Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 75
August 24, 2020
Must-Knows Before the Kids Head Out: 25 Truths Every Kid & Parent Must Know
Dear Kid Headed out into the World —
You have to know how your unfolding from me was a miracle.
That’s the miraculous thing about miracles – they really do happen.
How is it in this crazy, holy world does a girl-woman bear another actual human being with a forever soul?
And this the thing in a family: there’s only so much time to go from point A to point B.
“Real leadership is: not climbing higher towards power and status, but bending down in prayer and service.”
How did I waste so many days? How do I make you know everything you need to know before you go?
How to love another person and when to say yes and when to wear black socks instead of white and when to ask for directions and when to say no.
All we ever want for you is to be: radical about grace and relentless about truth and resolute about holiness and vows and the real hills worth dying on.
That you know how to make a bed and how to make a child laugh and how to write a letter home.
Did you know, right when they laid you wrinkled in my arms, you had this curl of hair, this swirl of hair on your forehead? You got it from me. That turning, swirling cowlick that I got from my Dad. Who got it from his mother. This is how these things go, this turning around and passing torches on.
I turn around and you’re growing all up.
And you’re headed away from home here right about now…
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy ProutyYour father says that now this farm won’t be big enough to keep you anymore.
When he says it, he says it a bit like something hurts inside.
Your dad’s made his life about showing you that:
Real leadership is: not climbing higher towards power and status, but bending down in prayer and service.
He’s been dead to all ladders and that’s what made him so alive — reaching down, to the lonely, the lost, and the least.
I roll all your shirts and stack them, one upon the other, like all the years, and know that this is just the beginning of the leavings. I bite my lip hard and try to be brave, like the day you were born. How could my mothering take so many u-turns and still get here so fast?
I remember when you were small enough to hold in my arms, warm against me, this sun bathed stone, us engraved into rock here. I hadn’t known how fast the wings would come and that you would fly into the dark, into the sun, and so soon. That when you became a man, I’d feel so empty – and so very fulfilled.
I wish we had read even more books. And I had said yes to every game of Scrabble.
The Bible’s true, Child of ours.
“One person with God can change a culture.”
Every infallible, sword-sharp, breathing word of it. Don’t let anyone ever rationalize one beautiful iota of it away. Love His Word because it’s your Life.
And the only life living is the Scandalous Life: scandalous love, offensive mercy, foolish faith.
Kiss babies. Always have one friend that feels on the fringe, that you have to pray to love, that makes the neighbors scratch their heads.
Stubbornly pray for your enemies till you see enemies are illusions and everyone is a friend and somehow grace. Believe in every soul’s God-sized dreams. And rub someone’s feet at the end of the day.
Be the kind of person who apologizes first because that’s the only way happiness can last.
And never forget that happiness is when His Word and your walk are in harmony. Never stop keeping company with Christ– and all the sinners, tax-collectors and cast-offs. Be an evangelist and use your words with your hands because your part of a Body and never stop loving God with all your heart, mind and soul, and loving others as yourself. Make that your creed.
It’s true, Child: Be different and know everything you do matters. It’s what the Christ followers know: One person with God can change a culture.
God didn’t put people in your path mostly for your plans and purposes — He put you there for theirs.
Loving the poor will make you rich, I promise.
Only when you offer yourself as bread, broken and given, to a hungry world, will you ever be satisfied.
The only life worth living is the one lost.
“No matter how loud and crazy and broken the world is, child? Let your actual joy in your salvation live loud in your soul.”
And believe that you are His beloved – it’s only when you trust He loves you that you really begin to live. Really, count a thousand blessings more, never stop. Why wouldn’t you want joy? Sing to no one and everyone on the front porch in the rain and laugh so much they question your sanity. Pet the dog long.
Because really, none of us knows how long we have. Remember that a pail with a pinhole loses as much as the pail pushed right over. A whole life can be lost in minutes wasted… in the small moments missed. None of this is forever grace. That’s why it’s amazing grace.
Do it often: grab a lifeline by stepping offline.
You’ll see your true self when you look for your reflection in the eyes of souls not the glare of screens.
This is what you always need to know: Be okay with not being liked: life’s about altars not applause.
And be okay with not being seen or heard. It’ll let you hear and see better.
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy ProutyIt’s late when you lay your Bible on the last of the packed clothes and check off the last thing, thinking you’ve remembered everything.
I know I’ve forgotten something – many things.
“Be okay with not being liked: life’s about altars not applause.”
This parenting gig’s an experiment in radical grace and the work of every parent is to fully give to the child.
And it’s the work of every child to fully forgive the parents. This is how it turns, the torch passing from one to the next.
Remember that we made meals and beds and mistakes and memories – look hard for the good ones.
You zip up the suitcase. I try to keep it in, what’s blurring and spilling. And I rummage about in the closet for that necklace I’ve been saving for someday and I think today’s the day. That necklace that maybe can call you to what your mother’s been stammering to say.
“I will never stop loving and letting you go. A mother and child live the first great love story and there is no love story without loss, and this is always gain.”
And I go to hand it to you. No – put it around your neck.
Like a benediction.
A mantle.
No matter the road or what paths you cross: Wear the call to His sacrificial, radical way.
You finger the steel in your hands.
You’ve taken hold and I’m letting go.
Maybe that’s what I am trying to say?
I will never stop loving and letting you go. A mother and child live the first great love story and there is no love story without loss, and this is always gain.
Remember this no matter where you fly?
Love,
your mama..
who believes in the thousand-fold miracle that all is grace.:::::
::
August 22, 2020
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [08.22.20]
This weekend? Feels like we are walking into new hope, new change, new possibility!
Some real hope in these days — for us all to the real, sustained, needed work & more of the real Kingdom of God to come into a hurting world. Links & stories this week 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:
Jessica Walker
Jessica Walker
Jessica Walkermaybe take a long walk this weekend…and remember to always look up
a pair of Georgia high school teachers are bringing encouragement to their students… so fun!
because we can all be kind
Amazing Macro Winners of the International Garden Photographer of the Year 2020
because we all need to dance
so who’s in? Learn How to Draw a Tiger in This Step-by-Step Tutorial
tears…he’s looking for a place to call home…and now thousands are seeking to adopt him
In the Lebanon Crisis Fund Roundtable, it was a grace to join Pierre and Georges Houssney from Horizons International to learn more about how Christians are mobilizing to help the citizens of Beirut in the midst of a terrible crisis.
Come watch and listen in with us?! We discussed how Horizons is delivering critical humanitarian aid and community rebuilding services through their Christian ministry centers and indigenous partner churches.
just no words… More than a week after the deadly explosion that shook Beirut, this hero NICU nurse, describes how she saved three babies from the rubble of a hospital and ran three miles with them in her arms.
never, ever give up
some thoughts on recognizing depression
Welcome Home.
To a Grace Crafted Home — the kind of home you’ve always longed for.
Your home and life can tell a story — that’s changing the story of the world.
This shirt was sewn in Haiti and screen printed in the USA. Made of 100% preshrunk cotton. This premium, ring-spun cotton tee is sure to become a wardrobe go-to. The relaxed fit is designed for comfort, but with features that keep it stylish including the double-needle top stitch at the collar and hems.
100% of proceeds go to help fund Mercy House Global’s work in Kenya
because we all need someone to step up for us…love, love, love this
Nearly the last of August!?!!
