Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 62
April 17, 2021
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [04.17.21]
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:
Hidenobu Suzuki
Hidenobu Suzuki
Hidenobu Suzukisharing some extraordinaryily breathtaking views for your weekend
…and if you’re looking for a few more cherry blossoms? come and rest right here
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Charaia Callabrass (@cocoagospels)
listen to this one! they make a really clever and good point here!
because we can all use a serenade every now and then
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Mary Jo Hoffman | STILL (@maryjohoffman)
she has the most fascinating lens on nature: such extraordinary photos!
If you are a collector of bits and pieces you will love!
Have you ever been disappointed when God closes a door? Maybe you’re facing a closed door today. But remember God is always in control. He has a plan, and he’ll lead you through it. Sooner or later, He’ll open the right door for you. And when you go through that open door, you’ll give thanks for the ones He closed.
Paging all story lovers! A podcast must-listen!
Every week Out of the Ordinary Books unpacks a different book and explains how it applies to your life and can help you make sense of your story too!
What exactly is the role of humans in the story of the Bible? Why does God care so much about us as powerless, created beings, and why are we compared to babbling babies in Psalm 8?
In this video, we explore a fascinating biblical poem and discover deep insight into God’s purpose for humanity and all creation.
a man with cancer – and a cat that never left his side
I’m counting down the days till the May 1st livestream where we can experience the The Faithful Project stories and songs LIVE for the first time! This will be a special night that you definitely won’t want to miss!
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:
“Highlighting God’s faithfulness to women throughout Scripture and all the way to present, Faithful collects stories, lyrics, photos, and art created and curated by some of the most thought-provoking and influential Christian artists and authors of our time.”
I would absolutely love for you to Come and Join Us!?!⠀⠀ Purchase your ticket to the livestream right here!#FAITHFUL #CompassionLIVE
Four sisters on a top-ranked basketball team…
and that’s not the best part of their story… an extraordinary story of hope
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!
some gentle approaches to teaching children how to listen
When the Pastor’s Wife Feels Like a Fraud… relatable for all of us
Our culture is wrestling with no shortage of issues. In a moment that desperately requires faithful Christian leadership, are you prepared to lead well?
Be equipped and encouraged for the season ahead when you participate in the Culture Summit hosted by my friends at Q Ideas. Over two days, you will not only receive incredible education and insight—you will have the opportunity to connect, engage and imagine how you can lead well in the year ahead.
It would be a grace to have you join us April 22 & 23, in person, virtual, or on-demand at this incredible event. Check out the full lineup of topics and presenters + use code “Voskamp10” to get 10% off when you register here.
Amen and amen. Good God Almighty
Family wounds, physical or emotional trauma, past shame or rejection — all of these can distort our view of God. Yet none of them is beyond redemption and healing through the love of God in Christ.
Hope for Children from Dysfunctional Families
Recently on Better Together, CeCe Winans discusses how to let go of control.
Join the conversation as Laurie Crouch, Lisa Harper, Alex Seeley, and Allison Allen join CeCe Winans to discuss that it takes discipline to follow the Spirit.
Honestly, parenting is downright the hardest thing & how do you work through the mom guilt & shame? Real relief right here:
Working through Mom Guilt & Shame? Relief’s Here:
never, ever give up
an amazing story of strength and healing and hope – she had a secret and the secret had her
“no one can take away from you what you put in your own mind”
at 13? he wanted to build strong character by stepping outside his comfort zone…so he went and did this
Post of the week from these parts here:
Across the calendar & hurting headlines & mushrooming to-do lists, anxiety can clamp down hard on a heart…
So what is the answer to much anxiety? Maybe it starts here:
A Way to Battle Anxietyglory, glory, glory
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 intivation 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: You are The Lord
…if we’re honest, it can feel like life’s got us in a really hard place right now — but on the inside, where God is making new life, we’re free. It can feel like we’ve lost — but not a day goes by without His unfolding grace that. makes. us. win. this. race. It can feel like the night has won — but nothing can ultimately steal us from the One Who is.
He held us, when we didn’t want to hold on,
He loved us, when we couldn’t love ourselves,
He carried us, when we didn’t know how to carry on.
Today whenever you feel like you may break, God will help you up, God will hold you up. God’s within. Bravely let Him carry you on.
The bottom line, and the finish line, is simply this:
The God who has carried you till now can be trusted to carry you till you’re through this mess you’re in… right through to the very end — which, then, on the other side, will be a perfect, forever beginning.
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
April 16, 2021
A Way to Battle Anxiety
There are birds at the feeders, chickadees.
“What is the answer to much anxiousness?“
They flit nervous.
Oh, yeah — do I get that.
I watch the light out in the trees, the way it falls across the walls.
Across the calendar and these mushrooming to-do lists and yeah, go ahead, try to remember to breathe.
John Calvin and I both remember the year we were four.
The year I was four, my sister was crushed under the wheels of a truck in our driveway. That’s my first memory, the day wee Aimee was killed.
Fear’s have formed me.
John Calvin’s mother died the year he was four.
“A song of thanks steadies everything.”
Scholar and historian, William J Bouwsma describes Calvin as “a singularly anxious man.”
Oh, yeah — you and me both, good sir.
Calvin buried all three babies he and his wife ever held.
He said he found in the Psalms, “all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated.”
The man understood fear.
Clouds have skirted in heavy from the west. The walls in the kitchen fall grey and silent.
Joshua’s playing it quietly, up and down the piano this morning, the notes of the Music Box Dancer.
A friend laid out in great detail this weekend how the economy is about to implode. Chronic illness flares. Teenagers ask big questions. I keep smoothing out calendar pages, pushing things back. Oh, c’mon— How do you remember how to dance?
“Anxiety can wear anger’s mask.”
You’ve gotta, right? You’ve gotta dance a bit, laugh loud longer than a bit, throw back your head and feel alive and it doesn’t matter a hill of beans if there are bills stacked like mountain of impossible, you gotta live right through to the end or your invite the end to come now.
So yeah — maybe that’s the Billboard Neon Question for a whole new year rolling itself right out:
What is the answer to anxiety?
Joshua’s playing so sure, the house lilting, tilting with happiness.
And that’s what Mr. Calvin wrote,
“The stability of the world depends on the rejoicing in God’s works….
If on earth, such praise of God does not come to pass… then the whole order of nature will be thrown into confusion…”
Our worlds reel unless we rejoice.
“A song of thanks steadies everything.“
A song of thanks steadies everything.
So there’s your Billboard Neon Answer:
The answer to much anxiousness is the adoration of Christ.
Yeah, so there are piano lessons today and already a little brother’s in a mess of tears because some big brother’s rattled his jangling chain, and oh yeah, we’ve got some sisters arguing loud over who’s turn it is to make the bed (for the love!) and I’ve snapped exasperated, ugly, at a whining middle kid who doesn’t want to stomp through snow and cold just to get a bunch of eggs from the hen house for crying out loud! (literally!)
