Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 86
February 3, 2020
Does God Really Want Me to Be Happy?
Beth Moore has loved me like Jesus on the darkest days – and there aren’t enough words to express how much her cruciform love has transformed my heart. She is a gift to the Church, to generations, to the nations – and a gift back to our Lord Jesus. She is a mother to a whole world of us because she’s made herself into a space to hold space for her sisters in Christ to grow, change, unfurl, and find their place in the world. She is a mother to a whole world of us because she’s been willing to suffer… because this is what passion is — burning up bits of your heart for the other. She is a roof who has bent her brave, busted heart into shelter to absorb storm so her sisters can stay in a circle of courageous-safe. There aren’t enough words to thank her for how she’s stretched herself thin, a heart with stretch marks, and she’s become a thin place — where her sisters experience the nearness of God. It’s a grace to welcome Beth Moore to the farm’s front porch today…
“Do you believe it is God’s will for us to be happy?” The question came to me just a few weeks ago on Twitter.
“Do you believe it is God’s will for us to be happy?”
Often Christians on that medium tend to love nothing better than a nasty doctrinal fight but I could tell instinctively no such thing was in play.
This question wasn’t just doctrinal. This was personal. Something was at stake.
The inquirer was a guy, by the way. If you and I were face to face, I’d ask you if you’d assumed it was a girl. I would have if I’d been you.
The truth is, men want to be happy, too, but, male or female, let’s admit, “does God want us to be happy” can be a loaded question.
I winced when I saw it because I knew what the brother wanted me to say and goodness knows I wanted to say it.
Joy Prouty
Haven’t most of us wanted someone to tell us, “Yes! You better believe He does! And, if you’re not happy, you have the right to go out there and find happy!”
I also winced because I’m sanguine to the bone. You get the feeling along the way that some people enjoy being miserable but nothing about being happy makes me sad.
As a matter of fact, I do think God delights in seeing us happy. But that wasn’t the guy’s question.
“Beth, do you believe it is God’s will for us to be happy?” The way he posed the question, he meant, is it a top-tier divine priority?
“I believe it is God’s will for us to be fruitful.”
I was well into my forties and the full throes of ministry the first time I recall a Christian speaker saying, “Marriage is not meant to make us happy. It’s meant to make us holy.” All I could mutter under my breath with brows drawn nearly to my cheekbones was bummer.
My hope is that I’m writing to all sorts of people today: single, married, divorced, widowed, young, middle aged or old, male or female, because the point I’m here to make applies to all of us.
No Jesus-follower is excluded. But I’ll just ask this on behalf of those who happen to be married: “Can’t it be just a little bit about being happy?”
Few things feel longer than an adult lifetime of unhappily-married no matter how holy you are. Thank goodness, holiness and happiness were never meant to be mutually exclusive terms. I’ve pushed them to the north and south poles, not God.
As it turns out, they overlap substantially more than some of us feared but that was more than the brother on Twitter wanted to know.
I placed my fingers on the keyboard and typed him back, “I believe it is God’s will for us to be fruitful.”
“Never underestimate the power of fruitfulness to cause some happiness.”
I hated to be bossy but, the truth was, I didn’t just believe it. I knew it to my bones.
I knew it because it’s all over the Bible. I knew it because it waves like a banner in big bold letters out of the very mouth of Jesus in John 15:8. “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (NIV)
In the Word of God, the ultimate purpose of every person, place and thing is the glory of God and this is to His Father’s glory: that His followers are immensely fruitful.
One day we will pass from this life into His presence and truly live happily ever after. Here, however, Christ’s higher priority is for us to live fruitfully ever after.
But here’s what I’ve spilled all this ink to tell you: never underestimate the power of fruitfulness to cause some happiness.
I spent two years studying viticulture trying to grasp some of the broader implications and deeper insights from Christ’s teaching in John 15 on the Vinedresser (God the Father), the Vine (Jesus), the branches (Jesus’ followers) and the grapes (fruit of our lives for the glory of God).
“God didn’t just permit His people to gleefully celebrate the ingathering of fruit each year. He commanded it.”
I found it so fascinating, the only reason I ever put a final period on the book Chasing Vines was that I ran out of time.
The wonder of the concept was never exhausted. None of it was wasted on me but one part of it bears particular significance in what I want to say to you.
The mural behind Christ’s Vine-and-Branch imagery would not be complete without a depiction of the annual Feast of Harvest.
God didn’t just permit His people to gleefully celebrate the ingathering of fruit each year. He commanded it.
“You shall keep the Feast…when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress…you shall rejoice in your feast…so that you will be altogether joyful.” (Deut.16:13-15 ESV)
Humility doesn’t mean acting like you didn’t notice God invited you to participate in a divine work. And it worked. The ingathering of the harvest was anything but solemn.
Men, women, and children moved rhythmically up and down the rows, baskets in hand, singing, dancing, and rejoicing. They shouted to one another over splendid clusters, celebrating with unbridled conviviality the goodness of God in bringing fruit from the dust of the earth.
