Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 60
June 9, 2021
Why You Don’t have to Be Afraid, What Love is, & Why It Wins (Farm Lessons #2)
They broke ground the other day, the way you break open a piñata and the breaking makes you believe in good things coming.
It’s been a hard spring.
Cold and wet. As if the sun’s been hiding, grieving a heartbreaking world.
When the sky finally leaked itself dry, the Farmer and one of his freckled girls, they head to the barren fields with their seeds and their willing hands.
The Farmer’s wearing the same sweatshirt he’s had the last 12 years — since before this daughter of his was born. The man likes familiar things, worn denim, beat up ball caps. She wears a smile a mile wide.
You can relax into an easy smile when you trust that your father holds your world.
His young farm girl daughter, she’s never broke the earth before. Never swung up onto a tractor seat and shifted that brute into gear and dropped that cultivator into the dirt and tore up the field.
So the Farmer hauls off the planter dropping thousands of seeds into the earth — walks across the field to show her how to run the cultivator, how to make a seed bed in front of him with the planter. How to drop those teeth down into the dirt and break up the soil under her, so that he can come behind and lay down those seeds.
I watch how he shows her, how the father shows his daughter —- how she will have to shift the gears, how she will have to run the hydraulic levers, when to lift and when to drop, and when to turn and co-ordinate the whole dance. She never takes her eyes off him, nodding, repeating, memorizing.
She believes him: A field has to be broken open up before it can grow anything up.
And he says what he always says: “Just stay steady. No fits and starts — just stay steady. Trust it as it comes.” I hear too… nod too. Steadiness is a balm to brokenness.
And I’m watching her eyes and say what I always say, maybe for me the most: “Don’t be afraid — don’t even be afraid of being afraid.”
And she winks, “Got it.”
Spring’s warming on our shoulders.
You can feel fear — but you don’t have to be afraid of being afraid.
When you aren’t afraid of being afraid — you transform fear into friend.
Sure, she may be a bit intimidated by the beast of a tractor she’s wheeling down the field, by the managing of the cultivator dance she has to choreograph, but the thing is, you can feel afraid but:
Feelings get to accompany you — but they don’t get to control you.
“Feelings get to accompany you — but they don’t get to control you. Feelings get to inform you but they don’t get to form you.”
Feelings get to inform you — but they don’t get to form you.
Feelings get to keep you company — but they don’t get to keep you in bondage. Only God Himself keeps you, cups you, carries you.
The girl drops the cultivator in… and again, always again, you just let the brokenness come.
The field smells earthy, like loamy possibility.
Brokenness never has to be the end— brokenness can always be the beginning. Brokenness can be the beginning of growth. The only way for anything to grow— is for something to break. Growth only happens when the status quo is broken.
Change can only happen when what is — is broken.
Do not be afraid of broken things —— this is the beginning of changing things. Growing things. Growing and changing you.
Only a broken field yields.
“Only a broken field yields.”
And our farm girl pulls down the field, breaking open the earth, so that seeds can be buried deep and break in the darkest places where they seem abandoned — and then resurrect to abundant life.
And I sit down on the edge of the field and watch Farm Girl break soil and there’s that cross drawn this morning on my wrist.
What looks more broken than the Cross — but what wins more than the Cross?
Yet the Cross doesn’t look like it’s winning. The Cross doesn’t make Love look like it’s really winning.
The Cross is losing, pouring out, being given — to those who don’t love at all.
The Cross conquers everything — but looks more broken than anything.
The Cross proves it: Love may not seem self-fulfilling, or look self-fulfilling, or feel self-fulfilling.
In actual fact: Deepest love — may look deeply broken. Do not be afraid of this. The Cross nails it down: Love wins — even when it looks broken. To love, you have to learn how to suffer. Tell that to the newly weds, the new parents, the new graduates, this brave new world.
When you are most loving — suffering will most likely result.
Doing the right thing may not look like success but like suffering — and that may be the most successful of all.
Doing the right thing — may mean suffering through things — because things are broken in this world.
“Is God’s definition of love about breaking our happiness — or breaking us free from the self-love that threatens to imprison us all?”
But this isn’t the sexy or trendy thing to concede, so nobody’s trying to hawk this on the social media streams or the shelves of Target and watching our Farm girl breaking up of the earth down the expanse of the field, it can come, and there’s nothing to fear about it:
Is God’s definition of love about breaking our happiness — or breaking us free from the self-love that threatens to imprison us all?
This is the question that can reshape our whole world.
God is love — doesn’t translate into: God is about my desires.
God is love — doesn’t mean God is about self-fulfillment.
God is love — means to deny self.
God is love — means God is about suffering. God is about being broken open and poured out.
Love never wins if you’re really just loving your self.
We can forget: God isn’t called to affirm our desires — but He may call us to firmly nail those desires to the Cross.
And the fearless Truth of Christianity is that what dies — will rise.
“God isn’t called to affirm our desires — but He may call us to firmly nail those desires to the Cross. When you are called to a Cross — God is always calling us to our greatest good.”
When you are called to a Cross — God is always calling us to our greatest good. Do not fear.
The wind blows across the field behind one girl who is being brave behind the wheel. There are truths that will blow where they will and they will change the world because they never change.
The girl looks over to her Father — and they catch each other’s eye and I witness that smile.
She lets the brokenness come. She isn’t afraid. She trusts her Father’s way to plant what will rise and this is the beauty of brave.
Walking back across the field to the pick-up parked up at the road, the open and willing ground crumbles bit under my every step and I can’t help but ache a bit with surrendered beauty of here, this moment, just as it is, just as it always comes.
Only a broken field, only a hand broken open, only a heart broken open, only a life broken open, yields.
There is never anything to fear.
When one of your own farm boys takes an eye to the sky over his Farmer dad & our broken fields (or — one of the reasons why I flat-out love farming. A yielded life yields. )
Pick up our story of The Broken Way and how to love a brokenhearted world. This one’s for all of us who have felt our hearts break a bit…
This one’s for the brave and the busted and the real and dreamers and the sufferers and the believers.