You better believe it:
Anxiety can wear anger’s mask.
Fear of failing, of falling, of falling behind, it can make us fierce. Oh, yes’m: Life can be messy before nine in the morning.
“Anxiety can wear anger’s mask.“
Joshua’s tripping on some notes now.
The thermometer out on the tree, its mercury is sluggish and heavy. So yeah — how do you breathe and dance?
“We are cold when it comes to rejoicing in God!” wrote Calvin.
“Hence,
we need to exercise ourselves in it
and
employ all our senses in it
– our feet, our hands, our arms and all the rest –
that they all might serve in the worship of God and so magnify Him.”
Okay, got it:
When exasperation mounts, exercise our song, employ all our senses.
I use my hand, pick up the pen, employ the senses to the see and magnify God in that little dog-eared gratitude journal.
~ The spruce in wind.
~ Comforting worn kids early.
~ Joshua playing the Music Box dancer.
~ Ps 131 words: “Surely I have composed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child on his mother”
~ Citrus scent of grapefruit on the breakfast table
~ Chickadees fluffed in the wind.
“The answer to much anxiousness is the adoration of Christ.”
Exhale.
I’m warmed. Joshua’s practicing the chorus. Exercise. Employ. Exalt.
The answer to much anxiousness is always to exalt Christ.
The chickadees scuttle at the feeder and fly, warmth on the wing. I watch from the window. There is wonder. It’s ridiculous and beautiful how that happens: Everything absorbs into thanksgiving.
Calvin said that, “If we compare a hawk with the residue of the whole world, it is nothing. And yet if so small a portion of God’s work ought to ravish us and amaze us, what ought all His works do when we come to the full numbering of them?”
Uh, wait— Did Calvin number too?
My pen’s laying like there like a dare to joy, right there on the counter.
Joshua’s playing it imperfect but loud and lovely, the Music Box Dancer finding all the right notes, exercising exaltation.
And yeah, you can go ahead and ask — but I don’t think anyone saw me in the kitchen this morning?
How I spun around and danced a bit like a fool, exercising “feet and hands and arms and all the rest,” employing all the senses and smiling happiness anyways?
It can happen — I felt it —
how unceasing thanks can make all these moments dance brave and unafraid.
The answer to anxiety is the adoration of Christ… and my story of just that: One Thousand Gifts
and the 60 DAY DEVOTIONAL with 1000 numbered lines to count your #1000gifts: One Thousand Gifts Devotional: Reflecting on Finding Everyday Graces
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!
The new 10th Anniversary Edition of One Thousand Gifts with ribbon and new introduction
April 14, 2021
God’s Story Never Ends With Ashes
Kristen Welch and I are sorta, kinda, soul sisters? As I serve on the board of directors of the ministry Kristen founded, Mercy House Global, and we daily serve together to dream up for you the best #FAIRTRADE beauty of The Grace Crafted Home and The Grace Case that 100% supports the Kenyan maternity homes of Mercy House — so I get to see it first hand again and again, what we can all do together to change the world for women, if we say our brave yes. On Sunday, Jan 24, 2021, one of our three maternity homes in Kenya burned down early in the afternoon where 9 girls and 9 babies live, along with staff. We are SO GRATEFUL to God for His protection. No one was harmed and all moms, babies and staff were able to get out. It’s a miracle as we learn the details. Please join us and pray for peace and provision in this tragedy. Everything has been destroyed …and I am all in here with Kristen, with Mercy House Global, please consider joining us as we ask God to bring beauty for ashes…
The Transition Home is on fire.
The message appeared on my phone and I froze. No. No. No. I silently screamed. I typed frantically back and forth with Maureen, our Director in Kenya, who was in route to the burning home.
I only had one question, “Did everyone get out?! Are the babies and toddlers, teen moms, staff—are they okay? Please just tell me everyone is okay,” I begged.
“We know the enemy does not attack where he is winning. He attacks where he is losing.”I held my breath.
My phone rang and our precious Kenyan family appeared on the screen proving they were safe, untouched by the flames and smoke.
Maureen held the phone up and we cried together and watched the beautiful home burn down.
It may sound callous, but at Mercy House Global, we are used to catastrophes.
We have entered our eleventh year of rescuing pregnant teen girls in Kenya from trafficking and other traumatic situations and we haven’t had one year without some kind of devastation.
We know the enemy does not attack where he is winning. He attacks where he is losing.
I hung up the phone and felt numb most of the day. I checked in with Maureen a few times and she told me they were still there, standing near the ashes together, praising God.
“God brought us to our knees, on our face, with a very clear message: I will redeem what has been lost. I will take the ashes, the destruction, the loss, and I will make it beautiful. Until then, it is well with our soul.”It’s the position we’ve learned to take in a catastrophe because there’s always something to be thankful for. We will continue to thank God for extending His hand of mercy and sparing lives.
I opened my Bible to Isaiah 61 and read it several times, in a variety of versions, and clung to the hope of redemption and restoration that it promises.
I jotted down some verses from the chapter to share with Maureen the next morning. “Proclaim good news to the poor; he will make beauty from ashes; give us joy instead of mourning; how God will restore the devastated places.”
When I woke up early the next morning, the images that appeared on my phone took my breath away.
It was afternoon in Kenya and our staff had gone back to the house to see if anything was salvageable in the rubble. The smoldering ashes and ugliness left in the fire’s path was shocking.
I cried. Everything had been destroyed.
Almost everything. The final picture on my phone had this caption, “The only wall that did not burn. What a coincidence.”
My hand started shaking. I felt chills all over. I couldn’t type the words of Isaiah 61 out fast enough to Maureen. I told her that hours after the fire that God had directed me to the same words on the unscathed pictures on the wall.
We both began crying. What kind of God is this who would speak so clearly to us, thousands of miles separating Mercy House Global and Rehema Rescue Center?
God brought us to our knees, on our face, with a very clear message:
I will redeem what has been lost. I will take the ashes, the destruction, the loss, and I will make it beautiful. Until then, it is well with our soul.
The only wall that did not burn
I don’t know what kind of dumpster fire you’re facing in your life right now, but I believe the message God has given Mercy House Global is the same for everyone who is in the fire. I am with you. I will make all things new. Hold on to me. If you have Me, you have everything you need.
Nineteen teen moms, their children, and our housemothers lost all their personal possessions. This home was also the holding place for Fair Trade product before it was shipped to the USA—so the loss is extensive.
“Of one thing I am perfectly sure, God’s story never ends with ashes.” – Elisabeth Elliot
Might you consider joining Mercy House Global as we ask God to bring beauty for ashes… because every woman matters
The Lord is working in the ashes… please don’t miss this life-changing video…a true miracle
On Jan. 24, one of Mercy House Global’s three maternity homes in Kenya burned down early in the afternoon where 9 girls and 9 babies live, along with staff. You are invited you to be a part of this holy recovery story.
