Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 56
October 4, 2021
What Do We Pray When We Don’t Have the Words?
A former journalist, Kayla Craig is adamant about paying attention and embracing curiosity in both her writing and parenting. Inspired by her four children, her new book of nuanced and nurturing prayers for parents is bursting with warmth and welcome, inviting us all to enter into a deeper love of God and neighbor as we raise compassionate kids in a chaotic world. It’s a grace to welcome Kayla to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Kayla Craig
I’m fresh out of words these days. Maybe you are too.
With each new headline, I feel the land shift beneath my feet. I pull my children close and try to regain my balance as all creation groans.
The past few years have given us so much collective pain, so much internal sorrow.
“Does God hear our tear-soaked prayers?”
What is this world we are giving our children?
How, in the swirl of all this pain, can I find the words to pray?
And if I’m really honest, I also wonder: Does God hear our tear-soaked prayers?
We feel off our axis because we are off our axis.
We live in the now-and-not-yet, the mystery of God’s upside-down kingdom. We ache for the larger pains of this world, losing our footing in the lines drawn in the sand as we hold the tension of parenting. We comb out tiny curls and cut crusts off sandwiches, watch chubby toddlers become broody teens as we try to find our center of gravity, as we stand on crumbling land, feeling the fault lines fracture.
The mystery we plant our feet firmly into is that the Maker of all things bright and beautiful enters our pain and holds our suffering in the palm of His hand.
When we accept the divine invitation into prayer for our children, for our neighbors, and for ourselves, God does not demand perfect words—or any words at all.
In our call-and-response world, it’s hard to believe that our presence in and of itself can be a prayer, our parenting a kind of poetry lived out with every late night and early morning.
What if, when we don’t have the words to pray, God is inviting us to listen?
Prayer isn’t about selecting the most lyrical prose or saying a perfect string of words. It’s about entering into the ongoing dialogue the Creator of all things is already having with us every day.
“What if, when we don’t have the words to pray, God is inviting us to listen?”
When we weep at the grief circling our families, we pray.
When we lament the unjust headlines, we pray.
When we celebrate the joy, beauty, and love around us, we pray.
When we seek our rootedness in Christ alone, we pray.
God requires no sonnets or soliloquies—He just desires our presence.
My four-year-old asked me recently if we can see God, and I told him we see God in the way a rainbow appears after a storm, we feel God in the way his sister cups her hand on my cheek, we hear God in the giggles of his brothers as they leap on the trampoline. Across cultures and generations, people have sought answers about how to interact with God. God requires no special sacrifice, demands no magic words or rituals.
God just wants us.
********
Though I’ve been praying in some form or another since I was young, it took a critically ill child to bring me to the rootedness of written prayers—or, as many traditions call them, liturgies.
“Prayer isn’t about selecting the most lyrical prose or saying a perfect string of words. It’s about entering into the ongoing dialogue the Creator of all things is already having with us every day.”
When a respiratory virus attacked my three-year-old daughter’s lungs, she relied on a ventilator to keep her alive. I sat by her too-big hospital bed, searching for reminders of life as her sedated body struggled under the weight of drips and machines.
I wrestled with fears and doubts, and I wasn’t sure if I could hand them over to God. I didn’t know how. So instead, I held on to them. I couldn’t hold my daughter. But I could embrace my anger and fear, clutching them close to my chest.
There I was, married to a pastor, and I couldn’t pray. There I was, a Christian for the previous thirty years, and I couldn’t muster any words.
People told me they were praying for our little girl. I guess your prayers don’t work, I thought. I knew that God wasn’t a genie in a bottle who would just grant our wish if we all prayed hard enough. But still, I struggled to find words that rang true in the walls of that hospital room.
On one of my days at home, I checked the mailbox. Bills and junk mail spilled out, but there was a package nestled inside too. A book of prayers. There in my mailbox was an invitation into conversation with God—and permission to rest from the exhaustion of finding just the right words.
“As I prayed, the written words became my own pleas and petitions, jumping off the page and nestling into my soul.”
I didn’t have to have it all together. I didn’t have to have the perfect quiet space to center my thoughts—the beeps and buzzes of medical machines would do. All I had to do was open to the page and read, recite, and repeat until I felt my heart rate begin to calm, until I was no longer tensing my shoulders, until I could release the breaths I’d been holding for too long.
We don’t need the perfect location or perfect circumstances or perfect words to pray. If we wait for that, we never will.
When everything crumbled, the prayers of another voice comforted me. And as I prayed, the written words became my own pleas and petitions, jumping off the page and nestling into my soul.
The warmth and welcome of the body of Christ says, I’ll lift your hands for you.
And as I learned in those thin spaces in the intensive care unit, the body of Christ also says: You don’t have the words? Here, take mine.
After a month in the hospital, with the care of a compassionate crew of doctors and nurses, my husband and I brought our daughter home.
I still didn’t have any concrete answers about the mystery of prayer. I grieved for the parents who left the intensive care unit with empty seats in their minivans. I celebrated my daughter’s return to health. I sat in the tension.
When we arrived home, unloading bag after bag of belongings, I clipped the plastic hospital ID bracelets from our wrists and tossed them into the trash. But I held on to the book.
The prayers of others had become my prayers.
Kayla and her pastor-husband, Jonny, live in a 110-year-old former convent in their Iowa hometown, where they’re raising loud and lion-hearted children who joined their family through birth and adoption. She shares her prayers online at Liturgies for Parents.
What do you pray when you don’t have the words? Kayla Craig’s To Light Their Way: A Collection of Prayers & Liturgies for Parents is a beautiful gathering of more than 100 nuanced and nurturing prayers guiding you into an intentional conversation with God for your children and the world they live in.
Filled with more than 100 modern liturgies, To Light Their Way contains specific prayers for
precious family milestones,ordinary moments of everyday grace,times of transition as your children age,grief and lament when the world leaves you weary,your own heart on the parenting journey, andspecific holidays and holy days.In an age of distraction and overwhelm, finding the words to meaningfully pray for our children—and for our journey as parents—can feel impossible.
At the core of To Light Their Way is the deepest of prayers: that our children will experience the love of God so profoundly that their lives will be an outpouring of love that lights up the world.
With each preorder of To Light Their Way, Kayla is offering a five-day guided devotional for overwhelmed parents, along with printable breath prayer cards inspired by Scripture. Click here for more info!
[ Our humble thanks to Tyndale for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
October 2, 2021
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [10.02.21]
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:
Jessica Walker
Jessica Walker
Jessica Walkerthe glory of migration: Each year the monarch butterfly makes one of the longest migration journeys in the insect world. They travel in order to overwinter in the warmth of Mexico and parts of Southern California. Born with an internal map that guides them based on the magnetic field of the earth, as well as the position of the sun and other possible cues, some travel as far as 3,000 miles to finally rest. On fragile wings they ride the wind doing what they were created to do.
always coming back to this one: now if he doesn’t make you smile a mile wide!?!
The Benefits Of A Weighted Blanket For Kids
If you’ve already been loving on the benefits of a weighted blanket for yourself, maybe it’s time to think about getting one for the kiddo in your life!
because we all need help from a friend every now and again
People Are Sharing ‘Then And Now’ Pics To Show How Time Changes Things
what if animals were round?
sharing from here on the farm: check here to be encouraged to keep company with Jesus
This and so much more at The Keeping Company
cheering loudly! students stepping up for another in need
Amy Henryso love the heart of this potter — doing really good things
found this fascinating: A sense of direction…Finding your way without GPS
how to really see where you are
Hello and welcome, October!
