Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 84
March 14, 2020
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [03.14.20]
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:
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
no one captures life quite like she does
can you even?!?
at 104? she’s oldest to compete in this national indoor track championship
a quiet peek at a winter home for owls
C. S. Lewis on the Coronavirus
anyone else kinda want one of these too?
cheering here: A cut above: Why this Delaware principal opened a barbershop inside his school
never, ever forget…the wonder of sight
Choosing Hope When It’s Hard
“Sharing our heart, what has kept us hopeful through the hardest days, and offering a bit of encouragement for your own hard places…”
They’re passing some hope along to others on this same journey with educational resources and free printables for your encouragement…
Share with someone you love… because we are all in this together. You are never, ever alone.
“This journey has been the hardest we’ve ever had to walk, but even in the most difficult days there is hope that shines brighter than the darkness. God is still good. We are still loved. Nothing is wasted.”
Nothing but the blood of Jesus…
Come download the entire set printables with all 40 “Lent of More God” Sticky Notes for your Soul : here
(once you sign up or sign in, you will find this printable along with a whole collection of resources in our “Free Tools” section)
and join in each day as well as we will be posting these daily with our Facebook and Instagram community
pause right here: Raise A Hallelujah
this officer has a personal connection with almost every homeless person… #BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
The 18-Year-Old Boy Who Raised an Abandoned Baby as His Own
The feel-good story you need today
humanity at its best: to love and be loved
5 Key Steps to Translating Scripture
Seed Company’s “Common Framework” has transformed the way people approach the task of Bible translation.
Watch these videos below for a better understanding of this amazing process
let’s go!?! anyone else wanna stay here?!
An Innocent Man & A Crooked Cop
An I Am Second Conversation
smiling large through this one!
just could not love this heart sister more:
I can testify: Kristen’s radically surrendered life detonates doubt and bears witness to the truth –
…that immovable mountain ahead of you? That thing that seems so impossible that you’re ready to just throw in the towel and quit because you just can’t see a way through?
Maybe there’s more happening than you can see…you might just be on the very edge of a miracle:
When You Need to Move a Mountain
But What if it Works?
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: What a beautiful name
It’s a grace to be worshipping with Hillsong Colour this week…
March 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
on repeat: Good Grace
…so this is what we’re doing here today: simply being grateful for that one small thing… & one more small thing… & one more small thing — just taking back ground one grateful step at a time till the battle is WON.
Gratitude wins our wars.
Because gratitude isn’t only a celebration when good things happen; Gratitude’s a declaration that God is good no matter what happens.
Today, listen to your absurdly glorious life.
Listen to the holy heart of your one sacred life.
You need to take time to listen to your life —
so you can make the life you need.
Life’s not about growing in status— it’s always about growing your soul. Be small and love large: because getting to be present to love your people’s hearts is a great gift.
Let’s be still long enough to drink down all this ordinary glory and hear your heart keep beating how all is grace.
[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.
March 11, 2020
When You Need to Move a Mountain
I’ve walked many miles beside my dear friend Kristen Welch, including over many mountains, literal and spiritual. I count Kristen as one of my closest heart sisters, a spiritual mentor, and a ministry partner, with whom I’ve worked closely for years to bring hope to women. I get to see it first hand again and again, what we can all do together to change the world for women, if we say our brave yes. The ministry she founded, Mercy House Global, does the most remarkable work supporting teen moms in Kenya and other women around the world through dignified work. But maybe most amazing of all is Kristen’s insistence, her deep-rooted surety, that only God deserves credit for what only He could have done to make a way where there was no way, to make a path where we see only an unscaleable mountain. I can testify: Kristen’s radically surrendered life detonates doubt and bears witness to the truth – whatever mountain you are climbing can stretch out into a road because Jesus didn’t climb down from the cross but stretched out His arms and made Himself a way through mountains. Her story will build your faith in a God who doesn’t move mountains to make things easy but moves our hearts to make everything about Him. I absolutely love this woman with all my heart — it’s a grace to welcome Kristen to the farm’s front porch today…
This is what I’ve learned: God moves some mountains miraculously.
We stare down the impossible, and it stares right back at us.
But then God casts it into the sea and makes a way where there wasn’t one.
And some days we face obstacles that weren’t there the day before: a diagnosis, a disaster, discouraging news, depression, or despair.
I’ve dug my feet into a few of these mountains this year, and I’ve spent a lot of time telling God about the mountains in front of me.
Maybe you have too.
But the God who led us to the foot of the mountain is the same God who will lead us over it.
That’s what I have been learning all along the journey of my work with Mercy House Global, especially as we have expanded our work to create dignified jobs for the precious, illiterate mothers of the teen moms in our maternity homes.
We began with textiles and ceramics, though we knew nothing about either, and God opened doors by providing Kenyan teachers for both.
We bought looms and kilns, and we stared down a mountain of impossibilities as we worked to turn very poor, uneducated women into skilled artisans.
Would the women be able to learn this difficult skill? Would we be able to sell rugs? Would this even work?
I doubted. I was afraid.
“The moment you are ready to quit is usually the moment right before the miracle occurs.”
The moment you are ready to quit is usually the moment right before the miracle occurs.
Before long it was time to return to Kenya and stand at the looms and sit in the homes and report on this miracle project.
I walked into a room with nine grandmothers—some of whom had sold their own girls into slavery and others who had watched helplessly as their daughters were abused—and I witnessed miujiza, miracles.
As I watched the jaw-dropping beauty of our women—the most unlikely of weavers—sitting at looms creating masterpieces, I knew this was holy ground.
The weight of the world should have been lifted—it was working, the women were weaving! But I fretted about the next stage, selling the rugs.
It takes five days to weave one rug, and the materials made in Kenya aren’t cheap.
Once we added in the cost of paying the women, I realized our rugs were going to be expensive. Most handmade things are, but we live in a culture that values bargains and doesn’t always consider the hands behind the product.
Becky, a friend who has been wildly generous to Mercy House, was on the trip with me, and she wasn’t at all worried about our ability to sell the rugs.
I wondered at her positive attitude, and she leaned toward me and with tears in her eyes said, “I need to tell you my rug story.” I needed to hear it.
“Three years ago, I had never heard of Mercy House Global. I had just finished reading the Bible through for the first time, and I saw one constant theme throughout: you cannot give God more than He will give you. I was in Colorado on a girls’ weekend trip when I walked into a high-end boutique and saw a gorgeous rug that would be perfect for my living room.
As I stood there, I felt as if God spoke to me. He said, ‘Don’t buy this rug. Hold on to that money, and I’ll tell you where to give it. You will have your choice of rugs.’”
“I believe God can do the impossible without us. He is God, after all; He can do anything.“
She admitted she didn’t understand it, but she was sure that this wasn’t about money; it was about obedience. She knew the right rug would find her.
Three weeks later, Becky was invited to the Mercy House Gala at which I told the story of Miujiza and we auctioned off the first rug from our looms in Kenya.