Um…. Yeeeesssss pleeeeassse:
Are you in?!!?!! #SeizetheLastofSummer #1000Gifts
Let’s SO do THIS:
How To Finish Summer Well: Cheap, Easy Plan for the Weekend (with Free Printable)
glory, glory, glory
“I know my story, it isn’t over…even against all odds, You are a Faithful God“
found this fascinating: God and Mathematics
“The effectiveness of mathematics is a miracle…which we neither understand, nor deserve…”
don’t miss these: Inspiring Stories of Courage and Bravery
Beyond grateful for the life saving work of Compassion International
what a story here… he’s been in the hospital for weeks without family. This is the moment he realizes his son the paramedic arrives to transfer him.
Conflict that Builds Up and Doesn’t Tear Down… thank you, Scott Sauls
thank you, Priscilla Shirer … the battle begins on your knees
you’ve got to come meet him! just keep pressing forward…
The truest thing about you is that you are the one whom Jesus truly loves.
Post of the week from these parts here
You feeling kinda battle weary too? From battling a pandemic, to trying to just battle forward through all kinds of hard & then all the battling happening everywhere?
This is literally saving my life right now — & this is meant for somebody right now:
Need a Lifeline Right Now? This is the Visual that Will Get You Through Impossibly Hard Seasons (How to Survive a Virus: Chapter 5)
The God Who Sees… just so beautiful. One to revisit again and again
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: Come to the Table
…so the thing is, today’s not your huge mountain to scale—
your huge God is the mountain Who scales everything, so you see your problems as so small.
He’ll give you exactly what you need, He’ll make you strong for exactly what you have to do, and He’ll make you brave for exactly whatever you have to climb this week.
“You can be SURE that God will take care of everything you need” Phil4:19
Thank God we are kept from what we wanted —
like escape, like an easier road, like an easier time of it…
and that He keeps giving us what we didn’t know we needed —
like more courage, like more joy, like more grace, like more of Himself.
Thank God we are kept from what we wanted —
and He keeps giving us what we didn’t know we needed.
Because God will give you everything you need — all you need is to keep giving everything to Him!
[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.
August 21, 2020
How To Finish Summer Well: Cheap, Easy Plan for the Weekend (with Free Printable)
Only a week or two left of summer now.
Only a string of days left of sweet corn and swimming suits and bare toes and zinnia bouquets and light like this in their hair and all the days are adding up to make years.
And only one more week before our oldest daughter heads out for second year of college, a handful of days before she packs up her stack of books and drives away in that little used Toyota RAV4, before we stand on the front porch and wave goodbye and count the minutes till she comes back.
“You don’t miss a beat when thankfulness is the beat of your heart.”
You don’t miss a beat when thankfulness is the beat of your heart.
You only get 18 summers with your kids — or maybe not even.
18. Or less.
Three of our 4 sons have already flown the coop, up and gone, calling another door home. All our time together, it all went by in a blink. Why did I think it somehow wouldn’t?
There are days when I have to blink back the brimming regret of the days we didn’t take off for the lake, didn’t take the time there was to make a memory that would make a bunch of love that would last beyond time, didn’t light a campfire and roast some melting s’mores.
Before the sun even comes up near the end of the week, near the end of August, the clock ticking so loud in my ears — there’s this rolling over in the morning toward the Farmer, this desperate murmur in his ear:
“Only one more week left of summer —- what are we going to do?”
The Farmer doesn’t even open his eyes.
“Be grateful. We are going to be grateful.”
And he draws me so close the words brush my ear, those words of every soul whisperer, and you never miss a beat when thankfulness is the beat of your heart.
“It’s never the wasting of time that hurts so much as the wasting of our intentions.”
And before the sun goes down, a bunch of the kids carry cobs up to the side porch and we sit there in this circle husking and I keep looking round at their sun-kissed faces, that’s all I can think, my hands all full of these husks:
It’s never the wasting of time that hurts so much as the wasting of our intentions.
There are corn husks and silks all over the porch. Who cares what the calendar says?
Calendars can con: there are really only as many days left as you actually really choose to live.
In the end, everyone ends up at the end of their lives — but only a few live the whole expanse of their life.
And come evening, after everyone leaves the dinner table, I’m still sitting there —
eating the last of chocolate crumbs right off the plate.
Free Printable of the Seize-the-Last-of-Summer Plan
Just do two a day:
1. Make a fruit pie
2. Eat under stars
3. Walk through the woods, some trees, long grass
4. Dip both feet in water
5. Sing hymns around flame {choice: candles or campfire}
6. Lick drippy ice cream
7. Find a swing and swing high
8. Pick a bouquet of wildflowers : set in sill. Or #BetheG.I.F.T. and give it away.
9. Play one game of anything out on grass {frisbee, baseball, soccer, croquet, volleyball}
10. Eat something fresh {from the garden or the market or your mother’s}
11. Lay down on grass, look up and watch clouds for five minutes
12. Dance. Dance on the beach, on a porch, on your toes, dance on until something in you feels lighter.
13. Open a window. Listen to the world. Slow. Still.
Pray before that open window.
14. Sit with someone you love and watch the sunset. Say it out loud: Thank you.
Click here to Print your Free Seize-the-Last-of-Summer Plan
{Looking forward to seeing your photos on FaceBook or Instagram of your own
#SeizetheLastofSummer #1000gifts}
Maybe in this season, we all just need the gift of Joy… a bit of Hope?
To stand together — FOR each other — knowing that an act of kindness, giving it forward, can be more powerful than any sword in starting movements that move us all toward Love.
The way forward —- is always to give forward.
We all only get one life to love well — and being a gift with you gives reviving joy!
August 19, 2020
Need a Lifeline Right Now? This is the Visual that Will Get You Through Impossibly Hard Seasons (How to Survive a Virus: Chapter 5)
Before even battling a global pandemic— we were all battling a whole slew of personal problems, and right now maybe the whole world of us are all battle weary.
So when I told my spiritual director this spring that I didn’t quite know how to keep growing, keep loving, keep leading through this hard season and a whole storm of unspoken broken, she mentored me with this relief: “You are not alone. No one can ever truly grow, love, lead, on their own.”
“There are no real leaders in the body of Christ — only actual yielders to the Person of Christ.”
And that’s truth I’m learning in my weary bones right now:
Growth is always and only a work of God. Love is a fruit of the Spirit — never the fruit of your own labors. There are no real leaders in the body of Christ — only actual yielders to the Person of Christ.
And then my spiritual director handed me a visual for this season that’s changing my life, “The only way forward, Ann, through this hard season, in any season — is to picture yourself as a helpless lamb in the arms of Jesus — and let the Triune God Himself do everything through you.”
And suddenly all my crisis had one one visual anchor that would hold me.
So it was just after the apple blossoms began to fall in the orchard in the middle of pandemic, in the middle of all kinds of unspoken broken that felt like we were falling apart, when the things you alone are called to do, you cannot do alone, that this pig Farmer’s Wife decided to bring home these two lambs.
Now every day I go out to the orchard and the ash tree grove to feed these two wandering lambs of mine. When I cup their faces and whisper how I love them, just as they are, I think of what my spiritual director said and also how, for the last 25 years I’ve got the Gospel of John wrong.
“Your core identity is that you are the disciple whom Jesus lavishly loves right through to the core.”
Honestly, just now and then, John has kinda rubbed me the wrong way — and when he refers to himself as, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” I confess, I’ve winced. And he doesn’t just do it once. He does it three different times in: John 13, John 19, and John 2! And I could never stop myself from thinking of him as, John, the disciple who was kinda-self centered.