This one’s for those who dare to take The Broken Way… into abundance
June 7, 2021
How to Turn Your Panic into Praise
Becky Harling, authentically admits she has wrestled anxiety for most of her life. But in a particularly dark season, she discovered the extraordinary power of praise to quiet her anxious heart. I can relate to Becky’s story of anxiety. I believe in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic, many have become paralyzed by anxiety. Becky, lays out a practical plan for times of anxiety. She encourages those who wrestle with worry to turn their panic into praise. It’s a grace to welcome Becky to the farm’s front porch today…
For as far back as I can remember, I’ve struggled with anxiety. I’m pretty sure I was a neurotic little kid who worried about a whole lot of stuff.
I worried about my friends—had they accepted Jesus into their hearts, and would they go to heaven?
“For as far back as I can remember, I’ve struggled with anxiety.”
I worried about my family—would they die and leave me all alone? I worried about suffering for my faith in Jesus—would I be brave enough? I know. Neurotic, right?
I remember the emergency drills we had at school during the Cuban Missile Crisis when I was in kindergarten and first grade. An alarm would sound, and everyone would immediately crawl under their desks. Worry and fear invaded my mind: “Were the Cubans coming to get us?” I remember thinking, “If we get bombed this desk will fall on my head.”
My anxiety followed me into adulthood and skyrocketed when I became a parent. How would I keep my children safe in a harsh and violent world? How would I keep them healthy (especially during the season when we were living in Sudan as missionaries)? What were the best parenting methods to raise kids to love Jesus and want to follow Him? My questions were endless and my fears varied.
In college, I discovered the joy of the book of Psalms.
I began each day reading some, writing them out, and borrowing the words in my prayers. It felt like the psalmists were giving voice to many of my feelings. I discovered that they didn’t give easy answers for negative emotions. Instead, they invited me to feel all my emotions and bring them to God.
As I copied their words in my journal, as well as my own thoughts and feelings, my heart found comfort. I felt understood. It was as if the psalmists were my empathetic friends.
While still in the journey of raising kids, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Nothing sends anxiety into a tailspin quite like cancer. Questions flooded my mind: Would I be alive to finish raising my kids? Would I live to see them married and having children of their own? How would cancer impact their faith? I dove into Psalm 46 and Psalm 27, memorizing both. God needed to become my refuge in a new, relevant, and life-sustaining way.
“As I began to practice this two-step process, pouring out my heart, and then praising God by faith, I felt a shift in my spirit.“
As I grappled with the severity of my diagnosis, a mentor of mine challenged me to begin each day by praising God. At the time it felt ridiculous. Who feels like praising God for cancer? Right? Yet, I figured I had nothing to lose.
In addition to memorizing the Psalms, I began borrowing the words of the psalmists to praise God. “God, I praise You! You are my refuge and strength! You are my ever-present help in times of trouble. Even with cancer, I will not fear. You are with me and I praise You” (based on Psalm 46:1, 5).
The more I studied the Psalms, the more I discovered that the psalmists practiced a two-step rhythm: They poured out their hearts to God authentically and then praised God by faith passionately.
When they poured out their hearts, their honesty was raw.
They held nothing back and didn’t worry about how their anger, hurt, or worry was coming across to God.
They just dumped. “Strike all my enemies on the jaw!” (Ps. 3:7). “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?” (Ps. 13:1). Don’t you feel like praying that sometimes?
Their praise was equally exuberant and passionate. “Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp” (Ps. 149:3). Imagine uninhibited and unreserved dancing-in-the-aisles, throw- your-hands-up-and-shout type of praise.
“Gradually, faith replaced fear, peace replaced worry, and joy replaced anxiety.“
As I began to practice this two-step process, pouring out my heart, and then praising God by faith, I felt a shift in my spirit.
Gradually, faith replaced fear, peace replaced worry, and joy replaced anxiety.
New confidence and courage rose, not in myself, but in God’s goodness and what He could do through me.
You see, “God invites us to bring before Him our rage, doubt, and terror—but He intends for us to do so as a part of worship.”
I wonder about you. Have any worries? Fears? Anxiety? Concerns? Anything keeping you up at night? While you might not have a diagnosable anxiety disorder, you may still have some worries or be dealing with residual fear after the pandemic. Perhaps you’re just stressed and overwhelmed. Let’s face it, in our fast-paced, packed-full lives, there are quite a few things to feel anxious about.
“As you praise Him in the middle of your anxiety, the Holy Spirit awakens your soul to His presence and the Holy One calms you down.“
Is God angry with us for our anxiety? No. As the psalmist writes in Psalm 103: 13–14, God is a compassionate Father who is aware that we are dust. We are human.
Does He want to help us live victoriously over our anxiety? Yes. Does He want us to experience joy? Yes. How do I know? Because it’s written all throughout His Word.
“When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy” (Ps. 94:19). The idea behind this verse is when our anxieties multiply—and they do, don’t they?—it’s God’s comfort that calms us down and settles us in joy. That’s the extraordinary power of praise.
As you praise Him in the middle of your anxiety, the Holy Spirit awakens your soul to His presence and the Holy One calms you down.
Why don’t you take a moment and write out that verse on a card, and then tape it to your mirror? It would be a great idea to memorize those words.
The next time you feel worry or fear overwhelming you, turn your panic into praise.
Pour out your heart authentically and then praise God by faith.
Authentic. Passionate. Funny and Biblical all describe Becky Harling. A best-selling author, Becky is a popular speaker at conferences, retreats and other events. She is the author of 11 books including, How to Listen so Your Kids Will Talk, Psalms for the Anxious Heart and The Extraordinary Power of Praise. Becky is a certified coach with the John Maxwell Team and a seasoned Bible teacher.
In The Extraordinary Power of Praise, Becky wants you to experience the surprising truth that praising God is exactly what you need when anxiety threatens to overwhelm you. The psalms of Scripture offer you a twofold solution: first, the honest words to pour out your heart to God with no-holds-barred realism about your situation. And second, the confident words to praise your almighty God, who holds all things in His hands even when it feels like your world is spinning out of control.
The Extraordinary Power of Praise is suited for both individual and group use. In this 6-week Bible study, you’ll delve into handpicked psalms whose sacred words are designed to comfort the anxious heart. You’ll learn to face your fears, find contentment through praise, lament your struggles, worship while you wait, rekindle joy, and live in victory. Join Becky as you discover the abiding truth that worshiping God is the key to overcoming anxiety.