We are SO GRATEFUL to God for His protection. No one was harmed and all moms, babies and staff were able to get out. It’s a true miracle.
Please join us and pray for peace and provision in this tragedy. Everything has been destroyed …
Mercy House is launching fundraisers in phases to help begin the recovery process. They know that this won’t be quick or easy… but believe God is in the ashes and so and that’s just where they want to be.
Mercy House exists to engage, empower and disciple women around the globe in Jesus’ name. They provide for the rescue of pregnant girls in Kenya and provide a home for them.
Rescue a Girl. Empower A Family. Redeem A Generation.
If you are able to help, please donate here
Because every woman matters…
April 12, 2021
Working through Mom Guilt & Shame? Relief’s Here:
Raising kids with hearts for Christ may be the hardest thing you ever try to do, but it’s also the most important thing. My friends, Dave and Ann Wilson have brought great encouragement to me in the areas of marriage and parenting. They don’t pretend to have it all together. But what they do have is a deep well of insight and experience. It’s a joy to welcome them to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Dave and Ann Wilson
Guilt.
It was my new companion, nestled comfortably between my two shoulder blades. Weighty. Hefty. Sometimes it took my breath away as I clomped through the early years of being a mom.
“Shame, guilt, fear, and horror began their treacherous group ascent to my mind, carrying with them ample supplies of accusations.”Where did this heavy backpack of burden come from? I had never before wrestled with the weight of it to this extent.
It had become my ever-present luggage—a weight I never welcomed and never anticipated would so severely hinder my movements as a mom.
But it did…especially on this day.
The day was typical, starting off with high hopes and enthusiasm.
I was ready to tackle whatever lay ahead. Bring it on world . . . I’m ready to rumble!
My husband Dave had a busy day ahead of him too, so he was already off to work before any of us had awakened. Breakfast eaten, kitchen cleaned, lunches packed, all three boys in the car, and we were off to school.
I patted myself on the back, feeling accomplished and confident.
By dinner time I was thinking, Heck, I’ve finally got this mom thing down, as I congratulated myself on the high quality of my mothering skills.
Job wrapped up for the day. Grocery shopping accomplished. Calls made. Lists checked off. Kids home from school. Dinner made. Children fed. All the boxes checked.
Hmm, where is Dave? I thought he ’d be home by now.
Horseplay and roughhousing had begun to ramp up in the family room. It was getting loud. This was the part of the day when frenzy and craziness would often envelope the house in a crescendo that was sure to end with someone getting hurt and tears . . .
The kids sometimes cried too.
“CJ, we need to practice your spelling words for your test tomorrow. Let’s go to the kitchen to do it away from the distractions.”
Distractions? More like complete and utter mayhem, I thought to myself as a pillow was hurled at CJ’s head.
Where is Dave?
For the next thirty minutes, CJ and I went over each word with painstaking slowness. He was distracted by everything, while I was distracted by Dave’s absence. Officially, I was starting to get mad. He should have been home hours ago. Why hasn’t he called? Why am I doing this all by myself yet again?
CJ was trying to knock the saltshaker over with the edge of his eraser. We had been on the same dumb spelling word for fifteen minutes. This was not going well.
Where is Dave?
CJ was unfocused, so I tried to stay focused on the task at hand. “CJ, come on. Pay attention! Let’s get this word right this time. How do you spell _______?
Just as the question had left my lips, his eraser achieved success and the saltshaker tipped over, spilling salt all over the table. That’s it! The screaming and salting and waiting and trying—it was suddenly all too much.
“Ohhhh myyyy goshhhhhh!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
And without thinking, I swung my leg back and kicked the wall as if I was David Beckham kicking the winning goal for the Olympic gold. The impact was surprisingly fierce as my little five-foot-one, 115-pound frame gave it everything I had.
My foot was successful in pounding a hefty hole in the kitchen wall. It was less successful in being retracted out of said hole; that is to say, it stayed there, stuck in the drywall.
“There are no perfect parents and there are no perfect kids! But there is a Perfect One who is cheering us on and offering grace!”You know how you often can’t scream loud enough to get your kids to come to you? Well, like baby bears to a dumpster, my three suddenly attentive fans ran to where I was in the kitchen, watching my every move as I awkwardly tried to unhinge my foot from the broken array of drywall that had entrapped it in shame.
Shock and astonishment radiated from their faces alongside fear and wonder, as if to say, How could this miracle have been accomplished by our mere and mortal mom?
Cody’s little four-year-old face looked at me with total wonder and admiration. He was impressed that I had kicked all the way through the wall, which was no doubt inspiring him to find ways to do the same.
Shame, guilt, fear, and horror began their treacherous group ascent to my mind, carrying with them ample supplies of accusations. Their cleated boots of unworthiness dug into my soul, piercing me with each step.
What kind of mom are you?
What kind of mom could lose her temper like that?
What will your kids remember about you?
What will this do to mess up your kids?
You are a failure!
I heard it over and over in my head. The backpack I thought I had finally mastered was suddenly full of bricks again, heavier than ever.
I felt a sense of panic as I quickly realized that Dave, my husband (and my pastor), would be walking through the door at any minute. What would I tell him?
My mind was racing when a brilliant thought surged through the middle of the pack. I sprinted up the stairs two at a time, racing into my closet, eyes searching for the box of leftover wallpaper. Yes! I foraged through the box, finding my prize, and sprinted back down the stairs, only to find three sets of innocent eyes peering thoughtfully into the eight-inch cavern of broken drywall.
Whipping the scissors out of the kitchen drawer, I commanded my now coconspirators to step aside as I began to cover up the crime scene before “Pastor Dave” walked in the door. This was working perfectly! No one would ever know. Ah, the cunning mind of a mother!
“I’m thankful for grace. I’m thankful for Jesus who forgives my many mistakes and gives us do overs.”As I was contemplating my next move in the whole diabolical cover-up, the sound of the garage door suddenly interrupted my thought patterns, and in came Dave like “Dad of the Year.”
All three boys rushed to him with glee. “Dad, you won’t believe what happened tonight! Mom is wayyyyy stronger than we thought!”
“What do you mean?” Dave looked questionably at me, innocent curiosity twinkling in his eyes. I could feel my face redden with shame.
Then like a perfectly trained musical trio, all three boys blurted out the truth in simultaneous, harmonious merriment: “Mom kicked a hole in the wall!”
And there it was…Mom Guilt & Shame.
I had apologized to the boys telling them that I was wrong to lose self-control, wrong to not handle my anger more constructively, and I had reassured them this had nothing to do with them or spelling words. I asked them to forgive me, and as most kids do, they each promptly reassured me of their love and forgiveness.
Looking back, I regret my nights of shame…feeling like a failure, and even comparing myself to the mythic perfect moms. There are no perfect parents and there are no perfect kids! But there is a Perfect One who is cheering us on and offering grace!
