Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 70

How Thanksgiving Will Save Us (Especially This Year)

When our wee slip of a girl slips and falls out in the orchard, I come and gather her up, and we hold onto each other under the gnarled trees, in a year that’s crashed and burned in all kinds of painful ways.

“Who hasn’t murmured it weary this year, “How long, Lord?” “

You know it: How many millions around the planet have fallen ill with a novel virus that humanity is still trying to understand?

More than a million families have wiped away the tears falling over graves of loved ones who didn’t survive.

I choke up reading of doctors and nurses falling into bed exhausted,  and discouraged, and scared.

Savings keep falling. Unemployment keeps rising.

Plans and dreams for the year have teetered and toppled, and hopes of full houses for the holidays have fallen eerily quiet.

Who hasn’t murmured it weary this year, “How long, Lord?” 

The Psalms become our song in a year where we can’t collectively sing without risk of spreading a virus. 

“Because God is always good, it is always best to give thanks.”

And I keep coming back to these Psalms of lament and pain and frustration — bookended by thanksgiving and praise.  Like Psalm 106, which actually gives us God’s commanded bookends for every moment, every breath:  the psalm opens in praise – and closes in praise.

This is called an inclusio: a Hebrew poetic pattern that repeats a phrase at both the beginning and end of a psalm and is meant to give the sense of completion. The beginning phrase not only sets the tone of the entire psalm, but, with the repeating ending phrase, creates a sense of unity.

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! (Ps. 106:1, 48). There – that is God’s given pattern for our lives, especially when we’ve all fallen on hard times. Praise is how we bookend our painful moments, and lead genuinely complete lives.

“Ingratitude is intolerable — because it is exactly the ingratitude that makes things intolerable.”

When we “give thanks to the Lord” (v. 1), our days are given a deep sense of unity, even in a year of deep fragmentation with so many of our hopes left in tatters.

Giving thanks to us God is what keeps us in union with God — when we seem to be sorely lacking unity these days

If our lives are not characterized by giving thanks to God, our lives are then characterizing God as not good (v. 1).

“Who can…declare all His praise?” (v. 2). If God’s steadfast love knows no end, what could possibly make our thanks to Him end?

John Calvin suggests that in hard times, we have no greater opportunity than to give thanks :

“God requires nothing greater from us than giving thanks. Giving thanks is a more acceptable service than all sacrifices. 

God is   continually   heaping   innumerable   benefits…

Ingratitude, therefore, is intolerable.” ~John Calvin

“If our fundamental sin is ingratitude, our gratitude can fundamentally change the world.”

Ingratitude is intolerable — because it’s exactly the ingratitude that makes things intolerable. When we don’t make thanksgiving the posture of our lives, we’re pressed down, bearing the heavy burden of our lives.  

When writing the Moral Vision of the New Testament, the esteemed theologian Robert Hays concluded: “The fundamental human sin is the refusal to honor God and give God thanks.”

If our fundamental sin is ingratitude, our gratitude can fundamentally change the world.

Calvin writes,

“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.” ~John Calvin

And the confusion we’ve all been thrown into this year, it reads much like how the meat of Psalm 106 reads; it reads like the history of God’s children forgetting their Father’s faithfulness; they “do not consider [God’s] wondrous works” (v. 7), “they did not remember the abundance of [God’s] steadfast love” (v. 7), “they soon forgot [God’s] works” (v. 13), “they forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things…wondrous works…and awesome deed” (vv. 21, 22).

But God.

Remarkably, in Psalm 106, like all of Scripture, recounts how God never stops remembering His people: “Nevertheless, He looked upon their distress when He heard their cry. For their sake, He remembered His covenant” (Ps. 106: 44).

Christ remembers His covenant with covenant breakers – what could ever have us complaining again?

“Remember and count all God’s good gifts, because that is what re-members us and puts our broken pieces back together again.”

The call on every Christian’s life is to be a study in remembering… re-membering. Remember and count all God’s good gifts, because that is what re-members us and puts our broken pieces back together again.

Re-member and thank God for the brave health care workers. 

Re-member and thank God for the faithful essential workers. 

Re-member and thank God for the tired pastors. 

And the weary mothers, and tired fathers, and scared kids, and isolated students and lonely grandparents, and remember to give thanks for all the ways we all keep holding on to each other, helping each other, loaning hope to each other.  God hasn’t given up on us, and we don’t give up our giving thanks.  

I wipe the tears off Baby Girl’s little cheeks.

I know, sweet Child, I know. 

Such a fallen and broken and deeply bruising year.

And like my friend, Shaun, says, “While there’s still counting votes, counting cases, counting days without work, counting all we’ve lost… we will pause — and still count gifts.”

If we forget and do not give thanks, the whole world – our world – falls into confusion.

“God heaps innumerable benefits — how can we not keep counting gifts, to bring incalculable joy?”

The very stability of our world depends on our rejoicing in, remembering, and recounting the goodness of God.

God heaps innumerable benefits — how can we not keep counting gifts, to bring incalculable joy?

I help Baby Girl brush off her pants, help her stand up again. She keeps holding my hand.

Baby Girl looks up at me.

“Thanks, Mama.”

“Oh, but for what, Sweet?” I kneel down.

“Just — for everything.” She cups my face and kisses my nose.

And I choke it back — and nod.

Even now, especially now: Thanks be to God. In everything. 

That old Pastor, Eugene Peterson, who long studied the Psalms, he was right:

“No matter how much we suffer, no matter our doubts, no matter how angry we get, no matter how many times we have asked in desperation “How long?” — prayer develops finally into praise.

Everything finds its way to the doorstep of praise.”

Everything finds its way to the gate of thanksgiving — to enter the presence of God.

“Everything finds its way to the gate of thanksgiving — to enter the presence of God.”

The bookend of a year that defied anything imaginable — draws to an end with defiant thanksgiving and joy. 

Our days and the Divine meet in doxology — because this is how we conquer the dark. 

Our year fills out with gratefulness. Glory, glory, glory. 

I watch a little girl run through the orchard and my heart splits with the grace of right now:

How can we do anything but give thanks when we’ve all fallen into the hands of such a good God? 

 

What does the Christ-life really look like when your days are gritty, long — and sometimes even dark? How is God even here? My story of just that: One Thousand Gifts

A re you ready to begin—or begin again—a life-changing habit of daily gratitude? Want to reset, refresh, reboot your life and literally rewire your brain? Be one of the more than one MILLION people who have stepped into the life-change of this experience.

It’s only in the expression of gratitude for the life we already have, we discover the life we’ve always wanted . . . a life we can take, give thanks for, and break for others. We come to feel and know the impossible right down in our bones: we are wildly loved – by God.

Let’s end the year strong in joy as we count all the ways He loves us!  Life is too short to do anything but truly savor it — to count all the ways you truly loved.

How to Pray When There are No Words

For years I listened to this woman and her husband on the radio as they taught about marriage and family and parenting; all that I was living in my world on the farm. I felt I knew this couple, but we didn’t meet until the summer of 2017. The connection was instant. We talked and laughed all afternoon. A fellow thinker, introvert, artist, Barbara Rainey values the deep things in life as do I. After reading Barbara’s psalms, her conversations with God have opened a new door for me into my own talks with my Father. It is a grace to welcome Barbara to the farm’s front porch today…

guest post by Barbara Rainey

A text from my youngest daughter.

“Something is wrong, Mom.”