[ Our humble thanks to Moody Publishers for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
June 5, 2021
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [06.05.21]
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:
Meg Loeks
Meg Loeks
Meg Loeks
Meg Loeks
Meg Loeks
Meg Loeksbeyond grateful when she shares a glimpse into her beautiful life with us here
Missing Deaf Dog and Deaf Owner Reunited in Heartwarming Moment
because we all need to be rescued…
lost and found: Freediver Recovers Engagement Ring Lost in this large lake
A town living under one roof – anyone else wanna go visit?
a place where everyone is seen and heard
reunions like these? never get old: Woman reunited with fishermen 35 years after they rescued her
“You know everyone says God works in mysterious ways…”
really powerful teaching from Priscilla Shirer… don’t miss this one
Well, hello JUNE!
“Whatever you do, do everything…giving thanks” Col. 3:17
God’s will is for us to give thanks in all things…because this is how God knows we can live through anything.
All the research concludes that if you write down just 3 things you’re grateful for every day, you increase your happiness by 25%! Who doesn’t want that?! And giving thanks in all things is a God-command for our joy. Let’s do it!
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 Joy Dare too! Scavenger hunt for God’s glory!
Print the month of June Joy Dare, and the entire year of Joy Dares, right here
this is really something: Pianist plays again thanks to stranger’s invention
yes! must check this! Free and for you: 2021 Summer Bucket List Printable Poster
don’t miss this story… believe it – God is always with you
Resrouce: Set of 6 garden markers made in India, available at Grace Crafted Home… classic loveliness in our Fair Trade store, Grace Crafted Home:
using these items every day here on the farm
Your home and life can tell a story — that’s changing the story of the world.
(100% of all funds not only empowers artisans around the world, but partners with Mercy House Global to support several homes for young women and their babies in crisis pregnancies in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya)
so amazed!! This innovative young Kenyan scientist? Is turning Nairobi’s mountain of plastic waste into paving bricks…for affordable housing and employment
Are you fearful of that trial lurking in the shadows? You can face any trial head-on because Jesus, the Lion of Judah, is greater than any adversary. In Him, you are a conqueror and overcomer.
Thank you, Joni Eareckson Tada
Meshack: Living His Best Life After 6 Surgeries and Many Prayers
Beyond grateful for the life saving work of Compassion International
Dysfunction to Dynasty – Ch. 1 Phil Robertson: Drunk and Lawless –
the patriarch of the Robertson family shares his vulnerable story of hope
glory, glory, glory
Do you find yourself lacking a desire to read God’s Word? thank you for this, Beth Moore
You know how you want the timeline for all the hard things to be different — for all the hopes, for all the healing, for all the restoration to happier times?
Yep, get it. This is what is helping me:
When You Want a Different Timeline & the Story is Hard
tears: for every parent… slow down and breathe
Post of the week from these parts here
So this is where I’m kinda at:
You can be okay even when you don’t feel okay because who you are is not how you are.Y our heart can kind break more times than you can count which only means your heart has been made into abundantly more.
If you’re sometimes not okay, this is how you can be okay — even when things aren’t okay:
When Things Aren’t Okay, How You Can Still Be Okay
so so beautiful… Believe For It
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. Learn how you can get yours today!
never, ever give up — there is always hope
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: When We Fall Apart
… so, yeah, we may not know how tomorrow’s going to go,
but we could lean on the One who always goes before us & already knows.
And, yeah, we may not have the foggiest idea how we’re going to make it,
but there’s a Hand that reaches through the fog, takes ours & He makes a way —
because that’s His name. He is The Way.
And, honest, though we may be downright weary of the heartbreaks, the headlines, the hard roads,
God cups our faces: He doesn’t demand us to carry the weight of understanding everything — He only asks we stand close to Him & let Him undertake everything.
God never lays the weight on you to be amazing.
He only invites you into the most profound choice in all the universe:
Rest.
Rest in His strength to do it,
rest in His ways above ours,
rest in Him who is with you, in you & is 100% for you.
Leave all the amazing to Him.
And His Amazing Grace finds us where we are right now and is taking us — even right now — where we’ve only dreamed.
[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.
June 3, 2021
When You Want a Different Timeline & the Story is Hard
It’s been hard.
You know — a brutally hard year, an unexpectedly hard season, an endlessly hard road.
“He who is driven by fears, delays the comfort of God.“
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.
Five weeks ago today, I got a surreal call, and I was wild to send the words back, standing there feeling life as we knew it all implode, and it felt like some dark roof caving in that I couldn’t stop. Some day soon, I’ll unfold that call, that story, but the point for now is, for days, I tried to breathe through this heavy smoke haze that descends when your life is on fire and your house is burning down. At night, for weeks, sleep refused to come.
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.“
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.
You don’t want to know how many nights I laid there, letting the tenderness of it massage out the knots of my ache:
We can simply want our situation solved — when God simply wants to be our answer.
“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.
In the middle of things seemingly not working out for us — God is working out something in us.
Do not ever fear, ever. Simply do not ever stop patiently waiting on God.
“But hope that is seen is no hope at all.
Who hopes for what they already have?
But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” (Roman 18:24-15)
This is the epiphany that comes straight up through a thousand dark places:
The One who lives beyond time holds all our timelines and He holds us.
“The One who lives beyond time holds all our timelines and He holds us.”
The Spirit is married to patience.
Be impatient — and you drive a wedge between you and the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
In a world of ache and losses and unexpected turns and tight grips for control — patiently waiting with open hand is a radical act — a radical art.
Open hands defy the dark —and testify to a radical act of trust.
Grace beyond our imaginings can fall into open hands.
New things will happen to us — unknown, unwanted, unexpected things — and we can name those things grace .
In a world preoccupied with control— the most radical act is openhanded trust.
“In a world preoccupied with control— the most radical act is openhanded trust.”
It’s happening slowly now: I am learning to fall asleep with hands open, palms waiting and open to the willing sky.
* * * * *
One evening this spring, walking home from the woods, I’d paused to watch a butterfly slip the casing of its jewel of a cocoon.
The sun was warm on my back. I waited. I wanted.
I wanted to see wings, I wanted to see fluttering and soaring, I wanted a miracle to unfurl. I had expectations of glory.