“Kristen, that night, God whispered, ‘This is where you’re supposed to give that money.’ I bid on the first rug, and today I witnessed gorgeous rugs being made. So see? I’m not worried about Mercy House selling rugs at all.”
I cried all over my lunch.
Three years ago, God was talking about rugs to someone I had never met and before I knew we would even be making them.
Why? Because God sees us.
He knows where we are and what we are doing. He pursues us. He prepares. He puts people in our paths.
He pushes us out of our comfort zones and puts us in places where we can hear Him.
He does not let our fear stop us from doing what He asks us to do; He understands and says to go anyway. He calls us to a life that matters. When we go, He goes with us.
“I have wondered how often my refusal to obey, my hesitancy to go, or my action altered by my fear has kept the impossible impossible.“
I believe God can do the impossible without us. He is God, after all; He can do anything.
But He often invites us into the miracle.
He allows us to be a part of it so that our faith will increase, so that people will see the impossible made possible, and above all, so that He will be glorified.
I have wondered how often my refusal to obey, my hesitancy to go, or my action altered by my fear has kept the impossible impossible.
How many opportunities have I missed to witness the miraculous because I didn’t listen or wouldn’t obey?
It’s a lot easier to see the top of one mountain from another.
Some days, we need to look behind us to see how many mountains we’ve already scaled.
It’s too easy to forget that much of what we enjoy today is what we asked God for yesterday.
When we reflect on what God has already done in our lives, our hearts, and our homes and we stop and praise Him for it—our perspective changes everything.
Kristen Welch is the creator of the popular parenting blog We Are THAT Family and the author of Rhinestone Jesus, Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World, Raising World Changers in a Changing World, and her newest, Made to Move Mountains. She is the founder of Mercy House Global and facilitates Fair Trade Friday, a monthly subscription club that empowers impoverished women around the world.
Kristen’s journey has led her through a thousand instances of knowing what it feels like to soar, struggle, stumble, and stand at the edge of cliffs, afraid to step into the unknown and unsure of where we will land. But she has also learned that instead of running away, we are called by God to stand firm, muster up what faith we can, and take a step—not because we are good enough or adequate or able but because God makes a way where there is no way. In Made to Move Mountains she offers heartbreaking and hopeful personal stories, Scripture, and questions for contemplation that will draw you out of fear and into a holy confidence that God uses both our dreams and our disasters to accomplish the impossible.
I’m telling you, turn these soul-quaking pages and be converted. Turn and believe with your whole heart that you were made to move mountains. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
[Our humble thanks to Baker for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
March 9, 2020
How Can God See Me as Worthwhile if I Don’t See Myself as Worthwhile?
Wendy Pope spent much of her life, much like most of us, trying to fix all the things in her life that seemed broken. She believed unless her fears were conquered, faults changed, failures corrected and frailties cured, that God couldn’t see her a valuable. How can God see me as worthwhile if I don’t see myself as worthwhile? She invested years in studying the Bible, and discovered God has a long history of using life situations to demonstrate how He values His children. All of God’s children are worthwhile and have great potential. It’s a grace to welcome Wendy to the farm’s front porch today…
In my day, I was an excellent pitcher. The mound and the plate were my dance floor. High and slow.
The ball would drop at the back-inside corner of the zone, the umpire would yell “Strike,” and the batter’s mouth would fall open in disbelief.
“Not trying is one of my biggest regrets.”
Those were glory days! I had all the confidence needed to play on a no-cut team—the church team, the team everyone makes regardless of their skill.
However, I couldn’t muster up enough confidence to try out for my school team. I had the skill and the experience but lacked the courage.
Not trying is one of my biggest regrets.
Softball wasn’t the end-all-be-all and would have never become a career, but the not trying fueled the fire of self-doubt.
Oh, what I would say if I could go back and talk to younger me!
Softball tryouts were the first of many things I didn’t attempt. School leadership teams. School cheerleading. School dramas, which I totally would have rocked, because I can do some drama, friends!
“The worst part of the experience was allowing Satan, the enemy, to keep his foothold in my thought life.”
I remember when I finally got the courage to try out for the church ensemble. My confidence was getting stronger. I was older, growing in the Lord and had been asked to sing church solos for the Sunday-night and Wednesday-night services, so I thought it was time to take the risk.
My fifty-year-old brain can’t recall what song I selected for my audition, but I remember times of putting the cassette (for those who aren’t familiar, a cassette was a small plastic device that played recorded music off magnetic tape) in my player, pressing play, and singing into my hairbrush.
The cassette went with me in my car too. As I drove, I belted out the tune like I was center stage in a coliseum full of hundreds of people who had paid to see me perform.
Doug was the sound guy at our church, and he was kind enough to meet me one evening so I could rehearse on stage with the real mic. Oh, I was ready. I was gonna rock this audition and be part of the “elite” young ensemble.
Audition night came. Audition night passed. I was not selected. And all of you girls say, “Awwww.” (Emphasize it with a big southern drawl for effect, please.)
“Current me would say to child me, Go for it! Making it or not making it doesn’t make you.”
In hindsight, the real misfortune wasn’t getting passed over for the ensemble.
The worst part of the experience was allowing Satan, the enemy, to keep his foothold in my thought life.
He taunted me for years, each time I entertained the notion of trying for something.
He would roll out the scripts. You aren’t good enough. You don’t have the look. If you were in the “in group” you would have made the ensemble. Never try for anything again. It’s better just to accept that you aren’t good enough, and then you don’t ever have to risk crushed confidence and dashed hopes again.
Have you heard such things from the father of lies (John 8:44)?
He doesn’t want us to enjoy the freedom Jesus died to give or to live out the plan God has for us.
“He will use everything; every fear, fault, failure and frailty for your good.”
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10).
We are a worthwhile possibility to God; He has a lot invested in our future.
G od chose you and me for a good work.
Current me would say to child me, Go for it!
Making it or not making it doesn’t make you.
God’s plan for you is greater than the ball team, the cheerleading squad, or the church ensemble.
He will use everything; every fear, fault, failure and frailty for your good.
He is trust worthy and only has the best planned for you.
Wendy Pope lives in North Carolina with her husband Scott. They have two grown children who are following God’s calling for their lives. Wendy writes and speaks for Proverbs 31 Ministries. She the author of Hidden Potential: Revealing What God Can Do Through You, Yes, No and Maybe: Living With the God of Immeasurably More and Wait and See: Finding Peace in God’s Pause and Plans. She leads women to life change through her online study, Read Thru the Word, a study of the One Year Chronological Bible.
Fears. Faults. Failures. Frailties. Every woman at some point wonders, Do I have to get past all my weaknesses before God can use me?
