Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 79
June 6, 2020
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [06.06.20]
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 want to rise with our brothers & sisters & be part of reconciliation & redemption.
Lean in, listen, learn — and be part of Gospel-saturated change.
Serving up only Kingdom Good Stuff this week for you & your people right here:
Jessica Walker
Jessica Walker
Jessica Walker
Jessica Walker
Jessica Walker
anyone else wanna be right here about now? It’s a good weekend to talk and ponder…
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27
because we all need a little help from our friends
had to share! African American Visionaries – free printable for family learning
11-year-old loves playing the organ at church, so when he was surprised with his very own organ? just watch!
I am too conservative to stay silent on racial injustices
“Our church also emphasizes reflecting the gospel through adoption, fostering, and orphan care. Because of that fact, many of our families possess a variety of skin colors. In those families, not one with both black and white children have said that their black children are treated in the same way as their white children. Not one.”
Absolute must watch & read!
And she gives all the glory to God! Only God writes these kind of stories!
“I thanked God for his LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS the rest of the Flight. On his way off the plane he hands me a handwritten note and I thank him again and ask for this pic. This encounter is Only A Holy Spirit thing!!!!”
what happens when this police officer sings “We Shall Overcome”? tears
5 Adorable Babies Born in Quarantine
Must listen. We did as a family around our table: Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man
really helpful listen
This is a definite must-watch. Lean in with Priscilla Shirer, her dad, Dr. Tony Evans, and a collective of drop in guests. You’ll find yourself sharing this with your people — so thoughtful, needful, helpful.
Really — you have to watch this this week. Watch right through.
We believe in the power of story. Our film Just Mercy, based on the life work of civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, is one resource we can humbly offer to those who are interested in learning more about the systemic racism that plagues our society.
For the month of June, #JustMercy will be available to rent for free on digital platforms in the US.
The leadership of Dr. Evans is everything
because we all need someone to come alongside... this
“Black lives matter. I will personally be taking care of your food today. It’s time we stand together. You are all beautiful and amazing human beings who deserve the world and more. Equality is key. Love Hannah.”
“But I say, love your enemies and pray…”
This Pastor, this word! YES, YES, YES
Okay, circle up, family: You absolutely can’t miss this, for real. I’ve spent the week leaning right in to learn from our black brothers and sisters, and this couple? I’m telling you: Relationship Goals.
Your weekend, your relationships, really needs this. Michael’s deep wisdom brings us back to the truest truths of our relationships & is a gift you need for your weekend :
The Best Way to Disagree
If you watch anything this week, please watch this. Take notes.
I learned so much from the leadership of this brother, Dr. Loritts. Watched several times
YES, yes, yes…profoundly powerful: this conversation has to happen in the Church
Thank you, John Gray… Become a Bridge
Watched every moment… worth watching: What is the Good News of Jesus?
“Part of the restoration of the Gospel is anti-racist work that’s rooted in the Cross & the Resurrection of Jesus.”
A longtime quiet listener & learner here.
Deeply needful: Be a Bridge Builder and Latasha Morrison
this, this, this: Amen…Such an Awesome God
Cambodian Butter Crock
Every blanket, every spoon, every plate, in every one of our homes — could all tell a grace story — a story of fair trade, a story of life change, a story of saving, Gospel grace.
Handmade in Cambodia by Rajana Association, our olive green butter crock with a delicate, leafy branch motif is an elegant way to keep butter soft and fresh. Beautiful, purposeful, meaningful.⠀⠀⠀And THESE DAYS at home? Maybe these days at home require a little extra GRACE?
Wherever there is a place of Grace — we find more of Home.
Flat out begging. This weekend — make time to watch this. The whole thing.
Let it play while you’re working on chores, making dinner. Throughout the weekend, make this one watch a priority. It’s utterly profound. You won’t walk away the same.
An absolute life-changing listen — I keep returning to it over and over again
We need a Strong God
Amen…Jesus Be a Fence
June is here!
Maybe in this new month, easy, doable ideas for the whole family to Give It Forward Today — to be the G.I.F.T. Love is a verb and that verb is give. For God so loved the world — HE GAVE. You only have one life — to love well.
And just for you, when you grab the “Be the Gift” book? Your farm girl here will immediately email you your own gift of THE WHOLE 12 MONTH *Intentional* Acts of Givenness #BeTheGIFT Calendar link to download and print from home!
Love is a verb and that verb is give. For God so loved the world — HE GAVE. You only have one life — to love well.
Pick up #BeTheGIFT — Then receive your own #BeTheGIFT printable calendar by letting us know you picked up a copy of “Be the Gift” here
Love is a verb and that verb is give. For God so loved the world — HE GAVE. You only have one life — to love well.
Pick up Be The Gift & live the life you’ve longed to this year
Still
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 all week here: The Blood and the Barley
Go slow enough today to be moved with compassion: “When [Jesus] saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion.” Matthew 9:36
Criticism can be knee-jerk & quick & jump to conclusions.
Compassion is heartfelt & slow & lingers to really listen.
Criticism kills community.
Compassion creates community.
Criticism can be a care-less reaction.
Compassion is a care-full response.
Criticism makes you more like a judge.
Compassion makes you more like Jesus.
Today — only move with compassion.
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
June 5, 2020
The Best Way to Disagree
Okay, circle up, family: You absolutely can’t miss this, for real. I’ve spent the week leaning right in to learn from our black brothers and sisters and this couple? I’m telling you: Relationship Goals. Michael Todd met his future wife at a mutual friend’s birthday party at a rec center when he was fifteen and she was fourteen. In the years since then, Michael and Natalie have forged a remarkable union—complete with fire, pressure, and beauty — and their sermon series, Relationship Goals — has been viewed by more than 6 million people! Michael brings us back to the truest truths of our relationships in today’s post. It’s a pleasure to welcome him to the front porch…
Conflict is gonna happen in marriage and other close relationships.
It can even be a good thing if it gets differences out in the open and prevents secret resentment.
But you don’t want to stay in conflict. You want to disagree in a way that strengthens your unity without leaving scars.
Let me give you two ways to do exactly that.
1. Cut out unspoken expectations.
When you don’t speak your expectation from the beginning, you are setting up yourself and your spouse to fail.
Maybe you feel like your husband or wife already knows what you want—but really, your spouse might not. Then, if you don’t voice what you want, it robs the person of the opportunity to actually meet your expectation or your need.