I waited more. The sun slid down my back. The butterfly stirred, then paused, rustled slowly— impossibly, frustratingly slowly.
I exhaled. Warm breath on the waiting.
The cocoon case cracked a bit. And I exhaled again, impatience unleashed.
Each impatient exhale on that cocoon — kindled the butterfly and you can come to think that you can grow a miracle on your own timeline. A miracle of healing, a miracle of mending, a miracle of everything righting itself.
“It takes courage to listen with our whole heart to the tick of God’s timing, rather than march to the loud beat of our fears.“
Then it all tumbled faster than life, on the kind of timeline I like — the case split open, the butterfly braved the outside — and right there was the crumpled horror — wet and wrinkled wings that the trembling butterfly heaved relentlessly, pointlessly, to unfold.
I had forced my way, my timing — instead of letting things unfold in His perfect timing, under the gradual warmth of the sun — and it didn’t bring forth life.
I’d stood there, nauseated, and I could touch the truth of it:
Impatience always inflicts injury to wings. Impatience with healing, impatience with the state of things, impatience with restoration.
The wings in my palm flailed.
Wanting things on your timing, your way — can destroy any way at all.
“Ours is only to let God grow good things in us. Ours isn’t to fix things — ours is to wait on God in all things.”
The butterfly’s whole body quaked with the effort to make wet and hurried wings impossibly part and lift.
It takes courage to listen with our whole heart to the tick of God’s timing, rather than march to the loud beat of our fears.
The butterfly shrivelled soundlessly in the palm of my hand…. stilled… and died.
And the casing of my heart split: I hadn’t known. I had never seen it as clearly:
Much suffering comes from much impatience.
Walking up through the grasses home, it’s like every blade, every leaf, ever aching, broken, hoping place knew it, murmured it:
We cannot make things grow… ours is only to grow in grace.
You cannot force healing, you cannot force restoration, you cannot force timelines.
Ours is only to let God grow good things in us. Ours isn’t to fix things — ours is to wait on God in all things.
One could learn to walk with the palms open, walk that way in broad daylight. When I opened the back door, that followed me in too:
“There’s never been anything so far gone— that hopefulness can’t come back.”
There’s never been anything so far gone — that hopefulness can’t come back.
The air turned right then.
True, it’s been a brutally hard year, longer, and very true, we are weary and grieving losses and the world feels strange and tender and desperate for different timelines.
And on the margins, we touch our own wounds that no one sees, we trace the outlines of our own unspoken broken — but we will still rise.
We can still rise in the face of hopelessness — because we are still held in the arms of God.
Pick up our story of The Broken Way and in a broken world, with a whole bunch of broken dreams and busted plans — discover the way through a brokenhearted world.
This one’s for the brave and the busted and the real and dreamers and the sufferers and the believers — and the ones who desperately need real hope.
This one’s for those who dare to take The Broken Way… into abundance.
June 1, 2021
When Things Aren’t Okay, How You Can Still Be Okay
So 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 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 feel a bit like a fool — you have One who proves that real love always makes anyone the wisest fool who gives more, lives more, forgives more, because love defies logic, because love is the self-giving, cruciform foolishness that is the ultimate wisdom of the universe.
It’s okay to feel behind — you have One who is the Head and the Author and the Maker and the Finisher and the Carrier and the Warrior and nothing is over until He carries you over the finish line.
It’s okay to feel on the outside — you have One who is passionate about you on the inside, who wants to be with you so desperately, He moves into you, gets into your skin, so you’re never alone, dwells in you, moves into your empty places, your rejected places, your abandoned places and fills you with chosenness and wholeness and with-ness — because He knows the fulfilled life is an inside job.
“You have One who left the clamor of the 99, to find you, remind you, remake you, rename you, release you.”It’s okay to feel spent — you have One who pays you all His attention, who says you are worth costing Him everything — and then He bought you back from the pit because you are priceless to Him.
It’s okay to feel whatever you feel — “because you don’t judge your feelings; you feel your feelings—and then give them to God.”
“Feelings are meant be fully felt and then fully surrendered to God.”
“Pain begs to be felt—or life will beg you to feel not one emotion at all. Emotion means movement — and emotions are meant to move you toward God.” ~ The Broken Way
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,
“His love for you is magnetic, His welcome of you is galactic, His purpose through you is cosmic, His commitment to you is stratospheric, and His hope in you is meteoric.”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.
This week, these worries, this world, may leave you feeling a bit depressed — but you have a God who is obsessed with you.
His love for you is magnetic, His welcome of you is galactic, His purpose through you is cosmic, His commitment to you is stratospheric , and His hope in you is meteoric.
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.
You find yourself at a crossroads every day — and what you need to know is the way to abundance.
How do you find the way that lets you become what you hope to be?
How do you know the way forward that lets you heal, that lets you flourish, the way that takes your brokenness — and makes wholeness?
How can you afford to take any other way?
The Way of Abundance — is the way forward that every heart longs for.
May 29, 2021
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for your Weekend [05.29.21]
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:
_thepaintedsky
_thepaintedsky
_thepaintedsky
_thepaintedsky
_thepaintedskyhow about a peaceful beach walk to bring in Memorial Day weekend
never, ever give up
oh my heart: How tulips helped 2 women form a unique friendship — love, love, love this
because we all need a friend…
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News Movement (@goodnews_movement)
community care and love changes everything…
A woman who lost her son five years ago is keeping his memory alive by encouraging others to spread kindness — one random act at a time… come see what she did
When a father says I’m sorry…
25 Amazing Winners Of The 2021 Milky Way Photographer Of The Year Awards
found this interesting: The Evolution of the Home
High School Runner with Cancer Crosses Finish Line with Help from Her Teammates, arm in arm… must see
Handloomed Cotton Throw Rug
Grace Crafted HomeSo, one of our farm home’s favorite rugs? Comes off a loom we as a family donated to previously unemployed grandmothers in Nairobi, Kenya, to give them dignified work through Mercy House Global to support their vulnerable families.
The Farmer & I love these hand made rugs, in part because?
All our homes tell a story.
Every blanket, every spoon, every plate, in every home — began somewhere in the world, was made by someone in the world, and somehow changed a bit of the world — for better or worse. The welcome mats under our feet, the steaming mugs in our hands, the full bowls on our tables, could all tell a grace story — a story of fair trade, a story of life change, a story of saving, Gospel grace.