Wendy is happy to tell readers: No! You don’t have to overcome, correct, rise above, or get strong before you are qualified to be part of God’s plan. He can use you right now. You are a worthwhile possibility. In Hidden Potential, readers see that they can be: faithful, even in fear, included in God’s plans, even in weaknesses, worth something, even in failure, and valuable, even in pain. Wendy explores the life of a fearful murderer on the run with a speech problem and daddy issues—also known as Moses—to show readers God’s power and grace. As she writes, God will never count anyone out as long as they count themselves as His children.
[ Our humble thanks to David C. Cook for their partnership with today’s devotion ]
March 7, 2020
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [03.07.20]
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:
Zach Bradley Photography
Zach Bradley Photography
Zach Bradley Photography
how he’s captured this desert brings perspective: let’s notice the beauty everywhere we look
Benedek Lampert on Instagram / Facebook
Benedek Lampert on Instagram / Facebook
Benedek Lampert on Instagram / Facebook
Benedek Lampert on Instagram / Facebook
so we found this fascinating – car ads, and how these were created behind the scenes
quilts, quilts, and so much more
This Lent: Give up — whatever you need — to hear God speak:
A FREE 7-week, Lent devotional to build spiritual foundations under your roof
Join us in partnership with The Seed Company
Speak Words of Life Over Your Home
Apply practical steps to bring God’s presence, God’s Word into your home.
Reflect through guided questions, and involve your people in creative ways.
Give up what is lesser — to get more of the Greater.
#GiveUpToGetAwayWithGod #40DaysGodSpeaking #LentofListening #GODSWORDSPOKENHERE
How hard is it for the average Joe to become a goalie?
thrilled for our friends at Wycliffe!
Wycliffe Discovery Center Named a Top Religious Museum in the Nation by USA Today
because some of us need an everyday hero
…ever feel like your worth is wrapped up in whatever label you wear? But what if our souls weren’t made for labels…
because we were made for more:
What the Labels We Give Ourselves Can’t Grant Us
No Kid Hungry… what can happen when someone steps up to help
Come download the entire set printables with all 40 “Lent of More God” Sticky Notes for your Soul : here
(once you sign up or sign in, you will find this printable along with a whole collection of resources in our “Free Tools” section)
and join in each day as well as we will be posting these daily with our Facebook and Instagram community
Bible translation matters
Access to God’s Word in one’s own language is POWERFUL. Watch the celebration from the Rendille in Kenya, Africa as they dedicate the New Testament in their language
their eagerness for God’s Word is inspiring…tears
amazed!: Rwandan Teen Invents Prize-Winning Digital Cane for the Blind
glory, glory, glory
The Winners Of The 2020 Underwater Photographer of The Year Contest:
Might just take your breath away…
hard conversations and an unlikely friendship wrapped in the love and forgiveness of Jesus
Why not me?
he’s sharing some good words here: who else needs to hear this today? share with a friend
I Wanted to Give Up… thank you, Christine Caine
an interview with John Piper: How Do I Care for My Depressed Wife?
10 good words of counsel
a breast cancer survivor’s wedding story
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: What a beautiful name
It’s a grace to be worshipping with Hillsong Colour this week…
March 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
Battling Anxiety with Thankful Prayer
Philippians 4:4–7
You don’t have someone who merely stands up for you,
You have someone who laid down His life for you,
So He could stand up forever for you in heaven, always sticking up for you & staring down the lying prosecutor of your soul.
You can keep getting up,
because Jesus is sticking up for you.
You can keep going,
Because Jesus is staying with you & He’s not going anywhere.
You can hope
Because Jesus is your help.
“The One who died for us…is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us & Christ’s love for us? Absolutely nothing can get between us & God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.”
Romans 8:34 MSG
[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.
March 6, 2020
What the Labels We Give Ourselves Can’t Grant Us
If we are citizens in the Kingdom of God, then to whom have we pledged our allegiance? Christine Hoover asked this question, recognizing that in order to orient herself toward the Kingdom, she had to explore her heart. Our experiences with confusion, anxiety, isolation, and the painful consequences of the actions we take in allegiance to false kings keep us from the joy and life Jesus promised us. In her new book, With All Your Heart: Living Joyfully through Allegiance to King Jesus, Christine seeks to help us root out our own misplaced allegiances to live wholly as a subject of the King who made and redeemed us. Today we welcome her back to the farm’s front porch to share some of her own story…
guest post by Christine Hoover
When we become a Christian, we commit to loving Jesus alone and having no other loves before Him, but we face the ongoing challenge of keeping good things—good things that God Himself has given— from becoming ultimate in our lives and usurping Christ’s place.
Love and acceptance are good gifts, but they can easily morph into a false king if we’re not careful.
“Love and acceptance are good gifts, but they can easily morph into a false king if we’re not careful.”
In fact, we face the most temptation when God has clearly implanted a good desire in us, but we have no outlet to act on that desire.
Often our response is to seek what will meet our desires, whether through relationships, roles, or responses from others.
These culminate in the labels we give ourselves or hope to give ourselves and we view life through the lens of these labels.
Our social media bios tell this story: Husband. Father. Pastor.
Our small talk: “What do you do?” Architect. Teacher. Engineer. Student.
The letters by our names: Mrs. MD. PhD.
The pictures we share: Best friends. Trips. Happy Family. Fit body.
We hope people see that we’re wanted, intelligent, included, adventurous, healthy, accomplished, hardworking, and creative.
All of these are good things; anything we’ve been given or accomplished or enjoy are gifts of grace, every single one.
But what if we don’t have a label that we desperately want?
“We tend to believe our worth is wrapped up in certain labels.”
What if we’ve had a label we loved and it got stripped away?
What if we have a label we don’t want and actually despise?
We tend to believe our worth is wrapped up in certain labels.
These are the exact places in our hearts where our allegiance to King Jesus gets tested most. The longing and at times despair we feel in an unmet desire can so easily turn to feelings of emptiness, worthlessness, invisibility, shame, frustration, and bitterness.
These feelings often become a label unto themselves, which we wear like name tags only we ourselves see.
For the longest time, I wanted to be a published author. I spent years writing in obscurity, mostly for myself.
Although publication seemed so far out of reach, time spent writing only fed the desire more. I wanted to write words that others would see, and I wanted those words to give voice to their own experiences in a helpful way.
“When we demand perfection from life, we make our desired labels the most defining aspect of who we are, and we’re unable to receive gifts as gifts.”
And then someone took a chance on me.
A book would sit in the bookstore with my name on the cover! When I signed the contract, I couldn’t imagine what the book’s release day would feel like, but as I proudly strapped on the label of “Author,” I felt like a firework bursting into a million shards of color. I’d finally arrived.
The book came out, and then another, and then another. I’m thankful for the privilege of writing, and I will do it as long as I have opportunity, but there were obstacles and difficulties in this work I never saw coming.
As soon as the ink dried on that first contract and the heart firework dissipated, my goal line moved, the panic set in, and the hard work began.
The book came out, and shockingly it wasn’t a New York Times bestseller. Some people in my life celebrated and some yawned.