Until one day I heard my friend Sam Allberry teach, “The truest thing about you is that you are the one whom Jesus truly loves.”
Turns out: John had it right all along!
When I hold my sheep, that truth takes shape under my fingers: John wasn’t self-centred, John was centred on his truest identity.
Your core identity is that you are the disciple whom Jesus lavishly loves right through to the core.
The one thing about you that never changes is that you are the one whom Jesus loves.
And I whisper it to all my unspoken broken places in me:
You aren’t the one who failed, the one who struggles, who missed out, you aren’t the one who got it all wrong, got filed on a shelf, got the pink slip, you aren’t the one left on the sidelines, left behind, left ashamed, you aren’t the one who isn’t enough, isn’t included, isn’t remembered, you aren’t the one who is XY or whatever terrible Z you whisper to yourself at 3am.
Whatever has happened doesn’t define who you happen to be.
What matters most, is what my spiritual director and the disciple John and my friend Sam Allberry say: The truest thing about you is that you are the one whom Jesus truly loves.
So then what does that mean for us in the middle of all the things?
That the way the faithful grow is that they choose to be wooed by God.
But how? How do we move the idea into practice?
Make it a practice to daily count all the ways He lavishly loves you not because counting blessings is a cliche practice, but because counting gifts is how you practice waking up to the the love your whole life is longing for.
“The way to grow in hard times is to keep dwelling in God at all times.”
I have lived this, am living this, every night not going to sleep before counting gifts in notes on my phone instead of counting imaginary sheep in my head. I tell my spiritual director that when my heart hurts with all the hard, I stop and write down 5 more real ways He really loves me.
I crawl into bed at night and I don’t keep replaying all the day’s bad scenes, but I envision myself as a helpless lamb caressed in His arms and imagine that as the one visual of your life right now: Let yourself be wooed by God and you will find the way through — because you are loving and being loved by the Way Himself.
And I get up in the morning and come out here to the sheep in the orchard, and Farmer goes out to the pigs there in the barn, and they all dwell here in our care. And the crops in the field, us here on the farm, we dwell in God’s.
And in our farm struggles, parenting struggles, marriages struggles, life struggles, the way to grow in hard times is to keep dwelling in God at all times.
What Scripture calls Abide: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” John 15:4
I didn’t know this but if you search Google books, we use the word abide nearly 3 times less now than when we did in the 1800s — when theologians consider abide to be one of the most important words in the whole of the Bible!
The whole of the Christ-life is wholly about abiding. Sheep in the arms of the good shepherd.
“To abide in Christ which means nothing less than to reside fully in Christ: Jesus is our person, Jesus is our home, Jesus is our primary residence, Jesus is our primary attachment.“
As the theologian Andrew Murray writes, “During the life of Jesus on earth, the word He chiefly used when speaking of the relations of the disciples to Himself was: ‘Follow me.’ When about to leave for heaven, He gave them a new word, to express their more intimate and spiritual union. That chosen word was: ‘Abide in Me.’”
I’m embarrassed to confess I had chalked up abiding in Christ to be what some monk or contemplative could do while sitting out in or vineyard or a monastery, not what modern day people could do while juggling life at 90 miles an hour.
But abiding comes from the English word prefix “a” —meaning ONWARD — and “bidan” — which means to remain or stay.
And everything flips like an epiphany for me: We move onward on the Way — while we abide by remaining in the Way.
We continue on — by continuing to remain in Jesus.
How? To remain in Christ means Christ remains the main focus of your life.
So this is the morning routine here, the morning liturgy: Get up in the morning and get yourself first thing, straight into His arms. Read the Word and let the Word read you and dialogue, journal, with the Lover of your soul, your soul’s real home, tell Him absolutely everything. Everything.
“In a season of being detached from normal, attaching to Christ can become normal.“
Set alarms on your phone for set time prayer to make a full stop and step aside to pray and abide in Him. Pray the Psalms, pray Scripture, pray with prayer books or prayer apps or just rent your heart wide open and pray — but it took way too many years to realize that the only thing stopping me from a life of prayer was me and all my distracting idols.
In a season of unspoken broken, I am remaining in Christ by daily re-maining Him as my main Person through reading the Word, and pouring out all my words back to Him, and I keep returning to the fact that the word for abide, it’s “meno” in the Greek, and it means “remain, to reside, to take up permanent residence” or “to make yourself at home.”
To abide in Christ which means nothing less than to reside fully in Christ: Jesus is our person, Jesus is our home, Jesus is our primary residence, Jesus is our primary attachment.
That’s what abiding is: To abide, to remain, to reside in Christ means Christ is your main attachment.
In a season of being detached from normal, attaching to Christ can become normal.
“The healthiest people live in the arms of Jesus.”
I go for walks or runs and move my body and talk to God and move my heart into His, our time together. I light candles throughout the house to remind me to abide in the light of Christ. Jesus only moves from an abstract idea to our lived reality, when we move our lives into Him, to abide in Him, reside in Him, attach to Him.
Because? The healthiest people live in the arms of Jesus. You are the disciple whom Jesus loves. Move in with Him and only move in Him.
I’ve sat out here in our orchard, petting my sheep through a pandemic and personal crisis and prayed for the flock of God and realized the question of the cultural moment is simply:
If attaching to God takes time — time to talk to God, time to read His Word, this love letter to you, time to look into His face and meditate on His beauty and feel Him woo you — how can you hush the hustle and the hurry to make time to abide and fall into love?
I have asked myself in the middle of all this:
Could a pandemic make our love less anemic — by giving us more time to abide?
Because the key to becoming like Christ is by coming and falling in love with Christ.
If I’ve learned anything from these lambs in this season, it’s this:
There is a difference from being a Jesus-follower — and being a Jesus-abider:
Jesus-abiders know:
Following Jesus can still be done in your own strength.
Abiding in Jesus means He is your only strength.
Following Jesus means we can keep striving forward in and of ourselves.
Abiding in Jesus keeps us from backsliding because we are in Him.
Following Jesus means we can go wayward because the best we can do is think ABOUT God.
Abiding in Jesus is obeying God because now we are thinking WITH GOD.
Abiding always gives the grace obey.
Obedience to God flows out of oneness with God.
Thinking about God may change our thoughts, but thinking with God, moving with God, abiding with God, changes hearts, changes actions.
Every day there’s only one thing that is needed: Be one with God.
“Every day there’s only one thing that is needed: Be one with God.“
Abiding in His arms — residing in His arms — is the way our hands, feet and heart live in obedience to Him.
I have it right there on my desk here on the farm, a drawing of Jesus holding a lamb in His arms because every single day I need that as a picture of true growth in the Christ life: Shelter in the place of Jesus’ arms and you are safe. It’s what the Apostle John knew. It’s what my spiritual director knew. It’s what is mentoring me through a brutally hard season. Let Him do everything through us in His way, not ours.
As you abide in Jesus, obeying the Word — so Jesus abides in you, giving you grace to live the Word.
The way the faithful grows is they decide to be Wooed by God — and Abide with God.
There are sheep in quiet pastures who prove the way forward is to abide.
You may feel lost in uncertainty
But you are a lamb in His arms.
Whatever you think depends on you,
Lean back and depend on Him.
“Whatever you think depends on you — lean back & depend on Him.”
You may feel like things do not bode well for the future,
But all is well when you abide in His arms,
when your abode is God.
You don’t have to fight anymore, you don’t have to fear, you don’t have to try to be enough.
Abiding holds you in His embrace of grace
& abiding holds the key to obeying.
