ER doctor (now practicing telemedicine), and the found of Living with power Ministries. Her vision is to bring hope to the world by connecting Biblical answers to everyday life. A popular Bible teacher and podcaster, Lina is also engaged in providing medical care and humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees in the middle East. Her ministry just launched a spiritual retreat house for individuals and teams at The Hope Ranch. Find out more at www.livingwithpower.org.
(Our humble thanks to Moody Publishers for partnership in this devotional today.)
March 5, 2022
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend [3.5.2022]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Let’s not let the everyday routines numb us to the miracle of living every day! Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything. Never, ever give up…there really is hope, even for us.
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
Photo by
Jonathan Petersson
from
Pexels
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life…
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them…” Matthew 6:25-56
Photo by
Pixabay
from
Pexels
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin…” Matthew 6:28
Photo by
Simon Berger
from
Pexels
“Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.” Matthew 6:34
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Katy Rose (@katyrosecollection)
Finding beauty in the midst of war. An artist uses her gift to give back.
Photo by Katt Yukawa on UnsplashView this post on InstagramA post shared by Upworthy (@upworthy)
Picking up grandma from the train station. Her JOY is contagious!
Photo by Rick J. Brown on UnsplashWhen we let go and let God, He leads us in a way that our hands extend farther and His love meets deeper. This is one woman’s story of being the hands and feet of Jesus to the least of these.
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And another artists sharing his gift and a prayer for peace
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Lane M Arnold (@lanearnoldspiritualdirector)
Your excuse to PLAY today! Her words say it all.
Photo by Kevin Delvecchio on UnsplashA beautiful family reunion after one mother’s long recovery from multi-organ transplant.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Upworthy (@upworthy)
Music is truly a language that transcends.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Kirk Franklin (@kirkfranklin)
Our #WayMaker. The One who holds the future.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by #riskhappy (@riskhappy)
“I’m so proud of you” the daily moments of gratitude in our mundane.
Photo by Eleonora Patricola on UnsplashConnecting students a world away, a boat lost at sea.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Katy Nichole (@katynicholemusic)
She hears her own song on the radio for the first time! The overwhelming joy is contagious.
Photo by
Tim Gouw
from
Pexels
When disaster strikes, God shows up in the most unique ways. Don’t miss it!
The Clinging Cross, a b eautiful addition to your Passover table and a daily reminder
of God’s sacrifice for our hearts, available at The Keeping Company.
Photo by
Marius Grigoriu
from
Pexels
How the church around the world is showing the love of Jesus in a time of war, fear, and wandering.
We pray to the God who sees, who knows, who loves. He is the God of Possible.
POST OF THE WEEK, FROM THESE PARTS HERE: Being dust & not fearing death: Ash Wednesday and War Ashes.
We are dust and it’s not all on us.
Dust returns to dust, and the divine ways of God always go on.
This is the weekend to Pre-Order our next new book: WayMaker
$75 of Free Gifts When You Pre-Order WayMaker
As our family’s way of thanking you, we’d really love to get all of these gifts into you hands
Beginning March 2, we are walk the SACRED way together – taking a prayerful, reflective Lenten Journey from Ash Wednesday right up to Easter Sunday.
Whether you’ve never intentionally walked through this season of Lent before Easter, or if your heart desperately longs for it every year – may we gently and intentionally walk with you?
Forty days – on the way of the Way Himself.
For a beautiful, reflective, immersive experience – including audio devotions delivered right to your email, along with other exclusive content — join our journey, and see all the lovely and helpful free gifts we’re so very humbled to share with you, our friends, with simply pre-ordering WayMaker
Let these words permeate your soul and your heart cry out, “Holy, Holy is the Lord!”
And a free printable for you from the WayMaker Art Collection when you pre-order WayMaker
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 4, 2022
What to Do When the Tyranny of the Urgent Runs Your Life
Bob Goff has inspired audiences with his crazy stories and life-changing insights for more than a decade. He builds school for kids in war zones, rescues girls from brothels, raises horses, prosecutes witch doctors, hosts retreats, speaks to millions, and the list goes on and on. People constantly ask him how he does so much, and his simple answer is this: he stays undistracted. His new book is all about overcoming the constant distraction we let into our lives—our homes, work, relationships, and soul—and recovering the purpose and joy covered by all the clutter. It’s a grace to welcome Bob Goff to the farm’s front porch today . . .
In Northern Uganda, the night sky is bright with stars. If you live in a major city, small town, or suburb, you may not be able to fully visualize what I mean. In vast stretches of the African bush, there is almost zero light pollution. The night sky is riddled with glorious, sparkling pinpricks. You can see a spiraling arm of the Milky Way stretching out past the dark horizon.