The Bible says to take every thought captive. Jesus said, if you are weary and heavy laden, come to him and he will give you rest. The boys forgave me quickly, but I had a hard time forgiving myself.
“I’m thankful for a God that will take my shame, fear, and guilt, and remind me (and you) to rest in the comfort of His forgiveness.”I also needed to do some work on my marriage. I had been stuffing my feelings and frustration for so long that at some point I was bound to explode with pent up frustration, not at our kids but at Dave.
I’m thankful for grace. I’m thankful for Jesus who forgives my many mistakes and gives us do overs. I’m thankful for a husband that can laugh with me (later) at my not so perfect parenting mistakes.
I’m thankful for kids that forgive quickly and think an apology is all that is needed and not the many letters I wrote in the middle of the night to relieve my shame.
I ’m thankful for a God that will take my shame, fear, and guilt, and remind me (and you) to rest in the comfort of His forgiveness.
I’m thankful for His resurrection power that prompts me to lay everything at his feet as he walks with me each and every day.
And…I’m thankful for wallpaper!
Dave and Ann Wilson cofounded Kensington Community Church where they served for more than twenty-five years. They are hosts of FamilyLife Today, have a national speaking ministry, and host their own marriage conferences across the country. Dave and Ann will let you into the real, even raw, struggles and joys of raising kids that can impact their generation in a powerful way.
Their new book, No Perfect Parents is an inspiring and resourceful guide that covers essential topics like learning to discipline without losing your mind or causing more chaos, the parenting guilt trip, the teen years, and the top five parenting mistakes.
Raising kids with hearts for Christ may be the hardest thing you ever try to do, but it’s also the most important thing. Packed with funny and honest stories, compelling illustrations, biblical insight, and practical steps you can put into practice today, this hands-on parenting manual will encourage and equip every parent through any stage. For parents and couples preparing to have children, Dave and Ann offer hope and strategies that really work, and some that didn’t.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
April 10, 2021
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [04.10.21]
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 Walker
Jessica Walker
Jessica Walkerbecause sometimes – we need to be rescued
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Sharon Hodde Miller (@sharonhmiller)
what she said: all of this, yes
a powerful interview with Carrie Underwood and Cece Winans
please watch to the end
and then pause right here: Great is They Faithfulness
cheering! Girl Scouts from homeless shelter surpass cookie goal
the healing power of a loving child
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News Movement (@goodnews_movement)
reunions like these? never, ever get old
their 56 year old pet tortoise? yup, really. Come see:
Welcome APRIL! Could be an amaaazing month of counting gifts & finding joy—right. where. you. are!
No April Fooling here: All the research concludes that if you write down just 3 things you’re grateful for, 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 this thing!
Hang on the fridge for the whole family to take the Joy Dare too! Scavenger hunt for God’s glory!
Print the updated Joy Dare hereAnd 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!
The Enemy Believes God’s Words About You. Do You?
thank you, Priscilla Shirer
it’s true: someone buys $4,000 in Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards to pay for strangers’ meals
How do you trust God even when life isn’t fair and you suffer for no good reason? Job’s story invites us to consider what it means that God runs the world by wisdom, and how this truth can bring peace in dark times.
When Easter Doesn’t Fix Things
glory, glory, glory
God’s Timing is rarely our timing…
You never really know how grief will come or how hope will rise…but what she did here?
This is the kind of thing that could change everything:
When Grief and Hope are Unpredictable
I sat in a room in Nashville over a year ago now, with Ellie Holcomb and Sarah MacIntosh, and together we wrote a song. A song from the perspective of Mary Magdalene… a song about A Woman who was in the Garden on Resurrection, Rising Morning.
Who knew that a deep, unspoken pain of so many years — would be healed through this little God-breathed song that pulses with the heartbeat of the Father for His daughters, a song that sings Jesus sees us, Jesus wants us, Jesus rises for us — how can we not go and speak?
I would absolutely love if you, as one of the Rising People, called to be a part of this glory story — would Come and Join Us?
… 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 proceeds go to help fund Mercy House Global’s work in Kenya)
It can be hard to hope when suffering lingers and pain persists and the darkness only deepens. But what if hope isn’t found in a place past our pain or after our suffering…what if our pain is a portal and our distress is an invitation to something deeper than any platitude can offer?
Your soul needs to know this today:
Don’t Put a Spiritual Bow Over Your Brokennesson repeat this week: The Blood is Still the Blood
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 intivation 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.
YES: Promise Keeper
Open your hand
to what grace lays into your
surrendered palm today.
It’s not meant to
Hurt you
Harm you
Harden you —
it’s meant to draw you into Him.
You can’t grow hard
When you’re pressed up against
His heart.
You can’t grow hateful
When you’re laying what’s painful
in His hands.
You can’t grow jaded
When your greatest treasure is Jesus.
So open your hand today —
and take His.
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
April 9, 2021
Finding Lasting Connection in a Disconnected World
Ben Higgins’ is someone who looks at the world through a lens of openness, vulnerability, and hope. His passion for helping people connect with themselves, others, and God is one of the things I appreciate about him most. Ben reminds us how important it is to immerse ourselves in a world outside our own personal bubble, because we were made to live in community. While it’s not always easy it’s important to break out of our comfort zones, it’s crucial to making meaningful connections and feeling less alone. It’s a grace to welcome Ben to the farm’s front porch today…
For most of my life, I didn’t see the bubble I grew up in as a bad thing.
“As I look back over my life, I have come to the conclusion that I need to constantly make a conscious effort to break out of my bubble.”I had friends. I connected with other people in a meaningful way. That seemed to be enough. If I’d picked up a book like this and read through this section on community, I’d have said I was already living a very, very connected life.
But I wasn’t, and there’s a good chance you are not either, because all of us naturally gravitate toward bubbles.
There’s an old saying, “Birds of a feather flock together,” and it’s true. If we walk into a room filled with people we don’t know and are forced to interact with them, by the end of the night we will most likely find ourselves grouped together with people just like us.
We will find the guy who grew up in a small town or the girl from the Midwest. If we are together with this newfound friend long enough, we might even make a strong connection and build a friendship that lasts the rest of our lives.
I’m not saying that’s intrinsically “bad,” but if we stop there, we stop short of discovering a richness that can never be found in a bubble.
As I look back over my life, I have come to the conclusion that I need to constantly make a conscious effort to break out of my bubble.
Breaking out means more than visiting a different country or talking with people unlike ourselves. We need to connect with those who see the world in a completely different way than we do.
You and I need to spend significant time with friends who were raised in a different culture with a different set of assumed beliefs.
“You can never see the world in the truest way through the prism of a bubble.”Yes, venturing outside our comfort zones is scary and uncomfortable and can rock our worlds, but that’s the only way to see a full and complete picture of our world. You can never see the world in the truest way through the prism of a bubble.
However, connections with those truly different from us don’t just happen. They take a lot of work on our part.