Move into Jesus’ arms and He moves through you.
No matter what happens, you are already safe.
In Him, you’re home.
Whatever anyone says about you right now, the good news is this truth about who you are in every crisis:
You are the disciple whom Jesus loves.
You are the lamb carried in the Shepherd’s arms and He is only a good Shepherd who takes good care of His Sheep.
And your truest identity, truest name is exactly what I named these two little lambs held in arms:
Cherished and Chosen.
In all these uncertain days, you find yourself at a crossroads every day — and what you need to know is the way to abundance.
How do you find the way through uncertainty that lets you find certain peace, a way to surrender to what is, a way to live in the arms of the Good Shepherd?
How can you afford to take any other way, especially in days like these?
Related:
How to Survive This Virus
Chapter 1: This is not a drill. The World’s on Fire. We practiced our faith for days like these.
Chapter 2: Losses Come in Waves: How to Find The Way Through & The Complete Passage Deal
Chapter 3: 3 Ways to be Safe in a Pandemic Reopening without Losing Your Mind
August 17, 2020
4 Bold Ways We Actively Trade Fear for Trust
As fear inches closer and normal remains just out of arm’s reach, we’re all growing a bit weary. Katie Westenberg knows a bit of that weariness – in waiting, in wanting a different outcome, in wishing the fear would just subside. But what if fear isn’t the problem, but rather the answer? In her new book I Choose Brave: Embracing Holy Courage and Understanding Godly Fear, Katie unwraps what it means to fear the Lord and live bravely from that Truth. It’s a grace to welcome Katie to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Katie Westenberg
Weeks turned into months and my story was much the same. Chronic, intermittent bleeding. Strong heartbeat. Steady growth. It’s strange how quickly abnormal can become your new normal.
The twenty-week ultrasound was fast approaching and we were thrilled to find out the gender of our baby. We’d had our fill of surprises with this complicated pregnancy. We weren’t interested in playing any wait and see games.
“It’s strange how quickly abnormal can become your new normal.”
I settled myself onto the familiar ultrasound table and made small talk with the tech while she prepped her surroundings in a practiced manner. Warm jelly on my stomach, adjust the screen for patient viewing, grab the ultrasound wand and go to work.
But when her wand connected with my belly, nothing made sense. Like groping for a familiar anchor when the lights go out, my eyes scanned the screen, hoping to make sense of something, anything. A steady heartbeat pulsed through the speaker, but nothing looked right.
Confused, I let my eyes drift to the ultrasound tech. Her poker face was solid, but her vague words were everything, “Excuse me for just a minute,” she lobbed softly, “I need to go get a doctor.”
In the Psalms we get a diary-like peek into David’s heart of worship and his raw and intimate methods of pursuing Christ, regardless of his current circumstances.
“His worship isn’t situational but rather a response gutted out in the truth of who God is, regardless of his situation.”
His worship isn’t situational – it’s Sunday morning at 9:30 and the piano is playing so worship is what we do – but rather a response gutted out in the truth of who God is, regardless of his situation, and the time, and a piano. This is what it looks like to fear the Lord regardless, because our current situation does not for a second change the truth of who He is.
David’s example in Psalm 56:3 is classic, “When I am afraid, I will trust in You.” What a short and sweet prescriptive – one we should jot down and say on repeat.
But when we look closer, in context, there is much more to mine here.
He was speaking from the trenches. David was not holed up in a lofty tower penning encouragement to the lowly who were struggling with their daily battles. His enemies were many, hounding him all day, the previous verses tell us (Psalm 56:1-2). He is feeling that fear acutely.
He was making a better battle plan. David wasn’t pretending it wasn’t messy. As can-do women we easily become experts at minimizing our hard. But David wasn’t down-playing, he was bossing himself around while he was in the midst of some real hard.
“The work of hurt and healing take time, but worship in these places is a hallowed-out offering from our emptiest parts, bravely asking Him to fill them with more of Him.”
He reminded himself of what is true and declared it. David had some history with God. He knew Him and chose to press into Truth. The same choice exists for us. We can boldly declare like David, “…This I know, that God is for me.” (Psalm 56:9)
He humbled himself to worship. As the passage continues on (Psalm 56:12-13) we see that David’s remembrance and declaration led him to praise and worship – the only proper response when we stop and look, pause and remember who God is here, now, still.
The reality of David’s circumstances did not change one bit between these verses, but the reality of his heart did. And this is the invitation for you and me.
David’s God has not changed. Our unchanging God inhabits the praises of His people. He works in and amid our pain when we choose to lock eyes with Him and fear Him even here, even in what we consider to be our worst fears.
After I gave birth to my perfectly formed, lifeless daughter, I wanted the physical and emotional healing to be immediate, linear, quick.
I’m guessing you have wanted the same in your pain and fears too?
I wanted Jesus to step into that boat, walk through my storm, and calm the wind and waves not momentarily, but quickly and permanently.
“We get to form a better battle plan by beginning here, remembering and declaring who He is and humbling our hearts to worship.”
The work of grief is slow and messy.
The work of hurt and healing take time, but worship in these places is a hallowed-out offering from our emptiest parts, bravely asking Him to fill them with more of Him. It’s raw, vulnerable, but the learning here is rich because He is so very near in these broken-hearted places. (Psalm 34:18)
When we’re hurt and hungry for wisdom, disappointed and desperate for knowledge, may we boldly remember He told us both wisdom and knowledge begin with fearing Him. (Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 9:10)
These are trenches in which we get to know Him, friend.
We get to form a better battle plan by beginning here, remembering and declaring who He is and humbling our hearts to worship.
This is holy courage. This is godly fear. And He is forever worthy. May we know Him more, here.
Katie Westenberg is first a follower of Christ, a wife, and a mom growing faithfully right alongside her four children. As both an author and speaker, she teaches women to grow a robust theology of who God is, become students of Scripture, and learn to live that truth out with courage.
What if fear is the new brave? That’s the question you need answered if you are living afraid. Finding courage begins with fear itself – fear of the Lord.
I Choose Brave reveals a countercultural plan to help you where you are–knee-deep in fears of parenting, the future, your marriage, and a world that feels unstable. When you’re feeling fearful, the last thing you need is a social-media meme telling you to simply “power through” your fears.
Katie digs deep into Scripture and shows that finding the courage to overcome our fears must start with fear of the Lord. Hundreds of passages speak to this foundational truth, yet we have somehow relegated them to antiquity. In sharing her own compelling story of facing her worst fear, Katie serves up theological truth with relatable application.
With this new knowledge comes tremendous freedom. Hidden in the cleft of the Rock, the One truly worthy of our fear, you will begin to understand the only path to real courage. I Choose Brave: Embracing Holy Courage and Understanding Godly Fear is a biblically solid and yet counter-cultural plan, pointing you straight to Truth in a world that feels unstable.
[ Our humble thanks to Bethany House for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
August 15, 2020
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [08.15.20]
This weekend? Feels like we are walking into new hope, new change, new possibility!
Some real hope in these days — for us all to the real, sustained, needed work & more of the real Kingdom of God to come into a hurting world. Links & stories this week 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:
Matt Trivett
Matt Trivett
Matt Trivettwe love to tag along as he adventures around our world
good stewards of the land… and the animals too … must come see!
View this post on InstagramBeing aware of our surroundings and opportunities for kindness.