It was early morning. I was in the boarding line for a flight west to Denver to help another daughter for a week. Her husband had been in a wreck; his knee was damaged and until he could get it repaired he had to wear a brace. He needed help. And therefore my daughter needed help with their five kids eight and under.

“My husband and I were in a gray season of loss.”

But instantly my heart was in another place. It was racing east.

As my boarding pass was scanned, my thumbs started typing.

“Have you called your doctor?”

“I’m on my way there now.”

In my seat I know I won’t hear anything for two hours … destined to wait two long circuits of the clock for another word.

Suffering has been a very unwelcome part of my life. The calendar that day read May, but it still felt cold … like winter to me. Fog creeps slowly, settles into valleys and crevices and lingers in those deep places.

A cloudy chill had descended over our lives that year. My husband and I were in a gray season of loss.

“One of my survival skills had become the reading the Psalms…daily…often several a day so thirsty was I for hope, clarity, and any solid footing I could find in the impenetrable haze.”

One of my survival skills had become the reading the Psalms…daily…often several a day so thirsty was I for hope, clarity, and any solid footing I could find in the impenetrable haze.

Leaning into the words of David and others as they wrote I saw myself in their words: “Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1).

Theirs was a raw honesty before God Almighty, a kind of prayer that was foreign to me. I had for so long prayed nice correct prayers.

I knew how to ask for God’s healing, help, and wholeness for people. I had prayed through several life-altering crises with our children.

Being in a hard place wasn’t new. Prayer wasn’t new.

But I didn’t know how to cry out to God as transparently as our long-ago faith heroes had done.

One day I heard my Holy Spirit Friend say, “You can do this too.”

“Really Lord?”, I asked. It was as if these saints of old reached across the pages and gave me a little nudge like we parents nudge our little ones from behind to be brave and try.

Tentatively, slowly I began writing my own prayers in the hard, confusing moments of those days. Copying their pattern, I asked God bold questions, described my own female circumstances, and then ended with declarations of faith, thanksgiving and surrender.

God didn’t disapprove. He encouraged me to keep writing. He was listening to me, for “God truly has listened; He has attended to the voice of my prayer,” (Psalm 66:19).

As the plane soared into the air I began another prayer, rapidly typing my emotions in words to God:

“My mind is racing, imagining, conjuring, fearing the worst in the unknown.”

“I didn’t know how to cry out to God as transparently as our long-ago faith heroes had done.”

“My life, her life, will we be okay?”

“Will another loss be mine, ours to bear?”

“My daughter fears for her unborn babe, knows too many friends who have suffered miscarriage, trisomy, death just days after birth. Her sister’s first-born lived seven days.”

“Why can’t I feel your presence, your peace … now … as I wait?”

“I’m afraid, God, terrified actually. My faith feels shaky. My security feels stolen.”

“I know your word, Lord. You tell me “take every thought captive,” (2 Corinthians 10:5). But my mind is wildly fluttering like a flock of birds. You who created the birds of the air, why are you not with a word taming my fears?”

As I sat moored in a hurtling tube with wings like a bird I talked to myself as another saint, Martyn Lloyd Jones, tells us to do, ”Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.” To my heart I said, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for You are with me,” (Psalm 23:4).

I still felt afraid. So I repeated:

“My God, You are with me.

You  are with me.

You are sufficient.

You are enough.

You are with me.”

Slowly … I remembered: “I have been here before. I have felt this kind of fear and desperation. Not once have You abandoned me. You always brought me to the other side. I know You will again. Even if in this moment I cannot feel or see any evidence of Your presence. I will choose, “’when I am afraid I will trust in You,’” (Psalm 56:3). I will. I will believe.”

Before touchdown I’d powered up my phone. Laura had texted, “All is well.”

“I have felt a failure in prayer far more than a success so it’s ironic that God would lead me of all people to write prayers. But they are for Him first so that is what matters most.”

My head fell back on the head rest as I closed my eyes, tears leaking, I exhaled and whispered, “Thank you Jesus. You didn’t have to stop her bleeding. You owe us nothing and we owe you everything. I worship you.”

A clearing had opened in the fog that day.

In the weeks after, the fog of losses continued to descend and lift, decend and lift, and I continued to write prayers. Dozens more prayers have been written including one in my mother’s last week of life that I read at her memorial service. And I know He delights in my words to Him because “this I know that You delight in me;” (Psalm 41:11).

The kindness of God is rich beyond measure. 

He loves to hear from His children.

I have felt a failure in prayer far more than a success so it’s ironic that God would lead me of all people to write prayers. But they are for Him first so that is what matters most.

And today my daughter has a healthy just-turned-two son and a new baby girl.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever,”(Psalm 23:6). Amen.

 

Barbara Rainey is married to Dennis and together they co-founded and led FamilyLife for forty years and FamilyLifeToday radio for 25 years. Barbara is an author, artist, and ambassador for Jesus. She’s written several books, including Letters to My Daughters, The Art of Being a Wife, and The Art of Parenting. She also writes regularly on her blog. She’d love for you to stop by! 

Written prayers can serve as welcome guides to tune our hearts to the heart of God. In My Heart, Ever His: Prayers for Women Barbara Rainey shares 40 prayers to invite other women to bravely and authentically talk to God in the same ways the psalmists did thousands of years ago. Like King David’s conversations with God, Barbara’s prayers are honest, even raw. Her transparency around experiences common to women encourages us to continually surrender to Christ and to see God as He is, not as we assume Him to be. 

My Heart, Ever His guides readers to become transparent with our God. He already knows us intimately yet is ever eager to welcome us in His boundless love.

[ Our humble thanks to Baker for their partnership in today’s devotion ]

Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [11.21.20]

Happy, happy, happy weekend! 
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 — and that there’s love everywhere & for ((you))! 

Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:

Marcin Zajac



Marcin Zajac



Marcin Zajac

exhale this weekend outside – enjoy the fall colors and fresh snow

because kindness matters… first play of the game: High School Football Team Manager With Autism Scores Touchdown

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A post shared by Good News Movement (@goodnews_movement)

because we all need to love… and be loved

well if this doesn’t make you smile...

just beautiful: 50 foster children adopted by 30 families during celebration in Tampa

Hallelujah

Choose gifts that share God’s comfort and joy this Christmas season!

Your Christmas gift can make a difference for people around the world, like Kazagobou Apouri who lives in Burkina Faso. A solar lantern, which costs $9, provides all the light he needs to study in the evening.

Choose gifts that bring God’s comfort and joy, like this lantern, through MCC’s Christmas Giving guide ! Cannot recommend this gift guide highly enough!

Run to the Father… again and again and again…

so amazed at these: 50 Of The Best Photos From Our #Animals2020 Contest To Brighten Your Day

Pie art: One baker’s delicious designs wow!

Two Dads Lead Effort to Bake, Deliver Thousands of Cookies for Frontline Coronavirus Workers

“It’s been a great way to keep my mind off the pandemic and do something for others…everybody likes a cookie and everybody likes a friend!”

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A post shared by Aaron M. (@aaronsgarden)

this: After living in a shed, 8-year-old earns enough to get family a home

yes, yes, yes – could not agree with her more

love how they’re seeking to invest in the next generation

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A post shared by

Whoa! Weary before the Holidays Even Begin? Easiest Way to Find the Wonder Again

WHOA! UPDATED WITH DEAL ALERT:  70% off (!!!!) Grab your copy of The Wonder of the Greatest Gift — RIGHT HERE at the VERY LOWEST PRICE we’ve ever seen. A WOW gift for all the families on your list for $10 bucks and change. This year, Christmas needs to be full of Wonder!