When I think about connecting with people who are outside my bubble, I always find myself going back to my experience on that first mission trip to Honduras. Before I left, I was scared. I genuinely was. You don’t have to travel to a third-world country to experience fear of connection. I think it hits everyone.
You hear it in the way one tribe talks about another tribe. We use words like us and them, and those we deem them are always a scary bunch. Most groups have stereotypes for those who aren’t like us, which lets us prejudge and assume things about people without going to the trouble of getting to know them.
We don’t have to get to know them to be afraid of what they might do to us or our way of life. I hear all this, and I wonder—what are we really afraid of?
Are we afraid that if we genuinely listen to those who see the world in a different way, we might discover our beliefs are wrong? But, at the end of this whole thing, are we not all looking to pursue truth in all things, in all ways? So what good is it to hide from different perspectives and sets of experiences?
Connecting with others can also be difficult because we have a tendency either to look down on those who are different as somehow inferior, or to look up at them with jealousy.
When I first went to Honduras and saw the conditions in which these villagers lived, I did look down on them, as if they had somehow chosen to live in such poverty. Many years and many, many trips back to Honduras later, I find myself in awe of these same people because of their strength and resiliency and authenticity.
I could not connect with them on that first trip because I was too busy feeling sorry for them to look across and see them as the same as me.
“I could not connect with them because I was too busy feeling sorry for them to look across and see them as the same as me.”The same was true when I joined the show, The Bachelorette. I found myself so intimidated by the other guys on the show that I couldn’t connect. When we feel intimidated by others, we usually feel jealous of what they have as well. It’s hard to connect with someone when you secretly wish they would get knocked down a peg or two. I had to get over those feelings before I could open up and have honest conversations with them.
I say all of this not to simply tell you my story. I am telling you this because most of us are blind to the ideological bubbles in which we hide. We live in the most isolated time in history, and as everyone who has lived through the COVID-19 isolation orders knows all too well, isolation takes its toll.
Living safely locked inside an ideological bubble, completely separated from anyone who looks different or thinks differently or sees the world through a different lens, is just as damaging as being stuck inside your house indefinitely.
I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t wait for the all clear to sound so that I could get out and go hang with my friends or go to church and worship in person rather than watching services on a computer screen.
“On that day, race won’t matter and culture won’t matter and money won’t matter—nothing that divides us now will matter.“The months of isolation reminded us that we are made to connect with others, which is why we have to break out and make meaningful connections beyond our safe little bubbles.
In the last book of the Bible, in a picture of heaven painted in Revelation 7:9, the writer described “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (niv).
On that day, race won’t matter and culture won’t matter and money won’t matter—nothing that divides us now will matter.
Instead, we will all be united, singing praises to the One who loves us more than our minds can understand.
I believe what will be true someday in heaven can be true here on earth—all it takes is for each one of us to break out of our bubbles and take that scary trip into our discomfort zone to connect.
The trip is worth it, and the bubble is worth bursting!
Ben Higgins is best known from season 20 of ABC’s hit series, The Bachelor. The show led to an enhanced social media platform that he now uses to share what he is most passionate about with others–his faith, his hope for humanity, and his love of sports. In 2017 Ben cofounded Generous International, a for-purpose company dedicated to contributing profits to social issues around the world, and a lifestyle blog, The Mahogany Workplace, where people are free to discuss openly and honestly about all things concerning life, love, and everything in between. Ben released his first book Alone in Plain Sight.
Are you tired of people knowing who you are but no one really knowing you?
As the star of the twentieth season of The Bachelor, Ben Higgins looked like he had it all together. Instead, Ben felt dissatisfied, fearful, and deeply alone. Like so many of us, he thought of himself as the kid who never got picked for the game, the person always on the outside of the joke, the friend who knew a lot of people but was never truly known. He wondered if he mattered at all.
In Alone in Plain Sight, Ben vulnerably shares how he found authentic connection with himself, with others, and with God. As Ben helps us name our own yearning for meaning, he explores ways to understand ourselves more deeply so that we are free to connect with others; how shared pain can bridge even the widest gaps between two very different people; why we must deconstruct our culture’s fairy-tale view of love; and how the God who longs for relationship with us is the answer to our need for connection.
As Ben discovered, in a disconnected world, it is still possible to have lasting purpose and peace. You are already known. You are already loved. You are already seen. Discover how to live out how much you matter as you embrace the true meaning of your one incredible life. Use promo code 5ALONE to get an additional $5 off Alone in Plain Sight when you order from Amazon. Offer valid while supplies last or until April 11th.
[ Our humble thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
April 7, 2021
Don’t Put a Spiritual Bow Over Your Brokenness
One year ago we collectively entered a season of suffering that we didn’t know would last. My friend KJ Ramsey’s book came out a few months into the pandemic, and she never could have imagined that the title and encouragement inside would be so apt to what we would all need. In This Too Shall Last: Finding Grace When Suffering Lingers, KJ courageously tells the story of her own lasting suffering of living with a severe autoimmune disease and the wonder of encountering Jesus in the midst of her pain. As an author and licensed professional counselor, KJ guides us to sit down and rest in a story where our whole selves are welcome. It’s a grace to welcome KJ to the farm’s front porch today…
The year I got sick, I was a resident assistant tasked with emotionally and spiritually supporting a group of nearly thirty college women.
“Out of nowhere, the majority of my life consisted of crying tears of my own within the confines of four cinderblock walls, too sick on most days to even get out of bed.”I spent hours each day in the library writing papers, the day punctuated by meals and coffee dates with women from my dorm. After copious amounts of tea sipped between fervid research binges, I would walk across the dark, quiet campus to my hall, where I would stay up even later attending to the tears of peers getting over breakups or venting anger about their roommates.
Suffering has an inelegant way of reversing relationships, and where I was used to being the comforter, I suddenly found myself learning the harder role of recipient.
Out of nowhere, the majority of my life consisted of crying tears of my own within the confines of four cinderblock walls, too sick on most days to even get out of bed. The body that had effortlessly carried me through the winding, steep paths of my mountainous college campus could now barely hold itself up in bed.
The limbs that climbed limestone cliffs between classes now struggled to walk fourteen steps to the bathroom.
Our lives can change so fast.
At night I often couldn’t sleep because of pain, and after hours of no relief, I’d cry from the excruciation.
One suitemate in particular would often find me awake in the middle of the night, weeping on the floor of our shared study room.
Instead of turning the other way or quipping about how early she had to get up for an exam, Katie would join me on the floor, massaging my aching hands as I sobbed into her chest.
“I didn’t realize the education I would need for the rest of my life was the nearness of Christ and His body to the indignity, brokenness, and shame in my own.”In the first half of my college experience, I had started to better learn the gospel story, where weakness is welcome and hurt is held. But I didn’t know it yet in my limbs and ache and shame. I had to learn that on the floor, where Katie came to find me, willingly holding my weak body in her embrace.