August 12, 2020
The Psalms Through the Eyes of a Modern-Day Poet
Do you remember the phrase “it takes one to know one?” Who better to help us unearth the deep lyrical treasures found in the book of Psalms than an actual poet? Quina Aragon is an author and spoken word artist who understands the profound difference between putting pen to paper and performance. Isn’t that much like Scripture? We can spend our whole life studying the Bible, but unless we act on what we are reading, the full power of the words lies dormant and we miss out on what God has for us. It’s a grace to have Quina join us on the farm’s front porch today to discuss the abundant, overflowing riches that await us in the Psalms…
I’m learning to pray like my four-year-old daughter interacts with my husband.
She sometimes wants his cuddles, sometimes his silliness, sometimes his gifts (usually popsicles). She sometimes wants to know, “Why, Papi?” or throw a tantrum in front of him.
But she always wants him. Always. Can you guess what her first word was?
When a child has experienced a sort of infinite tenderness in her father’s face for as long as she can remember, she is free to approach him with snotty nose and muddy hands. Or in a princess dress with a big bow in her hair.
Her freedom, her joy, her trust in us convicts me. The more I observe my beloved daughter, the more I’m convinced: “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). It’s almost poetic, isn’t it?
This is what the psalmists seem to grasp. Covenant is relationship. Deep, deep relationship. It seems like language fails to communicate the insatiable desire of God to be one with His people.
The word “union” seems the most appropriate term. But we need stories and word pictures and poetry to help us even begin to grasp this unending, incomprehensible, quite unbelievable love God has chosen to set upon us by His own free will.
Jesus’s Favorite Book
No wonder a good third of God’s Word is poetry.
God inspired Adam toward poetry when He gave him Eve. God taught and warned His people by teaching Moses a song. Job expressed His unfathomable suffering through poetry, and God spoke back likewise. The prophets often said, “Thus says the Lord,” and out came poetry.
“The Psalms are simultaneously the words of God and the words of God’s people.”
And then there’s the book of Psalms. God taught His covenant people to write their sorrows, their joys, their fears, their longings in poetry for them to sing to Him again and again and again. It is apparently Jesus’ favorite book.
Doesn’t that make your mind explode with implications?
I think I’ve experienced at least two of them.
1. Our Union is Too Beautiful to Not Be Poetic
When I became a follower of Christ as a teenager, I began to pray aloud. It was the weirdest phenomenon. I kept wanting to read my Bible for the first time ever, but it was the praying that was most shocking to my bedroom walls, which had hitherto only heard my TV, my music, or my phone calls.
When I didn’t pray aloud, I wrote in a journal. I found that what flowed out of my pen looked like poems.
The Psalms are simultaneously the words of God and the words of God’s people. There’s that whole “union” concept again.
Christ in us and we in Christ. So deeply fused that His words become our prayers, and in the Psalms, vise versa.
The psalmists utter personal and corporate lament, confessions, praise, and exhortation. Their poems are the colors, tones, and hues of the human experience displayed most vividly through the lens of covenant with God. Union.
“Our union with God through Christ is not merely functional (we serve God, and thus prove fruitful), but beautiful (we are pursued at infinite cost to become the Bride of Christ, beloved children of God).”
When my high school English teacher caught wind of my poetry, she all but forced me to perform my poems at the poetry slam she was organizing. I memorized and performed my not-so-polished poems about Jesus before hundreds of my peers. Some approached me with tears in their eyes to say that my poems reached them in a special way.
Somehow, fifteen years later, that still happens when I get the chance to perform poetry.
So I suppose the first implication is this: God could awaken our souls to His truth, beauty, and goodness any old way. But it seems He’s often pleased to do it through poetry expressed in song, in speech, and in drama.
Our union with God through Christ is not merely functional (we serve God, and thus prove fruitful), but beautiful (we are pursued at infinite cost to become the Bride of Christ, beloved children of God).
It’s too beautiful to not be poetic. The Psalms exhibit this relational reality of union with Christ, well, beautifully.
2. Embodying is Best
In my college performance communication class, we were taught to write our own performances, and then embody the text we wrote by performing it. We were taught to “steal like an artist,” grabbing inspiration from life, art, and others’ words in order to sculpt our own scripts, but in a way that makes our writing voice sound uniquely ours.
Every poet does it. The best poets steal the best. They’re inspired by things outside of themselves. They gather these inspirations together like ingredients, then masterfully cook a feast of words that makes you say, “This is unique! Fresh! It’s never been said like that!” And you’re not wrong to say that. Sure, there is nothing new under the sun. But there is something fresh to be said about anything and everything, especially the inexhaustible, living Word of God.
The Psalms were meant to be sung, embodied even. Gordon Wenham says the Psalms are a performative act—“saying these solemn words to God alters one’s relationship in a way that mere listening does not.” In so many ways, the prophets embodied God’s poetic words for His people.
Think: Moses’ leadership in Israel’s exodus, David’s shepherd-king life, Hosea’s marriage, Jeremiah’s Rechabite dinner party, Haggai and Zechariah’s hands-on rebuilding of the house of God, John the Baptist’s Nazarite-vow lifestyle.
“The Psalms teach us to pray like a beloved child of God.”
And Jesus, the Word made flesh, quite literally embodied all of God’s words, including (especially?) the Psalms. He quoted them and He lived them.
It’s one thing for me to write a poem. It’s something else to perform it. As I practice, I experiment with my posture, my tone, my gaze, my breathing, my movements, all to communicate a fuller experience of words. By performing, I aim for empathy and conviction via emotion and motion. I seek to embody the text.
We learn something much deeper about a text when we embody it. That sounds like drama theory and theater . . . and sanctification. I think that’s the second implication.
The Very Poetic Words of God
So the Psalms teach us to pray like a beloved child of God.
They show us that union with Christ is far too beautiful to not be poetic.
And they encourage us to more deeply experience that union by seeking to embody the very words of God.
I don’t think you have to be a poet to appreciate all of that, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt.
Quina Aragon lives in Tampa, Florida, with her husband, Jon, and their daughter. They are members of Living Faith Bible Fellowship. Quina has contributed to several books, produced multiple spoken word videos, and performed for various organizations and events. Her first children’s book, Love Made, poetically retells the story of creation through a Trinitarian lens of overflowing joy and love.
Her latest book, the sequel to Love Made, introduces little ones to God’s greatest gift, Jesus. Love Gave is a lovingly written and exquisitely illustrated book that will help young children take small steps toward understanding key Christian concepts, such as sin, salvation, and sacrificial love.
Quina’s new book is sure to become a story time favorite for your whole family.
August 10, 2020
The Real Secret to Aging Well & How to Feel the Luckiest About Growing Older Into a Deeply Meaningful Life
… so today, I’m thinking about a year ago today… and, in the midst of all the unbelievable hard of 2020, don’t miss the the deeply meaningful opportunity at the very end — a way to make even here & now, into a really good day, a deeply meaningful year:
The night I stood in my dad’s barn and blew out my birthday candles I had no idea of knowing that within two weeks I’d be trying to claw off the burning-itch of my abdomen with what the doctor would diagnose as a classic case of the shingles.
I confess, I was actually kinda feeling my age as I blew out all those tattle-tale candles on the cake — but not nearly as old as when the doctor peers over his glasses to inform me standing there, holding up the side of my shirt to expose the meandering clusters of fiery, red bumps:
“Shingles is very common in older people.”
“It’s a gift to focus less on how old you are becoming and more on who you are becoming.”
And I kinda exhale through the exhaustion and smile thinly:
Growing older is a gift that only the young take for granted.
It’s a gift to get old enough to realize how little you know.