“Whatever you do, do everything…giving thanks” Col. 3:1
God’s will is for us to give thanks in all things…because this is how God knows we can live through anything.
Take the Joy Dare (3 prompts a day to find 3 gifts) – and hang it on the fridge for the whole family to take the #JOYDARE too! Scavenger hunt for God’s glory!
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Print the month of October Joy Dare, and the entire year of Joy Dares, right here:
And pick up a copy of the new 10th anniversary edition of One Thousand Gifts, and count all the ways He loves you, & fall in love with Him all over again! AND, when you do, you get an entire FREE Joy Tool Kit which includes 5 exclusive printables: a “How to Always Find Joy” Frameable, a Daily Joy Map & Planner, a Family Gratitude Gift Jar kit, a 12-Month Joy Calendar, and a Daily Joy Compass. Click here to learn how you can get yours today!
In this video on Generosity, we explore God’s plan for overcoming our selfishness by giving the ultimate gift of himself in the person of Jesus.
did you catch the before and after?! she is all kinds of amazing and I absorb everything she says:
may it be so: “I Wanna Remember”
A few times a year, I leave the warmth of these home fires and these seven hearts I love deep, and gather with the Body to meet Him.
It’s our quiet offering and privilege, to come with you, and simply, humbly, go before Him…
it would be a grace to meet you at one of these upcoming events!
inspiring: a homegrown journey about learning photography and defining his voice
Don’t Wait for Hope. Work for It.
Even during a pandemic, we have a duty to anticipate God’s goodness
glory, glory, glory
The Problem Isn’t That We Tell Lies, It’s That We Live Them
ponder this one? and then share with a friend who needs to know:
Let God Fight Your Battles
breaking free of secrets
going out of your way for someone is still the straightest path to an everlasting friendship
What’s It Like To Go Shopping Around the World?
Take a stroll through some of the world’s busiest, most colorful markets and experience the wonder of how people in other cultures go shopping.
Beyond grateful for the life saving work of Compassion International
Unity in Truth Understood and Embraced: Ephesians 4:11–14
Books for Soul Healing:
Joy is actually possible, right where you are.
Take the dare to discover: Life is not an emergency…Life is a GIFT. Life is too short to do anything but truly savor it — to count all the ways you truly loved.
What if Brokenness is the Path into the Abundant Life?
You don’t have to be afraid of broken things — because Christ is redeeming everything.
There’s no other authentic way forward — but a broken way — right into a profoundly abundant life.
Journey into a deeply meaningful life with this devotional and take sixty steps from heart-weary brokenness to Christ-focused abundance. The Way of Abundance — is the way forward every heart needs.
Be the Gift is a tender invitation into the next step of deeper transformation, less stress, more joy and abundantly more peace & purpose. You only get one life to love well…to Be The Gift.
on repeat this week:
It’s been hard.
You know — a brutally hard year, an unexpectedly hard season, an endlessly hard road.
You know — you got that call and you heard the words that you prayed against, begged against, braced against. You found it hard to hear, your heart banging like a sledge hammer, trying to pound its way out.
Or…you never get a call at all. The silence of all that isn’t, and won’t be now, about drives you mad.
In the dark, in the middle of the night, it gets very clear:
He who is driven by fears, delays the comfort of God.
You can want someone to reach over and touch your unspoken broken, your thin bruised places, and smooth out the pain you can hardly speak of:
Suffering begs us to do anything to end our ache — when actually only God can.
It takes incredible courage to wait on God in what feels like a hellish place— and trust that love of heaven is holding us.
It takes courage to trust that the writing of one’s whole good and redemptive story takes time. Healing take longer than you think; the ways of God take longer than you want. It takes time, a lifetime, to turn the ache of our longings toward Him.
We can simply want our situation solved — when God simply wants to be our answer.
And the best situation — is always what makes God your best hope.
And no matter your situation today, there’s this truth that rises through the dark:
In the middle of things seemingly not working out for us — God is working out something in us.
[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.
September 27, 2021
The Problem Isn’t That We Tell Lies, It’s That We Live Them
John Mark Comer recognized that millennia ago, teachers of the Way of Jesus identified three enemies of the soul: the devil, the flesh, and the world. Centuries later, these enemies are alive and well. John Mark invites you to discover what they look like in our sophisticated secular culture and develop a strategic plan to overcome their subtle deceptions. It’s a grace to welcome John Mark to the farm’s front porch today…
Have you ever sat down with a financial adviser to plan out your long-term financial goals and retirement?
I have this vivid memory from my early twenties when I landed my first-ever salaried job. What a great feeling! It wasn’t much, but we had enough each month to pay the bills and a little left over.
One of the elders at our church worked as an investment banker, and he was kind enough to sit down with T and me and offer us free financial planning. It was all pretty basic—spend less than you make, invest in a Roth IRA for retirement, and so on.
But the part I still remember the most was when he explained compound interest to me. My eyes bulged, not when he explained the theory of it, but when he calculated my finances over the next forty-five years and turned it into a graph.
The balance rises slowly over time. Assuming you don’t start investing until post college or your early twenties, there’s not much to get excited about up through your thirties. In your forties, okay, looking better.
“This is the miracle of compound interest, which—and here’s my point—is not only a financial reality but also a life-as-a-whole reality.”
Then in your fifties, the miracle of compound interest kicks in and, boom, all those monies you’ve been patiently stashing away begin to multiply at an exponential rate.
And I remember our elder/adviser (thanks again, Steve) giving me the absolute best piece of advice. He said, “It’s less about how much you invest each month and more about how early you start.”
The stats are crazy. Let’s say you invest 5k a year starting from the age of eighteen and then you stop after ten years (a total investment of 50k). You will still have more money at retirement than if you were to invest 5k a year starting from the age of twenty-eight and not stopping until retirement (a total investment of 200k). With a little care and discipline, even those who live paycheck to paycheck can accumulate modest wealth over a lifetime.
“God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
This is the miracle of compound interest, which—and here’s my point—is not only a financial reality but also a life-as-a-whole reality.
The theologian Cornelius Plantinga said this about Paul’s words to the Galatians:
No matter what we sow, the law of returns applies.
Good or evil, love or hate, justice or tyranny, grapes or thorns, a gracious compliment or a peevish complaint—whatever we invest, we tend to get it back with interest. Lovers are loved; haters, hated. Forgivers usually get forgiven; those who live by the sword die by the sword. “God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.”
“Every time you sow to the Spirit and invest the resources of your mind and body into nurturing your inner man or woman’s connection to the Spirit of God, you plant something deep in the humus of your central fulcrum, which, over time, takes root and bears the fruit of a Christlike character.“
This is just how things are in the universe. “God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” isn’t a command but a statement about reality. Trying to cheat the law of returns is like trying to get around the law of gravity. Good luck with that.
And Paul applied the law of returns not to a retirement nest egg for people with privilege but to our spiritual formation.
By way of reminder, spiritual formation is the process by which we are formed into a certain kind of person, good or evil.
Every time we sow to the flesh—or put another way, every time we give in to our flesh’s desire to sin—we plant something in the soil of our hearts, which then begins to take root, grow, and, eventually, yield the harvest of a deformed nature.
Thankfully, the same is true of the Spirit.
Every time you sow to the Spirit and invest the resources of your mind and body into nurturing your inner man or woman’s connection to the Spirit of God, you plant something deep in the humus of your central fulcrum, which, over time, takes root and bears the fruit of a Christlike character.