Just after Natalie and I got married, we were going out on a date. We didn’t have much money then, and we were driving a van without air conditioning. It was really hot that day, and we were talking about it. We decided we would go to QuikTrip to get gas.
“What really went wrong here was an unspoken expectation.”
We pulled into QuikTrip, and I jumped out to pump the gas. Natalie said, “I’m gonna go get something to drink.”
A couple minutes later, Natalie walked out of the QuikTrip with one cup and one doughnut. I couldn’t believe it. Although I never asked Natalie to buy me a drink, I’d been sure she would since we’d been talking about how hot it was. And here she was with no drink for me.
To make matters worse, her drink was sweet tea—a drink I don’t even like. So we couldn’t even share the one drink.
When Natalie got back in the car, I was fuming. I watched as she took long sips of her “selfish” tea.
It’s like I blacked out and the next thing I knew, she took a bite of her doughnut. I grabbed her doughnut and chunked it out the window, then put the van in gear and blew out of the parking lot.
You can imagine the argument. Date night was ruined. Actually, the next two days were ruined, because that’s how long it took us to get over being mad at each other.
What really went wrong here was an unspoken expectation. I had never said I wanted Natalie to buy me a drink and snack; I had assumed she would. Natalie didn’t know that because I didn’t say it. It was an unspoken expectation.
That’s a petty example. But with unspoken expectations, it can get big and serious quickly.
“If you speak out of your anger, it might make you feel better but it’s not going to resolve the issue.”
2. Pay attention to your word choice and tone.
Another tool to help resolve conflict is to keep your word choice beneficial and leave out the fluff. By this term fluff, I mean the secondary emotions. It’s the reaction to how you really feel.
You’re mad. You’re frustrated. Okay. But that isn’t the real problem or root. And if you speak out of your anger, it might make you feel better but it’s not going to resolve the issue.
This is hard to do. It’s easier to share your secondary emotions than to be vulnerable enough to say what really hurt or even admit that you were hurt at all.
The real problem is what caused you to feel hurt in the first place. You can get to the real problem only by being gentle and humble.
“You can get to the real problem only by being gentle and humble.”
If I’m honest, I was hurt that Natalie didn’t get me a drink at QuikTrip because it felt like she didn’t care. But it came out in a secondary emotion—anger—and I immaturely heaved that doughnut like I was an NFL quarterback.
Don’t yell, “Where was you at on Friday? Don’t you know it’s date night?” That’s fluff.
Gently say, “Babe, when date night came on Friday, you forgot and you were hanging out with your friends. It hurt my feelings and made me feel like I wasn’t a priority.”
The first approach might make you feel better in the moment, but it will create defensiveness and kill your chance to resolve your differences.
The second approach sets you up for the results you want.
It’s all about tone and word choice.
Think before you speak.
“It’s a relationship that is beautifully flawed, continually worked on, and sealed in sacrifice.”
There’s hope!
Natalie and I recently celebrated ten years of marriage. (Cue fireworks.) To you, that might not seem like much. But for us, that is a miracle.
It’s a miracle because our broken pieces put in God’s hand make a masterpiece.
It’s a relationship that is beautifully flawed, continually worked on, and sealed in sacrifice.
If you’re struggling with conflict in your marriage or other important relationship, remember this:
“God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13).
I believe that you have the desire to score a win in relationship.
Trust that God is going to give you the power too.
He’s going to help you restore your relationship in a way that will honor Him at the same time it gives you more satisfaction and greater fulfillment.
Michael Todd is the lead pastor of Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, alongside his wife, Natalie. They aspire to reach their community, city, and world with the gospel re-presented in a relevant and progressive way.
Pastor Michael’s first book, Relationship Goals: How to Win at Dating, Marriage, and Sex, is based on a sermon series of the same name with millions of YouTube views. It is a candid, inspiring guide to finding lasting love by putting God first and getting real about your relationship goals.
Michael tells his own story of heartache and healing, unpacks explosive truths from God’s Word, and tells it to you straight to help you win at relationships in every part of your life. As he candidly examines our most common pitfalls in relationships and the start-today ways to get past them, Michael helps you align your longings with God’s awesome desires for your life. Now, that’s a good relationship goal.
[ Our humble thanks to Waterbrook for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
June 1, 2020
Life May Not Always Go as Planned, but We Can See Some Beautiful Things Along the Way
When Rachel Earls found herself separated from her husband, Harold, by thousands of miles while he fulfilled a lifelong dream to climb Everest, she was forced to come to terms with her loneliness. Married for less than a year, she wasn’t sure she could handle the very real possibility that he might not make it home. And yet, she discovered even though she felt fearful and incomplete, she didn’t have to deny her feelings to cope. Rachel shares her experience of focusing on the Lord and changing the direction of her thoughts that helped her realize life may not always go the way we planned, but we get to see some beautiful things along the way. It’s a grace to welcome Rachel to the farm’s front porch today…
My solo trip to Ireland was my opportunity to see what I was capable of without Harold.
I met up with my friend Kate in Belfast. After exploring Northern Ireland and Giant’s Causeway, we decided to book a last-minute flight to Scotland, making a one-day trip the very next day.
In Scotland, we went for a hike around Arthur’s Seat near Edinburgh.
“In the lonely moments, I was focusing on the empty feeling of Harold’s not being by my side instead of the fullness of God’s presence with me each step of every day.”
Hiking made me feel closer to Harold.
We just happened to be taking in two completely different views!
That night I pulled out my journal and read what I had written a couple of days before leaving on this trip.
Hi, God.
I’m struggling and have a thousand thoughts running through my head. I really wish You and I could chat. I miss Harold.
To be honest, I feel like I’ve been handling this whole Everest thing pretty well, much better than I thought I would at least.
But then there are times like today when I’m just over it, when I start to feel less of myself because it is so apparent that half of me is away. I hate feeling like this. I’m trying my hardest to stay positive and to live my own adventure, embracing this as an opportunity for growth, yet sometimes it just gets the best of me.
Maybe I should look at this as our quality time together, God, instead of looking at it as time without Harold. So, let’s make this time about us!
Lord, teach me Your ways. I love You, and I put You first! When I am stubborn, remind me of this, that being close to You is all I really want and it takes time and effort, but it’s always worth it.
I needed that reminder.
In the lonely moments, I was focusing on the empty feeling of Harold’s not being by my side instead of the fullness of God’s presence with me each step of every day.
I knew it was okay for me to admit I was feeling sad, but I didn’t want to let those negative feelings drown me.