So this turns out to be the tenderest relief in a wild season: Ther are just 5 Mondays from now and Christmas Eve:

When the holidays hit in a year like this? We’re all choosing holy days more than hyped-up days.

“Holy days — over hyped-up holidays. Falling in love — over falling in debt. Wonder — over worry.”

When the holidays hit this year, we’re all not choosing to fall more in debt because of consumerism, but we’re choosing to fall more in love because of Christ.

When the holidays hit this year, we’re all not going to be hit by all the worry — we’re choosing to be hushed by all His wonder.

Holy days — over hyped-up holidays. Falling in love — over falling in debt. Wonder — over worry.

The wonders of His love are everywhere — if you are in love with the wonder of Him. This is how the brilliant live.

So when she opens it up, I stop everything, and kneel right down.

“Look, Mama!” She laughs like a shower of stars.

Our baby girl’s eyes are saucers — awed.

I’m lit by her brazen wonder, her unabashed enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm always blazes in the best kind of life — because enthusiasm is about “entheos” — which literally means “God within.”

She holds this book wide open with contagious, igniting enthusiasm — God’s within, God’s within.

The book she’s holding in her hands, I wrote as a surprise, when she was just a prayer I was holding in my heart for all I was worth.

When the holidays hit this year, we choose wonder — because wonder is one step toward choosing a wonderful life.

She keeps opening the book up again and again — just to see the the 13 inch pop-up Christmas tree rise yet again.

Nothing wonderful happens in our lives without wonder. Wonder makes this a wonderful life. Wonder nurtures wisdom.

“Nothing wonderful happens in our lives without wonder. Wonder makes this a wonderful life. Wonder nurtures wisdom.”

If the next generation is to have any wisdom, then our generation must choose wonder now.

Wonder over grace and mercy and the ways of Jesus, because we have never needed His ways more than now.

And I grin, witnessing her fascination over that rising tree. Because the legacy we’ve got to leave, to centre the next generation, is the knowing that at the centre of our Garden Beginning, and His Christmas Coming, and our Calvary Saving, there always stands a tree that roots them forever and sets them free for eternity.

And nothing stands firmly anywhere, unless it’s rooted in the very beginning and the tree of Calvary, and the wonder that we’re grafted into the family tree of God.

She leans over the open book, her little fingers groping along the edges of the Advent flaps, one by one — wide-eyed, wonder seeking.



God’s within. God’s within.

Behind one of the 25 Advent flaps, she finds an ornament — a tree stump with reaching green shoots — to hang on her risen tree.

“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots…. In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a banner to the peoples; Him shall the nations seek…”

Him shall the nations, and the next generation, seek.

This Christmas, the nations, and our generation, and the next generation, are ultimately seeking, not more plastic, not more pixels, not more products — we are seeking, whether we know it or not, more of the presence of Jesus — the Greatest Gift.

She’s turning the more the pages of that little accompanying devotional booklet, that tells story after story from the Greatest Story ever told, from Creation to the Creche — of how nothing ever has stopped His love from coming for us.

“Nothing is worthwhile compared to this—searching Scripture…seeking the truth of God’s Word,” Elie Wiesel once said.

For the nations— and the next generation — to seek Him — this generation can seek nothing less.

“For the nations— and the next generation — to seek Him — this generation can seek nothing less.”

And our little girl, she sits in the thickening gold light and keeps hanging the ornaments, one after another, and that’s what her tree is telling: the grandest Gospel story, from the Beginning to Bethlehem!

And I nod, knowing— this is the year.

This is the year to forget whatever the bombardment of ads keep trying to pummel us all into believing.

This is the year to give the wonder of living in the land of the living.

Forget burying our kids in more plastic trinkets, forget piling the debt and a culture of death on them, forget giving them what cannot last.

Nothing is more important than leaving to the next generation wondrous living, and nothing is more at risk. Just turn on the news.

“Nothing is more important than leaving to the next generation wondrous living, and nothing is more at risk. Just turn on the news.”

The legacy we, the people, want to leave to our children, the next generation, is the wonder of dwelling in the land of the living, a land where our roots are nourished in the truth of miracle of Whose we are, and the shattering grace of where we come from, and the astonishing hope of who we’re meant to be.

This is the year — we give our people the gift of our story — so they know the story — their story —their family tree. Right from our genesis beginning to our King’s coming under Bethlehem’s star — this is our story.

And I lean in and kiss the of my baby girl’s head. She will know who she is, Whose she is and she will know her story.

This story is our inheritance — The Greatest Story ever told. And we will claim our inheritance.

When we reclaim the wonder of Christmas — we reclaim the wonder of living.

The wonder of living in the land of the real, wondrous living. W e could get to live a wonderful life.

Our baby girl grins a whole world wide as she turns back the 25th flap and pulls out that star.

She’s bursting, tangible joy as she leans in to places that glowing atop her own tree, her own crowning, Christ-formed story.

What matters more? Our children will know their whole story, know their beginning, know their roots, know their place in the family tree of God — there, right next to His heart. Beloved.

God’s within. God’s within. 

This is their birthright — and we will claim it and reclaim it and reclaim the wonder because our God claims us.

This is the year: The way to get our Christmas MOJO back — is More Of Jesus Only.

“The way to get our Christmas MOJO back — is More Of Jesus Only.”

Christmas is about: JOMO for MOJO — the Joy Of Missing Out (on all the pressure!) — for More Of Jesus Only (all of His presence!)

#JOMO for #MOJO

JoyOfMissingOut …. for … MoreOfJesusOnly

When she smiles over at me, I blink it back — she’s holding her own story — and the Wonder of the Greatest Gift.

And it’s hers. All of ours.

Christ came and claimed us and we claim our inheritance of all the wonders of His love.

This is a gift of hope, of love, of wonder — that all of our hearts long to be captivated and captured by — and released into the gift our hearts want most– HIM!

This is an heirloom, a Christmas tradition — a wonder for the child in all of us!

And there’s all this golden light flooding the place, lighting up her very own tree — the Tree for all of us. 

All this wonder that all those living too long in the shadows — can now feel a great light dawning.

She laughs.

The enthusiasm — the wonder.

God within. God within. 

 

This year, let His wonder awaken you again, captivate you, capture your heart!
More Of Jesus Only — and have a STRESS-FREE, WONDER-FULL Christmas. 

70 % off?!?!! Grab your copy of The Wonder of the Greatest Gift
A WOW gift for all the families on your list for $10 bucks and change!
RIGHT HERE — at the VERY LOWEST PRICE we’ve ever seen! 

Come experience a Christmas like you’ve always dreamed? 
So come Christmas morning, you haven’t missed Him?

So come Christmas morning — you’ve unwrapped the greatest gift you yearn for — more of Him.

And here is an heirloom, a Christmas tradition, a wonder for the child in all of us! 

Gather around the Greatest Story this year for the whole family with all 3?

– The Greatest Gift (adult edition),

– Unwrapping the Greatest Gift (family read aloud edition),

– and The Wonder of the Greatest Gift (pop-up edition with your own 14 inch tree, 25 days of readings, 25 day advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age) 

So you don’t miss out on Jesus this year & the The Greatest Christmas. 