John Mark Comer is the founding pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon, a teacher and writer with Practicing the Way, and the bestselling author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry plus four previous books.
John Mark’s new book, Live No Lies: Recognize and Resist the Three Enemies That Sabotage Your Peace, combines cultural analysis with spiritual formation. He identifies the role lies play in our spiritual deformation and lays out a strategic plan to overcome them. All around us in the culture and deep within our own body memories are lies: deceptive ideas that wreak havoc on our emotional health and spiritual well-being, and deceptive ideas about who God is, who we are, and what the good life truly is.
The choice is not whether to fight or not fight, but whether we win or surrender.
[ Our humble thanks to Waterbrook for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
September 25, 2021
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [09.25.21]
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:
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morganno one takes photos quite like she does
so we circled ’round this little guy – hoping he’ll bring a smile to you too?!
wait, what? 42,000 pieces!?!
Alvaro Serey/Cayman Compasswhat a story here… what can we go do?!?
believe it: God is always, always in the details
thank you, The John 10:10 Project
Sometimes it can be easy to overreact or jump to conclusions when our kids do things we don’t like or understand…
but there can be a better way:
Reaching Your Child’s Heart by Joining Their Dance
FULL STOP here: a beautiful story of faith and grit and determination…
A young man with cerebral palsy (Johnny Agar) wrote The Impossible Mile: The Power in Living Life One Step at a Time with his mom:
doctors said: he’ll never walk or talk and he has completely defied the odds – he walked a mile in a local church 5K and that led to him and his dad completing an IRONMAN. Inspiring!
Ted Lasso, Mr. Rogers, and Christian Leaders in an Unhinged World
so who knew? What conductors are really doing up there
How Ben Higgins survived the disconnected world of reality-television fame and is now helping others experience real-life connections
a goal that was destined to fail – but thanks to the kindness of strangers? this happened!
A few times a year, I leave the warmth of these home fires and these seven hearts I love deep, and gather with the Body to meet Him.
It’s our quiet offering and privilege, to come with you, and simply, humbly, go before Him…
it would be a grace to meet you at one of these upcoming events!
what a story she has… and she shares some powerful words here for all of us
sharing from here on the farm: check here to be encouraged to keep company with Jesus
This and so much more at The Keeping Company
glory, glory, glory
Whatever your week ahead holds, this simple practice can have profound results and may be just what your soul needs:
an incredible life-saving story right here… please don’t miss this
What I Want To Be: 10 Kids With Big Dreams
Beyond grateful for the life saving work of Compassion International
Amen: My God is Still The Same
it was a joy to be a part of The Stetzer Churchleaders Podcast:
What We Are Missing in God’s Vision for Hospitality
yes, yes, YES!CeCe Winans, Lisa Harper: The Heart of Prayer
never, ever give up
So in a culture that boasts of personal accomplishment and success, strength and power, it’s an utter relief to live this better way, a way to true strength and power, found in the most unlikely of places —
Books for Soul Healing:
Joy is actually possible, right where you are.
Take the dare to discover: Life is not an emergency…Life is a GIFT. Life is too short to do anything but truly savor it — to count all the ways you truly loved.
What if Brokenness is the Path into the Abundant Life?
You don’t have to be afraid of broken things — because Christ is redeeming everything.
There’s no other authentic way forward — but a broken way — right into a profoundly abundant life.
Journey into a deeply meaningful life with this devotional and take sixty steps from heart-weary brokenness to Christ-focused abundance. The Way of Abundance — is the way forward every heart needs.
Be the Gift is a tender invitation into the next step of deeper transformation, less stress, more joy and abundantly more peace & purpose. You only get one life to love well…to Be The Gift.
on repeat this week
It’s going to be okay today — promise.
Nothing is a surprise To God.
Nothing is a problem For God.
Nothing is a mistake By God.
Anything is possible With God.
[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.
September 24, 2021
How Weakness is the only Way
Over the past few years Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel have become dear friends. They are my brothers in Christ, who share with me a deep belief that the Christian life is a cruciform life. This shared conviction is what drove me to join them, not long before the pandemic began, at a conference they were hosting in southern California called The Way of the Lamb. The conference was designed to be a space for pastors and ministry leaders to honestly confess their temptations with power – where they could prayerfully encounter God in their weakness. The initial impetus for this event was a book that Jamin and Kyle had published: The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb. They have recently released a new edition of the book and I am now more than ever convinced of the importance of this message — and cannot recommend this book and it’s life-changing truth highly enough to you…
guest post by Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel
Several years ago, I (Jamin) had the joy of vacationing in Greece. The drive from Athens to Corinth took about an hour. The drive is so beautiful you almost forget about your destination.
The brilliant blue water of the Aegean Sea is visible nearly the entire way. The city of Corinth is strategically positioned as a byway from the Aegean Sea to the Ionian Sea, as well as from mainland Greece to the Peloponnese.
“What does Christian power really look like?”
As you arrive and see the ruins, it is easy to imagine how glorious this city must have been in the first century. When Julius Caesar reconstituted Corinth a century after its destruction in 146 BC, the city was repopulated with a large contingency of Roman freedmen (former slaves) along with Greeks, Jews, and others.
The Corinth that Paul visited in AD 50 was a cultural and economic hub with no solidified aristocracy, resulting in an open society with an unusual degree of freedom for upward mobility. This created an incredibly competitive environment. If you worked hard enough and were shrewd enough, you could ascend the ladder of status and power.
Once at the top, you were justified in boasting of such an accomplishment. As Tim Savage tells us, “In Corinth, perhaps more than anywhere else, social ascent was the goal, boasting and self-display the means, personal power and glory the reward.” The city’s social landscape mirrored the competitive spirit of its famed Isthmian games.
When Paul first preached the gospel in Corinth he had success (Acts 18), but subsequently the Corinthians began to question Paul’s authority as an apostle. They wanted proof that Christ was speaking through Paul (2 Cor. 13:3).
The Corinthians were wrestling with the same question that Kyle and I were: What does Christian power really look like? More specifically in relationship to Paul was the question of what apostolic power ought to look like.
The question had already caused a divide over which apostle/ teacher Corinthian Christians thought was the most special—Paul, Apollos, Peter, or Jesus himself (1 Cor. 1:10–17). This question was at the heart of the tension between Paul and the “super-apostles” who had come into town challenging Paul’s authority and vying for power (2 Cor. 11:5).
“The problem confronting Paul was that he did not embody any of the marks of power the Corinthians valued.”
The problem confronting Paul was that he did not embody any of the marks of power the Corinthians valued.
In many ways, he was the exact opposite of what they desired: He did not have an impressive physical presence, he lacked bravado and confidence, and he was meek and gentle in his leadership (2 Cor. 10:10). He did not speak with eloquence (2 Cor. 11:6), and he did not boast in money, intentionally refusing to take money for his “services,” choosing to work a menial job that would have been socially dishonorable (2 Cor. 11:7).
On top of all this, Paul experienced continual suffering and hardship (2 Cor. 11:21–30). Each of these things was a sign of weakness in the eyes of the Corinthians.
The totality of Paul’s weaknesses had become unpalatable to them. The Corinthians wanted a super-apostle, not an apostle of weakness.
In the face of the Corinthians’ critique of and open opposition to his authority, we might expect Paul to have marshalled a persuasive defense, silencing the Corinthians with an overwhelming display of his authority as an apostle of Christ.
Or, at the very least, we might expect him to have hidden the weaknesses that were cause for criticism.