Strangers wrote reviews on the internet, and I was once again standing naked, but this time before the world. Or at least the very small world that knew the book existed.
There is beauty in difficult, unwanted things, and there are thorns that come with good things—relationships, community, children, marriage, church, and vocation, to name a few.
“No one has achieved or married or parented or exercised their way out of the thorns, and no one ever will.”
These good things become painful at times for many reasons, but I’m starting to see how my idealism of what’s good creates pain for me.
When I expect good things to give me ultimate joy, and when I expect they can (and should) be perfect, I don’t equate the challenges that inevitably come in them with God’s goodness and growth in me.
Idealism in any area can easily become idolatry: trying to force perfection from the created rather than turning to see the perfection of my Creator.
When we demand perfection from life, we make our desired labels the most defining aspect of who we are, and we’re unable to receive gifts as gifts.
To idealize is to idolize.
When we realize this, we don’t have to then become hopeless, as if the good cannot actually be good.
Instead, we see that who we are and everything we have is a gift from God, and we’re free to enjoy and use those gifts as an offering back to Him. This is life.
We often believe the opposite: it’s only when we get what we desire or we rid ourselves of what we don’t desire that we’ll finally experience life. We’ll be at peace, happy, and self-assured.
“Our souls were made to use everything we have, given or acquired, rose or thorn, to showcase the importance and beauty of God.”
But there’s always another finish line, another accolade to reach for, another person who’s doing it better than you. And getting that label, whatever it is, comes with its thorns.
No one has achieved or married or parented or exercised their way out of the thorns, and no one ever will.
Our souls simply weren’t made for labels.
Our souls weren’t made for fame, or millions of dollars to spend on ourselves, or human relationships as our ultimate end.
Life is not found in labels.
Solomon, who tried on every possible human label, summarized his pursuits this way:
“I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind” (Eccles. 1:14). “Everything done under the sun” is another way of saying that we look for life in manmade thought and attainment, and we can’t ever grasp it, because it’s not there.
Our souls were made to use everything we have, given or acquired, rose or thorn, to showcase the importance and beauty of God.
Every relationship, every role, every present moment is how God’s determined that we can best know Him and make Him known.
Christine Hoover is a pastor’s wife, mom of three boys, host of the By Faith podcast, and author of several books, including With All Your Heart: Living Joyfully through Allegiance to King Jesus, Searching for Spring, Messy Beautiful Friendship, and From Good to Grace. Her work has appeared on Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, and For the Church.
Our hearts are made for unswaying allegiance to a king and a kingdom, a concept that Jesus talked about more than any other. Yet every day, the false kings of anxiety, approval, comfort, image, escape, power, accumulations, self-sufficiency, supremacy, and shame plot to reign over our hearts instead. Their lies about the true king are so subtle and insidious that we rarely recognize them, and we go on living with divided loyalties that stall our spiritual growth, infect our relationships, and hinder our witness.
[ Our humble thanks to Baker for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
March 2, 2020
The Power of Priority: How Putting God First in Your Schedule Will Transform You and Your Family
Today I welcome a couple whose heart is to help parents raise children who seek after Christ. Author and artist Ruth Chou Simons and her husband Troy Simons have taken seriously God’s call to impress His commandments upon their six sons. From their oldest child’s earliest days, they’ve witnessed how important it is to place Christ at the center of their family. They’ve been blessed with the opportunity to expand that mission and guide other parents to do the sacred work of building families upon God’s truth. It is a grace to welcome my dear friends Ruth and Troy to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Ruth Chou Simons
I remember when our boys were young and one of them was a horrible sleeper for a season, meaning we were up with him several times a night.
One morning, flustered and angry over the exhaustion I felt, and excusing myself from any form of discipline or accountability, I looked over and saw Troy getting out of bed to spend time in the Word.
“How can you afford to get up and read your Bible? I’m so exhausted and fed up with the lack of sleep!”
I asked, “How can you afford to get up and read your Bible? I’m so exhausted and fed up with the lack of sleep!”
Troy gently (and without conveying shame or guilt) confessed: “Babe, honestly, I’m not sure if I can afford not to.”
To this day, every morning Troy gets up before the sun rises to “get his heart happy in the Lord” (a phrase from his favorite George Mueller quote).
And the happiness must be contagious because each of our boys eventually trickles downstairs to join him, starting with our oldest man cub.
They start every morning in an embrace, and when I catch it out of the corner of my eye, I get a glimpse of what it’s like when we meet with the Lord each day.
We meet with Him, go to the Word, linger in its pages, and pour out our hearts to God in praise and pleading.
It’s not to merely be more knowledgeable, have more tools, be more literate, or do our duty.
Those can’t be our only motivation; instead, we meet to enter into our Father’s embrace of intimacy, freedom, trust, and character—all of which we can’t know apart from knowing Him and spending time with Him in His Word.
Jen Wilkin says it this way in Women of the Word:
For years I viewed my interaction with the Bible as a debit account: I had a need, so I went to the Bible to withdraw an answer. But we do much better to view our interaction with the Bible as a savings account: I stretch my understanding daily, I deposit what I glean, and I patiently wait for it to accumulate in value, knowing that one day I will need to draw on it.
“‘It takes time’ doesn’t necessarily mean that change comes slowly (though it may!)—it means that things that matter require a sacrifice of time.”
Relationship will always be a greater motivator than ritual. Relationship is a long-term investment.
If you’re looking to be more consistent in your Bible time, if you desire for your children to develop a love for God’s Word, remind yourself that the Bible is a love letter and a hearty meal at your Father’s table.
God is already there, waiting for you with arms wide open.
We need to come, enjoy the feast and, as parents, show our kids by example where the feasting begins and why He is worthy.
But there’s also the matter of the physical time it takes. When is the right time to be in the Word? Where do we find it? Certainly no formula, timeframe, or exact method will ensure the spiritual nourishment you need.
Troy loves mornings; I don’t. But both of us must eat.
Spending time meeting with God and studying His Word may seem natural, easy, and enjoyable for “godly people,” but the truth is, it takes work and an investment of time for everyone. Most things we want in life do…
It takes time to mine the depths of your child’s heart.
“The reality is that we demonstrate what is important to us by what we make time for.”
It takes time to confess, repent, and forgive within marriage.
It takes time to listen to the answers to the questions you ask.
It takes time to put as much into a relationship as you want to receive.
It takes time to not just talk about feasting in the Word but to actually do it.
“It takes time” doesn’t necessarily mean that change comes slowly (though it may!)—it means that things that matter require a sacrifice of time.
Time that you sometimes can’t find. Time that seems to slip away. Time that’s occupied by the must-dos of life.
But if your life is like mine, you can’t afford not to make time to be in the Word. Deep relationships, maturity, growth, a disciplined life… these things do not just happen.
@elizabethwellsphoto
The reality is that we demonstrate what is important to us by what we make time for.