 

Don’t Miss The Best (Honking) Secret to Happiness When Things Are Hard

Right after I read the story, I go looking for an old horn to screw right to the wall.

There are things worth the proclaiming.

And after I find one, I walk around the house with the horn in hand trying to figure if it looks best on this wall? Or the back of this door? The Farmer raises his eyebrows.

“A horn on a wall?” He’s grinning boyish. Shalom and Malakai are bickering loud over a game of chess.

“Because you’re thinking it’s not quite loud enough in here yet?”

“You!” I tease, poke him in the shoulder, him broad like a beam that carries half my world.

“Does it look right here?”

“I think I’ve got a wall out in the barn it might look perfect on.” He winks, shields himself with his arm to fend off the next poke.

“But if you knew the story….” He nods, knowing, smiling, “Uh huh.” Stories can turn around whole hard hearts. Jesus walked backroads and spun stories and turned around lives and the axis of the cosmos.

“Jesus walked backroads and spun stories and turned around lives and the axis of the cosmos.”

I tell the story at lunch.

“So I read it a book  … True story.“ I pass down the squash. “A man drove a stretch of highway past this tattered cardboard sign that read:

“Honk if you’re happy”

And who doesn’t roll his eyes at such naivete? As if the world is this strange hybrid of Pollyanna and Sesame Street — if you’re happy and you know it, honk, honk — when it’s really just a strange new, old world, broken and a mess.

Shalom offers me her glass and I pour her water.

“But there’s this one day when he drives past the sign with his little girl, and on a whim, he beeps the horn.

And every day, when he passes the sign, his daughter begs him to do it again, and pretty soon, every time he’s on this stretch of highway, this jaded man, cynical man’s anticipating the sign. Anticipating honking his horn. And do you know what he said?”

I want to make sure I get it right. I push back my chair, to get the book off my night stand.

Flip through the pages… There.

“And just for a moment… I felt a little happier than I had before — as if honking the horn made me happier…

If on a one-to-ten scale, I was feeling an emotional two, when I honked the horn, my happiness grew several points… In time, when I turned on to Hwy 544, I noticed that my emotional set-point would begin to rise. That entire 13.4 mile stretch began to become a place of emotional rejuvenation for me.”

I lay the book down on the table, reach for the water pitcher.

“I just wanted people in their cars not to take this moment for granted.“

“See what happened to him? The sign said, “Honk if you’re happy. And he discovered that the act of honking the horn — it made him happy.”

“Honk, Honk!” Malakai grins at the end of the table.

His mouth’s full of food.

I love him wild.

“So who puts up a cardboard sign beside a highway: “Honk if you’re happy”?”

I have to get to the rest of the story before the table erupts into a fest of honking geese.

“This man’s got to find out. So he finds a house on the other side of the trees that line the highway — and he goes up to the door and asks the folks if they know anything about the happy sign?

And the man at the door welcomes him in and says yes, yes, he made the sign.” Malakai’s grinning, his cheeks right full.

“And this is why he made the sign: Because he was sitting there everyday in his house, sitting there in a darkened bedroom with his young wife who was terminal, sitting there watching her every day, as she lay there waiting to die.

“… the honking, it became like medicine to her. She was part of the happiness of the world.”

And one day when he couldn’t really take it anymore, he painted up that sign and stuck it out by the road. Because, he said —” I reach for the book again, to find the right page, to get the words right:

“I just wanted people in their cars not to take this moment for granted.  This special, never-again-to-be-repeated moment with the ones they care for most should be savored and they should be aware of the happiness in the moment.”

I look around at all their faces ringing the table, the jewel of them slipping around me in this space.

Light’s falling across the table.

Shalom’s one strand of loose hair is it’s own gold.

Something inside of me trumpets loud and long.

I can only whisper the end of the story.

“At first, after he put out the sign, there was only a honk here and there. His dying wife asked what that was about and the husband explained how he’d put the sign out there.  After a few days, there was more honking and more… And the husband said that the honking…”

I look down again at the book but everything’s blurring. Finally the line surfaces…

“… that the honking, it became like medicine to her. As she lay there, she heard the horns and found great comfort in knowing that she was not isolated in a dark room dying. She was part of the happiness of the world. It was literally all around her.”

“God is literally all around us.”

The happiness was literally all around her.

God is literally all around us.

So much light’s falling across the table.

“I think that horn of yours, it will look best in that doorway.”

The Farmer winks.

And when The Farmer heads out to the shop after lunch, I call after him — Remember to bring in a screwdriver! So we can hang the horn.

And he waves back to me as he runs across the farmyard.

Joy Prouty

And when I’m standing in the kitchen, wiping off the counters, I hear it clear, from the farm pickup parked out in the laneway, out by the shop: Honk! Honk! Honk! 

I laugh! He’s out there honking the horn of his truck!

I turn to the window, laughing…. He’s happy! Happy…

“All the world is heaven’s clarion and even in the dark, we are surrounded by it, all the happiness of the world.”

And I reach for my pen laying on my open gratitude journal there on the counter.

“Honk if you are happy” is in reality: “To BE happy — honk.”

And “Give thanks if you are joyful” is in reality: 

“To BE joyful, give thanks.”

And I write it down, “The farmer honking a horn — and that grin of his.”

This has become like medicine to me. 

Shalom waves to the Farmer from the window. He’s waving back at her.

She sings the words quiet to him, “Honk if you’re happy!” and she knows he can’t hear.

But all the world is heaven’s clarion and even in the dark, we are surrounded by it, all the happiness of the world.

I keep the journal close, the thanks ready.



Because literally —

He’s all around us.

 

You all in? Ready to wake up to real living through a brutally hard year?

We just started this week – and it’s not too late to join us!

A re you ready to begin—or begin again—a life-changing habit of daily gratitude?

Sign up now for the (FREE) One Thousand Gifts Online Bible Study.

AND (!!!!), when you sign up? You get FREE access to all 5 teaching videos, beautiful printables, gratitude notes, & other goodies!  You don’t want to miss this!

2020 needs to finish strong & with a whole lot of joy & thanks to the Giver Himself!

Be one of the more than one MILLION people who have stepped into the life-change of this experience.

Let’s end the year strong in joy as we count all the ways He loves us!

It’s not too late to sign up right here — Let’s do this, friends!

 

Raising Kids Who Know Their Value and Live On Purpose

When Erin Weidemann gifted Shiloh and me our first set of Bible Belles books, I knew it was a resource that girls everywhere needed. They are the true stories of women, the ones God carefully placed inside His eternal narrative, so every girl can discover the story He has written for her. Erin started Bible Belles when it was “just an idea” and has continued to steward it with obedience. It has grown steadily, over time, touching the lives of girls around the world and teaching them to know their value and walk in the purposes God has laid out before them. It’s a grace to welcome Erin to the farm’s front porch today…

guest post by Erin Weidemann

I remember it like it was yesterday.

I was sitting next to five-year-old Rooney at our kitchen table. We were getting ready to start the day’s homeschool activities, and I was busy prepping lessons. She and I were brand new to the school at home thing, and the former classroom teacher in me was learning to let go of traditional school rules and procedures and embrace a new season of figuring out how we both learn best.

“Cancer was a season I endured long before I became a mother, but its effects have followed me into every season since.”

As I shuffled a few papers into stacks and reached for my girl’s pencil pouch, I noticed a soft, tender touch at the base of my neck.