Uganda is not the kind of place that would have a space program. But at the Love Does school we built there, our students have looked up with the same wonder the vastness of space stirs inside each of us. NASA stopped flying the space shuttle, and most of their funding was cut several years ago too. When I learned of this I called and asked if they had any spare parts we could have sent to our school in Gulu. A space capsule? A spare booster rocket? Really, anything would be nice.
I imagined giving people directions to our school and telling them to “turn after the first rocket ship.” Uganda had never launched anything into space. I looked at the GoPro camera on my desk and started to wonder: What if our kids were the first?
photo credit: Esther Havens
Since NASA was basically out of business, we decided to establish Gulu’s first space program. We called it GASA. I found some tanks of helium in Mombasa, Kenya, and had them shipped to Gulu. It cost me more than four giraffes. We enlisted an astronaut from NASA, the owner of an airline, and some others to help us with the caper, and we got to work.
A few months later we traveled to Gulu. Once there my son Rich put a GoPro camera wrapped with hand warmers in a Styrofoam ice chest. Then we began filling a weather balloon with helium. It inflated to fifteen feet across and twenty feet high. The students counted down and let go. A thousand sets of eyes watched as it soared into the air. When the balloon was off the ground, the students yelled, “We have liftoff!”
“Children who were once forced to be soldiers and given Kalashnikov rifles were now cheering and crying and hugging as they all became part of Uganda’s first space launch.”
Children who were once forced to be soldiers and given Kalashnikov rifles were now cheering and crying and hugging as they all became part of Uganda’s first space launch. They had a new family, and they could soar as high as their imaginations would allow them. But this launch wasn’t just a metaphor; we still had a school to run and lessons to teach. With the help of a friend who understood meteorology, the kids calculated how the winds aloft would influence the trajectory of the balloon, then predicted in their physics class calculations where the balloon would end up.
Rich had put a GPS in the ice chest so we could monitor the balloon after the launch. Every three minutes we got a new ping. The students tracked the balloon as it drifted south over the country and climbed to over one hundred thousand feet. It entered the edge of space, and by the time it reached this elevation, it grew even bigger as the atmosphere thinned. And then it happened. The vacuum of space popped the balloon, and the remnants began their descent to earth. Rich also attached a parachute to the ice chest, and the kids huddled around the computer as we tracked its progress back to Uganda. The package was right on course with where the students had predicted it would land.
Suddenly the wind shifted. Students scrambled to calculate new trajectories, running about waving their arms. Team leaders shouted across the room. There was a tremendous amount of energy and focus as these young people sized up the task before them. It was awesome. I felt like I was in Houston during Apollo 13. The kids figured out the new trajectory, and as it turned out, the payload decided to drift more than one hundred miles to the west. The new landing zone we triangulated was in a different country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Not good.
The package touched ground one hundred yards away from six small grass huts. We assumed the box had landed in a field or was snagged in the thick jungle canopy. Every three minutes we continued to receive a new fix on our Styrofoam box, but within an hour, something changed. The GPS indicated the box was now inside one of the huts. A few minutes later, it was in another hut. Within the hour, it had gone to all the huts. I can only imagine what the villagers must have been thinking as they carried the box with the parachute and camera that had been in space from hut to hut.
“Not everything went exactly as we planned, but who cares, right? A couple of things will go right for you, and a couple simply won’t. God doesn’t keep score, and you shouldn’t either.”
One of the guards at the school is named Cosmos. I’m not kidding. I’m so disappointed that my parents picked the name Bob for me. Cosmos is from a village in the DRC near where the box landed, so we sent him over the border to see if he could get it back. A few hours later, Cosmos called to inform us that he knew exactly where the box and GoPro camera were.
The next call we got was from the DRC’s military. Cosmos had been arrested as a spy. Yikes! The military saw the box, the camera, and the parachute and got understandably ruffled by it. Suddenly, the mission had gone as horribly sideways as the parachute had. So we called some friends in Uganda who called some generals in Uganda who called some generals in the DRC, and Cosmos was released that same night. Talk about a misunderstanding. We got the camera back, but they took the flash drive so we couldn’t replay the descent from the edge of space. I still have my request in to the government for it.
Not everything went exactly as we planned, but who cares, right? A couple of things will go right for you, and a couple simply won’t. God doesn’t keep score, and you shouldn’t either. When we are tempted to bring Him only our successes, God reminds us He delights at our attempts even when they fail. The kids still talk about their space mission. That’s what a little bit of availability and a lot of helium will do. Don’t get distracted by the things that have gone wrong or could go wrong. Put a few things in motion to give your life some lift and watch it take flight.