If I want real conversations with my kids, I have to make time.
“I can choose what I will value today by how I spend my time.”
If I want my husband to know my heart, I must prioritize time to make it accessible.
If I want to know my Savior more deeply, I must sow seeds of time in His Word.
The only time I have to spend is the time that is still to come.
I can’t reassign past moments or reprioritize yesterday’s minutes.
But I can choose what I will value today by how I spend my time.
Before the choices are made for me. Before time slips away. Before it’s diced and spliced and found insufficient.
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is (Ephesians 5:15-17).
Perhaps you, too, are taking inventory of what you value most… knowing it’s about time.
Bestselling author, artist, and entrepreneur Ruth Chou Simons has written and painted the artwork for several books encouraging women to dive deeper in their walk with the Lord. She and her husband Troy Simons work together to run GraceLaced, an art and lifestyle brand that exists to adorn the gospel through collectible, meaningful, and truth-filled products.
Most recently Ruth and Troy have worked together to create Foundations, a 12-week family journey through some of the key truths about God’s character. Drawing from their experience raising their six boys and Troy’s background in full-time pastoral ministry, Foundations invites parents to embrace the holy work of training their children to know and love God for a lifetime. It will help you direct your family one day at a time, as you explore 12 key truths that will help connect your children’s hearts—and yours—to the heart of God.
[ Our humble thanks to Harvest House for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
February 29, 2020
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [02.29.20]
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:
Ossi Saarinen
Ossi Saarinen
Ossi Saarinen
let’s be on the lookout for hope and wonder everywhere today
tears at this one every. single. time.
Breathtaking Winners of the 2019 International Landscape Photographer of the Year Contest
so who knew?! some great ideas here!
This 103-year-old woman still helps run the pie shop she opened nearly 70 years ago
the pies come with a special touch on every box — each one is hand-stamped with Psalm 34:8: ‘Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good’
“…we just want everybody to know what’s inside that box is good, and the Lord is good. Because he’s the reason why we’re here.”
All of the hard stuff you’re facing that no one even knows about?
I’m absolutely right there with you in more ways than you can imagine.
And there’s this for the climb we have in front of us:
The Unthinkable Great Walls We Must Walk Through
completely amazed: an orchestra of ice instruments!?!
Isaac Ogila
Vera Aurima
Yrahisa Mateo
11 Sweet Photos of Birthdays Around the World
A birthday is more than gifts. It’s an opportunity to show children that they are valued and loved — and children in poverty shouldn’t have to miss out.
“…even if you’re completely disabled and broken, you’re still My son…”
Powerful story – please don’t miss
If Jesus can heal even my busted heart – it’s grace to GET to be part of these heart-healing stories!
You teachers are heroes and soul shapers and generation strengtheners and we’re passing you down a cup of hot tea and all giving you a standing ovation!
So well done, so. well. done.
A family of 4 built a private tiny-house village where the kids have their own homes
glory, glory, glory
Teacher Who Is Adopting Student ‘Changed My Perspective,’ Says Boy: ‘Now I Can Do Anything’
“He was literally living alone in a hospital because there was no place else for him to go…”
this car dealership allows homeless people living in cars to park there for free
“We want to help those who are stuck in the middle…you are welcome to come and stay with us…a safe place to park and sleep, a bathroom and a shower.”
Why His Absence Is Our Advantage
Amen and amen
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be opened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling & what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints”.
-The Apostle Paul, Eph. 1:18
All You need for me to be is Still…
heartbreakingly beautiful: he sees his reflection in the eyes of the suffering
Post of the week from these parts here
…this woman, this miracle, this story? Flat-out undone. You have got to read this.
I didn’t see this one coming at all. The straight-up miracle she experienced — I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s changed my life — shaped how I hope. How I love.
I’m telling you: Who doesn’t need a Lent a surprising and as hopeful as this?
Hard Place? How to let Lent Loan You More (Real) Hope
Often the history shapers, who play the biggest role, and make the biggest sacrifices are the names of those we never hear…
throughout history, ordinary people believed the scripture to be so important, they gave up their time, their liberty, and even their lives to ensure the Bible’s faithful translation
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.
at 96? He’s still serving his country…
March 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
on repeat this week: Is He Worthy?
You don’t have someone who merely stands up for you,
You have someone who laid down His life for you,
So He could stand up forever for you in heaven, always sticking up for you & staring down the lying prosecutor of your soul.
You can keep getting up,
because Jesus is sticking up for you.
You can keep going,
Because Jesus is staying with you & He’s not going anywhere.
You can hope
Because Jesus is your help.
“The One who died for us…is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us & Christ’s love for us? Absolutely nothing can get between us & God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.”
Romans 8:34 MSG
[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.
February 28, 2020
The Unthinkable Great Walls We Must Walk Through
Sheri Hunter and her husband Mannard had planned a madcap 120-day trip around the world via cruise ship once the children were grown and gone and they were good and old. Only, Mannard died suddenly in his sleep at 50 and Sheri was spiraling with grief. She was far from retired, and had no assurance she’d live long enough to fulfill their shared dream. Sheri decided it was time for this black woman to drop-kick fear. Her memoir, Daring to Live, chronicles her solo 65-day journey through Africa and Asia as well as nine other “dares” like skydiving and hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro with her friends, the Dare Divas, all while experiencing healing and love. It’s a grace to welcome Sheri to the farm’s front porch today…
After sixty-three days, on a cruise around the world, I had literally made a boatload of friends.
I had bonded with Tonya, one of the show dancers, who was a good fifteen years younger than me. We decided to tackle the Great Wall together.
“Oooh, that’s some mama of a hike,” Tonya said as we stared up at row after row of stone block stairs that seemed to be winding up past the clouds.
I sighed heavily, already feeling winded as I looked at the climb ahead.
“I’d missed my late husband, Mannard, so badly that an outsider would have thought he’d passed away the day before.”
“If the mountain don’t come to Mohammed, then Mohammed goes to the mountain,” Tonya said. We’d paid to take this journey, and we both really wanted to do it.
“Let’s gird our loins and get to it,” I said, laughing.
A few fit folks were already jogging past us.
“Hope they don’t break anything, running like they’re crazy up those steps,” Tonya said. “That would be awful.”
“Man, that would be bad.” I was genuinely thankful that for all the days I’d traveled so far from home, I had not become ill or needed medical attention even once.
Three hours into our hike, miles and miles of the wall still remained. With each picture I snapped of the breathtaking, mountainous view, I realized that although this journey was coming to an end, a new one—a fresh start—would be waiting when I got home.
On this trip there had been bouts of sadness, times when the walls felt like they were closing in, and I’d missed my late husband, Mannard, so badly that an outsider would have thought he’d passed away the day before.
But this trip also marked a turning point for me.
I was overcome with the assurance that God wanted me to keep moving forward even though Mannard was gone.
There would be challenges, sure, but God would be with me through it all.