And our “Miujiza” Cotton Throw Rug, in our Fair-trade story, Grace Crafted Home, tells SUCH a story!
Miujiza means “miracle” in Swahili and this hand-loomed cotton throw rug is nothing short of a miracle for families I have personally met in Kenya.
⠀
And THESE DAYS, our homes? Maybe these days at home require a little extra GRACE?
yes…Faithful God
Listening well means more than hearing. It means slowing down, asking good questions, and bending our attention to love the person in front of us.
The Prodigal – Getting out of a rut takes the help of someone else. But when one of their own was trapped in drugs and deception, it took… a family.
Dysfunction to Dynasty – Jep Robertson: on Drugs and Deception
Honestly — this is worth several reads.
Who is your genuine friend who thinks very differently? This is worthy of deep consideration…
glory, glory, glory
7 Strong Mothers Whose Love Is Fiercer Than Poverty
Brenda Crouch bravely shares her story of overcoming the abuse she suffered as a child and an adult
Lisa Harper discusses finding joy and peace in God, even when our worlds seem dark and hopeless. Listen as she encourages us to let God guide us, even in our toughest seasons of life. God will never leave you.
How to Read the Bible:
a condensed history of how the Bible came into existence, and the different forms of the Bible in the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christian traditions.
Resource: Wooden prayer hands coming to The Keeping CompanyPost of the week from these parts here:
You ever want a different story, one without pain or suffering, ever want the drama and trauma of your story to stop, your story to turn a page & all your heartbreak to be overturned?
Tuck this in your pocket for the days & pain that make no sense & you just want hope to hold you:
Why Do We Suffer: When You Want to Avoid Suffering, But The Suffering Won’t Stop
Ephesians 3:7–13: A Plan No Mere Man Can Accomplish
Preaching, reading, thinking, praying can only get us so far. God must open eyes, awaken souls, enlighten minds, and answer prayer. Thank you, John Piper
Um… So? My sister, two of her daughters & our farmgirl, Shalom, are all running in the To Write Love on Her Arms 5k to raise awareness and funds for mental health.
“Every dollar raised will support TWLOHA’s mission of providing hope and help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide.”
Throw in with our family? Support our team by making a donation! The process is fast, easy, and secure.
The Sunrise Challenge fundraiser invites Canadians to wake up with the sun for one week (May 31-June 6) while raising money to support the groundbreaking mental health research and suicide prevention initiatives happening at Canadian Association of Mental Health. By rising together and rallying our friends, family and co-workers behind the cause, we can change the way the world sees and treats mental illness.
Would you join my brother, sister and I and rise with us and support our team in mental health research this week? I’ll be sharing my sunrise pics all week over on IG — and rise up and join our team right here.
Talking to Jesus
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: The Gospel
Regardless of what Instagram or all the glossy ads are shilling:
All your suffering isn’t some unique anomaly, suffering is the universal experience of all humanity.
Suffering doesn’t mean you’re cursed, suffering means you’re human.
The question isn’t “Why is there brokenness and suffering in my life?” — but “Why wouldn’t there be suffering because such is life in a broken world?”
Buy the lie that your life is supposed to be heaven on earth, and suffering can be a torturous hell. But accept and expect that life is a battle, then suffering isn’t a problem but part of earth’s topography to cross on our way to heaven.
There is no point trying to *question* suffering, the point is how are you going to *answer* suffering.
The question never is if you understand the why of your suffering — and the answer always is how are you going to stand up and walk through your suffering.
You don’t have to know the reason for your suffering — you only have to know your response through the suffering.
And this has to be my response to suffering: Surrender.
Surrender and bravely open your arms cruciform and welcome whatever comes.
Our openhanded welcome
to whatever comes
invites healing wellness to come.
Surrender to His Story and welcome the Author Himself and whatever Word He brings.
Wellness comes as we welcome the Word and whatever line He writes into our story.
God’s promises never claim we won’t be afflicted; He promises we will never be evicted from God’s presence.
This is always enough.
I wrap this comfort around myself when my aching heart forgets again and again.
[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.
May 25, 2021
Why Do We Suffer: When You Want to Avoid Suffering, But The Suffering Won’t Stop
Three weeks to the day after my dad was killed, I look down in the shower to find another electrode sticker from my heart cardiogram unexpectedly floating at my feet.
“How can a heart that’s been cracked open ever have closure?”
I had already staggered through more than two weeks of this blur of nauseating trauma after Dad had been found crushed under the wheel of a tractor tire, had sat through these surreal matter-of-fact interviews of a police investigation, had played and replayed conversations and events and the last few months in pain-staking slow motion, when, on a Saturday morning phone call with my brother and sister, processing the nightmarish confusion of the previous week, I had spiked a fever of 103.5, my joints, from my every knuckle down to the joints in my little toes, burn-ached like they were on fire, and I couldn’t stop the chills and my teeth from chattering with this feverish cold.
As we’re currently weathering through the demoralizing isolation of our third lockdown and strict stay at home orders, with all borders closed, due to a global pandemic and local COVID case numbers, had I somehow still contracted COVID in the aftermath of police and first responders and sympathetic neighbors with bowls of chili after Dad was killed?
“But it’s almost like she’s in sepsis?” my sister’s stroking my hand, asking the ER doctor.
“Honestly, though — what can it be in a pandemic but Covid?” I ask through clattering teeth, pulling my blanket up around ears, like I can find warmth that I haven’t been able to find since I stood all day out in the rain on my childhood farm, waiting for my Dad’s body to be released from the scene.
Resource: Wooden prayer hands coming to The Keeping Company
Resource: My Word for the Year: h o p e …. Bracelet: at The Keeping Company
Resource: Wooden prayer hands coming to The Keeping Company
“Well, the truth is: You could be sick with about a million other things,” a technician’s sticking electrodes across my chest, prepping me for an echocardiogram. Had the ER doctor seen in my file that unexpected record of my heart failure from a few years back?
“Maybe non-closure is the way to stay open to really living: Suffering cracks opens the heart to tenderly see and truly stand with the ache of all humans.”
Maybe that is what has spiked my fever, ignited my joints on fire, elevated my white blood cell count, made my body rage with ache:
My heart is broken that my Dad was killed in the very same farmyard as my little sister, both of them crushed to death in the very same way, underneath moving tires.