Choosing to learn and grow from an experience doesn’t mean you have to deny the very real feelings that come from enduring your time of trial.
“Choosing to learn and grow from an experience doesn’t mean you have to deny the very real feelings that come from enduring your time of trial.”
I felt what I needed to feel and then chose to refocus.
Changing the direction of my thoughts helped me feel more in control of my situation.
On my last day in Ireland, I took a hike along a narrow trail, overlooking the seaside cliffs on the outskirts of the small town of Howth.
I stopped to take in the view, sitting at the edge of the cliff with my feet dangling over the side.
The waves crashed against the rocks below and then trickled down like mini waterfalls.
I unzipped the top of my backpack and pulled out my journal to write.
I’m glad I can just sit here and take a moment to breathe and reflect. I’m really proud of myself for having the guts to just go off on my own. I think one of my fears is going through life alone, which sounds weird since I am blessed beyond measure in my marriage with Harold.
Life is so exciting, and I have no idea where it will take me; kinda like this trip. I had never even heard of Howth until I got here, and here I am taking in one of the best views. I think You do that with our lives, God.
Life may not always go the way we planned, but we get to see some beautiful things along the way.
“I felt what I needed to feel and then chose to refocus.”
I stood up and continued my hike, smiling the whole way.
It truly was one of the most beautiful and peaceful places I had ever been. I thought how much Harold would have loved it because it was the perfect kind of walk for a daydreamer—easy to get lost in your thoughts and feel inspired.
The trail was lined with beautiful yellow flowers, but I learned the hard way those little suckers would sting if you touched them.
I had been walking for a long time and needed to head back, so I took a cut-through path I spotted and hoped for the best. I was praying not to get lost out there alone next to some cliffs before the sun went down and I missed my train back to Dublin.
“No matter what I’m experiencing in life—highs, lows, or in-betweens—God is always with me.”
I spotted a gray stone bench up ahead. As I got closer, I saw it had the words “Find God in All Things” etched across it.
I looked up and gave a little smirk to God. It was the perfect way to describe what this Ireland adventure had meant for me.
I was reminded of a verse I lean on during challenging times:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance” (James 1:2–3, NIV).
It was a beautiful reminder that no matter what I’m experiencing in life—highs, lows, or in-betweens—God is always with me, and there is something to gain from every experience.
Rachel Earls is a beloved vlogger, business owner, founder of Earls Family Foundation, Army wife, and mother. Rachel also hosts the Earls Family Vlogs, which has millions of views on YouTube and nearly half a million subscribers, who tune in regularly for Rachel and Harold’s discussions on faith, family life, and love.
Captain Harold Earls IV is an active duty Army officer currently serving as the Commander of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Harold is a graduate of West Point and is US Army Airborne Ranger qualified.
A Higher Calling: Pursuing Love, Faith, and Mount Everest for a Greater Purpose shows each of us that when God’s purpose and our passion meet, we can transcend any sacrifice we make on the mountains of diversity. And as we approach life with an attitude of thanksgiving, we realize that being joyful and living in love is worth it. Every time.
[ Our humble thanks to Waterbrook for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
May 30, 2020
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [05.30.20]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! 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:
Supreet Sahoo : Instagram
Supreet Sahoo : Instagram
Supreet Sahoo : Instagram
Supreet Sahoo : Instagram
Weekend wonder: extraordinary birds who spend most of their time next to water
so we circled ’round this one! had to share
woah…hold on for this one
Texas principal travels 1,500 miles to honor each of his graduating seniors
so what do you think of this giant art installation?!?
we were awestruck! This photographer brings together TOTAL STRANGERS who look like TWINS. unbelievable!
Thank you, BibleProject:
The God portrayed in the Bible isn’t easy to understand, but what if we could better understand what it is that we can’t understand? In this video, we will explore the complex identity of God displayed in the storyline of the Bible, and (surprise!) it all leads to Jesus.
Hand-Crocheted Washcloths
Turns out? All our homes tell a story.
Every blanket, every spoon, every plate, in every home — began somewhere in the world, was made by someone in the world, and somehow changed a bit of the world — for better or worse. The welcome mats under our feet, the steaming mugs in our hands, the full bowls on our tables, could all tell a grace story — a story of fair trade, a story of life change, a story of saving, Gospel grace.
Our washcloths are as sweet as the soul that made them. Hand woven by Ruquia, a refugee from Afghanistan, these cloths are perfect for handling your most delicate dishes and serve-ware. Sold in sets of 2. Available in gray or cream.⠀
⠀
Ruquia is a refugee from Afghanistan who lives in Houston, Texas, and she is a widow. Mercy House Global discovered she is an artisan who can hand knit beautifully. The creation of these washcloths provides Ruquia with a dignified job that puts food on the table, and she loves the purpose she finds in her work.⠀And THESE DAYS at home? Maybe these days at home require a little extra GRACE?
Wherever there is a place of Grace — we find more of Home.
a fascinating new virtual tour of Lady Liberty
These People Prove You Can’t Quarantine Kindness love, love, love
in the beginning, God said…
75 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice
The German island with a population of 16… wow!?!
June is coming!
Maybe in this new month, easy, doable ideas for the whole family to Give It Forward Today — to be the G.I.F.T. Love is a verb and that verb is give. For God so loved the world — HE GAVE. You only have one life — to love well.
And just for you, when you grab the “Be the Gift” book? Your farm girl here will immediately email you your own gift of THE WHOLE 12 MONTH *Intentional* Acts of Givenness #BeTheGIFT Calendar link to download and print from home!
Love is a verb and that verb is give. For God so loved the world — HE GAVE. You only have one life — to love well.
Pick up #BeTheGIFT — Then receive your own #BeTheGIFT printable calendar by letting us know you picked up a copy of “Be the Gift” here
Love is a verb and that verb is give. For God so loved the world — HE GAVE. You only have one life — to love well.
Pick up Be The Gift & live the life you’ve longed to this year
she shares some really good words here
How woke do you really want to be? Do you really want some 20/20 vision this year?
Love God. Love People.
“Jesus said, “The first in importance is, ‘LISTEN, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’ And here is the second: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment that ranks with these.””