“Hey Mama, does that ever make you feel embarrassed?”

The question caught me off-guard. My daughter and I had talked about my journey through cancer on many occasions before that morning. She had run her fingers along the 9-inch scar on my neck countless times before, asking about the surgeries, the quarantine to take the “special medicine” (the full dose of radiation required to treat my type of cancer), and the long road of therapies and treatments that ushered me out of life as I knew it and into a new version of normal that looked and felt very different.

Before that morning, she had asked me what having cancer was like, if it was scary, if it hurt.

That morning though, her question took my breath away.

“That scar is so much more than a corporal blemish where there was once a wound. It represents pain, suffering, the time in my life when I reached my lowest point.”

Her words took me back to a time of deep-seeded insecurity: a time when all I cared about was how I looked and how others perceived me. I spent a lot of years caring, not only, but mostly about that.

I turned toward her and thought carefully before offering the best and truest answer I could.

“No, sweet girl,” I answered, as the tears welled up in my eyes. “It’s the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

Cancer was a season I endured long before I became a mother, but its effects have followed me into every season since.

I realized in that moment I had the opportunity to either affirm the insecurities my daughter might be having about herself and the way she is perceived by others, or instead invite her in to evaluate one of my physical imperfections as a way to see herself in a completely different light.

Because the truth is that scar is so much more than a corporal blemish where there was once a wound. It represents pain, suffering, the time in my life when I reached my lowest point.

“Everything good and beautiful and wonderful about who He is can be found in that fibrous strand of scar tissue.”

It marks the single most important event in my life’s journey: the violent shove into reality that set me on the path toward Jesus.

Everything good and beautiful and wonderful about who He is can be found in that fibrous strand of tissue.

When I look at it, when I run my own fingers over it, I’m reminded of who I was before my diagnosis and the transformation that took place after it.

An incision that simultaneously cut my neck and pierced my soul, the moment that began the softening of my heart and the choice to live life in pursuit of God’s will over my own. That scar represents so much more than physical healing. It is the physiological symbol of God’s great rescue made manifest in my life.

The narcissist in me says to cover it up. It’s right there in the center of your neck. Everyone can see it.

It’s ugly.

“Start by showing up for your children, just as you are: flawed, and imperfect, but brave enough to show them, through your life and leadership, how to truly seek first the Kingdom of God.”

But the new creation in me says, “It’s everything. It’s your testimony. It’s the evidence of God at work in your life. It’s just one of the many ways you can invite others into wonder and curiosity to find out more about Jesus.”

Isn’t that the life we want for our children?

One where they abandon insecurity, and self-doubt, and instead take ownership of the gospel and the part they have to play in sharing it?

I don’t want my girl to care more about what she sees in the mirror than the marching orders she’s been given to go out into the world and preach the Good News to the whole of creation.

I don’t want her life’s happiness to be wrapped up in seeking the approval of others rather than seeking the appointments of God.

I don’t want her prioritizing Likes on the internet over loving and leading others to Jesus in real life. 

I don’t want her to waste one moment of her precious life in pursuit of the temporal while forfeiting the eternal.

Although I’ve struggled throughout of my life to care most about what really matters, I realized in that moment she and I could partner together, not just to develop our character, confidence or being comfortable in our own skin, but to invest in nurturing the voices we will use to share Jesus with the dark and broken world that desperately needs Him.

Maybe making that change sounds like a good idea to you, but you’re not really sure where to begin.

Start by showing up for your children, just as you are:

flawed, and imperfect, but brave enough to show them, through your life and leadership, how to truly seek first the Kingdom of God.

The words you speak, the life you lead, will show the world what you believe.

 

Erin Weidemann is an award-winning author with one goal: to help women of all ages own their influence. A five-time cancer survivor, Erin is the co-founder of Truth Becomes Her, a brand that equips moms and mentors with resources to help them step into their unique leadership roles. Erin is a nationally recognized speaker, radio personality, certified teacher and host of the Heroes for Her Podcast.

Her newest book, Ringleaders, is the next installment of the best-selling Bible Belles series, The Adventures of Rooney Cruz, for young girls. In Ringleaders, Erin tackles the biggest faith challenge facing kids today and equips adults to teach them how to use their voice to share the message God has called them to deliver. Young readers will be inspired to identify their own voice and use it for the good of others and for the glory of God.

Whether you’re a parent, grandparent, teacher, coach, or anyone in a role of leading young people, this book will help you nurture their integrity, grow them in character and confidence, and effectively guide them to live, love and lead well, in light of the gospel.

[ Our humble thanks to Truth Becomes Her with today’s devotion ]

 

Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [11.14.20]

Happy, happy, happy weekend! 
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 — and that there’s love everywhere & for ((you))! 

Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:

Olha Balandiukh



Olha Balandiukh



Olha Balandiukh

every new day holds new adventures… let’s exhale and get outside today

The Gift of Time: because sometimes we just need a little reminder…

we couldn’t stop watching this one! because we all need a friend to snuggle

Choose gifts that share God’s comfort and joy this Christmas season!

Your Christmas gift can make a difference for people around the world. There’s something for everyone, from gardens to goats in the MCC Christmas Giving Guide! Choose gifts that bring comfort and joy this Christmas.

Cannot recommend this gift guide with MCC highly enough!

 …in all kinds of crazy ways, pandemic or not… the show figures out a way to go on…

Wild days, 2020— but this has turned out to be truer than ever: 

Giving thanks isn’t a pollyanna game — but a powerhouse game-changer.

You all in? Ready to wake up to real living through a brutally hard year?

Save the date and sign up now for the (FREE) One Thousand Gifts Online Bible Study.

AND (!!!!), when you sign up? You’ll get FREE access to all 5 teaching videos, plus beautiful printables, gratitude notes, and other goodies! 
You don’t want to miss this!

2020 needs to finish strong & with a whole lot of joy & thanks to the Giver Himself!

C’mon. You in?

let’s do this! Give a Little Love

just – really beautifully written – one to read again and again

What You Sow Is What You Will Reap

An Act of Sacrifice – maybe like no other?

Throughout history, ordinary people have believe the scripture to be so important, they gave up their time, their liberty, and even their lives to ensure its faithful translation from culture to culture, generation to generation.

Watch this video to honor the sacrifices made by heroes of the faith so we can know God’s promises for us.

Cannot thank the work of Seed Company enough

Man becomes 1st Ironman finisher with Down syndrome – you must come meet him!

amazed: come see how one of his ears was made with a little extra love…

You’ve had quite the year — no kidding, & you’re not alone.

What you need? Is to lighten the load this Christmas. What you honestly need is really this, because?

We all have one job & ONE JOB ONLY at the end of 2020 — AND I COULDN’T BE MORE EXCITED TO THROW YOU THIS LIFELINE THAT WE’VE BEEN KEEPING A SECRET (!!!) Because at the end of the longest, most painful year, who doesn’t need this gorgeous new tradition (!!) — that LIGHTENS THE LOAD — and gives us the longest, most BEAUTIFUL Christmas:

Why This Is What Christmas 2020 Really Needs: Push Back the Dark With this Light Gift Tradition

perhaps oldest active pilot in the world?