Some fruit is enormously expensive. It comes from such pain, we may not experience the palpable happiness of its harvest till we’re in God’s presence where the sufferings of this world won’t be “worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Rom.8:18 NIV)
“When a moment of glee hits you over the goodness of God, TAKE IT. Just don’t take the credit for it.”
But I want you to know there’s nothing wrong and everything right about celebrating the fruitfulness God produces through you when you can. Life’s hard enough.
When a moment of glee hits you over the goodness of God, TAKE IT. Just don’t take the credit for it.
Fruitfulness is grace wrapped in a grape skin. And don’t wait for the big things.
Dance and sing, clap your hands and shout for joy even for the small things.
Tears will come again soon enough.
When a cluster of fruit comes from this earthly sod strewn with thistles and thorns, hold those grapes up before the Lord, let the juice drip through your fingers and thank Him with all your might “for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.” (Ps.116:7 ESV)
Join bestselling author Beth Moore in her life-changing quest of vine-chasing―and learn how everything changes when you discover the true meaning of a fruitful, God-pleasing, meaning-filled life.
God wants us to flourish. In fact, He delights in our flourishing. Life isn’t always fun, but in Christ it can always be fruitful. In Chasing Vines, Beth shows us from Scripture how all of life’s concerns—the delights and the trials—matter to God. He uses all of it to help us flourish and be fruitful. Looking through the lens of Christ’s transforming teaching in John 15, Beth gives us a panoramic view of biblical teachings on the Vine, vineyards, vine-dressing, and fruitfulness. Along the way you’ll discover why fruitfulness is so important to God—and how He can use anything that happens to us for His glory and our flourishing. Nothing is for nothing.
[ Our humble thanks to Tyndale for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
February 1, 2020
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [02.01.20]
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:
Dito Tediashvili / Instagram
Dito Tediashvili / Instagram
Dito Tediashvili / Instagram
exhale right here … anyone else wanna visit this town?!?
heart melting…Amen and amen
In 2019? More Americans went to the library than to the movies. Yes, really.
she lives a double life: A Hero in the Sky (and on the Ground)
NASA’s Curiosity Rover Has Been on Mars for More Than 7 Years:
and Here are its 30 Best Photos
because we all need a loyal friend
3 Cheers: Meet the ‘Oldest Kindergartner’
For the past 16 years, Mr. Fleisher has volunteered his time to help students learn how to read
this conductor? he’s transforming one student at a time
great idea: This coat design isn’t just saving lives. It’s launching new careers for homeless people
Where I’ll be in the months ahead…
it would be a joy to meet you at one of these upcoming events
Holocaust Survivors Come Alive in this song: Despite the odds throughout millenniums, they live.
YES: Meet the 75-year-old who’s fostered more than 600 children over 50 years
Casey Scofield
Inspiring Gen-Zers: This 9-Year-Old Brought Hope to 56 Kids just wow
never, ever forget: you are loved…
one to read and re-read: Refresh Your Soul with Humility
share with a friend who needs to hear? It is well…
never give up on the calling and purpose for your life
just so so good – can’t get enough of this one
Books for Soul Healing:
Take the dare to discover: Life is not an emergency…Life is a GIFT.
Start counting gifts and find joy — right where you are.
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.
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.
Let your brokenness be turned into abundance.
Be the Gift invites you 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.
Never underestimate His faithfulness…glory, glory, glory
February 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 this week: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty
These days can feel like a flood of heartache. From Los Angeles to ICU rooms, from mamas praying for prodigals to families that feel like they’re all on the rocks.
And there’s not one moment God doesn’t feel that with us. “His heart was filled with pain” (Genesis 6:6). God has a heart . . . and it hurts. It hurts with what hurts us.
His heart hurts not just with a few drops of ache, not just with a slow drip of sadness—the whole expanse of His heart fills, swells, weighs dark with this storm of pain.
God, who hung the stars—He has taken a thread of His heart and tied it to yours. And He didn’t need to, but God tied His heart to yours — so when you feel pain, He fills with pain.
Time only continues on in this impossibly suffering world because God Himself is willing to keep suffering the impossible with us.
We read the headlines and wonder, lay in our own beds way too late at night & soundlessly cry: If there’s a God who really cares, He’d look at this world and His heart would break.
And God looks to the Cross, and says, “My heart did.”
On that Cross, they speared His side and pierced straight into His heart, filled with pain, and it was the water and blood of His broken heart that gushed right out, a flood of love.
Grace—it, too, has floods of its own. . . . The way heaven comes down so we can rise.
In a world of grief beyond magnitude, what will change us and the world, is the attitude of Beatitudes. Blessed are those mourn, for they will be comforted.
In a world that doesn’t feel fair — His cruciform love and outstretched arms embrace us —- so what we feel is Him.
No one knows more than Jesus that this world isn’t fair — and no one loves us to death like Jesus, until everything is fair for forever.
In a world of loss — the deeply suffering are deeply touched by the suffering of Christ. We do not weep alone.
No matter what happens in this busted-up world in the days ahead, in your own beautiful world: Pray. He listens & He holds.