When I went to college, I signed up for an education of books and lectures. I didn’t realize the education I would need for the rest of my life was the nearness of Christ and His body to the indignity, brokenness, and shame in my own.
This is grace: God joined us on the floor of this earth.
God did not stay far from our pain. He did not judge it from a distance. He did not pity it from the other side of the universe. He became it.
Grace is solidarity instead of scrutiny. This is the power and presence that sustains us when suffering lingers.
God took on the human condition you and I so struggle to bear so we could be enfolded in His love. “Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)
Many of us are confused about the purpose of Christ’s coming and the heart of our hope, often without realizing it, and the confusion amplifies our pain when suffering lingers…or a pandemic lasts longer than we dreamed.
“The kingdom is already and not yet; living in its tension rather than panicking for release is the only way to be pulled into the trajectory of hope.”The very persistence of suffering and difficulty might not fit with the hope we thought we had or the Jesus we thought we were serving. We’ll keep looking in the wrong places for grace in our suffering if we don’t reexamine and rearticulate the substance of our hope and the message of our Lord.
Jesus said His Father’s purpose in sending Him to earth was for Him to bring the kingdom of God near to us. Our hope is not in being beamed up to heaven upon death with suddenly perfected bodies.
The gospel of escaping your circumstances is never the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our hope is informed and colored by John’s vision in Revelation 21: the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven. Hope in suffering is never for a disembodied day when we can finally escape the bodies, relationships, and circumstances that have caused us so much pain.
Hope is expressed not in certainty but in curiosity, hearts that acknowledge and accept Jesus is already King, lives that look for the restoration of His rule right here, people propelled by a willingness to see Jesus turn every inch of creation from cursed to cured. The relationships that were broken will be made right; our relationship to our bodies, each other, the earth, and God will be fully and finally restored.
The kingdom is already and not yet; living in its tension rather than panicking for release is the only way to be pulled into the trajectory of hope.
The deepest anguish of suffering involves coming up against the divide in ourselves between believing God is good and loving and feeling it is true. In Jesus Christ suffering becomes the place where God came to find us.
The chasm between the Father’s love and our heartbreaking circumstances has been crossed because “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus, God-made-flesh, has stepped into the middle of the chasm, forever changing the expanse into a channel.
In suffering, the space between heaven and earth can become thin, paradoxically placing us closer to the King’s presence, power, and life.
“In suffering, the space between heaven and earth can become thin, paradoxically placing us closer to the King’s presence, power, and life.”Your pain and problems can become a portal.
Here, in a pandemic, with our fragility front and center and family and friends far, Jesus still comes down to meet you on the floor. But will you let yourself go there? Will you allow yourself to lament, even though it feels like lament has lasted too long?
I pray you refuse to put a pretty spiritual bow over your brokenness.
There is a God on the floor, who binds up your brokenness with the bandages of His own body and blood. He brings the healing down deeper than any platitude could reach.
May you see, your distress is an invitation to descend, all the way to the place Jesus has already gone, waiting to welcome your weakness and wrap you in His embrace.
Resurrection is first a practice of descending with Jesus to befriend the broken parts of our bodies, stories, and selves.
Redemption is that great gathering up of every discarded, dismissed, and discouraged part of you into the loving arms of the God who is not afraid of your pain.
Don’t be afraid to go low.
We rise from the bottom.
K.J. Ramsey is a licensed professional counselor and recovering idealist who believes sorrow and joy coexist. She delights in the wonder how words welcome us into a wider story and loves playing with their power. In addition to her work with therapy clients, KJ writes at the intersection of theology, psychology, and spiritual formation and has been published in Christianity Today, RELEVANT, The Huffington Post, Fathom Magazine, and more. She is the author of This Too Shall Last: Finding Grace When Suffering Lingers.
This book is not a before and after story. Over a decade ago chronic illness plunged therapist and writer K.J. Ramsey straight into this paradox. Before her illness, faith made sense. But when pain came and never left, K.J. had to find a way across the widening canyon that seemed to separate God’s goodness from her excruciating circumstances.
She wanted to conquer suffering. Instead, she encountered the God who chose it. She wanted to make pain past-tense. Instead, God invited her into a bigger story. This Too Shall Last offers an antidote to our cultural idolatry of effort and ease. Through personal story and insights from neuroscience and theology, Ramsey invites us to let our tears become lenses of the wonder that before God ever rescues us, He stands in solidarity with us.
April 5, 2021
When Grief and Hope are Unpredictable
Heartbroken after a string of suicides in her community, Amy Wolff decided being unqualified and busy didn’t exclude her from taking action. She could have never predicted that her small action would spark a global grass-roots movement of imperfect people demonstrating unconditional love and offering hope to others despite their own wounds and fears. In her upcoming book Signs of Hope, Amy explores what it means to love well and how to be a giver and a taker of hope. It’s a grace to welcome Amy to the farm’s front porch today…
“God, what’s wrong with me? Why can’t I cry? Give me tears. Please.”
I was 14 years old sitting in my grandmother’s bathtub calling out to God in confusion.
Three months prior, on August 9th 1998, my world shattered.
After sitting antsy through Sunday school on a gorgeous summer morning, my older brother Jeremy, his friends and myself schemed to head to the lake for a day of swimming.
It’s odd what details stick. Windows down, hair whipping, while Marcy’s Playground blasted from the radio. Soon after we arrived, Jeremy and his friends started swimming across an inlet of the lake.
That’s when he got fatigued.
I heard commotion in the water and walked down to the bank to see Jeremy struggling in the water. I tried to shout encouragement to him, to float on his back to conserve strength.
He looked at me. He heard me. He tried.
But within a few minutes he disappeared under the water for the last time.
I called my parents. Water rescue came. Forty-five minutes later they found his body but couldn’t resuscitate him.
We said goodbye in the back of an ambulance through a yellow plastic bag and signed his death certificate on a curb in the parking lot.
“Grief is not rational nor predictable. And neither is the work of God.”Although my eyes were almost swollen shut those first few days, my tears became less and less frequent. To the point of sitting in my grandmother’s tub one night begging God for tears. Tears meant Jeremy mattered. He deserved them. But I could not muster them no matter how hard I tried.
A disorienting peace covered me in the weeks after Jeremy’s death.
It didn’t fill the gaping hole of his absence, but it sheltered the inmost, fragile parts of me. Why wasn’t I mad at God? Why didn’t I suffer survivor’s guilt? Why didn’t I have nightmares or flashbacks? What’s wrong with me?
Grief is not rational nor predictable.
And neither is the work of God.
There’s no other way to explain it. God protected me.
“There’s no other way to explain it. God protected me.”God has been faithful to ‘bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. (Isaiah 61:3)
The loss, although devastating, brought deep clarity to my zitty-teenager-self about to start high school. It brought eternal perspective. Through the years of boyfriend drama, school dances, football games, driving license tests, and college applications, a soul-deep rallying cry persisted.
God, use me. Make my days count.