My heart is broken for the same violent trauma that’s haunting our stunned and bruised family all over again, like a black stalking dog that we somehow can’t shake.
My heart is broken over the fact that now my body seems to be breaking down in an inferno of feverish pain and I want the trauma for my kids, for my mama, to stop, I want the drama in my story to stop, I want this story to turn a page and this story to turn around and all our heartbreak to be overturned.
But what I don’t want is closure.
“Suffering lets the soul see — see the deep suffering around us, see the deep suffering within us, see the suffering Savior who deeply absorbs all suffering, and carries us Home where there is no suffering for evermore.”
Because the truth is: How can a heart that’s been cracked open ever have closure?
Maybe non-closure is the way to stay open to really living: Suffering cracks opens the heart to tenderly see and truly stand with the ache of all humans.
Suffering lets the soul see — see the deep suffering around us, see the deep suffering within us, see the suffering Savior who deeply absorbs all suffering, and carries us Home where there is no suffering for evermore.
“Meningitis — that’s our current working hypothesis,” is what the ER doctor comes back with after my cardiogram results come back. The membranes covering my brain, my spinal cord, are swelling with some kind of infection? Why in the world is all this heartache happening and how do you make the pain stop?
I roll over slowly toward the IV pole and try to keep telling myself this:
Suffering doesn’t mean you’re cursed, suffering means you’re human.
Regardless of what Instagram or all the glossy ads are shilling:
All your suffering isn’t some unique anomaly, suffering is the universal experience of all humanity.
The question isn’t “Why is there brokenness and suffering in my life?” — but “Why wouldn’t there be suffering because such is life in a broken world?”
Buy the lie that your life is supposed to be heaven on earth, and suffering can be a torturous hell. But accept and expect that life is a battle, then suffering isn’t a problem but part of earth’s topography to cross on our way to heaven.
“Suffering doesn’t mean you’re cursed, suffering means you’re human.”
I don’t know what time I get rolled out of ER and into a cranial CT scan, but it is after hours of IV antibiotics dripping into my fiery veins, trying to extinguish this inner ball of flames I’m sweating out my pores. I try to stifle my teeth chattering as the CT machine spins and whirls around my head like some physics-bending, time travel machine that can catapult me out of this story. Beam me up and out of here, doc.
I close my eyes.
There is no point trying to question suffering, the point is how are you going to answer suffering.
The question never is if you understand the why of your suffering — and the answer always is how are you going to stand up and walk through your suffering.
You don’t have to know the reason for your suffering — you only have to know your response through the suffering.
I tell myself this as I grip the steel bed rail and the doctor prepares the needles to puncture the bottom of my spine and draw out fluid from the base of my spine to send to the lab to test for bacterial meningitis. As she draws the needle in and out of my spine this is how I comfort myself, this is my answer to all the suffering:
Keep fighting your story and you will keep losing the plot. Surrender to the Author, the Word, and He will keep you.
“The question never is if you understand the why of your suffering — and the answer always is how are you going to stand up and walk through your suffering.”
The suffering isn’t meant to drive you away from God, but it can drive you to the only place in the cosmos that is ultimately safe: His open arms.
No suffering can sever us from the tenderness of Jesus who suffers with us.
“Just don’t move, as I move in and out of your spine here to fill this vial,” the doctor is bent over the base of my bare spine, and this has to be my response to suffering: Surrender.
Surrender and bravely open your arms cruciform and welcome whatever comes.
Our openhanded welcome
to whatever comes
invites healing wellness to come.
Surrender to His Story and welcome the Author Himself and whatever Word He brings.
Wellness comes as we welcome the Word and whatever line He writes into our story.
This is the only response to suffering that doesn’t cause more suffering.
God’s promises never claim we won’t be afflicted; He promises we will never be evicted from God’s presence.
This is always enough. I wrap this comfort around myself when my aching heart forgets again and again.
“God’s promises never claim we won’t be afflicted; He promises we will never be evicted from God’s presence. ”
There will be 2 CT scans, that lumbar puncture, an echocardiogram, chest x-rays, 2 rounds of bloodwork, a negative COVID test, IV antibiotics, and another visit back to ER for more IV antibiotics, but that fever, elevated white blood cell count, and mysteriously spiked CRP level, will only indicate a bacterial infection, but give no clues to the mysterious source.
There will be a 10 day course of 8 antibiotic tablets, 4 times a day at home, there will be laying out on the grass in the orchard with the sheep and the hens, staring at the sky and waiting for strength to return to my wrung out body, there will be follow-up doctor appointments, and this long head and heart fog of trauma and grief, and there will still be the long waiting for the report from the police to understand how Dad was killed.
And there will be sunrise and sunset without my Dad here and I will try not to panic or feel utterly swept away by waves of abandonment.
Resource: My Word for the Year: h o p e …. Bracelet: at The Keeping Company
Resource: Wooden prayer hands coming to The Keeping Company
But there will be this too, there will be that one word that found me at the beginning of the year, my word for this year that I didn’t know how I would need: Hope.
“Hope is an actual noun, hope is a concrete reality that we hold in hand, a reality that we can put both of our hands around and feel it hold us, steady us.”
I will stare at the sky and believe: Hope is more than a verb, hope is more than some crazy thing that we do, more than this brazen, defiant act of groping and grasping in the dark.
Hope is an actual noun, hope is a concrete reality that we hold in hand, a reality that we can put both of our hands around and feel it hold us, steady us.
“We who have run for our very lives to God, have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go” (Hebrews 6:19 MSG).
That morning three weeks after Dad is killed, I will lean over and pick it up there at my feet, that electrode sticker from my echocardiogram and my broken heart will beat it out sure and loud through the open cracks:
If your feet have run to God, now, with both hands, grab hold of hope.
Pick up our story of The Broken Way and in a broken world, with a whole bunch of broken dreams and busted plans — discover the way through a brokenhearted world.
This one’s for the brave and the busted and the real and dreamers and the sufferers and the believers — and the ones who desperately need real hope.
This one’s for those who dare to take The Broken Way… into abundance.