Up ahead, I saw the tallest of the towers. I began to walk faster, racing toward it.
“I was overcome with the assurance that God wanted me to keep moving forward even though Mannard was gone.”
“Wow, Sheri! What’s the hurry?” Tonya said, picking up her pace to keep up with me.
“I have to get to the top of it,” I said. I was breaking a sweat but not breathing as heavily as I felt I should be. I was jogging with ease. “I want to pray there before I leave.”
Eight minutes later, I reached the base of the tower. I began climbing a series of tiny steps to reach the house at the top of the tower, but I tripped on a step and twisted my foot.
The narrow steps were so tight that Tonya found a way to get to the house much better—she crawled. “This must have been the torture section,” she said, inching her petite frame up the stairs and past where I was standing. “I can barely fit.”
I crawled after her and met her at the top. When I stood, I couldn’t catch my breath. The expansive view was intoxicating. As I turned 360 degrees to take in the landscape around me, the beauty and grandeur of the Great Wall overwhelmed me.
Tonya and I shared a celebratory hug, and I smiled—no tears, just happiness.
I stretched out my arms toward the heavens. And inside I whispered, Thank you, Jesus. Thank you.
That cruise was certainly a journey, and one I will never forget. I know that not everyone can pack up and venture out for sixty-five days.
“There would be challenges, sure, but God would be with me through it all.”
This had been a door of opportunity the Lord had opened for me, and I walked through it.
Most times when I feel like the world is crashing over me and I need to escape outside my own environment, I can’t go on a two-month cruise to a destination of my liking. I need to utilize the resources I have and move toward my well-being.
The movie War Room showed that when being attacked spiritually, you can stand still where you are and fight the battle.
The title character, Elizabeth Jordan, was facing a disconnection from her husband, and her life was coming apart. What did she do? She used a closet in her home to commune with the Lord, and she went there regularly for time to pray, study, reflect, and nourish her soul.
In the military, a war room is a place where military personnel gather to strategize for a specific mission, equipping themselves to win the battle.
The same was true with Elizabeth—she was fighting for her family, she had the armor of the Lord, and she was set to win.
People in the Bible often sought solitude with God.
Even Jesus did. He knew that living on earth has its beauty, but there are also overwhelming pressures, burdens, and temptations that can sway us away from God and the life He wants us to live.
Jesus was fully aware that He would suffer and die on the cross, so that walk toward the cross was an enormous one. He was sacrificing His life for the salvation of the world, and it would be brutal.
Imagine facing that.
“Jesus regularly had special times where He got away. Away from the world, people, and their problems, with His eyes solely on the One who held the entire universe in His hand.”
Even though He was fully God as part of the Trinity, He was a man with flesh. His soul, His spirit, needed the comfort of His heavenly Father.
Just like you and me when we go through the unthinkable, Jesus had to get His mind positioned for the journey ahead.
He went to the garden of Gethsemane, and there in solitude He communed with our Father and prayed for sustenance of the spirit as He moved toward the path of crucifixion.
That wasn’t the only time Jesus did this.
He regularly had special times where He got away.
Away from the world, people, and their problems, with His eyes solely on the One who held the entire universe in His hand.
If Jesus needed that time of solace, then we can see how we need it as well.
And we can find our solace in somewhere special in our home, out in nature, walking with praise and worship music, in our vehicles as we drive, or wherever we feel most comfortable and ready to be vulnerable with the Lord.
Wherever that may be, our Savior will meet us where we are.
“Being daring doesn’t necessarily mean jumping off cliffs or hiking the tallest mountains,” says Sheri. “It’s doing those things that are outside one’s comfort zone, and step by step pushing firmly, steadfastly past the thing that scares you the most,” says Sheri Hunter.
In her new book, Daring to Live: How the Power of Sisterhood and Taking Risks Can Jump-Start your Joy, Sheri speaks frankly about those feats that raised the hairs on her skin. Some were adventurous like learning to ride a motorcycle, and others were more day-to-day: having hard conversations, focusing on health, learning a new thing, facing mortality and leaning solidly on Christ through it all.
More than just a memoir, this empowering female travelogue pairs emotionally resonant, confessional storytelling with spiritual takeaways, challenging readers to engage fully in their own lives, surround themselves with friends who will support them, and face life’s challenges with courage and faith.
[ Our humble thanks to Baker for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
February 26, 2020
Hard Place? How to let Lent Loan You More (Real) Hope
I
meet a woman named Ndubaayo who gave up four hours of her day to walk — one way, barefoot— over a range of rugged hills — to hear the heartbeat of God.
It’s Ndubaayo I think of on Ash Wednesday.
When I sat in front of Ndubaayo’s house, several of her neighbors join us, and I lean forward on this tipsy white plastic chair to hear her tell her story:
How she walked 8 hours a day — with no shoes — five days a week.
26 miles a day.
A marathon to get more of God.
Five days a week — for four years.
“There’s a giving up — that only gains. There’s a sacrifice that only fulfills. There’s a sacrifice — that is no sacrifice at all.”
She thought it was worth it — to get to literacy classes to hear God’s Word spoken from the book of John, to learn to read from the Book of John, to learn to write, to write her own name — to learn her name as His Beloved.
But after the birth of her twins, Ndubaayo tells me, she fell direly sick — raging fever, uncontrollable infection, dangerous dehydration.
Her neighbors wished death upon her, and she wished she could find a way through, and this is a world of brutally hard places that begs us to believe that we are still in hope places.
How could Ndubaayo know the otherworldly thing that was about to happen — and why in the world do we doubt the miraculous ways God still intervenes in the darkest, hardest places?
Esther Havens for The Seed Company
Esther Havens for The Seed Company
Esther Havens for The Seed Company
Esther Havens for The Seed Company
Esther Havens for The Seed Company
Esther Havens for The Seed Company For days — and then weeks — Ndubaayo burnt up on her bed knowing she was but dust, knowing her own mortality, knowing her time could be short.
“When we know we are but dust, when our hearts have been crushed — is exactly when we are meant to entrust all into the hands of the Potter, so He can remake all to be more like Christ.”
I feel Ndbuaayo’s story in this ache between sternum and pounding arteries. And I know it on a Friday in northern Kenya and on an Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent:
When we know we are but dust, when we feel our hearts have been crushed — is exactly when we are to entrust all into the hands of the Potter, so He can remake all to be more like Christ.
Ndubaayo looks up at me. I can see it in her eyes — this radiating reflection of Him.
“The Pastor came.” Ndubaayo speaks softly. “He spoke the Word of God over me: ‘Any challenges, any obstacles that you are going through — your God is with you, and God will make sure a way in your challenges.’ ”
That’s a Word meant for somebody –for me — right now. Ndubaayo breaks into this smile.
“And right then: I no longer see my great problems — I only see my great Hope.”
I brim a bit and nod — yes, yes yes. The hardest places — can still be hope places.