Mark 12:29-31 MSG
The Sorrows of Minneapolis
Be The Bridge
please take a moment to listen to her story… profound and thoughtful and needed
incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit – and he has some good words to share
oh, my heart: Couple reunites after months apart due to coronavirus restrictions
Post of the week from these parts here
You probably saw the video? The kids and I began to process it the other morning. It’s done something to our collective soul & we all really, really need to process what you saw and realize what no one can afford to miss:
Hey, About Your Family in that Video We All Can’t Breathe Through? When Breath Becomes Prayers That Rise
YES: It All Ends in Praise – Psalm 150 Meditation by Tim Keller
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.
share with a friend who needs to hear? It is well…
On Repeat this Week: The Blessing – Canada
I don’t know how, but somehow?…maybe our hearts are made to be broken. Broken open. Broken free. Maybe the deepest wounds birth deepest wisdom. We are made in the image of God. And wasn’t God’s heart made to be broken too?
Wounds can be openings to the beauty in us.
And our weaknesses can be a container for God’s glory.
Hannah tasted salty tears of infertility. Elijah howled for God to take his life. David asked his soul a thousand times why it was so downcast.
The thing is? God does great things through the greatly wounded. God sees the broken as the best and He sees the best in the broken and He calls the wounded to be the world changers.
Never ever be afraid of being a broken thing.
And maybe—this is the way to freedom?
You’ve got to remember to just keep breathing—keep believing.
Brokenness can make abundance.
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
May 29, 2020
Why Every “He” Needs the Voice and Influence of the “She”
I have said often that books by Scott Sauls should be in the hands of every single Christian without exception. Scott is the preeminent voice for fractured, polarized times. No voice speaks with such fresh hope, clarifying wisdom, rooted orthodoxy, all from a posture of unifying grace. Tim Keller has described Scott’s latest offering, A Gentle Answer: Our ‘Secret Weapon’ in an Age of Us-Against-Them, as “a great, highly practical volume that points us to the tenderness of Jesus—‘a bruised reed he will not break.’” Very few pastors or theologians have more spiritually formed our family than his, and his every word is read under our roof. And very few books could change the conversation around our office watering holes, our family dinner tables, and across our aisles and fences across the globe like this one. For these reasons, it gives us joy to welcome our friend, Scott Sauls, to the farm’s front porch today…
The first time God ever said, “It is not good,” He spoke the words into paradise. Before the serpent hisses his first temptation, before humanity fell into sin, before any curse was declared over man, woman, or creation, it was established that something was not good in God’s otherwise very good world.
“It is not good for the man to be alone,” God said. “I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18).
God took swift action while Adam was fast asleep, creating a She to complete the He.
“Hers is a strength that upholds and completes him, a strength that helps him flourish and not languish.”
When he first laid eyes on Eve, Adam erupted into a poetic love song. She was flesh of his flesh, bone of his bones, and a helper corresponding to him.
About that word helper. Eve was not some sort of weak or lesser-than “little helper” to Adam. Indeed, she was quite the opposite.
She was not his employee to boss around, his personal assistant to do his bidding, or his sex object to gratify his libido. She was a different, more dignified and necessary kind of helper, in the same way that God is our helper.
“Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life” (Psalm 54:4).
The word the Psalmist used to describe God is the same word God used to describe Eve. The word is ezer, which means a helper who provides for Adam a strength that he lacks on his own.
Hers is a strength that upholds and completes him, a strength that helps him flourish and not languish.
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
One of my favorite movie scenes is when the wife in My Big Fat Greek Wedding says that in marriage, the husband is the head but the wife is the neck, and the neck turns the head.
That sounds about right to me.
“Without the voice, influence, and leadership of the She’s in my life, I would be much less of a man than I am.”
As a man, I represent half of the image of God in my gender.
Without the voice, influence, and leadership of the She’s in my life, I would be much less of a man than I am.
Even the Apostle Paul, an unmarried man, surrounded himself with women. There was Phoebe the deaconess, Lydia the businesswoman, Priscilla the theologian, Junia the apostolic colleague, and many others.
Likewise, the unmarried and perfect God-man Jesus welcomed into His circle the sisters Mary and Martha, Mary Magdalene, the bleeding woman, the woman caught in adultery, and the penitent prostitute.
Women were chosen as the first eyewitnesses of his resurrection. They were then sent to tell his doubting disciples—the men (!)—that the Lord was risen.
The church where I serve includes as many women as it does men in leadership. I seek out the female perspective for wisdom I do not possess on my own.
I learn from books written by women, listen attentively and often to teaching by women, sing hymns and songs written by women, and learn from the correction of women on a regular basis.
In the Bible, I’m drawn to Hagar, Hannah, the persistent widow, the poor generous widow, Anna the prophetess, and the Virgin Mary, to name just a few.
Why? Because I need all kinds of help from the She’s…help to see more clearly the world as it is, people as they are, and God as He is.
Like Adam, I am lesser and also a bit lost without the female perspective. Maybe the same is true in the reverse? I suspect that it is.
“Behind virtually every great man in history, there has been a great woman.”
Jesus had His female companions, and so did Paul. Israel had Deborah, Esther, and Ruth. Timothy had his mother. Augustine had his mother. Luther had Katie. King had Coretta. Keller has Kathy.
As journalist David Brooks recently said, behind virtually every great man in history, there has been a great woman.
Similarly, history boasts of many great women who led from the front. Mother Theresa, Rosa Parks, Lottie Moon, Sojourner Truth, Amy Carmichael, Corrie Ten Boom, Eleanor Roosevelt, Flannery O’Connor, and Margaret Thatcher. More recently, Joni Eareckson Tada, Beth Moore, Jenny Yang, Ann Voskamp, Christina Edmondson, and Christine Caine come to mind.
In my daily life, there is Patti Sauls, without whom I would suffer not only to preach the gospel (my primary calling), but also to believe it. One Wednesday before Easter, we were on a dinner date.
In a moment of weakness, I started tearing another person down through gossip. After I finished assassinating this person’s character, Patti looked at me and gently responded, “Scott, I love you, and you shouldn’t have said any of that.”
This faithful word from the She in my life sent me into a crisis. I abhor sin of gossip, and yet so easily fell into it.
Gossip is pornography of the mouth, a lustful fantasy in its own right—a cheap thrill at another’s expense, an objectifying of their humanity, an assault on their dignity, while making zero commitment to them. All for a cheap, self-serving, shameful rush.
Patti’s correction sobered me, so much that I fell into shame and self-loathing. How can I call myself a man, much less a man of God? Preaching and tearing down someone else’s good name with the same tongue? How can that be? I am a man of unclean lips!