It’s a gift to hold space for all the ages you have ever been.
It’s a gift to focus less on how old you are becoming and more on who you are becoming.
And maybe getting over the hill gets you seeing what you never would otherwise.
The Farmer has his own sheepish appointment with the doctor right after mine.
“We — don’t have much on you here at all. When was the last time you were here?” the doctor leans in toward his computer screen and the Farmer’s scant file. There are men who only visit a doctor just before they think a visit to the funeral home might be imminent.
“Yeah — I really only see you folks usually when I’m bleeding,” the Farmer, cradling his elbow, grinned through the constant throbbing. When the doctor prodded his elbow, the Farmer jolts with the sharp pain: “Yeah, there. For nearly a month now,” he laughs half-embarrassed.
“Aging is a long marinating in amazing grace.”
“Bursitis,” the doctor nodded. “And it looks like the tests they did a few weeks ago in ER came positive for infection.”
The Farmer looks across the doctor’s office at me and chuckles: “Aren’t we a kinda a finely aging pair: Shingles and bursitis.”
The night we had all gathered in my Dad’s barn for cake I had looked around at our 7 kids, from 4 to 24, our four sons and three daughters, such people, and I had thought that:
Aging is a long marinating in amazing grace.
Joy ProutyMy sister has laid out plates, her and her 5 long-haired daughters having spent the day making the meal, and her rogue youngest son offers this toothless-grinning birthday greetings, hands stuffed irresistibly into pockets.
“Maybe blowing out candles is actually about fanning the flames of genuine thanks.”
My mama tosses the salads and I’d catch her smile, and our Syrian refugee family brings a pot of sunny flowers and their chubby-cheeked, deliciously squeezable new baby boy, and our Congolese refugee family come with shy hugs and musical laughter that plays through the night like the perfect soundtrack to hope, and our China-born daughter drives a pedal International tractor across the old bank barn floors and my dad fires up the grill — and there are all these moments that can light with grace.
Maybe blowing out candles is actually about fanning the flames of genuine thanks.
And I’m a bit ignited. We may be growing older but our hearts are growing larger, and we may be limping along but we can help welcome a family into our family that longs to belong, we may be hurting in all kinds of ways, but we can be kind and help others hurting in their own way.
And my dad steps up beside the Farmer and I, cock his head to one side and say it very slow, like every word carries weight: “I hope you really know: You are all the very luckiest.”
I read my dad eyes — and a million stories of pain he holds and never has to speak. He’s standing with us in the barn’s stone loft where he hung a steel sign: “Aimee’s Loft” — his second daughter.
“Getting to love makes you the luckiest of all, because love always wins.”
She’s not at my 46th birthday — because she was killed in a farm accident just after my 4th birthday.
My eyes don’t leave Dad’s eyes — I nod slow.
Our middle girl, barefoot and curls tucked behind her ear, she wraps her arms around my dad and murmurs it quietly, “Love you, Grandpa.”
And my heart hurts with this splitting thanks:
Winning the lottery doesn’t make you lucky. Getting to love makes you the luckiest of all, because love always wins.
Dad, white hair at his temples and etched wrinkles writing a holy story, he closes his eyes, and squeezes his granddaughter tight, and I wrap my arms around them both and we all hold on a little longer.
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy ProutyThe older you get, the more you get to be a door holder for grace. That is all.
My Dad feels smaller somehow. Our Shalom-girl feels taller. And our littlest girl dives in to hug all our legs.
And the Farmer nods and smiles and we all hold space for what time and aging and life and love really mean:
You don’t need the love of many — you only need to love many times more than you ever thought you could.
“You don’t need the love of many — you only need to love many times more than you ever thought you could.”
Dad brushes back what’s brimming, but I don’t want to brush any of this holy aging back.
Mama’s kneeling down to talk to our littlest baby girl, and our boys are ribbing each other hard about cars, and the kids from Syria and the Congo and the farm are all one family up in an old bank barn under a late summer sky and it can be quite common for those growing older to know it:
The lucky few are simply loved by a few, get to love a few, and choose to love more than a few times.
Long after the candles are blown out, I keep looking around at the kids, at this moment made by enduring hard days, whole hard years, at the manifested kindness of God to those carrying a whole lot of unspoken broken, at all this light lingering like a classic case of inextinguishable love.
And I guess had no idea of knowing, but it turns out?
That it’s quite common for the older to have bones burning up with a finely aging grace.
Hey, I’m so with you here on my birthday: We’ve all had a crazy hard year. But you know what I’m thinking?
When we show up in a meaningful & helpful way for someone else — it shows us that, even now, especially now, we are still meaningful & helpful in God’s good story.So today? For my birthday?
Firstly, in the midst of the economic collapse due to months of political turmoil, they faced, a further collapse caused, secondly, by the COVID lockdown, and then, thirdly, last week, a massive explosion, now ranked the 3rd largest explosion in a populated city, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has left more than 300,000 people displaced (12.37% of Beirut’s population, which is 1 in 8 people) because of this disaster, alongside the over 1.5 million Syrian refugees that already live in the midst of generous Lebanese hospitality.
At the same time, Horizons, which the Farmer and I have wholeheartedly supported over the last several years, is aware of the need and committed to move as quickly as possible from short-term emergency relief to long-term development,
This triple crisis in Lebanon has created the urgency to launch an agricultural project — to invest in a FARM (!!)– that can transform the Beqaa Valley Ministry Center, about 40 minutes from Beirut, into a fully fledged missional community to meet dire food needs.
Rather than relying only on international financial aid in order to purchase food, the cost of which is heavily impacted by inflation, this Farm Community Project provides long-term solutions to the problems of poverty and economic vulnerability for so many vulnerable families in Lebanon.
will not only provide a secure food source, but an environment in which Lebanese and Syrians can not only develop practical vocational skills, but also foster close relationships with believers in Christ and provide ample opportunities for evangelism and discipleship.
This is what I know about hard times, about making a meaningful life of grace:
The way through — is to help someone else find the way through.
When we all show up together, what happens is that we all get to rise up together.I can’t thank each and every one of you enough for showing up in this community here — and being some of the very best joys in a hard year.
I’m so with you — crushing a year of a pandemic of crises — by spreading some hope and love around!
August 7, 2020
How to Show Up in Beirut as the Hands of Jesus Right Now (A Surprising Story of Hope)
It feels like it’s a physical manifestation of all of our grief over 2020, the whole world standing agape at the cataclysmic mushroom of horror that exploded over the port of Beirut this week.
The pandemic may be invisible.
The corona virus may feel like an elusive, evasive stalker that lives by its own logic.
But that seismic explosion, the third most powerful explosion that’s ever happened on planet earth? That explosion feels like all our global grief, all our consolidated losses, all our cumulative confusion, all our shared pain on full display, rupturing the the whole shocked sky.
That mushrooming cloud of decimation feels like a cataclysmic metaphor for our collective 2020.
I first walked the streets of Beirut in June of 2017.
Electricity wires loop and serpentine across streets, like every apartment’s trying to charm a bit of power their way in a country where citizens suffer through daily blackouts.
More than half of the day, most Lebanese struggle without electricity, smothering a Middle Eastern country day after day with no AC, no running water, no refrigeration. While electricity lines run undetectably through most cities, it’s like Beirut’s intestines are splayed and gaping for any passerby to witness the desperation.
On a Beirut street corner, I stopped to watch a canary in a cage still sing.