He faced the potential of losing the Corinthian believers to a false gospel (2 Cor. 11:1–6), and the stability of the church at Corinth largely rested on how Paul would respond to the critiques of his apostolic authority.
Rather than meeting the Corinthians’ expectations, however, Paul shone a light on the very weaknesses that caused him criticism, putting his weakness front and center (2 Cor. 1:3–7; 6:2–10; 11:16–12:10).
Radically, Paul embraced the very things that the Corinthians rejected, identifying these weaknesses as signs of his true apostleship.
“Radically, Paul embraced the very things that the Corinthians rejected, identifying these weaknesses as signs of his true apostleship.”
He argued that his weakness was actually verification of the power of God working through him, and he rejected the Corinthian view of power as worldly success, bravado, and status.
For Paul, the power to dominate and win was antithetical to the nature of the gospel.
This is not merely a question of what leadership “style” you like, but a question of whether you embrace the way of Jesus.
The high point of Paul’s defiant response to the Corinthians’ lust for power is found in the passage we began with: “‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9–10).
For a culture so fixated on power, it is hard to imagine how paradigm-shifting these words were, and how difficult they would have been to hear. But, of course, our own cultural context mirrors the Corinthian context in nearly every way.
In a culture boasting of personal accomplishment and success, Paul’s response was to boast in his weakness.
Why did he do so? So that the power of Christ may rest upon him.
Paul viewed an embrace of weakness as an embrace of strength, because in weakness he could depend upon the might of God. His weakness was the source of his power.
“Paul viewed an embrace of weakness as an embrace of strength, because in weakness he could depend upon the might of God. His weakness was the source of his power.”
Paul did not anchor his life as a follower of Jesus in his ability, talent, gifting, resume, or strength, but in the grace of God alone.
To marshal these skills or achievements in his flesh would have been to embrace power from below and thus reject the gospel. Paul wrote, “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Cor. 1:17).
Incredibly, Paul argued that to embrace the Corinthian way—to put ourselves forward, emphasizing our strengths and seeking our own power—was to empty the cross of its power.
The way of life to which followers of Jesus are called entails discovering that power is found in weakness.
This way of power found in weakness is not original to Paul, but is a sign that Paul has followed Christ faithfully.
Embrace of our weakness is patterned after the way of Christ, who took up his cross, wholly dependent upon the Father for life and strength.
Just as Jesus found his life in the Father by the Spirit, so now do we. We are those who gain our lives only when we lose them for Christ’s sake (Matt. 16:25).
We are called not to rely upon ourselves, “but on God who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:9).
Power in the Christian life is found in one place and one place alone. It is God’s energy at work within that we must come to embrace.
Power is found in dependence upon God in light of our weakness.
Jamin and his wife live in Escondido, California with their four children where Jamin pastors, and Kyle and his wife live in Fullerton, California with their two kids where Kyle is a professor at Biola University.
Jamin and Kyle have recently released the second edition of their book, The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus’ Path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It. In it they wrestle through their own temptations with worldly power, and turn our attention to Jesus’ subversive way of power found in weakness. This second edition also includes a new chapter in which Jamin and Kyle reflect on their own experience of being betrayed by a leader who abused his power.
One of the truly unique features of this book are the conversations Jamin and Kyle invite the readers into. They travel around the world, seeking out great sages of the faith who have modeled Jesus’ way of power. As readers eavesdrop on the authors’ conversations with people such as J. I. Packer, Marva Dawn, John Perkins, James Houston, Dallas Willard, and Eugene Peterson, they begin to piece together the new-old reality of following Jesus today. The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb offers a compelling MUST READ vision of the way of Jesus that will challenge both individual believers and the church as a whole. Truly: an UNFORGETTABLE book.
September 20, 2021
How to Pray with the Bible
Amy Boucher Pye’s spiritual journey has included mountaintop highs and darks nights of the soul. Yet in the day-to-day moments she has experienced God break in with surprising grace. She can’t help but write about these nudges of grace in every day life. When not writing from her chilly vicarage in North London, she is leading book clubs and retreats. Which is why she is the perfect guide to walk us through a time-tested practice for encountering God. It’s a grace to welcome Amy to the farm’s front porch today…
Rejected, a thirteen-year-old sobbed into her sleeping bag at summer camp.
The start of a teen romantic comedy? Perhaps, but that episode marked the first time I sensed God’s voice through His Word.
When we arrived at the camp, we were bowled over by the ratio of boys to girls—just us four girls to twenty guys. We scoped out the guys and giggled over which was the cutest while we canoed in the crystal-clear lakes, cooked over a campfire, swatted mosquitoes, and sang worship songs under the stars.
In the guy department, I kept hoping I’d be chosen, but while each of my three friends paired off, I remained alone. On the last night, I looked from one friend to the next, each of whom was holding hands or standing arm in arm with their guys around the campfire.
Then one of the nonattached guys sneered at me. He pointed to an overweight boy and then to me (I was not thin) and said, “Oh, why don’t you two get together?”
Mortified, I ran back to my tent, scurried into my sleeping bag, and released my sobs, feeling undesirable and worthless. Our camp counselor came and tried to comfort me, but I pretended to be asleep. A few minutes later, she left.
When at last the week was over and I was back at home, I tried to forget my feelings of rejection. I put on a brave face and pushed my hurt into a corner, not wanting to share it with my parents or friends. Or with God.
But to my surprise I received a letter from my camp counselor, who said how concerned she had been for me.
The verses she quoted from Philippians pierced through my hardened exterior:
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with you…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus…
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so you you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the days of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:3-4, 6, 9-11
I ran down to my room, found my Bible, and looked for Philippians, reading the whole passage more than once. For the first time I felt as if God was speaking to me through the Scriptures. The words sailed off the page and landed in my heart, penetrating the places of hurt and rejection. I started to believe that the Lord had started a good work in me and that He wouldn’t leave me. That I’d grow in wisdom and insights and would bear fruit.
With the pages blurry through my tears, I pondered the promises in Paul’s letter and began to make them my own.
That camp counselor was a conduit of God’s grace, pointing me to His words of transforming love. I had begun the exhilarating journey of meeting God as I prayed and read His Word.
“When we pray with the Bible, God infuses the experience with His Spirit.”
God always makes Himself known to us, and a primary way He reveals Himself is through His Word. When we pray with the Bible, God infuses the experience with His Spirit.
As with my memorable encounter after camp, God comforts us through what we read. Sometimes He corrects us or convicts us; often He teaches us as He imparts His wisdom.
The Bible’s story of God and His people is one of intimacy and communication. The unreachable, unknowable God reaches down and makes Himself known.
God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has also given us the Bible, limiting His words to a level we can understand. Our Creator meets us with grace and love in a form we can grasp. Jesus the Word fills the pages of Scripture with His acts of grace and redemption.
And just as the Holy Spirit breathed the Scripture itself into life, so the Spirit breathes life into us as we read it.
As we pray with the Bible, we welcome God’s Word to come and live in us. God can comfort us when we’re hurting as we read a line of the Psalms; He can convict us with His teaching from the Sermon on the Mount.
As you read the Scriptures, pause before you delve into them and ask God to speak to you. He loves to respond when we seek Him.
“Just as the Holy Spirit breathed the Scripture itself into life, so the Spirit breathes life into us as we read it.”
Prayer Practice
There are several ways to pray with the Bible and different practices will resonate stronger in a particular season of your life. Personalizing Scripture is a practice I have found helpful when I don’t want to feel overwhelmed but need to penetrate to the tender places within.