I asked Patti if she thought I was a fraud. Should I quit the ministry?
Then, the She who knows me best gently affirmed that indeed, my behavior was dark.
Then she spoke of the deceitful Jacob, the adulterous David, the murderous Paul, and the abrasive Peter. All were flawed, sinful men through whom God is still speaking today.
She reminded me of how I preach both sides of the gospel to others—that we are all busted-up sinners without hope except for the mercies of God, and that God has met that need richly through Jesus.
“To rise out of a defeated and self-loathing place, it also took the tender, tenacious voice of a She to remind me of a grace that says to my limp, ‘Rise and walk.'”
We are at the same time in desperate ruins and graciously redeemed.
“Scott,” she said, “now is the time for you to preach the second part of the gospel to yourself. You are a mess. But the darkness in you can never outcompete the grace of God.”
My sermon that Easter was stronger and more fruitful than any other Easter sermon I’ve preached.
This was not in spite of my moral failure a few days prior, but because of it. For a moment, I saw myself as the chief of sinners.
I lost my strut and recovered my limp, as every preacher must. But to rise out of a defeated and self-loathing place, it also took the tender, tenacious voice of a She to remind me of a grace that says to my limp, “Rise and walk.”
Because of Her, I was made more ready to tell others that in Him, they can rise and walk, too.
It is not good to be alone.
And it is good—very good, in fact—for the He to receive strength and help from the She.
Scott Sauls is senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lives with his lovely wife, Patti, and daughters, Abby and Ellie. He blogs regularly—seriously bookmark him—and can be found being humble light on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
About A Gentle Answer, Amanda Williams and Raechel Myers of She Reads Truth have said of their own pastor’s latest work, “With the humility of a fellow student and the kindness of a trusted friend, Scott examines nuanced issues of anger, forgiveness, and criticism in the clarifying light of the gospel.”
I humbly concur. A Gentle Answer is a roadmap, first into the gentle heart of Jesus, and then into a world that is aching for a gentle answer to bring relief from the hostility and noise. This is an absolute must-read that I cannot recommend highly enough.
May 27, 2020
Hey, About Your Family in that Video We All Can’t Breathe Through? When Breath Becomes Prayers That Rise
“Use your words.”
I mean, who knows how many I’ve told our wild posse of kids just those three words because: Words are how we amplify the beat of our hearts.
When I couldn’t stop wincing, watching George Floyd pinned to the ground by the knee of a white man pinching down his neck for 8 long, agonizing minutes, that’s all I could think: “Listen, listen to him! He is using his words!”
He used his words. He said he couldn’t breathe.
Tasha Morrison
He was already handcuffed, he was already immobilized, he was already detained. If we are truly formed by love, no one needs more information to know that is truly wrong.
He used his words and begged for his life — until he his heart stopped and he lay dead. Until the hot air was sucked right out of his lungs, sucked out of the whole witnessing world.
“When we remain silent in the face of injustice, we loudly slap the face of God. Because the person being abused is the face of God.”
When someone uses their words to tell us to stop, and we continue to use them for our own power trip, we are the ones being used as a tool for evil.
When someone uses breath in their lungs to tell you they can’t breathe, you are suffocating all that is good, and your own soul, if you aren’t moved to change.
When we remain silent in the face of injustice, we loudly slap the face of God. Because the person being abused is the face of God.
We will never really reflect the image of Christ to the world — unless we really see the image of God in everyone.
And what does God want? He uses these words:
“What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, —
being available to your own families….
Make the community livable again.” Isa 58, MSG
God is not using His words so that you can use His Word as an excuse to care only about the interests of the people under your roof, with your last name, with your skin color.
This is the startling thing God’s word is is saying about justice when He commands that we be available to your own families:
Those in need — are your own family.
If you’d only speak about injustice if it effected your own family — then speak now. Because those experiencing injustice are your own family.
Don’t think it could be your family next. It’s your family NOW.
“You are in your community to speak up for those in positions of vulnerability — because they are your family.”
God’s using His words to say: Oppressed people — are your people.
The God of power — stands with people who have little power.
The God on High always stands with those lowest on the totem pole.
All other gods and cultures may be about the power at the top — but the king of the Upside Down Kingdom is about the people at the bottom.
God uses His very Word so we cannot use any excuses:
You’re to live in ways that makes your community liveable again.
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 31:8-9 (NIV)
If we only speak up when the injustice effects us, while being silent when the pain effects others, that would make us narcissists instead of all-in, others-oriented Christians.
We are called to seek out & speak out for the interests of others in the world — because that is how God is seen in the world.
Dignity & humanity & safety are not a function of geography or nationality or ancestry.
You are in your community to speak up for those in positions of vulnerability — because they are your family.
A whole world of people will decide who Jesus is — by who we are. And this is who God calls us to be for our family: “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress…” Zechariah 7:8
“All there is to see is Jesus — Jesus in the face of everyone — and everyone seeing Jesus in the face of us.”
Do not press a man’s neck till he chokes his last.
Do not stay silent when one steps on the neck of God and think you stand for God.
When the video ends and I close my eyes in honour of George Floyd —— that’s all I can see:
All there is to see is Jesus — Jesus in the face of everyone — and everyone seeing Jesus in the face of us.
Imagine a world — where we see the image of God in everyone.
God uses His words — they could breathe justice into the world even now.
The air’s hot here today across the farm, wind blowing some new system in from on high.
Like when breath becomes prayers that rise.
May 25, 2020
This, Right Here, Is Our Better Life
When Rebecca Smith gifted me my first Better Life Bag many years ago, I carried it with gratefulness because I knew the face, the story, of the woman who sewed it. Rebecca started Better Life Bags almost accidentally and continued with it steadfastly and obediently. It grew, as most things do, one small step at a time. Watch and read, as Rebecca encourages us to “be the turtle”, slow down, and realize that the days we are living – yes even now in the middle of a pandemic – might be the ones we long for someday down the road. It’s a grace to welcome Rebecca to the farm’s front porch today…
I went into my daughter’s room the other night and leaned over her bed to kiss her goodnight.
She put her hands up and grunted while scrunching up her face and turning it from me. It was clear that she didn’t want a goodnight kiss from me.
I stood back up and gently rebuked her. “No. We don’t do this. We don’t know when this might be the last night we will see each other. We have to take all the opportunities to say ‘I love you’ and give out hugs and kisses to people we love. It’s not worth the risk to play these games.”