*****
BOB GOFF is the author of the New York Times bestselling Love Does; Everybody, Always; Live in Grace, Walk in Love; and Dream Big, as well as the bestselling Love Does for Kids. He’s a lover of balloons, cake pops, and helping people pursue their big dreams. Bob’s greatest ambitions in life are to love others, do stuff, and most importantly, to hold hands with his wife, Sweet Maria, and spend time with their amazing family. For more, check out BobGoff.com and LoveDoes.org.
(Our humble thanks to Harper Collins for partnership in this devotional today.)
March 2, 2022
Being Dust & Not Fearing Death: Ash Wednesday & War Ashes
All the rhetoric and gunfire may be loud right now, but the whole globe echoes this crescendoing refrain today on Ash Wednesday:
Dust you are and to dust you will return .
“The human situation has always been that we are dust and God is our breath. This is relief.”
“The war creates no absolutely new situation,” is what CS Lewis said at the beginning of WW II, “it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. …”
We have never not lived on the precipice – dust returning to dust. The human situation has always been that we are dust and God is our breath. This is relief.
We are dust and it’s not all on us.
Dust returns to dust, and the divine ways of God always go on.
Lenten Wreath from The Keeping Company
Lenten Wreath from The Keeping Company
A young man who played for a ball team hardly an hour from our farm right here, he flew to stand in a line this week to serve in a war on the other side of the world, for a country different than his passport.
When his mother called to ask him if he was 100% sure, he knew, and he just said it out loud: “You know that you might die.”
“to keep our soul from destructive ways, we lay down distracting ways — and take up The Way.”
If people are willing to die for countries not their own, who is willing to pick up a cross and come die with Christ who claims them as His very own?
“Whenever Christ calls us, his call leads to death,” said WWII martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This is where the inner war wages.
And the enemy of our souls plots our destruction through distraction.
Distraction from God’s Word, God’s voice, God’s ways. And to keep our soul from destructive ways, we lay down distracting ways — and take up The Way.
Christ calls us who are but dust to take the dusty narrow road with Him to Calvary, to lay down our lives and pick up a cross, because this is the only Way to resurrection.
“when we lay down our life and ways, we have a King who makes a sure Way to a better and forever life.”
When we know we are but dust, when we feel our hearts have been crushed — is exactly when we are to entrust all into the hands of the only One who is the Way, who can lead our feet down the narrow Way through.
If a young man enlisting dares to say: “My love of freedom is miles ahead of my fear,” how many dare to live in the brave Way that proves love for King Jesus is miles ahead of all fears?
True allegiance to King Jesus truly slays all fears. He willingly died for us – how can we not willingly lay down our lives to live for Him?
When you know you are but dust, you aren’t afraid of being returned to the dust, because your home is forever beyond the skies with the One who is your truest life.
Those of us who are dust have a certain Hope that cannot fade or blow away. And when we want His Word most, we find ourselves wanting for nothing. And when we lay down our life and ways, we have a King who makes a sure Way to a better and forever life.
Lenten Wreath from The Keeping Company
Astonishing artwork by Katy Rose
Lenten Wreath from The Keeping CompanyAshes to ashes, dust to dust,
we are citizens in the Universe of King Jesus,
where the hand of God sculpts bits of soil into souls,
where the breath of God kisses dust to life,
where we do more than believe in Jesus, we breathe in Jesus,
we live in Jesus,
we vow allegiance to Jesus,
we die in Jesus,
and we rise forever in Jesus.
It is right and good to be but dust –
there is always dust on the Way of Jesus.
Could I invite you…
Could you and I walk together, through this season toward the Cross and Easter? Can we journey through the high waves of our Red Seas and through the long lonely stretches of our wildernesses?
Can we come upon a powerful experience, step into radically new resurrection life, an actual new way of life?
Spring is coming. Easter is coming. Hope and newness of life always arises!
This journey I’m personally inviting you into, “On the Way”, 40-plus days of Audio devotionals, is ultimately about keeping company with Jesus, The Way Himself, so our hearts are not only truly prepared to enter into all Easter means, but so we walk out of Resurrection Sunday morning, truly made new.
What an honor it would be to travel with you.
Join the journey in two easy steps:1) Pre-Order WayMaker
2) Sign up at waymakerbook.com
February 28, 2022
Empowered To Be Loved By God
Thirteen years ago, DaySpring invited me to write for a new online community – (in)courage, a home for the hearts of women. Since then, (in)courage has been a constant companion, welcoming in dozens of writers and thousands of women to a space of empowering encouragement and honest sharing of God at work in the lives and stories of real women. This is an excerpt from their newest devotional, Empowered: More of Him for All of You, It’s a grace to welcome Mary, Grace and Anna to the farm’s front porch today….