I begin writing out some of what Jesus said in the gospel stories, adding my name again and again so that the words would move from my head to my heart:
“Amy, ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will open,” Matthew 7:7 (adapted).
Or, “When you exalt yourself, Amy, you will be humbled, but when you humble yourself, you will be exalted.” Matthew 23:12, (adapted).
Or, “Amy, my peace I leave you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Amy, do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid,” John 14:27, (adapted).
Seeing my name in these familiar words helped me realize that God could intend them for me.
“As we pray God’s words to us in the Bible, we find Jesus the Word meeting us and the Holy Spirit guiding, comforting, and convicting us.”
I recommend this simple practice, which can have profound results.
Wonder where to start? Here are some suggestions, and yes, a few of them cut to the heart:
Matthew 6:25-34 (Don’t worry)
Mark 13:32-37 (Keeping watch)
Luke 6:20-26 (Blessings and woes)
John 17:20-26 (Jesus’ prayer for us)
As we pray God’s words to us in the Bible, we find Jesus the Word meeting us and the Holy Spirit guiding, comforting, and convicting us.
Praying with the Bible provides a foundation for our lives as we follow God, receiving and extending His love.
Amy Boucher Pye is an author, speaker, and retreat leader. She’s the author of the award-winning book Finding Myself in Britain and The Living Cross. She runs the Woman Alive book club and writes for publications such as Our Daily Bread and Day by Day with God.
Prayer is a gift from God; praying is a practice. In 7 Ways to Pray Amy Boucher Pye guides you through time-tested practices for encountering God. Each chapter shares real-life examples, is rooted in the Bible, and includes prayer exercises for individuals or groups. Amy is a storyteller that brings these proven practices to life so you can make them actionable. 7 Ways to Pray is an essential resource for your prayer life, small group, retreat, or ministry.
[ Our humble thanks to NavPress for their partnership with today’s devotion ]
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September 18, 2021
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [09.18.21]
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:
Marcin Zając
Marcin Zając
Marcin Zającgrateful he shares his extraordinary views with us here
intriguing: tagging the migrating whimbrel shorebirds
Buy It For Life: 40 Durable Products That Deliver No Matter How Old They Are
Inside the Pain… with Joni Eareckson Tada
Dare to dream… don’t be afraid of living and loving one to share with a friend!
Struggling with challenges in your past or with the ongoing pain of the present?
This is a message of hope your soul needs today:
Your Wounds Aren’t Your Identity
Are you suffering from the pain of your past? Letting go of the hurt is one of the hardest things to do.
September!
“Whatever you do, do everything…giving thanks” Col. 3:1
God’s will is for us to give thanks in all things…because this is how God knows we can live through anything.
Take the Joy Dare (3 prompts a day to find 3 gifts) – and hang it on the fridge for the whole family to take the #JOYDARE too! Scavenger hunt for God’s glory!
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Print the month of August Joy Dare, and the entire year of Joy Dares, right here:
And pick up a copy of the new 10th anniversary edition of One Thousand Gifts, and count all the ways He loves you, & fall in love with Him all over again! AND, when you do, you get an entire FREE Joy Tool Kit which includes 5 exclusive printables: a “How to Always Find Joy” Frameable, a Daily Joy Map & Planner, a Family Gratitude Gift Jar kit, a 12-Month Joy Calendar, and a Daily Joy Compass. Click here to learn how you can get yours today!
Trauma? Loss? Fears? This song on repeat here, cranked
If you have had a hard time connecting with the Bible or you’re simply hungry for a fresh experience with Scripture, this is for you:
Struggling to Read the Bible? Try These Two Things
we circled ’round this one:
Through extraordinary computer animation, discover how the more than 18 trillion feet of DNA in your body is organized, stored and processed
thank you, The John 10:10 Project
How to Help Orphans Without Adopting
Beyond grateful for the life saving work of Compassion International
sharing from here on the farm: check here to be encouraged to keep company with Jesus
This and so much more at The Keeping Company
you’re never too old… at 81? come see what she’s done!
What Unlocked the Old Testament for Me
glory, glory, glory
This is the one visual that moved me in the days after Labor Day, the days that kind of feel the relief of a second New Years, reset days, and, I guess, I was literally moved just because of the way she moved:
Time-Management to Keep Up: The Secret to Fresh Starts & Moving Forward
In the opening pages of the Bible, God gives humanity a gift that they quickly forfeit—eternal life that comes by eating from the tree of life.
In this video, we explore the meaning of this powerful image and how sacred trees play a key role throughout the story of the Bible. It all leads up to Jesus himself, who died upon a tree so that he could become a new tree of life for all humanity.
this one is really special: a beautiful story 12 years in the making
thank you, Priscilla Shirer: You Go Through More Because You’re Called to More
Post of the week from these parts here:
After Dad was unexpectedly and traumatically killed, underneath the daily rush of all the things, there was this tender miracle happening:
The Miraculous (Underground) Secret We All Need to Get Through Pain
Books for Soul Healing:
Joy is actually possible, right where you are.
Take the dare to discover: Life is not an emergency…Life is a GIFT. Life is too short to do anything but truly savor it — to count all the ways you truly loved.
What if Brokenness is the Path into the Abundant Life?
You don’t have to be afraid of broken things — because Christ is redeeming everything.
There’s no other authentic way forward — but a broken way — right into a profoundly abundant life.
Journey into a deeply meaningful life with this devotional and take sixty steps from heart-weary brokenness to Christ-focused abundance. The Way of Abundance — is the way forward every heart needs.
Be the Gift is a tender invitation into the next step of deeper transformation, less stress, more joy and abundantly more peace & purpose. You only get one life to love well…to Be The Gift.
on repeat this week: Voice of God
…at the beginning of a new week, and you can look up at the calendar today and exhale:
It’s okay to feel bone tired — you have One who gives His bone and His body for you and beckoned: Come Rest.
It’s okay to feel disillusioned — you have One who destroys cheap illusions of perfection and offers you His.
It’s okay to feel done — you have One who listens to the last nail be driven in and proclaims all the hellish things finished.
It’s okay to feel battered and bruised — you have One who storms your battles, takes back everything that needs a comeback, and proves His side won.
It’s okay to not feel okay — because you have One — who made you His one.
You have One who left the clamor of the 99, to find you, remind you, remake you, rename you, release you.
You have One who is more ready to forgive what you’ve done, than you are to forget, One who is more ready to give you grace, than you are to give up,
One who is more than ready to always stand with you, than you are to run.
One who is a greater lover, rescuer, saviour, friend— than you have ever imagined Him to be even when your love for Him is most on fire.
Today, these worries, this world, may leave you feeling a bit depressed — but you have a God who is obsessed with you.
It’s beautiful how that goes:
Whatever the story is today — it’s okay. Because we know the ending — and how it will be the beginning of the truest happily ever after.
Whatever the story is today — it’s okay. Because the Writer of the story has written Himself into the hardest places of yours and is softening the edges of everything with redeeming grace.
[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.
September 17, 2021
Trusting in God’s Plan: in times of desperation and hopelessness
After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease at age 22 and suffering for many years, Danielle Walker found health through dietary and lifestyle changes. Inspired by her own health journey, Danielle has a passion for helping others learn how food can change their lives. She shares her gluten-free recipes on her blog as a beacon of hope. It’s a grace to welcome Danielle to the farm’s front porch today…
In 2008, my husband, Ryan, and I flew to a remote village in Uganda as part of a fifteen-day humanitarian trip sponsored by my company.