Those of us who are dust have a certain Hope that cannot fade. And those of us who give up our ways, find God makes a sure Way. And those of us who want His word most, find ourselves wanting for nothing.
“Those of us who are dust have a certain Hope that cannot fade, and those of us who give up our ways, find God to make a sure Way, and those of us who want His word most, find ourselves wanting for nothing.”
Ndubaayo tells me how she lay there in her bed, talking to God: “God, look at the way people are speaking of me, wanting me to die. Because I leave everything for You, they say that this is why I am sick. I want Your courage.”
And in the darkened stillness of her room, of her open heart, Ndubaayo suddenly resonated with Word in the inner chambers of her being:
“I hear you, and I see you, and I know the goodness that you are doing.”
Ndubaayo lay still. What — had she heard?
An answer?
And then — a word reverberated in Ndubaayo that she had never heard or known in her life: “Galatians. Galatians, verse 9.”
Ndubaayo lay motionless in the dark — confused.
What was Galatians? She had never heard of that word, “Galatians.”
Esther Havens for The Seed Company
Esther Havens for The Seed Company“ The enemy plots our destruction through distraction —
distraction from God’s Word, God’s voice, God’s ways. Give up distractions — to keep your soul from destruction.”
Bedridden, in her fevered stupor and aching sickness, Ndubaayo replayed it again and again, what had reverberated unmistakably, unforgettably, in her heart, words that came from somewhere she had never heard of:
“I hear you, and I see you, and I know the goodness that you are doing. Galatians, verse 9.”
What did — ‘Galatians’ even mean?
“Then the church mamas came,” Ndubaayo gestures to the west. “Forty church mamas come to tell me to keep on. Keep on. Do not lose Hope, sister. God is with you.” Ndubaayo’s eyes glisten. She leans closer.
“And I tell the church mamas, I tell them: ‘A voice comes within me, telling me, ‘I hear you, I see you, the goodness that you are doing … Galatians. Verse nine.’ ”
Galatians?
Ndubaayo’s neighbour, Judy, sitting across from Henry and Lawrence, she interrupts Ndubaayo’s story now, tells me she was there that day, standing over Ndubaayo’s bed, watching the deathly-ill woman murmur what she insisted she had heard in the chambers of her heart.
“Galatians. This is not a word any of the church mamas know,” Judy is animated, adamant. “Not a word in our Rendille language, not a word in the Gospel of John, the only book of God’s Word that we had in our mother-tongue.”
“Give up — whatever you need — to hear God speak.”
Judy moves closer to Ndubaayo: “Someone asks if anyone has an English Bible? Pages are turned — and someone reads it in English: Galatians! This is a word in the Word of God! Ndubaayo has heard a word from God! And all of us in the room, we start to cry. Because of the Bible. Because God speaks.”
I look into Ndubaayo’s face, Judy’s face.
God speaks Hope to those who sacrifice for the love of His heartbeat.
I want what they have. God’s Word is spoken here.
Verse 9?
“I can read English better than most, so I look through Galatians for every verse 9.” Judy nods. Galatians 1:9, 2:9, 3:9, 4:9, 5:9.
Last chapter of the book —Galatians 6:9.
“And I read what it says, Galatians. 6:9,” — Judy knows it by heart now.
“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.”
I’m blinking it back. THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT GOD TOLD HER!
Ndubaayo smiling, tears brimming at the memory that never leaves, that God sees and speaks: “I hear you, and I see you, and I know the goodness that you are doing. Galatians, verse 9.”
Judy whispers, shaking her head: “Let me tell you.”
“We got courage — we got HOPE! —“ Judy reaches over to grab Ndubaayo’s hand.
And I’m the one seized:
What am I giving up to get the courage of God? The Hope of God? The Word of God?
Esther Havens for The Seed Company
Esther Havens for The Seed Company
Esther Havens for The Seed Company
Join us in partnership with The Seed Company
Esther Havens for The Seed Company
Esther Havens for The Seed Company“Ndubaayo?” I pull closer.
“Your loves alone limit how much of God you have. Your wants, your habits, your priorities, your choices, limit how much of God you have. Declutter what fills the mind, fills the screens, fills the heart. Less is more — God.”
“You’ve personally been waiting almost 18 years — to hold in your own hands God’s Word in your own language.” I nod toward the fresh-off-the-press New Testament there in Ndubaayo’s lap, a 30 year undertaking of Wycliffe translators and The Seed Company.
Not 24 hours prior, I had witnessed Ndubaayo lead a celebration of more than 1000 Rendille people and their neighbors, gathering like a people to holy flame, to welcome the long-anticipated coming of God and His Word.
I’ve never seen anything quite like it: She traces the lines like she’s tracing a lover’s face.
And all I can think is: For all the duotone leather-imitation Bibles collecting dust on forgotten shelves or suffocating under stacks of glossy celeb mags and rags, what is most spoken under suburban and comfortable roofs?
Stress is spoken here, Hurry is spoken here, Politics is spoken here, Worry is spoken here, Facebook is spoken here, Celebrity Gossip is spoken here, Football is spoken here, Frustration is spoken here — and in all the deafening noise, there is a still, small whisper:
“ The enemy plots our destruction through distraction —
distraction from God’s Word, God’s voice, God’s ways. Give up distractions — to keep your soul from destruction.”
Is God’s Word spoken here? Longed for here, sacrificed for here, wanted here, heard here — because His Word gives us the hope, the courage, that we need?
Who is willing to give up whatever it takes — so God is spoken here?
What if there was leaning into a season of giving up lesser things — so there were 40 Days of God Speaking?
What if this — was a Lent of Listening? A Lent of More of His Word? A Lent of More of God?
What if:
Give up — whatever you need — to hear God speak.
I look down at Ndubaayo’s worn feet. Giving up 8 hours a day, 26 miles a day, for four years, a marathon to get to God.
It’s never that we don’t have enough time — it’s always that we have different priorities.
The enemy plots our destruction
through distraction —
distraction from God’s Word, God’s voice, God’s ways.
Give up distractions — to keep your soul from destruction.
What if you gave up 30 minutes more of your day to spend more time in His Word?
There is always a way to shave minutes off here, carve out more there, trim a few there, pare a bit here — and then gather up the moments, and make time for what you want. Time is made for what we love.
“Giving up something for the love of Jesus —isn’t really giving up anything, when He gave up everything — for the ones He loves.”
Wherever love and priorities meet, time is made.
We always make time for what we love.
Giving up something
for the love of Jesus —
isn’t really giving up anything
when He gave up everything
for the ones He loves.
I watch Ndubaayo’s face.
Your loves alone limit how much of God you have.
Your wants, your habits, your priorities, your choices, limit how much of God you have.
Declutter what fills the mind, fills the screens, fills the heart.
Less is more
God.
There’s a giving up — that only gains.
There’s a sacrifice that only fulfills.
There’s a sacrifice — that is no sacrifice at all.