May 22, 2021
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [05.22.21]
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:
lucybee985
lucybee985
lucybee985deep breath: enjoy all your beautiful moments this weekend
the kindest surprise
Meet Stella… a dog who talks
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News Movement (@goodnews_movement)
an extraordinary way to love
can you even?! at 89 – what she’s doing?!
so this store owner in hides crosses in furniture so every home has ‘a blessing of some kind’
fascinating: The story of tap dance, step by step
10-Year-Old Refugee, Once Homeless, Becomes National Chess Master: ‘Very Happy’
yes! Gospel Song
Stranger’s act of kindness calms boy with autism
God Calls You To Stand Out…just so good…thank you, Lisa Harper
so i asked them to smile
so i asked them to smile
so i asked them to smileBefore and After Photos Reveal How Much a Smile Changes a Person’s Aura [Interview]
The books of the Old Testament prophets are packed with dense poetry and wild imagery. In this video, we’ll learn how these prophetic books contribute to the storyline of the Bible and why it’s worth learning how to read them more attentively.
amazed: She started out as the school custodian. Years later, she’s its most beloved teacher
Not Made for This World… thank you, Joni Eareckson Tada
[image error] Joy ProutyIs forgiveness in the face of deep pain and injustice even possible? What does loving your enemies look like in the face of tragedy?
You don’t want to miss this story of brutal loss and beautiful hope:
How to Forgive When the Unthinkable Happens
never, ever give up…Are you striving for success, or what really matters?
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. Learn how you can get yours today!
“you are not hidden, you are not hopeless…I will send out an army to find you in the middle of the dark“
When Grace Troubles Us More Than It Amazes Us
glory, glory, glory
because we all need someone to come along beside us
Jesus breaks every chain
Whatever you are struggling with today —whatever fire it is you’re walking through — you don’t want to miss this powerful message of hope:
Even If: Finding Hope in the Furnace of Mental Illness
Ephesians 3:7–13 …Gospel Ministry Before Angels and Demons… thank you, John Piper
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.
… so yeah, some of us had a pretty rough day, God.
BUT — for folks like us, there’s no rough day, rough season or rough road that can beat us up so bad that it steals our wallet full of thank-yous. We’re the folks who can still say at the end of hard days,
thank You, Lord, that there’s not a tear that falls on earth
that isn’t caught in heaven.
We’re the brave who keep in the game because you keep us in Christ and we can stand in the midst of the impossible & thank You for a faith that passes the test of discouragement —
because You part our Red Seas & have us pass through an ocean of overwhelm & keep going, on the strength of You.
We’re the people at the end of the day who can say:
Thank You for being the pillowed
rest into which we can sink real deep & find a Peace that passes all understanding —because no matter what’s overwhelming us, underneath us are Your everlasting arms.
And no way, no how, You won’t let go —
You won’t let go of us.
In the name of the only One who
loved us to death, to life…
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
[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.
May 17, 2021
Even If: Finding Hope in the Furnace of Mental Illness
I was drawn to Sarah Robinson’s story because she speaks so openly about believing the lie that being depressed or anxious made her a bad Christian. How easy it is for each of us to imagine that if we just had enough faith or prayed the right prayer or got over “that” sin, we would find healing from mental illness or other difficult circumstances. Sarah reminds us what is most true about us, what matters most: We are God’s beloved. Nothing we do can separate us from that love, even in the darkest times. As Sarah says, it’s both really hard and it’s already okay. It’s a grace to welcome her to the farm’s front porch today…
Maybe it was a mistake to come here, I think. I’m not shaking hard enough that anyone would notice, but it might just be a matter of time. At least I asked for my decaf to go.
I weigh my options and wait for my latte. Should I bolt for the safety of my car? If I stay, am I going to get any work done or simply melt into tears?
“It’s been like clockwork: anxiety attacks every afternoon.”
My face is a mask of calm but my gut is in knots. I want to stay and work. I slip the orange bottle from my purse and gulp down a tiny white tablet.
It’s been like clockwork: anxiety attacks every afternoon.
I text my husband, Micah, tell him I’m struggling, then breathe deep and settle at my laptop. It’s going to be okay.
My experience with depression and panic attacks is not new. I’ve lived with mental illness and even suicidal thoughts as long as I can remember. But I have found hope along the way.
I have found tools to beat back the darkness. And I have found peace that God is with me even if I never fully recover from this battle.
One of the richest biblical truths that sustains me on this journey is found in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These three men were Hebrew exiles in Babylon under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. When King Nebuchadnezzar demanded that everyone worship a golden statue or be burned alive in a fiery furnace, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused.
The three men told King Nebuchadnezzar that God was able to deliver them from such death. “But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (see Daniel 3:16–18).
The king was furious. He had the men tied up and tossed into the furnace. He thought this was the end of the story, until he noticed something strange: the men were walking around in the furnace, untied and apparently unharmed. And a fourth figure was with them who looked “like an angel” or “like a son of the gods” (Daniel 3:25). Many scholars believe that this figure was actually Christ Himself, present with them in the fire.
For those of us who learned this story on a flannelgraph or an episode of Veggie Tales, the message is clear: obey God. The promise is just as obvious: when we are faithful to God, He will rescue us.
But this passage has much more to say than the sanitized Sunday school lessons of our childhoods. We often skip over this painful truth: God didn’t save them from the fire. He didn’t stop them from experiencing it.
Those three young men were full of faith that God was able to deliver them, but they had no idea if He would. They only knew, deep in their bones, that God would be with them through everything.
“My God is able to save me, to heal me, to erase the pain and heartache in a moment. But even if He doesn’t, I refuse to bow to despair.”
And that simple confidence was enough to inspire two of the most powerful words in Scripture: even if.
Though I’ve never stood in a literal furnace, I can relate to that even if experience.
The quiet assurance that gets me through is this: my God is able to save me, to heal me, to erase the pain and heartache in a moment. But even if He doesn’t, I refuse to bow to despair.
Even if I’m never fully delivered, I know that God is good and is present in my pain.
Even if I never get better and the black dog of depression hounds me till the day I die, Christ Himself is with me in the midst of the flames.
Most Christians are used to seeing stories of triumph look a certain way: God vanquishes the Enemy and everyone lives happily ever after. We’re taught that the things of God are tidy and certain. Good people are blessed. Bad people are punished.