Her face turned toward me as she realized for the first time that this life is temporary.
“You mean, you’re going to die tonight?” she asked with tears pooling in her eyes.
“We don’t know, little love. We don’t know when our last moments together will be, so we have to really live out the ones we know we have—the ones right now.”
I lay down in her bed and held her until she fell asleep, inhaling the smell of her hair and watching her chest rise and fall with each breath. I counted the freckles on her cheek and noticed the way her eyelashes curl up when her eyes are closed.
This was my moment with her—I was guaranteed this one but not the next.
Joy Prouty
We are not guaranteed tomorrow. No one has modeled this more than my friend, Ashley.
We lived in the same apartment complex as she and her husband, Josh, when we lived in Savannah. Wanting to join our mission to invest in the people of Hamtramck, they moved up to Michigan a year after we did.
“She realized for the first time that this life is temporary.”
She was there with Better Life Bags in the corners of my house since the beginning. Our kids would play together in Jonah’s bedroom while Ashley and I finished packaging orders.
One day Ashley and her husband, Josh, sat Neil and me down on our couch and told us they were moving back to Georgia. Things weren’t working out for them here, and they needed to go back. They were so far from family. The winters were so cold. The jobs for Josh were lacking.
But mostly, they felt a pressing need from God to move home. We would soon find out why.
A few months after Ashley and her family settled back in humid—but beautiful—Savannah, Georgia, I got an email from her with the subject line “Cancer.”
Her John. Her five-year-old John had just been diagnosed with cancer. And not the good kind—as if any kind can be good.
It became a matter of prolonging his life until a cure could be found—which was hopefully soon. The cure wasn’t found in time, and we said goodbye to John in October 2018, one week before I gave birth to Gavin.
Death and birth all within seven short days. It was a lot for me to process, and I couldn’t imagine how Ashley was reeling.
As we’ve talked together in these recent months after losing John, remembering his life and visiting the places in Michigan that he loved when they come back to visit, I’ve been reminded again that this life is temporary.
Half of Ashley’s heart now lives in heaven, while she continues to put one foot in front of the other here on earth. But she calls herself “one of the lucky ones.”
She wrote this in a Facebook post:
“When John was diagnosed in June 2016, something in me broke. It was a very good and necessary breaking. My ultimate worst fear had come true. My son was nowhere near perfect. He was so sick, and God used his disease to surely plant my hope elsewhere. My hope is not in my kids, their abilities, or their futures. The dreams that I used to dream for our kids and our family now seem so futile.
This world and all its desires are passing away, and I’m so grateful for God—the dream crusher—who uses these hard life circumstances to train us. Those of us with sick kids just might be the lucky ones in light of eternity.”
I often think about those days in Hamtramck together and remember the crazy, the fun, the hard.
The days before cancer.
The days before heartbreak.
The days when all we had to worry about was getting orders to the post office before customers started emailing and wondering when they would ship.
Those were the days. But did we know it at the time?
Did we treasure those moments and try to spend every millisecond we could in them?
“Do we know that today—the day you are reading these words on this page—is the day we will long for in the future?”
Do we know that today—the day you are reading these words on this page—is the day we will long for in the future?
Do we realize that these are the days? The ones happening right now.
These are our actual days that we will look back on in five or ten years and long for. The days of small beginnings when everything is scrappy and we are working in the margins of life to bring some dream to the surface.
The days of wiping butts and wiping mouths and going through so many wipes we’re sure we’ve killed an entire forest single-handedly.
Everything has a season.
None of our moments will last.
Our children will not remain small forever. The days of puzzle-making, crayon art, and popsicles on the front porch in the heat of summer are fading fast.
We never know when our time will be up.
So we should live every day as if it’s our last. Not necessarily by going skydiving and climbing Mount Everest, but by living well and small and deep—walking confidently on the path laid out before us, knowing it has been planned and prepared for us. And that it is good.
I’m especially grateful for my Better Life Bags journey and this path God has led me on.
“These are the actual days. The days for a quiet life. A deep life. A meaningful life.”
I don’t know how the story ends. I don’t know when this chapter of my life will be over or where the business will go next or how long our season will last or how many lives we will impact—both locally and nationally, as people hear our story and are encouraged to start missional businesses of their own.
I don’t know whether I’ll sell the company someday or still be working there alongside my kids in thirty years. Maybe I’ll never know the legacy we left behind as we kept our head down on our own path and walked deliberately, one foot in front of the other.
Maybe that’s why writing now—before the story is over—is when God wanted me to write, so that we could all be reminded that the middle is the good stuff.
These are the actual days. The days for a quiet life. A deep life. A meaningful life.
Look up and look around.
This, right here, is our better life.
Rebecca Smith is the founder of Better Life Bags, a custom handbag company whose workforce is made up of local women with barriers to employment. Rebecca loves to encourage and coach young entrepreneurs who desire to use their businesses for good. She is passionate about reminding women that when it comes to pursuing dreams, waiting on God’s nudges always beats hustling hard. It’s okay being the turtle; life is better when it’s slow.
A Better Life: Slowing Down to Get Ahead is her debut book. It is a memoir threaded with life lessons about slowing down, making U-turns, managing the hustle, and looking for the gifts God leaves for each of us along the way. It’s an anthem to see your life – the one you have right now – as good. By doing so, you might just end up way ahead.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
May 23, 2020
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [05.23.20]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! 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:
Andrea Martin
Andrea Martin
Andrea Martin
Andrea Martin
Andrea Martin
thinking maybe your weekend needed this as much as mine…all this joy!
now how fun is this!?!
YES…this is fascinating!
Maintaining pomp under COVID circumstances
With only months to live, this high school senior gets married in touching ceremony
“The precious people in your life, the amount of time they are in your life, take every moment you have. Enjoy and give everything you can in those relationships. And know there is so much possible with love when your love includes God.”
smiling through tears: World War II Veteran defies the odds after a 58-day battle with COVID-19
If you’re feeling anxious these days, Breath Prayers may be just the tool you need to help ease your worries and care for your mental health.
Breath prayers combine deep breathing exercises with prayers of meditation on God’s Word to help calm your body and focus your mind on truth.
what a beehive!?!
Wycliffe Bible Translators’ new podcast, “Wycliffe Women of the Word”
The first season was released just this week! Had to share with you!