I had been suffering from debilitating stomach issues for months with no viable solutions and no relief in sight.
Ryan and I spent our first night in Uganda with me locked away in our hotel bathroom in excruciating pain.
That left us only one option: a small Ugandan hospital located roughly three miles from our hotel.
“I was in a strange hospital in a developing country, and I had just been told I had an autoimmune disease.”
After a fifteen-minute drive, we stopped in front of a single-story, dingy-white dilapidated building that looked as if it hadn’t seen paint or a hammer in decades. An old van that had been made into an ambulance sat in front with the words The Surgery painted on it in royal blue.
The beds were wooden planks with paper-thin mats placed on top—no box springs or mattresses—and bugs were crawling everywhere. Maybe we should go . . . , I thought to myself. But before I could express my concerns to Ryan, a tall, distinguished-looking, gray-haired man appeared in the doorway.
“Mrs. Walker?” he said, smiling. “I’m Dr. Stark.” He had a British accent that I found strangely comforting. “I’m afraid you are severely anemic and dehydrated.” That was less comforting.
He paused and looked at me with compassion in his eyes. “I have never seen such high levels of inflammation coupled with such acute anemia and dehydration. Nor have I ever seen this severe a case of an autoimmune disease.”
His words swirled around my mind as I tried to take it all in.
I was in a strange hospital in a developing country, and I had just been told I had an autoimmune disease—a term no other doctor had used to describe my condition before.
Joy Prouty
I wasn’t even sure what that meant, but paired with critical condition, it didn’t take much of a leap to figure out it wasn’t good.
“I wasn’t even sure what that meant, but paired with critical condition, it didn’t take much of a leap to figure out it wasn’t good.”
“I’m sorry,” my dad broke in. “What exactly does all of that mean?”
“You’re eating, but your gut isn’t able to absorb the nutrients your body needs. It’s all seeping out. That is one of the challenges of your particular autoimmune disease. In Uganda, where we tragically experience a multitude of other ailments and diseases, we rarely if ever see autoimmune diseases.”
“Why is that?” Ryan asked.
“Perhaps it’s because this country isn’t overly sterile, like the US and other westernized nations,” he suggested.
“The children here grow up with the understanding that God made dirt, and dirt doesn’t hurt. They play in it. They eat from it. They likely have parasites, but they aren’t given antibiotics from birth for a simple ear infection, for instance. They aren’t usually born by cesarean, which increases the risk of autoimmune conditions and allergies from the start due to the antibiotics administered to the mother and the lack of beneficial flora passed to the infant during a vaginal birth.”
I thought about the hand sanitizers and bleach wipes I’d been instructed to bring with me and had already used dozens of times since boarding the first flight in San Francisco.
We’d been lectured before we left the States to wash our hands frequently and not drink the water or eat any raw food because the parasites would make us sick.
Along with our vaccinations, we’d even been given a ready-to-pop Z-Pak in case any of that happened. This antibiotic, azithromycin, would completely wipe out the bacteria—both good and bad—just as the ones I’d been administered before my colonoscopy had.
“Everything in the US is bleached and overly cleaned,” he continued. “As soon as your kids drop something on the floor, you’re wiping it down with sterilized towelettes. You have an overly sanitized nation, and as a result, many of you have an overgrowth of unhealthy bacteria and an underrepresentation of healthy bacteria in your gut.”
He looked at me. “And in some cases, that can lead to autoimmune diseases like Crohn’s disease, UC, rheumatoid arthritis, and a host of others. The people here eat their food fresh from the ground. Most don’t wash their hands before eating, and they don’t always use silverware. They eat the things they have grown without washing them, so their food has natural microorganisms on it. They’re not bleaching it or spraying it with something to kill all the bacteria.”
“If nobody here has this disease because of the way they eat and prepare their food,” I said, clutching my still-churning stomach, “then why don’t we do it that way at home?”
He explained that in America, we tend to go for immediate gratification—whatever’s quickest and most convenient. That means the food we are growing is often altered to grow faster. By using genetically-modified (GMO) seeds, pesticides, and insecticides, growers also produce crops that are less susceptible to damage.
Not only has much of our food been altered from the way God intended it and the way it used to be grown, but we, as a culture, have moved far from the practices of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers, who cooked from scratch using unprocessed foods.
Half the ingredients listed on the prepackaged items most of us eat today are barely even pronounceable. They aren’t found in nature. We created them to make “real food” look nicer and last longer.
In addition, we wash and bleach fruits and vegetables to the point that virtually none of the natural, healthy bacteria or probiotics from the soil are left on them. To top it off, we pick food early—before it’s fully ripe—so it can be transported to grocery stores, some of which spray the produce with even more chemicals to slow the ripening process.
“I still believed God wanted me to come to Uganda. Now I was starting to wonder if maybe He had brought me here so I could start to learn how to help my body heal itself.”
We’re also one of the only cultures that doesn’t regularly incorporate natural forms of fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, and kefir into our diet—natural probiotics that add beneficial bacteria and enzymes to our intestinal flora, increase the health of our gut and digestive system, and enhance the immune system. The less diverse our gut flora, the higher the risk of chronic inflammatory conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s, and UC.
Had I not been in so much pain and so utterly exhausted from the travel and lack of sleep, I could have listened to Dr. Stark talk for hours.
After consulting with two GI specialists and undergoing a battery of scans, biopsies, and blood tests in some of the most sophisticated medical facilities in the Bay Area, who would have guessed that the most thorough explanation of what I had and how I might have gotten it would come from a doctor in a dilapidated two-room hospital in the middle of a developing country.
I still believed God wanted me to come to Uganda. Now I was starting to wonder if maybe He had brought me here so I could start to learn how to help my body heal itself.
On a Sunday morning in the hospital, Dr. Stark appeared in the doorway. “I’ve just come from church,” he said. “I felt God impress upon me that I was supposed to come and check on you. And pray for you.”
“Someone greater than everything that was happening was with me, reminding me that He is good, even in times of desperation and hopelessness.”
Wow. I was stunned. We had never discussed our faith with Dr. Stark, so until that moment, I didn’t even know that he believed in God.
“It seems God has you in Uganda for a special reason,” the doctor said.
As Dr. Stark prayed, I realized I had never had a Western-trained doctor do anything like that during any hospital or office visit.
In my experience, faith and medicine were not intertwined.
That morning restored a glimmer of hope in me.
Someone greater than everything that was happening was with me, reminding me that He is good, even in times of desperation and hopelessness.
Maybe I am going to be okay.
Danielle Walker is a 3X New York Times Bestselling author, health advocate, and self-trained chef. For over a decade she has been a pioneer in advocating for a grain- and gluten-free lifestyle, having earned a spot on the coveted Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2015. Her delicious recipes have satiated the palates of autoimmune sufferers, kids with food allergies, healthy eaters, and foodies alike. From nostalgic comfort foods to healthy holiday swaps to quick-and-easy meals for kids, Danielle has created thousands of recipes as well as kitchen, food, and parenting hacks that make life easier and healthier.
In her new book, Food Saved Me, Danielle reveals for the first time the full story of her journey to find life again through the healing power of food. Through her trials, tribulations, and triumphs, you’ll find that no matter what your ailment, there is hope. Hope that you can live a full, happy, healthy life without feeling hungry, excluded or deprived. Discover the truth—food can radically change your life for the better.