This WWII pilot hits the skies to celebrate his 100th birthday

Ginny Sheller



Ginny Sheller



Ginny Sheller

how she shares about her life through her photography?

just too beautiful not to share with you…

paying respect to those who worked tirelessly before us

This Is How Grace Lives Without Limits

Nineteen-year-old Grace may have been born without three of her limbs, but she chooses to live without limits. “My motto is that disability is not inability. With God, all things are possible.”

Aged love might be the purest love of all…

incredible stories of redemption never get old

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Why This Is What Christmas 2020 Really Needs: Push Back the Dark With this Light Gift Tradition

At the end of the longest, most painful year, who doesn’t need the longest, most meaningful Christmas?

“Celebration is a smart strategy.”

That’s what I’m thinking when we drag out the tree early: In a year that can’t be over too soon, it can be none too soon to set up the tree, to turn on the lights, and turn up the tunes. I mean, in a year that was kinda just two months — then pandemic — and then Christmas, the weary are more than ready to let all the joy, hope, and peace be epic this year.

String up the lights! Set out the candles! Celebration is a smart strategy.

It’s good for everyone’s mental health to have something good to look forward to.

Our oldest of seven kids, Caleb, he tries to keep a half-kiltering tree from going trunk over tea-kettle in a tangle of twinkle light, and I can still see him as a toothless 5-year-old boy, wildly looking forward to Christmas, asking me one night as I tucked him, this fistful of questions that’s wildly upended Christmas for us every year since:

“If we’re all looking forward to Jesus’ birthday — why are we all looking forward to getting gifts for ourselves? Why do I get gifts if it’s actually Jesus birthday? Shouldn’t He be the one getting all the gifts?”

I kinda sputtered for words and then — just looked the kid right in the eye. Kids can ask you questions that you have to answer with your life.

Maybe his questions didn’t so much upend our Christmas — but made it finally end up right:

“If we are most what our hearts love most, how do we make Jesus what we love most about Christmas?“

If you’re really living in the Upside Down Kingdom of Jesus, how do you have an Upside Down Christmas and actually bring your gifts to the King?

How can you raise kids to look forward more to the gift of Jesus who came for them, than getting any other gifts coming to them?

If we are most what our hearts love most, how do we make Jesus what we love most about Christmas?

That little toothless 5-year-old boy, he grew into a 25-year-old young man who plugs in the propped tree and pulls his was-5—but-is-now-6- year-old little sister up onto his knees to tell her a story.

A story he dreamed up about a little girl — just like her! — who had sheep — just like her!

A story that he wrote down, and a neighbour girl we’ve long loved, she painted all the pages with pictures of wonder — because sometimes the questioning wonder of a long ago little boy at Christmas grows into a young man’s vision for a generation of kids who want Jesus more than anything else they want.

So the Big Brother reads his story to his little smiling sister, a story he dreamed up called, “The Light Gift” of how little Leora’s sheep was due to have a baby lamb, and she wanted to run from her mama in the village out to her shepherd father in the hills to be there when her sheep gave birth, because what could be worse than missing the birth of your Lamb?

Yet all along the way? Little Leora ran in to things that seemed to be in the way: someone who needed this, someone who needed that, all the things that got in the way of all her plans.

Kind of like a year we have all just painfully lived.

And yet Big Brother whispers his story to his little sister:

“When you have to navigate the holidays through unparalleled days: Stay on the Way and treat everyone as you would the coming King.”

“But Leora could hear the sure song of her own heart beat: “Stay on the Way and treat everyone as you would the coming King!”

That. When the year goes south: Stay on the Way.

When the world splits divided: Stay on the Way and treat everyone as you would the coming King.

When you have to navigate the holidays through unparalleled days: Stay on the Way and treat everyone as you would the coming King.

Little Sister smiles big as her Big Brother reads how Leora, who is anxious not to miss the birth of her lamb, still reaches out to help someone here, surprises someone with a hand there.

Yet all doesn’t go as planned.

Yeah — looking right at you 2020.

And Leora misses the birth of her little lamb. Her father asks if she got lost somehow along the way since she took so long?

But Leora explains how she reached out to help with a need here, and lingered longer to love there, because, even when things seemed to go wrong on the way, and things seemed to get in her way, her heart beat with one certain song: “Stay on the Way and treat everyone as you would the coming King.”

But  — Big Brother turns the pages for his little sister — when Leora listens to the angel that ignites the hills, turns and runs to the manger with the shepherds, and ends up holding her light up to help the shepherds and her little sister see — Leora discovers how all the ways she loved turned out to be a gift to the coming Baby King.

She hadn’t missed the birth of her Lamb after all.

“This isn’t the year to miss the Lamb, this isn’t the year to miss the Light of the World. This isn’t the year to miss being the light.”

And I’m nodding: This isn’t the year to miss the Lamb, this isn’t the year to miss the Light of the World.

This isn’t the year to miss being the light. We all desperately need the Light more than ever.

Big Brother shows Baby Sister how the wooden star he made for over the manger — it can slip right into her hand.

And she too can be like little Leora: she can surprise people with an act of kindness — and leave the star as a calling card that the Light of Christ was here.

And then slip a bit of straw into the wooden manger, because whatever you do for anyone else, you do for the coming King.

“So when anyone in the house finds the star left with a little surprise of love?” Big Brother grins to Baby Sister,

“It’s then their turn to be the gift — to do a surprising little act of kindness for someone else — and pass the star and the Light of Jesus on — because this is how we all get to be the gift back to Jesus.”

“Be love so the world learns to love each other again.”

I’m blinking it back. That toothy little boy grew into a tender man, who is passing on the torch and tradition of making Christmas about Christ, and the Star can move all through the holidays, from one secret act of kindness to another, and the hope of Christ’s Light can go on, and on, and on.

Because? In our homes and down our streets and across our fences, this matters more than anything right now.

We all have one job and one job only at the end of 2020: help each other see the Light.

Love the people who don’t like you.

Be wildly kind to the people who aren’t your kind of people.

Be love so the world learns to love each other again.

Take heavy burdens off of each other, lighten each other’s load, be a light for each other.

“Be a light so lovely… that all want to know the source of it,” is what Madeleine L’Engle wrote.

“Be a light so lovely that all are drawn to the flame of such love. Be a light so lovely that injustice withers away.”

Be a light so lovely that all are drawn to the flame of such love. Be a light so lovely that injustice withers away.

Be a light in the dark, and you’ll light up faces of in the dark — not of monsters — but of people who, in all their brokenness, image God.

There are never monsters in the dark. There are simply people in the dark, hurting people, struggling people, turned-around people, Imago Dei, made-in-the-image-of God people.

What can be a bridge from the dark to the light right now — is our outstretched arms.

What can salvage the year, and all of us right now, is that we all become a gift of light.

This is hard, and this is holy, and this could be the holy-days this year, for all of us.

“What can be a bridge from the dark to the light right now — is our outstretched arms.“

Because this is exactly the way of God’s whole cosmos:

The clouds don’t withhold and withdraw, but bestow a benediction of snow.

Stars don’t orchestrate for their own spotlight but choreograph in constellations of God-glory.

Trees don’t wrap their limbs around themselves but reach out.

And the light, all the light, keeps overflowing and spilling on and on.

The universe is universally about giving.

And we give our children, our families, our communities, the most meaningful gift this year when we let them unpack them what they, like all the world made, were made for: We are all meant to be a gift.