God, use me. Make my days count.
Nineteen years later, in May 2017, it took an unexpected turn.
After a string of suicides in our town, my family anonymously staked 20 simple, uplifting yard signs in high-traffic areas. They said, “Don’t give up”, “You are worthy of love”, “Your mistakes do not define you”.
It was random. It didn’t feel like obedience to a divine calling. It was our desperate attempt to offer renewed hope to a weary world. It just felt right.
But in hindsight, I see God’s favor all over it. It exploded into the most beautiful, grassroots movement of humanity showing its best self.
“His love repurposes our pain into clarified purpose.”A global movement was (accidentally) born, equipping anyone anywhere to tangibly spread messages of hope and love through simple tokens, like yard signs. All 50 states. Over 26 countries.
When I scroll through all the messages, of all the times people encountered our tokens of hope at just the right place, at just the right time, I shake my head in disbelief. Women leaving abusive relationships. People going to rehab and staying sober. Men deciding not to harm themselves. People finding courage to keep fighting cancer. Story after story of people claiming hope from messages on our yard signs, car decals and wristbands.
How could something so simple have such a big impact?
Hope is not rational nor predictable.
And neither is the love of God.
His love repurposes our pain into clarified purpose.
It beckons us outside our church walls, to do life with our neighbors (even the irritating ones). To show each other our scars in solidarity. To have mouths that drip with hope-filled words and affirmations.
When we pray, whether with fiery faith or weary whimpers “God use me. Make my days count.”, let’s stand in awe of what He does.
Redeemer of All Things.
Amy Wolff is President of a speaker coaching company, Distinction Communication, and a volunteer TEDx speaker coach. In 2017 she accidentally started a global movement of spreading love and hope through simple yard signs, which became the Don’t Give Up Movement. Amy enjoys engaging in difficult conversations with unlikely friends, vacuum lines in her carpet, nurturing a ridiculous amount of house plants, leading teams to Rwanda, and constant adventures with her two daughters and husband while living in the heart of Oregon’s wine country.
In her book Signs of Hope, Amy delivers an intimate collection of stories about the power of hope and love in the midst of suffering. This book is a feel-good, call-to-action that will restore your belief in humanity and empower you to live a life of impact.
Changing the world, or at least your corner of it, is easier than you think. And the time is now.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
April 4, 2021
Why This Is the Story We All Have to Go & Speak
You go ahead and tell me:
What if the chamber of His heart in that clammy tomb hadn’t began to quiver in the silent dark; hadn’t pounded against His chest like He was pounding at the door of our own tomb, because letting Him in is our only way out?
What if His scar-mangled hands hadn’t taken the slow careful moments to fold His grave clothes, like He was tenderly dressing our wounds, wrapping our rawest places so new hope can always unfold in us?
“Death is forever dead & Jesus is always alive!”
What if His eyes hadn’t flickered open in the pitch dark, the only glimmer of real light in the entire galaxy, stars to guide us home instead of being trapped in a strangling black?
What if there was no place to go with all
this ache in being human?
What if Jesus
Hadn’t taken us?
In all the universe, there is only one place to go now, only one.
And now is when we run, like A Woman, like The Women, we run toward that tomb.
And in the form of a Gardener, He returns again to walk in the garden, not in the cool of the evening, but in the rising warmth of the dawn, & on Resurrection Morning, the Practice of Resurrection is begun first by the Rising Women, women who are the first witnesses to the risen Lord, the first evangelists, the first to who go ahead and speak and tell the Good News of the Best News the world has ever wakened to:
Death is forever dead & Jesus is always alive!
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
“He buys back the busted, & takes back the abandoned, & all the walking dead comeback to new life, because the old world & ways have died in the night, & it is now Resurrection RISING Morning.“
And it’s all for you. For all your regrets & for all your impossibles,
for all that will never be and for all that once was,
for all that you can’t make right & for all that you got wrong,
for your Judas failures & your Peter denials and your Lazarus griefs,
Jesus takes the nails, the sharp edge of everything,
and offers to take you Himself,
because He wants you, He wants to take you, you in your wild grief, you in your anger & your disappointment & your wounds & your not-yet-there-you, you just as you are, not some improved version of you, but you.
He came for you, to hold you, to carry you, to literally save you. And our God is not a God to merely believe, but to experience,
not to only believe in, but be held by, a God who not only breaks for you — but breaks with you, a God to not only have creeds about — but to have communion with you, the God who touches you & binds you & blesses you & heals you.
It may have looked like a fool’s day, but the Risen Wisdom of the World is that:
He buys back the busted,
& takes back the abandoned,
& all the walking dead comeback to new life,
because the old world & ways have died in the night, & it is now Resurrection RISING Morning.
“All the painful feelings aren’t final because He said: It is finished.“
So yeah, now is exactly when we have to run like A Woman, like The Women, and go and speak, go and tell all the world this real unparalleled news:
Only because that tomb is empty, our lives aren’t.
Only because that tomb is empty are our souls fulfilled.
Only because that stone is rolled back does the surest Hope come back.
All the painful feelings aren’t final because He said: It is finished.
Go and speak and tell all the world like
The Women God first calls, first commissions, first claims as bearers of the new beginning, women who may not have been seen by culture as credible witnesses, but Jesus saw them as His choice witnesses of the Revolutionary Story that turns everything that is around, the story we’ve got to go and tell:
Fold up all you’ve kept shrouded & walk out.
“No shame, no blame, no stain & no grave can now bury anyone who claim His name.“
Lay down your skeletons & leave.
Take off the old you & take off.
No shame, no blame, no stain & no grave can now bury anyone who claim His name.
The walking dead
now carry a living hope.
Christ’s conviction on the cross made Him your grave robber & you His witness.
So now you’ve got to be like the first witnesses, The Women,
who know their incredible worth to Christ,
who know their immense calling in Christ,
who know their irrevocable gift through Christ,
Who realize that that though there may be a debate about the role of women, it cannot be denied that Jesus determined that every woman’s role, every human being’s role, is being intimately close to Him, being fully seen by Him, deeply known by Him, personally named by Him, & powerfully entrusted to Go and tell and speak and tell this story till the end of time and we all go on to glory.
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
On Resurrection Morning, Jesus chose that “The Apostle to the Apostles” — the apostle who got to go and tell this glorious story to the other apostles about the rising Good News of the Gospel — would be A Woman.
So go be like A Woman, and Go and Speak and tell everyone you know:
“The rocks have cried out & your stone has rolled &, like Mary in that Garden, Jesus has called your name, the one that He has written right into His hands, & you get to rise.”
This is your Lazarus moment.
What was deadening you, is dead.
What was suffocating & strangling you, is finished.
When Christ walked out of that grave, you walked out too.
Christ’s rising is your rising and if Christ rises still carrying His scars of suffering – the scarred, suffering ones can still be the rising ones.
The rocks have cried out & your stone has rolled &, like Mary in that Garden, Jesus has called your name, the one that He has written right into His hands, & you get to rise.