[ Our humble thanks to Tyndale for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
September 15, 2021
The Miraculous (Underground) Secret We All Need to Get Through Pain
In the wake of days after Dad was killed, when I couldn’t sleep, I would lie awake in the middle of the night, and try not to think of his last thoughts just before he fell under the wheel of the tractor, and I felt like part of me had fallen and died and I would think of how, deep in the New Zealand Forest, a Kauri tree fell.
Who knows why Dad fell under the wheel of the tractor? Slipped? Tripped? Turned? Who knows exactly why this one particular kauri tree fell hard in the forest? Lightning? Disease? Cut down in its prime?
“Those who bury the dead, who bury hopes and dreams, can end up feeling like the walking dead.”
Whatever the reason, I know this about the tree, that the rains came and fell on the forest floor, and unremarkable stump in the New Zealand forest for years? It looked — dead. A hollowed-out half-cylinder, hardly the size of a chair, the stump looked like a leafless, unwelcome eruption in the middle of a hiking trail.
A dead and hollowed out shell of its former, thriving, flourishing self.
I have felt this — in this present season of grief, I have felt this.
Those who bury the dead, who bury hopes and dreams, can end up feeling like the walking dead.
But it happened on one ordinary day in New Zealand, that an ecologist named Sebastian Leuzinger was out for what I like to call a daily glory soak, when Leuzinger spotted that the seemingly dead kauri tree stump — only to notice the seemingly impossible.
The stump was dripping sap.
Dead trees don’t have sap running through them.
Could the cut down, seemingly very dead stump — actually be alive?
Joy Prouty
Leuzinger leaned over and knocked on the stump. It didn’t sound like dead wood?
Eventually, after much considered study, the ecologist Leuzinger discovered something rather miraculous:
“That’s the miracle: Cut down lives can revive when we share our lives.”
Yes, the stump was definitely alive! Yes, the stump had running sap! And yes, the stump still lived because, deep under the earth, far beneath the surface of things, the roots of the stump were wrapped around and connected, interlaced, linked, to the roots of the forest trees around it.
What the ecologist discovered was that “the tree stump’s roots have been grafted together with roots from other trees, something that is known to happen when trees sense they can share resources with the trees around them.”
That’s the miracle: Cut down lives can revive when we share our lives.
When no one noticed, when our hopes and lives felt hollowed out and truncated after Dad was unexpectedly and traumatically killed, underneath the daily rush of all the things, Diane left chili and buns on our front porch and Sue brought a plate of cookies and Anne dropped a still warm loaf of cinnamon raisin bread, and Marlene brought a roast dinner one week, and rice and meatballs the week after that, and do not doubt the ministry of the meal.
“We are the People of the Tree, we are a Forest of the Faithful, we are the ones rooted in Christ and we reach out and wrap our roots around the hurting to keep each other alive in the faith.”
Church mothers with their meals revive the living dead with their warm bowl of soups and the aching are not forsaken. The royal priesthood with the heaping plates, these women raise those in the Valley of Dry Bones, and they resurrect the faith of the brokenhearted with their rising steam to fill the belly and strengthen the weary bones.
I may have felt like the numbed walking dead in the blur of days after the whirl of police lights, Dad leaving us during a rainstorm on a Thursday morning, but the roots of a forest of faithful women wrapped around us and loaned us hope and life.
Because this is what the body of Christ does.
We are the People of the Tree, we are a Forest of the Faithful, we are the ones rooted in Christ and we reach out and wrap our roots around the hurting to keep each other alive in the faith.
Beyond the shadows of our church doors, there is an underground web of connection, of texts and messages, of phone calls and coffees, of cards and dropped off meals and bowls of soups and prayer threads.
It’s the underground church — the church that we are under the banner of the six other days of the week, the church that we are on the ground, in our own neighborhoods, the church that we are not just under the church roof, but also outside of the church, that makes the church strong, that loans strength to the weak, that strengthens the whole community of trees.
It was happening like this beneath the carpet of that Kauri forest, where roots were grafting mysteriously to other roots and this stabilized and steadied each tree — and these grafted roots became this hidden dance of givenness where water and nutrients and resources and hope is shared during hardship.
Deep underneath that New Zealand forest floor, where no one could see, there was a great grafting weave of roots, a great dance of water flowing, renewing, reviving, restoring.
“You are going to be okay, you are going to thrive, you are going to flourish, you’re going to rise from this floor.”
Though we are daily facing our own hardships, though we may feel like the dreams and hopes for our life, our calling, our relationships, may have been unexpectedly cut down, sense it right now, wherever you unexpectedly find yourself, THIS IS TRUE:
You are not alone. No matter what things look like, no matter what looks dead, no matter what seems like a stump of all kinds of dreams: You are going to be okay, you are going to thrive, you are going to flourish, you’re going to rise from this floor.
Christ grafts Himself to you to steady you, stabilize you, sustain you through His Word and through all the gloriously real resources of Christ, the God-Man who hung on the tree, all of His resources are available to you.
And because we are rooted in Christ, sustained by Christ, living through the nutrients and living water of christ, we who are The People of Calvary’s Tree, the Forest of the Faithful, we are called to:
“When we touch someone with love, they experience the healing glory of God.”
“Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence — God’s GLORY — will be evident in everything through Jesus, and He will get all the credit — all the GLORY — as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!” 1 Peter 4:11 MSG
When we’re a light in someone’s dark, what they testify to seeing is God’s glory.
When we touch someone with love, they experience the healing glory of God.
Joy Prouty
“What does love look like?” St. Augustine asked. “It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.” St Augustine said.
Bring a plate of cookies — you’re bringing a dish of the love of God.
Text someone — you’re sending a line of the very love of God.
“How we love always boomerangs. Love boomerangs. Compassion boomerangs. Kindness boomerangs. Love boomerangs and God’s glory goes around and around through the hands and feet of His people and the hurting are healed.”
Take someone on a walk every week — and you both are being healed by community and the presence of Love Himself in the midst of you.
When we get to be the underground church for each other, the people of Calvary’s Tree that shares resources and encouragement and love under the surface of everything, we love each other as if our life depends on it — because it does.
One day you will be the suffering, the hurting, the stump of a tree that is hollowed out with pain and you will desperately need the withness of others to love you back to life.
“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these,” wrote George Washington Carver.
How we love always boomerangs. Love boomerangs. Compassion boomerangs. Kindness boomerangs. Love boomerangs and God’s glory goes around and around through the hands and feet of His people and the hurting are healed.
Marlene didn’t just send me a text once, like I was an item on her to-do list, Marlene sent me a text every single day, to see how I was, how my heart really was.
And so did Jessica and Emily and Esther and Kay and Ange and Molly and Lisa-Jo and I realized what I hadn’t deeply realized:
Hurting people don’t need to be a one-time check-off on anyone’s list, but they need someone to check in on them regularly because they are written on someone’s heart.
And when Marlene brought the third meal, I brimmed and asked her why did she stay tracking with me, why did she keep checking in?
And she said, “Because friends stick with each other. That is what we do. We stick with each other.”
And I nodded: “There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24)
When we stick close to each other, no one gets stuck.
“When we stick close to each other, no one gets stuck.”
As I couldn’t sleep in the days and weeks after Dad was killed, a group of Church Mothers each video recorded themselves reading Scripture, Jennie and Christy and Esther and Rebekah and Ruth and Priscilla and Shelley, and so many more sisters in Christ, and they sent me this 27 minute recording of them praying and preaching the comfort of the Gospel truth to me so that in the middle of the night watches when I felt alone and cut down and hurting — I watched and rewatched the church mothers loaning me the strength of Jesus through His Word, their roots wrapping around mine, loving me back to life.