In Beirut, 2017
Ann Voskamp in Beirut, 2017
Ann Voskamp in Lebanon, 2017
Ann Voskamp in Beirut, 2017
Ann Voskamp with Esther Havens, 2017
Ann Voskamp in Beirut, 2017
Ann Voskamp, Beirut, 2017
Ann Voskamp, Beirut, 2017
Ann Voskamp with Esther Havens, Beirut, 2017“Unless humanitarian aid ultimately points to Jesus, what would ultimately be the point?”
I’d been to the Middle East a few times before, but this time, humanitarian photographer, Esther Havens, and I had come seeking out real cruciform, Gospel-motivated humanitarians on the ground who were genuinely being the hands and feet of Jesus — and were doing it unashamedly in Jesus’ name.
We meet Pierre Houssney, a Lebanese-American living in Beirut. He’s director of a nearly 30 year old ministry, Horizons International, a global missions organization dedicated to proclaiming the gospel, discipling the nations and equipping the church, founded by his father, Georges Houssney, who is widely and well-known for his work supervising the translation and publication of the Bible into clear modern Arabic. This is a family who gave the whole scope of their lives to translate the Word of God into Arabic, changed the Middle East, and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, a family who believes:
Humanitarian aid doesn’t deeply aid unless it points to the Son of Man Himself.
Unless humanitarian aid ultimately points to Jesus, what would ultimately be the point?
Ann Voskamp at Horizon International in Beirut
Ann Voskamp in Beirut, 2017
Ann Voskamp in Lebanon, 2017
Ann Voskamp in Lebanon
Ann Voskamp in Beirut
Ann Voskamp in LebanonWhen I read this week that 300,000 people — 12% of the city of Beirut — has been left homeless after the unfathomable catastrophe, I think of what Pierre said:
“Evangelical churches in Lebanon are responding by showing Christ’s love through humanitarian aid and sharing the gospel to an unprecedented extent,” Pierre’s a man who speaks with deep assurance, deep integrity.
“Humanitarian aid doesn’t deeply aid unless it points to the Son of Man Himself.”
When I had flown from Beirut in 2017, I’d told the Farmer in no uncertain terms: And that Esther and I have found ministries doing real Gospel-centred work in the Middle East, that Pierre and Horizon’s was changing the Middle East, not just with a handout but as the genuine hands of Jesus.
As a family, of all the work we’d seen in the Middle East, we chose to support Horizon’s School of Hope because Horizon schooled me in what it looks like to show up in the middle of heartache when Jesus is your certain, unshakeable hope.
When I see the looming plumes of smoke climbing the stratosphere over Beirut, and our already reeling 2020 feels suckered punched in the gut, I pound out a stunned email Pierre, a humble man whose made his life more than only helping people but about saving souls.
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon InternationalAnd Pierre shoots me back a shell-shocked few lines:
“We are now trying to obtain rolls of plastic and tape so that we can help people get their window frames covered, with expectations that these makeshift coverings will need to last for the next few months.
We pray that before the rainy and cold winter comes, most will be able to find better solutions, but plastic will have to do for now.
We are going to be mobilizing multi-church teams of volunteers to go out through the city and repair as many windows as possible.
And our sandwiches project is also super urgent, as they are currently estimating that up to 300,000 people are homeless in Beirut right now.
Pierre
“But never doubt: hearts on fire for Christ can detonate Hope.”
They say that days later in Beirut, after the explosion knocked out every window for miles and miles, that “every waking hour, every sleepless minute is punctuated by the sound of broken glass: cracked window panes crashing, shards being swept, piles of shattered glass dumped on street corners. More glass, more shards in our hearts.”
All our hearts are shattered shards in 2020.
One explosion over Beirut may feel like the manifestation of the catastrophe that feels like our 2020, and all our windows have been blown out — and honestly, some days, these days, there can feel like a blackout of Hope.
But never doubt: hearts on fire for Christ can detonate Hope.
Which is exactly what happened when just yesterday, Samir, a Lebanese staff member at Horizons, went to a local bakery in obliterated Beirut to purchase 600 bags of bread for Horizon’s food distribution and Sandwich Project, as people are direly hungry and “wheat stored at port, which is Lebanon’s main gateway for imports, made up some 85% of its grain supply, and no longer can be used after the explosion.”
The bakery owner asked who Samir was, looking to buy that much bread.
“‘… remember Boutros, who comes and buys bread from you?” This is the fruit of people, like the team at Horizon’s, serving in a crisis being people who actually live and having long-term relationship in that community: Boutros knows the bakers well, sharing with them on previous visits that Horizons is a ministry
“Are you really doing good work if there’s no sharing the really Good News?“
On the spot, buying these 600 bags of bread, Horizon’s Samir starts sharing the hope of Jesus and unchanging Good News with the bakers, because the bottom line always is:
Are you really doing good work if there’s no sharing the really Good News?
“I have wonderful news for you!” The Baker in Beirut smiles to Samir. “Someone just told us this week, they want to donate 1,000 bags of bread to someone who deserves it. They said they don’t want it going just to anyone.”
And right in front of Horizon’s Samir, the owner of the bakery makes a phone call to the potential bread donor:
“What you asked for is here in the store!” The Baker is talking fast, animated — hopeful: Horizons is a Christian ministry that shares more than just bread — they share the Living Bread of Christ.
The donor replied:
“I don’t know anyone more deserving than the people of Horizons to take and distribute these 1,000 bags of bread.”
Horizon’s Samir came to buy 600 bags of bread — and walked out with a gift of 1000 bags of bread.
There is certain Hope on the Horizon — and it is always the people who show up with Living Bread in their hands, because He is our certain Hope.
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International“There is certain Hope on the Horizon — and it is always the people who show up with Living Bread in their hands, because He is our certain Hope.”
And that’s :
“Pray that the Holy Spirit would be ripening the hearts of the people in Beirut that are in despair, that have no other valid place to put their hope,” he said.
“That they will transfer that hope away from whatever it was: their money that is now gone, the institutions that they relied on, their schooling, their jobs, their companies—whatever they had their hope in, that they would transfer that hope to Jesus.”
In the streets of Beirut in 2020, when rescue efforts are being hampered by scarce electricity, there can be bread handed out and windows replaced and the sparking of a far more powerful current of Hope looping around the world on full display.
We can to be the power grid of Hope that shows up and keeps the Light shining, that shows up and keeps people fed, that keeps people protected from winds and rain.
While we’re all fighting all kinds of invisible enemies,
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
Horizon International
In the middle of a global pandemic and an otherworldly explosion — there can be a surge of Love that lets an otherworldly Hope break in.
“When it feels like the end of the world — we can show up to prove Hope never ends.”
The shockwaves of 2020 can meet a rising wave of Hope.
Because: There is nothing like being part of a worthy cause that claims Jesus is worthy.
In the middle of a pandemic, Pierre’s buying rolls of plastic for windows for those with damaged homes, and Samir’s buying bread for those on the streets and desperately hungry, and all of us right now, in the middle of all the things, get to choose:
When it feels like the end of the world — we can show up to prove Hope never ends.
And maybe that caged canary on the Beirut street corner has taken wing, flying through this wide open window of opportunity, to sing Hope all across the sky.
How can we Show Up Now to be the hands & feet of Jesus?
Unless humanitarian aid ultimately points to Jesus, what would ultimately be the point?