Guest blog by Mary Carver, Grace P. Cho, and Anna E. Rendell
The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.
I struggle with perfectionism and the desire to be in control. The two go hand in hand, really.
Work projects? I take pride in executing my work perfectly and being known for doing my job well.
“God’s love isn’t something we earn by doing, by behaving, by controlling or being perfect.”
Mothering? It’s hard for me to resist the notion that my kids are my report card, that their behavior is a reflection of my parenting (instead of what it actually is—their behavior).
My home? I never clean as much as I do in the hour before company comes over. I’m like a whirling dervish with a vacuum. It’s not a good look for me.
In a twisted way, there’s something comforting about being in control, about completing tasks perfectly.
It’s embarrassing to admit, but I never really saw my perfectionist and controlling tendencies until I had kids. You know the saying that kids are mirrors? It’s true, and not always in a good way.
I began to see my worst habits and most unflattering characteristics making appearances in my miniature me’s, and I wanted to squash the behavior before it could become rooted in their little hearts because I knew the pain it could—and would—bring.
“The world rewards good behavior, and we’re taught from a young age that we need to work hard to earn things, right? God takes all that and turns it upside down.”
So at the slightest hint of my kids trying to behave their way into my heart, to earn my love, or to control their way into perfection, I give them huge hugs and many words of reassurance that there is nothing they can do to earn my love. There is nothing they can do to earn my love. There is nothing they can do to earn my love. They simply have it. All my love. No matter what. Forever.
And then one day it was like a light bulb went off in my own heart: God says the same thing to us. God’s love isn’t something we earn by doing, by behaving, by controlling or being perfect.
There is nothing we can do to earn God’s love.
There is nothing we can do to earn God’s love.
There is nothing we can do to earn God’s love.
By God’s goodness and grace, He freely offers us His love—no perfect behavior or tally of earnings required. It’s one of the best, most incredible gifts we’re given—and often the hardest to accept.
The world rewards good behavior, and we’re taught from a young age that we need to work hard to earn things, right? God takes all that and turns it upside down.
[image error]
“Empowered is an action word, and yet these verses show God as the one taking action, while our role is fairly passive. “
The verses from Zephaniah illustrate such a beautiful juxtaposition. Empowered is an action word, and yet these verses show God as the one taking action, while our role is fairly passive. God is the one saving us. God is the one rejoicing. God is the one singing. God is the one loving us no matter what. There’s no way we can perfect our way into His heart or earn His love.
We can feel weaker, more desperate, more rock bottom than we’ve ever felt before, and we’re still loved by God.
His love doesn’t depend on us.
I whisper those words to my kids during tantrums, sad moments, and difficult times, reminding them that there is nothing they can do to earn my love; they simply have it forever. I pray we all take in the love we so undeservedly receive.
We are empowered for something we have no power over. And that is the best news ever.
How does it feel to know that God rejoices over you with singing?
(in)courage is an online community founded in 2009 by DaySpring, the Christian products subsidiary of Hallmark Cards, Inc. (in)courage is like a virtual living room where every day one of thirty writers takes a turn sharing a story of what Jesus looks like in her life. Together we link arms as God’s daughters and lean on one another for wisdom, strength, and insight beyond our own experience. (in)courage also creates Bible studies, books, a podcast, and devotionals to help women grow in their faith!
Empowered, the new devotional from (in)courage, invites you to come as you are–for real–and know that God cares about every aspect of your life.
Written by Mary Carver, Grace P. Cho, and Anna E. Rendell.
(Our humble thanks to Baker Publishing for partnership in this devotional today.)
February 26, 2022
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend [2.26.2022]
After a tender week: Smiles for your weekend!
Let’s not let the everyday routines numb us to the miracle of living every day! Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything. Never, ever give up…there really is hope, even for us.
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
Photo by
Dennis Holgaard Jensen
from
Pexels
Photo by Eberhard Grossgasteiger on Unsplash
It’s a beautiful sight when God’s creation is captured in stillness. #OneThousandGifts
A little ingenuity goes a long way. This little guy was very creative.
Photo by
kelvin octa
from
Pexels
Read this mama’s testimony of the miracle she received after experiencing health challenges.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Upworthy (@upworthy)
I mean. C’mon. How adorable is this furry friend?!