Esther Havens for The Seed Company
Esther Havens for The Seed Company
Esther Havens for The Seed Company
Esther Havens for The Seed CompanyAnd then, overcome, Ndubaayo clutches God’s Word up to her chest, arms clinging, heart wrapped around Word, and tilts her face heavenward.
“I slept with it under my pillow last night.”
“Give up what is lesser — to get more of the Greater.”
Give up what is lesser — to get more of the Greater.
This is the glory I memorize, and in a moment, I am but dust mingling with brimming liquid love, malleable clay for the Potter to remake.
There’s is a sacrifice — that is no sacrifice at all. There’s a sacrifice that only fulfills.
I meet a woman named Ndubaayo who lent this longing to me — to only want more of God.
Ndubaayo flings her arms open wide over the word and, there between heart and sternum, you can feel it, like a burning that isn’t a sacrifice but a passion for more:
You can have as much of God — of His Hope, of His courage, of His love– as you actually want.
This Lent: Give up — whatever you need — to hear God speak:
A FREE 7-week, Lent devotional to build spiritual foundations under your roof
Speak Words of Life Over Your Home
Apply practical steps to bring God’s presence, God’s Word into your home.
Reflect through guided questions, and involve your people in creative ways.
Give up what is lesser — to get more of the Greater.
#GiveUpToGetAwayWithGod #40DaysGodSpeaking #LentofListening #GODSWORDSPOKENHERE
February 24, 2020
This One Habit Keeps Me Hand-In-Hand with Jesus Every Day
Today I welcome a woman who has been walking hand-in-hand with Jesus, seeking His true and right paths, for several decades. Yes, decades. Cynthia Heald is a Bible teacher and author of the popular Becoming a Woman Bible study series. She is known as humble, kind, and always ready to sit and visit over a cup of tea. It’s a grace to welcome Cynthia to share about living wisely on the farm’s front porch today…
One day, when I was reading Oswald Chambers’s My Utmost for His Highest, I was struck by his insight about a rather easily overlooked verse in Genesis:
“After that, Abram traveled southward and set up camp in the hill country between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar and worshiped the Lord.”
Chambers writes, “Bethel is the symbol of communion with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abraham pitched his tent between the two. The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him.
Rush is wrong every time; there is always plenty of time to worship God. Quiet days with God may be a snare. We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be.”
As I meditated on these thoughts, I concluded that I needed a tent!
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy ProutySince my journey usually takes me into Ai (the world) or to Bethel (which literally means “house of God”), I realized that I needed to pitch my tent (spend time with God) between the world and my times in church.
“I look for pockets of time when I can pitch my tent—unplanned times of waiting or having a few extra minutes before a commitment.”
Because I was in church only once or twice a week, I knew that if I wanted to keep my hand in God’s, I needed to spend time alone with Him, one-on-one, every day. In order to do this, I found a “tent” and put my “altar” in it.
My tent is a cloth bag in which I have placed my altar: my Bible, a journal, and a devotional book.
I usually include a Bible study book or a current book that I am reading. A tent can be a special bag, a backpack, or a briefcase—anything that is portable and can be taken with you whenever you leave your home.
My tent stays near my chair in my study, and it’s ready to be pitched early in the morning.
But if circumstances keep me from spending time with the Lord at the beginning of the day, I pick up my tent and take it with me when I leave the house. (In fact, I take it with me even if I already have had time with the Lord.)
Then throughout the day, I look for pockets of time when I can pitch my tent—unplanned times of waiting or having a few extra minutes before a commitment.
I can set up my tent in an airport, a doctor’s waiting room, a coffee shop, a library, a park.
If you work outside your home, it is helpful to have your tent available so that you can pitch it during a coffee break, lunch, or in your office or car before you drive home.
I have found that I am much more consistent in spending time with the Lord because I always have my tent with me.
I prefer starting the day with the Lord, but I’ve found that’s not always possible.
For many years, I thought that time with God could take place only when everything was quiet, but as Oswald Chambers said, “Quiet days with God may be a snare.”
“The best thing I can do for my family is to walk with God.”
The snare in my thinking is that if I missed the early-morning quiet time, then I would have to wait until the next morning to spend time with God.
It has been freeing to have my tent ready to pitch whenever I can find a few moments to myself in the midst of a busy world.
The blessing of always having my tent with me is that I can be more consistent and creative in my time with God. It’s not a ritual, and it’s not bound by the parameters of time or place.
I’ve found over the years that consistency is more important than the length of time I spend with the Lord.
Anytime I stop and intently read His Word with an obedient heart, I find that the Scriptures are “full of living power … sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires.”
I need the cutting edge of the Scriptures daily, and I have found that any amount of time I spend reading the Word is always profitable.
Pitching my tent has also allowed the Lord to superintend my “busyness.”
“Pitching my tent keeps my hand in His and makes it possible to choose the good part, to rest, to have some semblance of balance in our lives, and to receive His help.”
One time, I committed myself to reading to children enrolled in the Head Start program. God gently but firmly spoke to my heart and said, Cynthia, there will be a season in your life when it will be appropriate for you to read to these children, but for now, I think it’s best that you stay home and read to your own children.
I would not have heard these thoughts if I had not placed my hand in His and begun to sit at His feet.
The best thing I can do for my family is to walk with God.
The best thing I can do for my church is to consistently pitch my tent.
The very best thing I can do for myself is to keep my hand in His. (This is especially true and necessary for single moms.)
It’s not a choice between sitting (Mary) or serving (Martha).
For me, the sitting is a prerequisite to knowing the serving that is God-directed, that furthers His Kingdom, and that is right for me.
Personally, I feel that when the Lord says, “There is really only one thing worth being concerned about,” we need to listen seriously to what He says.
Maybe God is right after all!
Pitching my tent keeps my hand in His and makes it possible to choose the good part, to rest, to have some semblance of balance in our lives, and to receive His help.
Abiding in Christ empowers us to live wisely.
Living Wisely is a lifetime of wisdom from mentor, Bible-study writer, and best-selling author Cynthia Heald. Cynthia offers ten take-along truths that continue to be tested and proven in her own journey, to equip readers to make godly choices at the crossroads of their own life circumstances.
Cynthia Heald is best known for her Bible study series, Becoming a Woman. She speaks frequently for church women’s retreats and seminars nationally and internationally. Cynthia and her husband, Jack, serve with The Navigators and live in Tuscon, Arizona.
“I have lived long enough to know that choosing to live faithfully surpasses any fleeting pleasure I might obtain by yielding to temptation. What I have discovered over the years is that God’s desire for me to be faithful is an expression of his love for me.”
Living Wisely points you toward the truths of Scripture so you can live well in the midst of a world that doesn’t understand true wisdom. The book includes compelling stories from Cynthia’s life, the lives of other women, and Scripture that inspire women to follow Christ’s transformative way, no matter what.
[ Our humble thanks to Tyndale for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
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