They nourished my roots and sent me hope to breathe and gave me His Word, Living Water, and these Church Mothers literally revived my soul and they helped me carry my burden, giving me withness and witness, so I knew I wasn’t alone and this underground church of love helped me RISE AGAIN.
Joy Prouty
Just the night before my father was killed — he sat listening to this song called, “Burden” with these lines:
“Come to me, my brother, and I will sit with you awhile
Pretty soon I’ll see you smile and you know you will
No matter how much you’re hurting right now
You know that everything will change in time
So let me carry your burden
Let me carry your burden…”
“What makes us resilient is how we reach out to each other.”
And this is what we can do, we as the underground church can do, as we reach out like Christ, Cruciform, and help to carry each other’s burdens — one text, one phone call, one meal, one walk, one prayer, one Scripture reading at a time.
This is what I know:
You may not know the weight someone’s carrying, but if you’ve at all known the weight of God’s glory, you’ve got to relieve the weight of someone else’s burden.
What makes us resilient is how we reach out to each other.
We have lived all the days since spring, when Dad was killed, and now the leaves in all these trees down these country back roads, begin to turn, ablaze with glory, like they can’t keep it a secret, the joy of being deeply rooted, of reviving the cut down with more life and hope and glory, roots reaching right out.
Maybe in this season, we all just need the gift of … a bit of Hope?
To stand together — FOR each other — knowing that an act of kindness, reaching out, giving it forward, can revive dead places, can raise us all.
Don’t we all need to RISE right now?
The way forward — is always to give forward.
September 14, 2021
Struggling to Read the Bible? Try These Two Things
Alex Goodwin believes that the Bible contains the true story of the world, centered on the person of Jesus Christ. He wants to help people find their stories inside the grand narrative of the Bible, but also knows from personal experience that it’s often easier said than done. If you have had a hard time connecting with the Bible or you’re simply hungry for a fresh experience with Scripture, take a moment to read his suggestions below. It’s a grace to welcome Alex to the farm’s front porch today…
When I was twenty-two, I threw my Bible across the room.
Earlier that year I had uprooted from my hometown and moved across the country in search of new beginnings, only to be met with nearly eight months of unemployment.
Thousands of miles from my family and friends, struggling to get settled in this new place, I felt adrift. Where was God in all of this?
“If the Bible is so important, why is it such a struggle to read? Why do I so often end up confused, frustrated, and bored?”
I needed to hear from God – a word of reassurance, encouragement, truth, guidance, something.
So I did the only thing I could think to do. Sitting quietly on the edge of my bed, the golden mid-afternoon sunlight streaming through the blinds, I placed my brown leather-bound Bible on my lap and took a deep breath.
With one hand gripping the spine, I closed my eyes and bent the cover back, pressing my thumb into the edge of the pages and feeling them zip out from underneath. I stopped about three-fourths of the way through.
With my eyes still closed, I extended my index finger and placed it on a random spot on the page.
I opened my eyes and read the verse under my finger. “On the following day Paul went in with us to see James, and all the elders were present.” I read it again, in case I’d somehow missed the spiritual epiphany. I read the rest of the chapter in case I’d been off by a few verses. Nothing.
So I slammed it shut and tossed it, not unlike how you’d toss a frisbee in the park. “This thing is useless.”
Eventually I picked up my Bible again, and although I had to acknowledge the flimsiness of my point-and-pray technique, my larger questions about the Bible remained. If the Bible is so important, why is it such a struggle to read? Why do I so often end up confused, frustrated, and bored?
Despite how I treated His book, God gently guided me into the presence and friendship of people who had been chewing on those same questions for years. Over the course of many conversations, I learned that my discontentment with Scripture wasn’t unusual.
Multitudes of people who love Jesus have a hard time with the Bible. They want it to speak to them, but when they open up its pages they can’t help feeling…disconnected.
If any of this sounds familiar to you, try these two things:
#1 Try using a distraction-free Reader’s Bible
When’s the last time you curled up on the couch and tried to read the dictionary?
The truth is, the typical Bible today looks more like a reference book than a library of literature. Each page is chock full of chapter and verse numbers, footnotes, cross-references, section headings – all added to the Bible within the last 500 years. And while all of these features are helpful for some things, they can also make the simple act of reading much more difficult.
“What if we took away all of the extra stuff and simply gave the sacred words room to breathe?”
So what if we took away all of the extra stuff and simply gave the sacred words room to breathe?
What if stories flowed like stories, poetry looked like poetry, and letters read like letters? By getting rid of the additives, we can more easily receive the Bible’s literature the way it was first handed down to God’s people.
With only the Bible text left on the page, we are suddenly free to focus on what really counts. We can relax a bit. Settle in. Get lost in the story.
Our organization created a Reader’s Bible called Immerse, and there are others available in different translations. Try picking one up and simply reading. You’ll be surprised at the difference it makes.
#2 Read and discuss Scripture in community
I love my quiet time in the morning. With a cup of coffee steaming on the side table, I settle into the couch to read my Bible, pray, and watch the steller’s jays flit about in our yard.
And while I believe these mornings with Scripture on the couch provide a special time and place for communion with Jesus, I also can’t help but remember how novel the whole experience is. For thousands of years before the printing press gave everyone the luxury of their own personal Bible, the only way to hear Scripture was in a community gathering. In many parts of the world it’s still that way.
“If you’ve struggled to maintain a Scripture reading habit on your own, maybe it’s because you’ve been trying to do it all on your own.“
“Scripture is the Spirit-inspired story of Jesus as communicated through, to, and for the church,” says Scot McKnight. Its words are certainly vital for our individual spiritual journeys with Christ, but throughout history the Bible has always been a community-formation book.
So if you’ve struggled to maintain a Scripture reading habit on your own, maybe it’s because you’ve been trying to do it all on your own. Maybe it’s time to invite others in and journey through the Bible together.
Many groups have started community experiences with the Bible that look remarkably like book clubs. Everybody reads a large section of Scripture during the week (like an entire Gospel book) and then the group gathers for an open-ended discussion about what they read. Here are four conversation starters we suggest for Immerse groups:
What stood out to you this week?Was there anything confusing or troubling?Did anything make you think differently about God?How might this change the way we live?No right answers and no wrong answers – simply diving into the Bible and sharing what the Spirit showed you along the way. Gathered in community, the Spirit can move among your group as you rummage through the Word, laughing, crying, wrestling, and celebrating ‘aha!’ moments together.
“The Bible tells us the long and winding story of God’s plan for His world.”
******
The Bible tells us the long and winding story of God’s plan for His world.
It’s a love story.
A rescue story.
A creation and new creation story.
And God wants to invite us into it.
If you’ve struggled to connect with this story, you’re not alone. There’s nothing wrong with you. Maybe it’s just time to try something new.
Alex Goodwin is the Executive Director of the Institute for Bible Reading, a nonprofit ministry working to change the way the world reads the Bible. They are the creators of Immerse: The Reading Bible and Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience, two groundbreaking resources that are helping individuals, churches, schools, prisons, and families become immersed in the grand narrative of Scripture.
Does Bible reading ever feel like a chore? Spending time in Scripture is vital for spiritual growth, yet many people struggle with confusion and boredom when they open the Bible. Take the struggle out of Bible reading! Immerse removes many of the barriers which make Bible reading difficult, paving the way for deep connection with God and others through the Scriptures.
[ Our humble thanks to Tyndale for their partnership with today’s devotion ]
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