Photo by lilartsy on UnsplashView this post on InstagramA post shared by Pets & wild🐕🐘 (@cutepetswild)
In awe of God. This bird? Another masterpiece of the Maker
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Chance Jackson | Montana (@chance_jackson)
Glory, glory, glory — This is our Father’s World
Photo by
Mary Taylor
from
Pexels
Get on this bus? And school starts way before you get to school. Guess who the bus driver is?!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Jimmy Darts (@jimmydarts)
double dog-dare you to watch this and not feel your heart explode! 🔥
View this post on InstagramA post shared by The Sister Circle (@thesistercircleonline)
A.MEN. “We all want to undo the kinks and struggles of our lives.” – Chrystal Evans Hurst
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Chest (@chesto.007)
you may need to each this more than once — your smile will thank you!
Photo by
Tima Miroshnichenko
from
Pexels
Thank God for open communication with Him.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by TODAY Pets & Animals (@todayanimals)
Yep, there is always enough time to be kind! Only Speak words that make souls stronger.
Photo by
Kampus Production
from
Pexels
Photo courtesy of CompassionWhere there is a will there is a way!! Jasper has learned to do what many would find unimaginable!
This handcrafted cutting board and other items are gentle reminders
of God’s messages to our hearts, available at The Keeping Company.
Photo by
Alexandr Podvalny
from
Pexels
What you can do for Christian brothers & sisters in Ukraine
Pray with us together, as one huge family on our knees?
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ann Voskamp (@annvoskamp)
We may not see it — but, really, you can trust Him: God is moving.
POST OF THE WEEK, FROM THESE PARTS HERE: You feel it too? War can drive us all into the wilderness.
Missiles drop, and we drop to our knees. Pain carries us to prayer, and our years of loss howl in a long lament.
We all stand here on the cusp of Lent. War and Wilderness: The Why and the Way of Lent
You may need a Lent like this year, we need a Lent that lends a Word of HOPE.
Why this is the weekend to Pre-Order our next new book: WayMaker
$75 of Free Gifts When You Pre-Order WayMaker
As our family’s way of thanking you, we’d really love to get all of these gifts into you hands
Beginning March 2, we will walk the SACRED way together – taking a prayerful, reflective Lenten Journey from Ash Wednesday right up to Easter Sunday.
Whether you’ve never intentionally walked through this season of Lent before Easter, or if your heart desperately longs for it every year – may we gently and intentionally walk with you?
Forty days – on the way of the Way Himself.
For a beautiful, reflective, immersive experience – including audio devotions delivered right to your email, along with other exclusive content — join our journey, and see all the lovely and helpful free gifts we’re so very humbled to share with you, our friends, with simply pre-ordering WayMaker
It’s been a week. This is your gentle invitation to come.
Our Episode 4 this week in the Voskamp Family Vlog series “The Way Through,” is a special episode for such a tender, aching time as this, that takes you up into our old church Bell Tower — and hands you and your family some practical tools for a way of life that has most profoundly impacted and revolutionized our family’s life.
(And? Sit with me in the old church Bell Tower right till the very end? I won’t give it away – but I’ll just say – it’s my most favorite secret of the whole old stone church. Moves me deeply, every single time.)
There is a way for your tired heart to be ignited again, to burn its way through to HOPE that always wins!
For details on joining us to watch the whole 6 episode Voskamp Vlog Video series, just join us here
During the ups and downs of our lives? Sing this at the top of your lungs!
And a free printable for you from the WayMaker Art Collection when you pre-order WayMaker
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
February 25, 2022
War & Wilderness: The Why & Way of Lent
War can drive us all into the wilderness.
Missiles drop, and we drop to our knees.
We are a world wildly looking for a way out, we’re a hurting world desperately fleeing – we see it all over our news screens.
Pain carries us to prayer, and our years of collective loss howl in a long lament.
We all stand here on the cusp of Lent.
It has to be more just over 10 years ago now, that I was standing up on the kitchen table, snapping the shutter on a bouquet of roses, when my brother called.
Levi picked it up, his eyes twinkling, stars risen early.
I only could hope that Levi doesn’t mention he’s answering because his Mama was standing smack dab center in the middle of the table, her all happy over a bunch of God glory found in flowers.
“Hello? … Oh, hi Uncle John.”
I’d smiled.
Levi was then, and still is, a miniature mirror image of my brother, smattering of freckles bridging across the nose and the thirty years that span between them.
Levi mouthed it large, one hand over the receiver.”ARE YOU AVAILABLE, MOM?”
Oh, but wouldn’t I stop being Mom if I stopped being available? I set the camera aside, hop off the table. Levi had grinned and handed over my brother.