But that’s not the truth and beauty of the gospel. At best, it’s a fairy tale. At worst, it’s a sham sold by dishonest people looking to gain something.
But I can promise you this: though we have bleak and hard and anxious days, ours are still stories of triumph. Ours are still stories of transformation. And even though Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn’t have a single hair singed, they surely came out of the fire changed. And so do we.
In the fire, we learn that hope can’t rest solely on the actions of God, on miraculous healings, or on answers to mysteries we can’t comprehend.
Instead, our hope rests on the character of a God who is love, who somehow brings beauty out of the ugliest ashes. We don’t have to be healed, we don’t have to be on the other side of it, to know that He’s good and He’s transforming us.
“Our hope rests on the character of a God who is love, who somehow brings beauty out of the ugliest ashes.”
As I leave the coffee shop, I raise my eyes to see the golden-hour sunlight. Dark days don’t last forever, I whisper to myself. I know now what I didn’t know for years: I’m going to be just fine. I am no less loved, no less worthy because I struggle with mental illness. I don’t have to hide the hurt. But it sure isn’t going to run my life.
I know how to speak kindly to myself now. I know when to press through and when to take a break—at least better than I used to.
I know to not blame myself. I know to extend grace. I know at some point, it’s all going to be okay again.
But the real truth, the thing that I tell myself over and over, is that it is okay. Right now.
Even with my illness, I’m convinced that life is beautiful. I’ve learned to see the countless gifts woven in the fabric of each day, to delight in what it means to live as the beloved of God.
I’m living proof of beauty from ashes. My life is rich and full, better than I ever could have hoped.
I’m surprised by the self-compassion God has taught me, by the kindness I’ve learned to extend not just to others, but to myself.
I’m surprised when I look in the mirror and like what I see, when I don’t beat myself up for the smallest mistake, and when I rest in the simple confidence that I am fully loved and fully accepted.
“I am no less loved, no less worthy because I struggle with mental illness.“
But the biggest surprise of all has been discovering that I can struggle with depression and anxiety, even sometimes dark thoughts of suicide, and still have a life with God full of peace, contentment, and joy.
As much as I would love God to wave a magic wand and put my soul back together without cracks and scars, I am grateful. I know the Comforter because I have been comforted. I know a God who sees me and is present with me. That makes all the difference.
Whatever you are struggling with today, this is what you need to know:
You aren’t alone. You can do this. There are beautiful surprises ahead.
And God is with you. Even—especially—in the fire.
Drawing from her own story along with a decade of ministry experience and work in the mental health field, Sarah J. Robinson helps others fight for wholeness and cultivate joy at sarahjrobinson.com. Sarah lives in Nashville with her husband.
In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die: Finding Hope in the Darkness of Depression, Sarah offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better.
[ Our humble thanks to Waterbrook for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
May 15, 2021
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [05.15.21]
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:
lucybee985
lucybee985
lucybee985just too beautiful not to share…step outside and exhale this weekend
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Bobby Parrish (@flavcity)
ohhhh, yes! watch and smile away: what’s not to love here?!
Ostdrossel
Ostdrossel
Ostdrossel so she puts a camera on her bird feeder… and this is what she captures!
on repeat here…
you know? God doesn’t make junk. Come see…
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ruby Wierzbicki (@ruby.wierzbicki)
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ruby Wierzbicki (@ruby.wierzbicki)
can you even!?! What a story!
Recently, our little song, A Woman, a seeing song, a healing song, a telling song, was invited to the Today Show and Amy Grant and Ellie Holcomb got to go and speak and tell the glory story of Jesus’s rising to millions. They got to go and speak of a project that we are all part of, called The Faithful Project.
In the Faithful Book, come read through a collection of thought-provoking stories, lyrics, photos, and art created for women, by women. Influential women share their own stories and praise God for His work in their lives.
Faithful guides readers through the pages of Scripture to increase understanding of how God has always valued the integral role of females and how that shapes the lives of women today.
And(!!!) the on demand FAITHFUL livestream ends tonight! This means, if you’ve already watched it, your ticket allows you access to rewatch the stream!
And if you haven’t already watched the livestream, you have one last chance to purchase a ticket for access!
a beautiful story and dance… of inclusion for all
Bethany Hope
Bethany Hope
Bethany Hopecan you even?!? only smiles here…
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Anjuli | Paschall (@lovealways.anjuli)
love her open heart after His
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News Movement (@goodnews_movement)
just wow!! cheering loudly!
really, really love this story:
‘She is wanted:’ Caseworker becomes mother to 19-year-old who spent years in foster care
Miracle friend inspires MercyMe’s powerful new song… here’s the story…
…and here’s their song behind the story
The perfect gift from our fair trade store, Grace Crafted Home
A monthly candle subscription that 100% supports vulnerable young women in Kenya, that supports Syrian refugees in Texas who hand make every candle – and gives a lovely scent of hope, grace & love every month to your loved one.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE: 50 Mums | 50 Kids | 1 Extra Chromosome
just so so beautiful…pause and ponder and praise right here
Advice From An Atheist: “Be More Christian, Not Less”
glory, glory, glory
The Day 6-Year-Old Sophia Learned to Dream Without Limits
Finding Peace Amidst Worry & Anxiety
love this: never, ever give up
… you know that dream you’re carrying around? The hustlers & gurus don’t tell you this secret about working hard to get ahead. I was 21 & he was 22 when we bought the farm — 25 years ago this week.
Wish we had known this about dreams & hard work:
Your Dream & Real Truths about Hustling & Working Hard: How Avodah Changes Everything (Farm Lesson #1)
so good! Listen in as Priscilla Shirer teaches on the most important piece of the armor of God—the breastplate of righteousness—as she unpacks how to live a life worthy of your calling.
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. Learn how you can get yours today!
just so beautiful: How Great Thou Art
Here, let’s make this real, real easy today: Just focus on the good.
“You’ll do best by filling your minds…
on the best, not the worst;
the beautiful, not the ugly;
things to praise, not things to curse…
Do that, & God, who makes everything work together,
will work you into His most excellent harmonies.”
Philippians 4:8 MSG
That’s all today, Soul: Just Focus on the Good –
Focus more on living Truth than pointing out error,
Focus more on celebrating the beautiful than decrying all that’s broken,
Focus more on being a servant than on being right.
[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.
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