“The universe is universally about giving.“

When Big Brother kneels down and lays the star in his little sister’s hand, he whispers it with  all the wonder of that little toothy boy I remember him, just a blink ago:

“So now? You get to be like Leora, you get to stay in the Way and treat everyone as you would the coming King — you get to love them like you would Jesus — which is your gift to Jesus!”

Her eyes light.

And something ignites in this tired mama this year.

This is the year not to have to brave the crush and rush of the malls and the stores, to buy even more gifts, produce even more glitter, perform even more grandly.

“Be a light so lovely that those in the dark see a different way to love.”

This is the Christmas to simply lighten the heavy load of the season, unburden the collective weight on all our weary minds — and give us all a light gift, the lightest gift of all —  the gift of getting to be light in the dark.

Be a light so lovely that all are drawn to the flame of such love.

Be a light so lovely that those in the dark see a different way to love.

When I look at that little wooden star there in her open hand, it’s clear how it’s brilliantly possible this Christmas of 2020 to stay on the Way:

Ignite the world with a love to burn back the dark — and you see the coming King.

 

You’ve had quite the year — & you’re not alone.

What you need? Is to lighten the load this Christmas

What you need? Is to ignite your family with a tradition that ignite their hearts with a real, durable joy

— the kind of joy that they were made for. 

The Light Gift, an artistic, creative collaboration of the Voskamp family and their very closest friends, began as a question twenty years ago in our oldest’s 5-year-old little heart: “If Christmas is about the King’s birthday — how can I make sure I give gifts to the King?” 

How do you raise kids to look forward more to the gift of Jesus who came for them — than getting any other gifts coming to them? 

And if we are what our hearts love most — how do we make Jesus what we love most about Christmas? 

The Light Gift: 

– hands you a torch, to pass on the flame of faith, 

– hands you a new tradition to push back the dark, 

– hands you light to lighten the load and ignite your heart with the kind of love that you want most this Christmas. 

 We all have one job, & one job only at the end of 2020: to help each other see the most loveliest Light.

The Light Gift is waiting for you right here —
to lighten everything about your Christmas 2020.

(Related: Looking for all kinds of FREE resources too, to have yourself the Greatest Little Christmas? Voskamps are all things Meaningful, JOYFUL Christmas 2020, & we’ve got you covered right over here too.) 

 

Have Kids? Worry about Technology? Read this for them: When Tech Hurts, Community Heals

Watching your children turn into teenagers is so bittersweet. They’re still yours, yet they are also becoming their own. And they’re trying to grow up as technology reshapes every corner of our homes and our lives, including what it means to be a kid. Andy Crouch is an author and speaker whose book The Tech-Wise Family has been meaningful to so many families. He’s watched his own kids grow up, and now his daughter Amy—20 years old, off to college, looking back on her childhood—has written her own book, My Tech-Wise Life: Growing Up and Making Choices in a World of Devices. It’s heartening, sometimes heart-breaking, beautiful, practical, and incredibly encouraging. It will be such a good book for kids to read on their own, and for parents and kids to read together. Do you want to know what’s happening in your children’s hearts and minds as they try to make sense of social media and devices? Do you want them to hear from one of their own peers who’s made some good choices, made some mistakes, and fallen and been picked up by grace and mercy? Here’s part of her story. It’s a grace to welcome Amy to the farm’s front porch today…

guest post by Amy Crouch

As I scrolled through the Instagram photos, I felt my stomach churn. The first one was terrible—did my smile look that awkward in real life?

“I was sobbing in bed and wallowing in newfound despair over flaws I didn’t even know I had.”

Then another; my nose seemed to take up half my face. And in another one, my expression was okay, but what on earth was I doing with my arm? I flicked through photo after photo, and I started to panic.

The pictures had just rolled in from one of my high school dances, and they were full of smart suits and glittering dresses. Unlike me, my friends all looked perfect.

Of course, my friends all started to post on Instagram and spammed our group chat with caption ideas and gushing compliments. As they went on, I started to get more and more upset. I didn’t want anyone to see my photos ever.

For the next few days, I kept choking up every time I opened my Instagram feed and saw other people’s pictures. I was sobbing in bed and wallowing in newfound despair over flaws I didn’t even know I had.

And even as I was sniffling into a tissue, I was wondering, What on earth is wrong with me? It’s just a few bad photos, right? Why couldn’t I just shrug this off?

Even now, I can’t totally answer those questions. But I can say something definitive about this moment: it’s not unusual.

Joy Prouty

Now, I’m not saying that everyone has cried over a bad picture. But whatever the cause, I know we’ve all been gripped by this fear that we aren’t good enough. Even if we think of ourselves as confident, healthy people, we have sudden moments of terror that we’ll never measure up to our friends or our family—or our enemies.

“My generation is especially unlucky. We happen to live in one of the worst possible times and places to be insecure—a time when we’re surrounded by tech companies that make their money and grab our attention by telling us that our lives aren’t enough.”

Now, it’s not like insecurity was invented in the twenty-first century. Yet my generation is especially unlucky. We happen to live in one of the worst possible times and places to be insecure—a time when we’re surrounded by tech companies that make their money and grab our attention by telling us that our lives aren’t enough.

Survey data shows that for almost half of American teens (44 percent), seeing other people’s posts online makes us feel like our lives don’t match up—like our friends’ lives are better than ours.

What do we do about this—and the myriad other puzzles and predicaments tech creates? Technology isn’t going to magically disappear from the face of the earth, and we don’t want it to. Our phones and the internet often seem to improve our lives, and especially so during the covid-19 pandemic.

Like everything in our lives, tech both helps and hurts us. So how can we appreciate the help but avoid the hurt?

When my brother and I were growing up, my parents took several steps to address tech, aiming for what my dad called a “tech-wise family.” We didn’t have a TV or video games as kids; I didn’t have a smartphone until high school and had no social media until I was about fifteen.

This upbringing spared me from some of the deepest dangers of tech—and continues to shape my life today.

But as I grew up, I couldn’t rely only on my parents’ instructions. I had to figure out for myself what my tech-wise life would mean. I made plenty of mistakes along the way, which brings us back to me crying in my bedroom over Instagram.

Remember the 44% of teens who say social media makes them feel worse about their lives? In that moment, I was one of them.

So, what do we do when these seemingly tiny moments tear open our scars?

“When our daily troubles and lurking fears overwhelm us, tech can’t save us.”

Well, tech promises plenty of ways to help.

And when I was first in pain, I tried to reach out with tech. I texted my friends right away, and they responded kindly.

But the words on my screen weren’t enough. I was still alone in my room on my phone. I wasn’t comforted.

Then I tried the endless stream of entertainment available on my phone. But entertainment only distracted me from my pain. I wasn’t healed.

That weekend reminded me that when our daily troubles and lurking fears overwhelm us, tech can’t save us.

You and I—we are broken, ragged people. We can’t be healed by technology’s seamless flow. I believe that we need fellowship with our broken, ragged friends.

At some point during that painful weekend, I remembered that tech couldn’t fix me. So I sent my youth pastor, Bethany, a text for help. I didn’t say much, I just told her I was having a hard time and needed some love. We went to dinner together, and I told her about what had engulfed me.

She embraced me, she prayed with me, and she told me about the bad photos of her own she had cringed over—and the scars that her self-doubts had left.

“This is the relief you cannot get from kind texts or viral videos or games. It’s the relief you feel when you bare your wounds to someone else, and they reach out to embrace you.”

We talked and wept and broke bread together.