“Hey. So tell me. Lent. Fill me in, sister. What’s the deal? Like – the actual point?”
“The wilderness is where the Word is heard and we’re formed into a person of the Word.”
Our faith community doesn’t practice Lent.
And apparently, at least not today, my brother doesn’t do Google.
Apparently, if need be, he just waits for his older-by-only a -year-and-13-days sister to just Google.
I could hear the rumble of the diesel engine of his pick-up in the background. He could hear the low roar of my kids.
“Okay, yeah… Lent. Lent is this preparing the heart for Easter. Like going with Jesus into the wilderness for forty days, that we might come face to face with our true enemy.”
The Hebrew word for wilderness echoes with the same letters as the Hebrew word “medabber” — which means “speaking.”
“The promised answer to our prayers may not be found in promised lands, but in wildernesses.”
The wilderness is where the Word is heard and we’re formed into a person of the Word.
The promised answer to our prayers may not be found in promised lands, but in wildernesses.
Every wilderness, every desert — is not where God deserts— but is where God woos with a whispered Word.
Lent leads far away from the world and out into wildernesses so the soul can find a way to listen.
On other end of the line, my brother was silent. I’m not so sure that this is good. I kept talking. Trying to find the way through to what this season of Lent really means.
“Lent isn’t about forfeiting as much as it’s about formation. Not about forfeiting stuff as much as forming souls.”
Like when we came to Jesus the very the first time, Lent returns us to Him again: We renounce to be reborn. It’s about this: We break away from more – to become more.”
Still silence. I took one last swing at it.
“Don’t think of Lent as about working your way to salvation. Think of it as working out your salvation.”
I wait.
Lent isn’t about a way to earn your salvation, Lent is about the way to the One who bought your salvation – and paying Him more attention.
And then my brother spoke slow.
“Yes…. Yes…. I get it. I’m going to do it with you, sister. I’m doing Lent. God’s been speaking things into my life and I think this is how He wants to meet me right now.” Like brother, like sister.
Resource: Wooden Lent Wreath at The Keeping Company
I had stacked clean dishes and my brother and I had talked about some dark corners of our lives. We confessed. We prayed.
And then? We lived the first week of Lent.
And this is what happened: I forsake and I fast and I forget and I flounder, and I fall… and I fail.
I made soup and I lit the candles. We bowed.
I served bowls, passed out bread, poured the cups. And in the midst of the cacophony of all the kids talking, I blithely sat down for lunch and ate.
I have bread in the mouth, the bowl half empty, when I drop the
spoon. I absentmindedly had been eating lunch, a meal I vowed to fast from.
I had choked it out in a whisper, “Oh, do I not think enough of You to remember?”
I’d closed my eyes and the heart cries silent: “How do I remember You so little?”
“You’ve got to choose to be dispossessed of all the possessions that possess your heart— before one can be possessed of God.”
It is an irrefutable law: You’ve got to choose to be dispossessed of all the possessions that possess your heart— before one can be possessed of God.
Lent is about letting the things of this world fall away, so the soul can fall in love with God.
God only comes to fill the empty places and kenosis is necessary — emptying the soul to know the filling of God.
When my brother had called late in that first week of Lent that year, just to talk, I was brutally honest and he listened. He unwrapped his week haltingly. Like brother, like sister.
“Lent, it’s teaching me.”My throat stings. “I see how incapable I am in the flesh, how in bondage I am. That I can’t keep any law perfectly. Worse – oh, this cuts deep — at times…”
I had struggled to keep composure, to grip the words and hand them over. Can I even say these words?
“Worse… at times… I don’t even want to keep the law.” Am I saying I don’t care about breaking laws or breaking God’s heart?
Lent is a revelation of our temptations and soul deformations – and how in need we are of daily, real salvation.
“Lent is about letting the things of this world fall away, so the soul can fall in love with God.”
I’d looked over at the calendar:
40 Days.
Lent is 40 days of being on the Way with Jesus.
40 Days of being on the Way with Jesus –a way through wildernesses, a way through Gethsemanes, a way of the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering, ultimately taking the way of the Cross – the way that leads to resurrection and the abundant LIFE in Christ, the way beyond our wildest dreams!
Forty days – on the way of the Way Himself.
Jesus with a crown of thorns. Jesus bent low, God carrying my rotting mess, Grace doing what I cannot do, and I cannot ascend to God but He will descend to me.
I had whispered goodbye to my brother because I couldn’t speak.
And I reached out to pick up the wooden cross there on the edge of the table.
Jesus will have to do everything.
The Way Himself will have to make the way, by actually being the only Way.