August 5, 2020
How To Get to The End of Divisions: (And Become a New Humanity)
Pastor Léonce B. Crump Jr has been called by some, “the voice of a generation.” With compassion, power, and authenticity he has challenged the Church for nearly two decades to see itself as God’s Redemptive agent in the world. He has challenged the Church to push her prophetic voice to the public square, and address the issues that have fractured our world with the whole, and holistic Gospel. You will be challenged, and hopefully inspired by the powerful words he puts before us today. It is a grace to welcome Léonce to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Leonce B. Crump, Jr.
Iremember being the only African-American elder at a former church post, and feeling the withdrawal from a couple of the other elders when racist church members would come around.
In fact, one of the men asked me if I was always going to have that “rapper hair.” Evidently one of his friends in the church had complained about it. Yeah, about my hair.
“In Christ the ruling paradigm is that there is no separation; we must, in fact, move beyond integration.”
Yet one of the central out-workings of the gospel is the breaking down of ethnic, economic, and cultural hostilities and building up of communities that capture the full breadth of God’s creative genius.
“For he Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” (Ephesians 2:14)
Jesus broke down these divisions in His own body, securing our salvation and submitting our tendency to separate ourselves to the pain of the cross and the power of His resurrection. Faith alone unites us to Christ. We cast ourselves completely on Him and His righteousness.
And for His sake alone, God counts us righteous and accepts and welcomes us into His family forever.
This is the heart of the gospel. This is the good news!
In Christ there is a new humanity, a new community, where our new identity is defined by the calling of the Cross.
In Christ the ruling paradigm is that there is no separation; we must, in fact, move beyond integration.
And if you think for a second this means we should all just become the same, think again.
“How can we be united in Christ but divided in His family? Living that way would be a mockery of the gospel.”
This is not some attempt at assimilation or manufactured community.
The gospel unites us in Christ despite our differences. In fact, the gospel drives us to celebrate our differences as the diversity-strewn beauty from the Lord’s creative hand.
And if that is true, then what distinction can we make? Who are our people, our kind? How can we be united in Christ but divided in His family? Living that way would be a mockery of the gospel.
As a giant of his time, a native son of Atlanta, and gifted orator, Dr. King has had a profound affect on me. (He was by no means perfect, but point me to the man that is, and I’ll tell you what he’s hiding.) Dr. King had a dream of a world where race, color, creed, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and education were not used to generate class distinctions and hostility, but rather used to create a woven work of “all God’s children” living in love and unity in the beloved community.
“The gospel drives us to celebrate our differences as the diversity-strewn beauty from the Lord’s creative hand.”
This should be the dream of the church, because it was greater than simply being a man’s vision for the world. It is a dream that is reflective of the heart of God, the dream of His Scriptures, and made possible only by the sacrifice of Jesus.
We love our community because we see the potential that we have, through the working of the Holy Spirit and by the power of the gospel, to see this gospel dream become a reality. We love our city because every day we have the opportunity to live out the words upon which our country was founded.
On July 4, 1776 the American forefathers ratified these words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
These words, penned by the men who founded the United States of America, are powerfully wonderful words, but then, as in the minds of some people now, they were not applied to all whom God created. By 1776 the Africans who’d been shipped to North America as property had been enslaved for almost two hundred years. Though some thought slavery was wrong, the majority of people saw it as acceptable. Slaves usually could not marry, have a family, testify in court, or own property legally.
Where were their unalienable rights and equality? And even before the African was shipped to America, the Native American was used as forced labor. The details of that season of our nation’s history are different, but the result was the same – inequality.
It would be one hundred years after those 1776 words were penned that slavery would officially end. But even after this, there was still no sense that all men were created equal. On the heels of slavery would be another hundred years of oppression – Jim Crow, segregation, and separate but equal. Then there were the onlys – white only water fountains, white only swimming pools, white only restaurants, white only schools.
My own mother, who is very fair-skinned because her grandmother was half-white due to the rape of her mother by a slave master, was told by a white teacher that she should “pass.” My mother was encouraged to leave her family and live as a white woman so that she could be more accepted and live an easier life. Equality on the surface does not necessitate equality in our hearts.
I realize that in discussions like this some will respond “Yes, but that was so long ago, and things are different now.”
Unfortunately, things haven’t changed as rapidly, or broadly as we might imagine.
In the fall of 2015, I was returning home after one of our worship gatherings in Grant Park in Atlanta, and I saw a man running around my neighborhood and waving a Confederate flag. He was shouting, “The South shall rise again!”
I’m afraid the sin and evil of racism and classism has not ended; it has just been governed and suppressed. The words this nation were founded upon are impotent in the face of blatant hatred and systematic division of people along racial, ethnic, social, and socioeconomic lines.
“The new self is not just a new nature or even a new person. It is a new humanity altogether.”
This is the history and, in some places, the present reality of our nation.
But what about the Church? The visible Bride of Christ is supposed to be different, a living example to the world of how humans should relate to God and in turn how humanity should relate to one another. “If you have been raised with Christ,” then by all accounts you should be daily putting off the old self with its practices. (Colossians 3:1)
Why? So you can live and love well in the new community of Christ, having put on the new self. This is then your primary identifier; it is the way people know you above all else.
The new self is not just a new nature or even a new person. It is a new humanity altogether. In this new reality, the forefathers’ words can finally become true.
This equality across all lines is a re-creation of what was always intended, how human relationships were always meant to be. We all stand equal at the foot of the Cross, because we all belong to Christ.
“We become New Ethnics when we come to follow Jesus and are transformed by the gospel. Freed from the bounds of prejudice, we long to become a new people altogether.”
The renewal refers not simply to an individual change of character, but also to a corporate recreation of humanity itself in the creator’s image. ( Peter Thomas O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon)
This re-creation involves what community was always supposed to be, and this is what it means to be a New Ethnic. This term came to me as I was preparing to see our church planted in Atlanta. As I wrote out the mission statement and wrestled with the Scriptures about who I’d like this church to be, this term surfaced.
We become New Ethnics when we come to follow Jesus and are transformed by the gospel.
We are striving to be freed from the bounds of prejudice, fear, and hang-ups of simply being identified by our race, class, or culture.
We long to become a new people altogether, a beautiful tapestry of God’s creation, called and chosen by Him for something bigger than ourselves.
As such, we are deeply committed to being intentionally Transcultural.
Audacious, huh?
Yeah, it is audacious… but so is the gospel itself. Why would it produce anything less?
Pastor Léonce B. Crump Jr. is an author, international speaker, and co-founder—along with his wife Breanna—of Renovation Church in Atlanta.
Before committing his life to pastoral ministry, and civil rights activism, Léonce was a collegiate All American in wrestling, nearly made the World Team in wrestling, and a professional football player. The former professional athlete has strong transcultural appeal and connections in the world of professional sports and hip-hop music, as well as church planting and leadership circles. He has been in ordained ministry for nearly 20 years, and holds multiple graduate degrees.
In 2008 Crump answered God’s call to relocate from Tennessee to Atlanta and begin the process of planting Renovation Church. He details the obstacles he and his family faced and the revelations he uncovered during this process in Renovate: Changing Who You Are by Loving Where You Are. A champion for the Church’s participation in focused and intentional cultural renewal, Crump is the leading voice of a generation committed to operating as God’s redemptive agents in the earth.
Of his book, Renovate, Léonce says. “I hope you leave these few pages with a renewed sense of your ability to influence and shape culture, your ability and calling to renew this world and promote human flourishing for God’s glory and the common good. I hope you walk away from this book believing that cultural renewal is not only the responsibility of the Christian but also the most freeing way you can turn your quiet longing into discernible action.”
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