Each guest discusses impactful experiences and lessons through the lens of Scripture and offers listeners resources for further reflection.
when all the world can’t be a stage? it seems the balcony will have to do
must see: Adopted dog takes 97-day walk back to foster mom
Handloomed Cotton Throw Rug
Turns out? All our homes tell a story.
Every blanket, every spoon, every plate, in every home — began somewhere in the world, was made by someone in the world, and somehow changed a bit of the world — for better or worse. The welcome mats under our feet, the steaming mugs in our hands, the full bowls on our tables, could all tell a grace story — a story of fair trade, a story of life change, a story of saving, Gospel grace.
Ann’s favorite throw rug is available in our store! Our “Miujiza” Hand-loomed Cotton Throw Rug is available in 2′ x 3′, 3’ x 5’, or 4’ x 6’ and in navy or black.
Miujiza means “miracle” in Swahili and this hand-loomed cotton throw rug is nothing short of a miracle. It is handmade by previously unemployed grandmothers who have been taught to operate large wooden looms. Lay the tapestry flat to serve as a rug or drape it on a couch and it can be used as a throw blanket.⠀⠀And THESE DAYS at home? Maybe these days at home require a little extra GRACE?
Wherever there is a place of Grace — we find more of Home.
what happens when a man dares to reimagine the piano — as he creates new and beautiful music
Deb Sulzberger
Deb Sulzberger
Deb Sulzberger
can you even?!? could not love this collection more
glory, glory, glory
thank you, Jon Bloom: God Made You for a Body: How Resurrection Will Make Us Whole
great info here: How to Read the Bible: What is the Bible?
How You Can Help Respond to COVID-19
Promises: just so beautiful
Where is God in a Pandemic? A Conversation between Tim Keller and Francis Collins
the importance of listening to understand…because listening can save lives
Am I Living by Faith or Unbelief? // Ask Pastor John
there is only one way…
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: The Blessing
…yeah, so what if there’s a whole bunch of us aching for a phone call right now that will turn everything around,
a test result that will give us our miracle,
an email that finally says exactly what we’ve been begging prayers for,
a letter that finally releases us, blesses us, thrills us with some HOPE.
Yeah, so there’s a whole bunch of us that sure could use a little good news right about now — & it turns out we get that Good News in spades in Christ:
1. ALL THINGS are working for your good, absolutely 100% guaranteed, even when it feels the exact, miserable opposite.
2. NOTHING can separate you from His passion for you, His plans for you, His purpose for you & His pleasure in you — not death, not delays, not discouragements, not disappointments, not detours — NOTHING.
3. EVERYTHING is in His hands, in His control, in His time, in His Way, for our ultimate joy & His ultimate glory.
So? It turns out that we all get the Real Good News we’ve been holding out for — so… even us, we can give thanks in ANYTHING… even right now, even in this.
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
May 20, 2020
How to Cultivate the Life You Were Born to Live
Jennie Lusko is a new author who was actually reluctant to write a book. She didn’t even think it was something that was possible let alone something she would ever want to do. Having only graduated from high school and with a little bit of Bible college, she felt inadequate in putting any words together. But she was seeing God open the doors and she started walking forward really unsure but trusting that God knew what He was doing. Her husband Levi wrote an endorsement for her book, and he mentioned that Jennie wrote this book as she was living out the very things she was encouraging the reader with. It was hard, like tempting-to-quit-hard, but she kept showing up and kept trusting God and kept doing the hard things, and her heart is to remind the reader that they are capable of walking in the flourishing life they were meant to walk out in their daily life as they trust God, do what’s hard, and fight forward even in the midst of pain, loss, and uncertainty. It’s a grace to welcome Jennie to the farm’s front porch today…
Does flourishing in this life seem out of reach? It often feels like that to me.
I often feel an underlying sense of guilt because I’m not measuring up and I’m not where I thought I would be.
If only there wasn’t such a struggle in my soul. The great news, though, is that we are actually in the process of flourishing right now, whether we feel it or not.
A seed is destined to become a mature plant, but it requires the right soil, water, air, light, and temperature.
I want to help you understand that a fight “breaks out” (parach) when the seed hits the soil. It’s not just go time; it’s grow time. And that means it’s time to fight.
I suspect that you can understand the reality of the fight through the filter of your own story.
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
I love what 1 Timothy 6:12 tells us: “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses” (niv).
This word fight in the Greek language (in which the New Testament was written) is agonizomai, and it means “to fight, to contend, to strive as in a contest for a prize.”
We see a tension here between faith, receiving the gift of salvation given by God, and the action of fighting and taking hold of the life we were born to live.
“The author gives us a real-life picture of fighting the good fight of faith with everything we’ve got, to strain to obtain the prize.”
We receive freely, and we also act vigorously.
The author gives us a real-life picture of fighting the good fight of faith with everything we’ve got, to strain to obtain the prize.
This resonates in my heart because two of my favorite things are boxing and spin class. Do I love punishment? No, but if I need to stay healthy by exercising, then I want to at least have some fun while doing it.
These workouts show me what I have in me. I can do more than I think I can. I can push myself a little more than it may seem.
I can work really hard, and then see the results—getting stronger and gaining endurance. I realize not everyone loves to exercise, but if you stick with me, I want to show you some of the truths I’ve extracted from pushing myself physically.
I hope to help you see that you indeed have grit. And that you can grow it. You also have the stamina and endurance to grow stronger in whatever you are facing right now, good or bad. I want you to see that you can fight, that you can grow, that you can be fruitful, and that you can flourish.
You may feel as though you’re not flourishing because of the fight, because of the struggle.
“You may feel as though you’re not flourishing because of the fight, because of the struggle.”
But it’s the embracing of the fight that will create the space to flourish. A fight for honor. A fight for a sweet spirit. A fight to choose to get uncomfortable. A fight to keep fighting.
Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Jesus doesn’t mention overcoming the trouble; He tells us He has overcome the world.
We want Him to take away the trial, but He’s taking care of the even bigger picture: the world our trouble is in.
I once went out on a limb and started a garden. Keep in mind, it was a tiny one, about two feet by four feet. I envisioned the kids picking strawberries for their yogurt and granola every morning, and me collecting tiny leaves of parsley and mint to flavor sauce and salads.
From my backyard to my table—that was my dream.
It was a good little garden, for a brief moment. Things grew—and then they didn’t. Or they died before they could thrive. Bless the little garden’s heart; it barely provided the things I wanted most. The strawberries were tiny and the herbs were few. It had grown, but it had not flourished.