And at some beautifully invisible moment, we both just started to laugh. We laughed because we suddenly saw the smallness of these insecurities; even the very worst pain our doubts put us through was nothing compared to the light and love of God.

Three hours after I had been sobbing on my bed, broken by my ugly insecurities, I went home with a joyful heart full of the peace of community.

Please don’t let self-doubt paralyze you.

When you hate the skin you’re in, don’t gloss over it—share in person. Pray with your friends or your family. Cry together, laugh together, and remember who you truly are.

This is the relief you cannot get from kind texts or viral videos or games.

It’s the relief you feel when you bare your wounds to someone else, and they reach out to embrace you.

Through love, not tech, we will find peace.

 

Amy Crouch is the author of My Tech-Wise Life and a junior at Cornell studying linguistics and English (and anything else she can fit into her schedule). 

In My Tech-Wise Life, Andy and Amy share their father-daughter stories to encourage teens and young adults to reevaluate their relationship with technology, finding meaning and wonder in the real world.

November 16 is the last day to preorder My Tech-Wise Life and get the audiobook FREE, along with other bonuses!  After you buy the book from your favorite retailer, come claim your free bonuses by going here! 

When we’re wise about how we use our devices, we can get more–more joy, more connection, more out of life. Tech shouldn’t get in the way of a life worth living. Let’s get tech-wise.

[ Our humble thanks to Baker for their partnership in today’s devotion ]

How to Navigate Division & a Divided Land

When he and I walk the land in the unusual warmth of November, we have to cross under a wire fence, and over a winding river, and I think about how you navigate a land divided.

“Bending low in humility can erase dividing lines of hostility.”

“Just bend low,” the Farmer slips under the electric fence. As I shimmy under the electric fence down toward the river, that’s what I am thinking: Bending low in humility can erase dividing lines of hostility.

You can see it: Down at one end of the farm, there’s a rusting stake driven into the ground to mark this boundary and anchor the electric fence, but further down toward the middle of the boundary, past the river, there’s a row of maple trees planted, ancient limbs now stretching out across to both sides like an invitation for everyone to hold on.

“River’s pretty, Mama.” Baby Girl’s smiling and I nod, take her hand, follow the Farmer down to the river.

Fence lines can divide a land, but a river of hope can run through everything. 

Walking across the land together, Baby Girl swinging her walking stick wildly, I can’t help but wonder how Abraham and his people navigated unknown territory and divided lands and people coming in on all sides. The Old Book says that maybe the best way to begin to traverse new territory, is to hold up a lens to rightly see the grace of his life: “And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things” (Gen 24:1).

“Trusting that God’s grace is sufficient in all things, is the way through all kinds of tensions.”

The Lord had graced Abraham with blessing in all things – in the midst of fading dreams (ch 15), in the midst of family tensions (ch 16), even in the midst of Abraham’s sinful choices (12:10-20; 20:1-18) – the Lord had graced him with blessing in all things.

Trusting that God’s grace is sufficient in all things, is the way through all kinds of tensions. This is not a cliche, this is how to take the next step. 

In very real grief, real lament, real division, real tension, and in the very real work of all kinds of reconciliation, the Lord is working out real blessings in all things.

I watch Baby Girl fall in line behind her big sister, trying to make their way across the river flats, and a heart can ache with love and pain and thanks and hope for all the good and faithful ways.

“Since God’s love has not forsaken us, how we can forsake loving each other?”

It’s underlined in my Old Book, that when Abraham is old and widowed and wants a godly wife for his son, he sends out his servant, who eventually stands before the potential bride with bowed head, blessing God with his thanks, praising our God “who has not forsaken His steadfast love and His faithfulness toward [us].” (Genesis 24:27). 

Since God’s love has not forsaken us, how we can forsake loving each other? 

Isn’t now the time to fall in line with what Martin Luther King Jr. directed, “Love that does not satisfy justice is no love at all…. Love at its best is justice concretized.” And “justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.”

Because of God’s steadfast love, we stand against everything that stands against cruciform love.

Because of God’s steadfast love, we don’t just love in word, we love in concrete ways. Because when we reach out across lines and love in concrete ways, we crush divisions. 

When we proactively connect with just one person who thinks differently, we powerfully discover we share the same humanity.  

“When we proactively connect with just one person who thinks differently, we powerfully discover we share the same humanity.”

This is a dare worth doing every day.

In a land of division, justice is love that reaches out. 

And this is the cruciform way Jesus always leads.

This is what Abraham’s servant says as he pours out his prayer of thanks for God’s never-forsaking love: “As for me, the Lord has led me…” (v 27). Nahah is led/lead in the Hebrew and refers to guidance in the wilderness; it refers to well-being in a time of stress.

In times of stress, what we have to stress to our souls is that God still leads. “He leads/nahah me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake” (Ps. 23).

And because God leads, that cannot mean: “God leads the way, except for the road we’re on now“, or “God leads the way — but He didn’t lead this God-forsaken way” — because God never forsakes. Because the reality always is: God may not seem to be doing anything – when He’s actually directing everything.

God leads the way — and He leads us in the way to love all the people along the way. All the people who see things differently, who believe very differently, who want things very differently. God leads/nahahs us to love the people it’d be easier to say nah, no way, no how. 

“In times of stress, what we have to stress to our souls is that God still leads.”

So we can’t say: “Nah, can’t love that person –” because if we are a Christ-follower, that is how our God leads/nahahs us.

God is love: He knows that to love means to be willing to reach out when it’d be easier not to.

God leads/nahahs us like a guide in the wilderness, because He knows:

Wherever it feels like a wilderness is where we need to reach out and wildly love. Wherever we reach out and wildly love, we find a compass that shows the way through. 

When we get down through the trees, we can see the water’s running on, alongside trampled cowpaths, under fences, around the gnarled willows, down through the land, toward all the bridges.

“God is love: He knows that to love means to be willing to reach out when it’d be easier not to.”

“Mama, this way, it’s really hard for me.” Baby Girl, she’s wearied with the incline and rocks and mud on the way, the wire fences to crawl under, the logs to climb over.

“I know,” Big Sister’s turned toward her, “but this is the only real way down to the water.” She reaches out to scoop her baby sister up and carry her on shoulders.

And I witness how the two of them catch light, how all the land, all the river carries light, and how the way may be hard, but He’s making the only real way through:

Make our hands reach out with Love that leads the way,

make our words a kind compass of  His amazing grace,

make our hearts a carving current of  His Kingdom everyday.

Watching the girls walk the path in front of me, holding on to each other, carrying each other, they look like they’re navigating through the fields as one.

 

Studying and working on the ESV Women’s Study Bible was truly a weighty privilege of a life-time, as each of us prayed to help women in all seasons of life pursue a deeper, transformational understanding of Scripture.

“The ESV Women’s Study Bible is filled with 13,000+ study notes, 523,000 words of study note content, 350+ reflections on key passages, 15 articles on theological topics, explanation of the plan of salvation, beautiful illustrations by award-winning artist Dana Tanamachi, 120 Bible character profiles, introductions and timelines for each Bible book, more than 80 maps and illustrations throughout, 80,000 cross-references and so much more!

Contributors include best-selling authors like Jen Wilkin, Lauren Chandler, Ann Voskamp, Trillia Newbell, Kristyn Getty, and many more.”

This Study Bible has a permanent place, on my desk, laying open and leading me through the day… to live the Words and Way of  the Word and Way Himself.