Resource: Wooden Lent Wreath at The Keeping Company
And this year, on the brink of Lent, as the world is on the brink of all-out-war, there is this heavy sense that we are all wandering in a wilderness. And we are all dog-tired of the relentless desert.
This year, we need a Lent that lends a Word of HOPE.
Children are wailing over guns ringing and the words we read on our screens break our hearts.
And in Hebrew, the root for “Word” is dabar — which is also the very root word for desert, “midbar” in Hebrew, — which can rightly be translated as “promise” or “answer,” or “place of the word.”
Which is to say: “Desert” and “word” both rise from the same root word in Hebrew.
Which is to say, there is a way: The desert we face can speak a word of HOPE.
Wasn’t it right there, like a raised map, like a map to run fingers along, for all the lost looking for the Way, all there through that very Good Book:
It is in the desert that God has a word for Abraham, for Moses, for the Israelites, for Isaiah…. for Jesus.
That word for desert, “midbar” — it also shares the identical root of the Hebrew word “diber” — which means: Holy of Holies.
“Our hardest of deserts – can be our Holy of Holies.
Where we’ve lost everything else – very God meets us.”
Our hardest of deserts – can be our Holy of Holies.
Where we’ve lost everything else – very God meets us.
Deserts are not places of despair — deserts are sacred spaces of divine dialogue.
The ache of this old broken world doesn’t seem to stop – but we can yield. Yield to the wilderness —- come and be still… and let the wilderness yield a word from God.
What if there’s no need to struggle against the wildernesses, this holy of holies, because:
Wildernesses are not barren places — listen: they bear a word from God.
For all those brave enough to be on the SACRED way.
Join us on the way?
Beginning March 2, we will walk the SACRED way together – taking a prayerful, reflective Lenten Journey from Ash Wednesday right up to Easter Sunday.
Whether you’ve never walked through this season, or if your heart desperately waits for it every year – may we gently and intentionally walk with you?
Forty days – on the way of the Way Himself.
In a beautiful, reflective, immersive experience – including audio devotions delivered right to your email, along with other exclusive content – simply pre-order WayMaker at any retailer, and then fill out our Pre-Order form at Waymaker.
And please, come. join our entire online community, on Facebook or Instagram, for daily reflections to guide your heart on the SACRED way.
The On The Way Audio Lenten Journey is one of several FREE gifts from our deeply grateful hearts to yours, just for pre-ordering WayMaker.
February 23, 2022
You’re Not Alone in Feeling Alone
I’d about take a bullet for this woman. And I can testify, because of how she’s personally fought for me and generations of women around the globe, there is no better faith fighter, Word warrior, and soul defender than Jennie Allen. In a world that’s both more connected and more isolating than ever before, we’re often tempted to do life alone, whether because we’re so busy or because relationships feel risky and hard. But science confirms that consistent, meaningful connection with others has a powerful impact on our well-being. We are meant to live known and loved. But so many are hiding behind emotional walls that we’re experiencing an epidemic of loneliness. This message of Jennie’s is absolute fire — because Jennie’s fought and won this battle and shares the secret to win the battle. It’s my utter joy to welcome the wonder who is Jennie Allen to the farm’s front porch today…
Guest post by Jennie Allen
I still remember the day when the thought occurred to me that I didn’t have any friends. I should clarify: I had plenty of friends, but those friends and I all had very full lives, which meant that our interactions were erratic—and rare.
“There are seasons when it feels like our relational cup is overflowing and seasons when we wonder if anyone even knows we are alive.”
Back then, I was neck deep in parenting young kids as well as traveling a lot, speaking, and doing events with IF:Gathering, the ministry organization I lead. And while being on the road provided plenty of life-giving interactions with other women, reentry at home often came with a sting. Did any of my “friends” even realize I’d been gone? Did they know that I’d returned?
This was not my friends’ fault, of course. They had obligations, commitments, relationships, and jobs of their own. In fact, they likely were asking the same questions about me: “Does Jennie know what’s going on in my life? Does she even care?”
Isn’t this familiar? We’re all just kind of waiting for connection to find us. We’re waiting for someone else to initiate. Someone else to be there for us. Someone else to make the plans or ask the perfectly crafted question that helps us bare our souls.
Here’s what we do:
We spend hours alone in our crowded, noisy, screen-lit worlds, we invest only sporadic time with acquaintances, and then we expect close friends to somehow appear in our busy lives. We think our acquaintances should just magically produce two to five BFFs. Then, we believe, our relational needs will be met.
We’ve replaced intrusive, real conversations with small talk, and we’ve substituted soul-baring, deep, connected living with texts and a night out together every once in a while, be- cause the superficial stuff seems more manageable and less risky. But let’s face it: whether we live lonely or deeply connected, life is messy.