God doesn’t want us to barely peek through the hard soil of life like a tiny weed or a puny bunch of strawberries.
He wants us to shoot through the dirt and grow into a tree with deep roots, a thick trunk, strong branches, and most of all, fruit. He wants us to grow luxuriantly.
“We want Him to take away the trial, but He’s taking care of the even bigger picture: the world our trouble is in.”
How do I know this? He told us clearly in Psalm 92: 12-15
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar in Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord,
they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”
The progression of action in this psalm could be wrapped up like this:
God plants,
God waters,
we receive,
and we flourish.
Jennie Lusko serves alongside her husband, Levi, leading Fresh Life Church in Montana, Utah, Oregon, and Wyoming, as well as across the world online. They have five children: Alivia, Daisy, Clover, Lennox, and Lenya, who is waiting for them in heaven. The Lusko family lives in Montana and enjoys bike rides, walks, lake days, late-night hot tub and cold plunge parties, movies, and family breakfast. Jennie is also a hugger, so beware if you meet her.
The Fight to Flourish is for those of us who feel the tension and the pull of this life. To be the person we were designed to be, full of purpose and impact and light, and at the very same time walk through the heartache and struggle of everyday life and of the great loss we experience. You were meant to bring beauty and light and life right here, right now, in the middle of the fight, and it’s here that we can flourish.
In The Fight to Flourish, Jennie draws on her experiences after the loss of her five-year-old daughter, Lenya, to show you that the ingredients for a fresh and thriving life are right in front of you. Discover how to live a life of joy and fullness, even in the midst of disappointment and broken dreams.
[ Our humble thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
May 18, 2020
When Confusion Over Choices Leads You to the Wrong Destination
Here’s a woman who knows a lot about sowing seed and reaping a harvest. The child of a king, daughter of a farmer, and wife of a pastor, Maggie Wallem Rowe has been connecting souls with God’s peace for decades. Maggie breathes life into the stories of great women of faith through original historical dramas. She speaks and people listen. Sometimes they laugh. Most often, they remember. It’s a grace to welcome Maggie to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Maggie Wallem Rowe
If I ever write a memoir, I think I’ll title it The Woman Who Went Out for Pizza and Ended Up in Montana.
Before our kids entered their teen years, my husband Mike and I borrowed a pop-up camper and drove across the country to visit many of America’s natural parks with them.
One evening, as it was growing dark, we pulled into a campsite next to the interstate somewhere in northern Wyoming. Mike and the kids hustled to put the camper up while I drove back to a pizza place we’d spotted on the way in.
We didn’t have a GPS or mobile phones in those days, but I was sure I could find my way back with our dinner.
I groaned when what I thought was the entry road to the campground turned out to be the entrance ramp for the highway instead.
No big deal—I would just drive to the next exit and reverse my direction back to the campground (whose name I didn’t know, in a tiny town whose name I hadn’t noticed). Piece of cake (actually, make that pizza).
Only there was no exit.
With cars whizzing by me on the dark interstate and signposts indicating that the nearest town was fifty miles away, I drove northwest for nearly an hour with stone-cold pizza in the back seat and cold-sweat panic in the front.
Where in the Wild West was I, anyway? When I finally passed the “Welcome to Montana!” sign, I had a clue. Since I lived to tell the tale, you know I eventually found my family again one state back, but it sure wasn’t a road trip I ever intended to make.
I bet you have a story or two like this of your own.
Times when your intentions were good, but you ended up in a place you never would have chosen.
Times when you meant well but others misread your motives. Times when you went out for pizza in Wyoming and ended up in Montana.
The Irish have a blessing meant for well-intended people like us: “May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, the foresight to know where you’re going, and the insight to know when you’ve gone too far.”
My pastor, Chris, often comments that our windshield needs to be as unobstructed as our rearview mirror. Wouldn’t it be lovely to see where we’re going as clearly as the places where we’ve been?
“How grateful I am—how utterly, radically grateful—that the God of our journey doesn’t leave us directionless.”
How grateful I am—how utterly, radically grateful—that the God of our journey doesn’t leave us directionless.
In the nineteenth century, Cardinal H. E. Manning captured the assurance we can have in offering our lives to God:
Seeing my intentions before he beholds my failures;
Knowing my desires before he sees my faults;
Cheering me to endeavor greater things, and yet accepting the least;
Inviting my poor service, and yet above all, content with my poorer love.
Friends, we are made with a purpose.
The intentional life happens because we learn to make careful choices about the future, even as we grow in maturity from the lessons learned in the past.
What God forms, He fills with His perfect will. He teaches us—through His Word and others’ wisdom—to attend carefully to our daily choices.
We can have confidence in our calling because the one whom God calls, He also equips.
“We can have confidence in our calling because the one whom God calls, He also equips.”
If, like me, you focus too often on the road trips and detours you wish you’d never taken, please know this: failure is never the final word in God’s economy.
If you thought you were doing it right only to have it go all wrong, that doesn’t mean God wasn’t present. Sometimes it’s hard to see him in the windshield, but glance through the rearview mirror of your life and you’ll find reminders of the times his presence was palpable.
I love M. Robert Mulholland, Jr.’s words in Invitation to a Journey:
The journey of faith, the path to spiritual wholeness, lies in our increasingly faithful response to the One whose purpose shapes our path, whose grace redeems our detours, whose power liberates us from the crippling bondages of our previous journey, and whose transforming presence meets us at each turn in our road.
I may have felt alone when I went out for pizza and ended up in Montana, but I wasn’t. Not for a hot minute.
Grace was riding in that car with me along with that cold pizza.
And it was grace that led me home. It knows the way.
This Life We Share is your guide to living well, whether you are struggling with anxiety and insecurity or gripping the everyday moments of life too tightly. Consider this your walking stick, water bottle, and warm companionship to refresh your journey. You will read and re-read these fifty-two reflections for timeless wisdom and practical principles that will inspire every season of your life.
Maggie Wallem Rowe is a national speaker, dramatist, blogger, and writer who has contributed to more than ten books, including numerous devotional Bibles. Maggie has traveled extensively throughout the United States and abroad, performing original one-woman dramas that she authored, and speaking at outreach programs, conferences, community events, and retreats. She holds an undergraduate degree in communication with a minor in education, as well as a graduate degree in biblical studies, both from Wheaton College (IL).
A catalyst for spiritual and personal growth, This Life We Share is a gift for your own soul care and even richer when read with a friend.
[ Our humble thanks to Navpress for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
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