Christ rises with His scars because your name is written right into His scars & He can’t bear to leave you behind — He means for you to rise too.
And everywhere in this new world, we will be like A Woman, like The Women, like The Risen Christ Himself, and
go & be the Presence of Resurrection,
go & relentlessly Practice Resurrection
go & embody the Power of the Resurrection,
go & be the interminably Rising People.
Yeah, go head and rise and speak and tell the whole limping world just the miracle of all that.
I sat in a room in Nashville over a year ago now, with Ellie Holcomb and Sarah MacIntosh, and together we wrote a song. A song from the perspective of Mary Magdalene… a song about A Woman who was in the Garden on Resurrection, Rising Morning.
Who knew that a deep, unspoken pain of so many years — would be healed through this little God-breathed song that pulses with the heartbeat of the Father for His daughters, a song that sings Jesus sees us, Jesus wants us, Jesus rises for us — how can we not go and speak?
“I have seen the Lord
I will speak of Him
And nobody could talk me out of it
I have seen the Lord
And my Lord’s seen me
Oh He said my name
And told me
Go and speak
Of what you’ve seen”
This past week, 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:
“Highlighting God’s faithfulness to women throughout Scripture and all the way to present, Faithful collects stories, lyrics, photos, and art created and curated by some of the most thought-provoking and influential Christian artists and authors of our time.
The Faithful book and the album, FAITHFUL: Go and Speak, will be available Saturday, May 1, 2021. To celebrate the launch of this project there will be a ticketed livestream event on Saturday, May 1 as well, produced by Compassion International. Stay tuned after the May 1 livestream event, album and book launch, for the release of the Faithful podcast.”
I would absolutely love if you, as one of the Rising People, called to be a part of this glory story — would Come and Join Us?
“So I will run and tell the story of
The world denied, stayed buried, but it is still alive
Spirit’s setting tongues on fire
All the Heaven’s singing glory, glory, glory
Trees are clapping, clapping, clapping
Rocks are shouting, shouting, shouting
And then there’s me, a woman —
And I will speak
Of what I’ve seen
I will go and speak….”
April 3, 2021
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for your Weekend [04.03.21]
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:
Andrew McCarthy
Andrew McCarthy
Andrew McCarthy“Dreary cloudy days eventually end, and the gray skies part with silver lining to reveal the slice of heaven that was always there.”
thank you for sharing your stunning work with us, Andrew
because we all like to celebrate those who are rescued
Hidenobu Suzuki
Hidenobu Suzuki
Hidenobu Suzuki this photographer took these pics of blossoming plums in a most unexpected way
He is
Each year the arrival of spring triggers an explosion of color, energy and life as our planet awakens from the dormancy of winter.
This extraordinary season of renewal also serves as a powerful reminder of the most important event in history—the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News Movement (@goodnews_movement)
what a story…smiling through tears
for everyone: The Story of Easter
we couldn’t stop watching how this ibex defies gravity
cherish every moment with those you love
Joy Prouty
When Jesus had to fight through dark, staring right into the most incomprehensibly hard — what does He do? It may be the very last thing that you would expect…. & the very thing that can revolutionize your whole life.
CHECK OUT the whole story, see our completely newly designed blog site (!!!! we are sooo excited!) & to download The (FREE) Complete Joy Tool Kit … which is the perfect (yep, free!) accompaniment for Easter — trust us. It’s every beautiful thing we wished we ever had years ago?
As Jesus Christ lies in the tomb, tomorrow is coming!
Welcome APRIL! Could be an amaaazing month of counting gifts & finding joy—right. where. you. are!
No April Fooling here: All the research concludes that if you write down just 3 things you’re grateful for, 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 this thing!
Hang on the fridge for the whole family to take the Joy Dare too! Scavenger hunt for God’s glory!
Print the updated Joy Dare hereAnd 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 at!
Let’s explore the Gospel of Luke 19-23, and how it came about that the innocent Jesus ended up being executed as a revolutionary rebel against Rome. We’ll also see how Jesus was not at all surprised because He believed that his death would open up a new future for Israel, and for all humanity.
…whatever we are facing this season, this Lent, this end of one surreal year, never doubt it, Hope is actually here. So however hard this week is, this was Jesus’ hard week & He overcame & if we come to Him, we can too:
When Holy Week is Far from Perfect & You Just Need a Perfect Lamb (CHRISTIAN PASSOVER SEDER MEAL: PRINTABLE & MENU PLAN)What’s So Good About Friday? just so good…
There’s no sweeter sound than the sound of His voice. His voice is life. His voice is home. It’s the voice that holds all things together.
beautiful & meaningful Easter version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah
glory, glory, glory
Just — why we can’t rush past today, the Other Holy Day, Maundy Thursday. Because this is what your broken heart, the world, the church needs most. Yeah, Hard Holy Week?
You’re so not alone… The World, The Church & Your Heart — needs what’s at the heart of Maundy Thursday.
Nobody Can Afford to Miss this Memo & Mandate for Holy ThursdayHis perfect love could not be overcome
After a surreal year of losses, and choking up here this morning, this kinda spilled all out: After a Crash & Burn Year:
Why Care More Than a Hill of Ashes about Good FridayBooks 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 intivation 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.
No one word has more radically changed my life — or saved me from ending my life — than that one word, and that rarely happens over the whole of a lifetime.
True, it was a word that once was all Greek to me, but it became the word that came before all the miracles.
And it’s the one word that unfurls Holy Week for me — and not just Holy Week, but all the days and weeks of our lives, making even the hardest things into holy grace.
“And on the night He was BETRAYED…
Jesus He broke bread & lifted it up & GAVE THANKS.’” 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
“In the original language, “he gave thanks” reads “eucharisteo.”
The root word of eucharisteo is “charis”, meaning grace. Jesus took the bread and saw it as grace and gave thanks. He took the bread and knew it to be gift and gave thanks.
But there is more: Eucharisteo, thanksgiving, envelopes the Greek word for grace, “charis.” But it also holds its derivative, the Greek word “chara,” meaning joy. Joy.
I breathe deep, like a sojourner finally coming home.” ~One Thousand Gifts
Eucharisteo — that one word that has taught me to see grace in all things, so I can give thanks in all things, has shown me the way to joy in all things.
On the night Jesus was betrayed — He gave thanks.
On the night when the prodigal sliced open your heart, on the night when you lost your job, when your person slammed out the door, and the toilet stopped flushing, and the dog gagged and puked all over the back mat, on the night when it looked like the dawn would never come again — there is always a choice, and why not choose what Jesus did?
Because when Jesus had to fight through dark, staring right into the most impossible situation of the Cross — what does He do?
Out of a universe of supernatural options at the tip of His fingers — what does Jesus do?
On the night when Jesus was betrayed — He gave thanks.
If Jesus can give thanks in that — you can give thanks in everything.
[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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