There are seasons when it feels like our relational cup is overflowing and seasons when we wonder if anyone even knows we are alive.
“We live guarded because we fear someone will use our weakness against us.”
Maybe you’re a pastor’s wife who knows the whole church but never really feels known.
Or you’re single and just moved to a new town for a job and have to completely start over, alone.
Or you live alone and worry who would take care of your dog if you had to go to the hospital for some reason.
Or you have a lot of people who you consider friends, but you don’t feel a deep connection with anyone.
Or you’ve tried three small groups and still haven’t found the right fit.
Or you had the best of friends, but life happened and you drifted apart.
Or maybe you feel like you have absolutely no one and don’t even know where to begin.
Outside of Jesus, relationships are the greatest gifts we have on earth and simultaneously the most difficult part of being alive.
My friend Curt Thompson, a neurorelational expert, said it this way: “Every newborn comes into this world looking for someone looking for her.” And that never quits being true. You and I are both a little needy. In fact, God built us this way. And yet it’s hard to need people. No, it’s terrifying to need people, because sometimes when we acknowledge our need, we feel like there is no one who wants to take our call in the middle of the mess. Or at least that’s what I believe in the moment.
We don’t come together in our pain. We isolate.
We insulate.
We pretend.
And as a result, we are flat miserable.
We live guarded because we fear someone will use our weakness against us.
I’m far from perfect in this area.
And yet I’m going to keep working at it. Because the more I look into the why of our neediness and the problem of our loneliness, the more convinced I am that at our core we are made to be fully known and fully loved. Loved and known regularly and over time by family members, close friends, mentors, coworkers. God built us for deep connection to be part of our day-in, day-out lives, not just once in a while in the presence of a paid therapist.
A few years ago, Zac and I rented a cheap VRBO, hauled ourselves, our four kids, and a lot of luggage onto a giant plane to spend a week in a nontouristy little village in the middle of Nowhere, Italy, to meet some extended family for the first time.
One afternoon, my husband and I wandered into a corner grocery store to pick up ingredients for a dinner we’d make later that night. We couldn’t help but notice the four men engaged in deep conversation at the counter, the kind of conversation that looked like it might happen every day. One of them, we’d learn, was the owner, and he, together with the other three, seemed to be solving all the world’s problems. Our entrance interrupted their discussion, and reflexively one of the men swiveled his head toward us in a way that seemed almost angry.
“Who are you?!” he asked.
“The connection you and I both long to experience? I’ve seen for myself that it is possible. We are meant to live in community, moment by moment, breath by breath.“
He wasn’t impolite exactly, just surprised to see strangers in his corner of the world. The thing is, this was a tiny town. I’m not sure exactly how many residents lived there, but however many it was, they all knew each other. And they all knew that strangers had shown up. We wound up having a good conversation with several people at the market that day, and the who-are-you guy even pointed out some Italian cookies he thought my American kids would love.
That night I reflected on the vibe I’d picked up on in town.
“Can you imagine living in a place where everyone in your whole town knows you and you know them? And where you can walk to the grocery store? And where you have to go to the grocery store at least every other day because they carry mostly fresh food? And where that every-other-day grocery run will take you, oh, two hours or more, because you’ll inevitably run into one or two or twenty-five people asking you the kinds of meaningful questions people ask when they’re not strangers or even acquaintances but everyday friends?”
Cue the Cheers theme song now, if you are old enough to remember it.
The connection you and I both long to experience? I’ve seen for myself that it is possible. We are meant to live in community, moment by moment, breath by breath. Not once a week or once a month at a night out with friends or during lunch after emerging from an isolated cubical.
Time is our best asset when it comes to building deep community. I
want you to open your mind to something more than that handful of friends you’ve been picturing as your goal.
My dream for you, God’s plan for you, is to build a culture of community in every part of your life. Deep relationships and being fully known are possible, we just have to be willing to work and fight for them like our lives depend on it.
Because they do.
*****
Jennie Allen is the founder and visionary behind IF:Gathering, an organization that equips women to know God more deeply and to disciple others in their own lives. She is the author of several books and Bible studies, including Nothing to Prove and Get Out of Your Head. Jennie has a masters degree in biblical studies from Dallas Theological Seminary.
In Jennie’s new book Find Your People, she draws on fascinating insights from science and history, timeless biblical truth, and vulnerable stories from her own life to help us learn to create true community, the kind that’s crucial to our mental and spiritual health.
(Humble thanks to Waterbrook Publishing for their partnership in this devotional)
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