“When you call on Me, when you come & pray to Me, I’ll listen… I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you. I’ll hold you steady” Jeremiah 29:12, Isaiah 41:10MSG
Broken for those who are heartbroken today.
With-ness breaks brokenness & we are with you & He is Emmanuel, God with us. And shared tears are multiplied healing — & we weep with you & God sees & shares in the heartbrokenness & catches every tear.
[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.
January 31, 2020
You Have a Choice
I’d about take a bullet for this woman. And I can testify, because of how she’s personally fought for me and generations of women around the globe, there is no better faith fighter, Word warrior, and soul defender than Jennie Allen. Every single hour thousands of ideas fly through our brain. Most happening without much regard on our end, and it would be easy to believe that we have little to no control over what we think. But that’s a crafty lie from the pit. We are in charge of our thinking and we do have the choice to take every single thought and submit it to Christ, and by doing so, renew our minds. This message of Jennie’s is absolute fire — because Jennie’s fought and won this battle and shares the secret to win the battle. It’s my utter joy to welcome the wonder who is Jennie Allen to the farm’s front porch today…
Ever wonder why some people seem happier than you, even if they are going through more difficult circumstances?
Maybe you have visited Christians in developing countries, thinking you were there to minister to them in their need, only to realize through their smiles and joy and selflessness that you were the one who had the need.
“What are you looking toward to make you happy?”
Yeah, me too.
When Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians, the greatest exposition on joy ever written, he was actually bound in chains under house arrest. Paul apprehended something we in our cocoon of comfort in the West rarely realize.
He understood that because we have been made new creations, we have the Spirit’s power and a choice to make. Changing our minds is possible.
We do not have to spin—because we know our happiness is anchored in something greater than anything we can see here and now.
So this prompts a second question: What are you looking toward to make you happy? Whether it is opioids or people’s praise, whatever causes you to experience strong emotions of either happiness or disappointment— that is likely the thing you are living for.
And it is very likely ruining your life.
If all Paul saw were his circumstances and his inability to end his imprisonment, he would surely have been despondent. But his circumstances didn’t dictate his thoughts.
It was his love of Jesus and trust in a good, loving, in-control God that consumed his mind and gave him purpose.
And the same power that raised Christ from the dead, the same Spirit that empowered Paul to trust in the direst circumstances, is fully accessible to you and me. Right now.
As we make the shift from debilitating lines of thinking to thoughts that are helpful and God honoring and wise, we can make the choice to be grateful.
We can be people who consistently and sincerely give thanks, regardless of our wounded pasts or the circumstances we now face.
“We can be people who consistently and sincerely give thanks, regardless of our wounded pasts or the circumstances we now face.”
Paul certainly made this choice, as evidenced by the fact that he was quick to express gratitude for the believers at Philippi despite the mind- boggling pain he’d endured. If anyone knew suffering, it was Paul.
In Acts 9:15–16 God told Ananias, “Go, for he [Paul, also known as Saul] is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”
And suffer Paul certainly did. In the book of Acts, we read that Paul experienced having his life threatened multiple times, being stoned and left for dead, opposition and controversy, being outcast, being mocked, being apprehended by a mob, betrayals, imprisonment, and so much more.
Had any one of these things happened in the course of my lifetime, I’d center my whole world on the event. I’d give interviews about it. I’d write a book about it. I’d craft talks about it. I’d tell everyone how bad it had been.
I’d cast myself as the victim, something Paul never chose to do. In what has been dubbed our “victim-hood culture,” Paul certainly would have stood out.
And what are we complaining about? Anything and everything, it seems.
I’m telling you, there’s a far better way—the way of gratitude.
God made sure to include a clear call to thankfulness in Scripture because He knows that only when we’re planted in the soil of gratitude will we learn and grow and thrive: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thes 5:16)
In choosing the way of gratitude we refuse to be slaves to our circumstances.
“We can observe our suffering without being overtaken by our suffering.”
My younger daughter’s struggle with dyslexia has brought this truth to life for me. Every day I watch Caroline wrestle with learning, with homework, with books and words.
And every day it breaks my heart.
I went to a dyslexia simulation last month, where for two hours I experienced what my girl faces every hour of every day. It was exhausting.
It’s not just that a word shows up for someone with dyslexia with the letters out of order and written in what seems like an incomplete font— friend looks like fiend or feirnd or fairnd or traned—it’s that those incomplete, out-of-order letters jump around while you’re trying to read them, making it next to impossible to sort out what the word is.
You get one word of a fifty-thousand-word book decoded and feel like a rock star. “Friend! It says friend.”
Sigh. Only 49,999 words left to go.
I got home from that simulation and made a beeline for Caroline. “You are astonishing to me,” I said.
She agonizes and wrestles and fights and cries, but she has never once given up. Yes, this is her quintessential struggle in life. But this struggle is not who she is.
Here’s the truth Caroline reminds her full-on diagnosed-ADD mama to grab hold of: we can observe our suffering without being overtaken by our suffering.
We can see it without becoming its slave.
“We don’t have to like our circumstances, but we can choose to look for the unexpected gifts they may bring.”
We can acknowledge our suffering without abdicating our joy.
We can fight for justice but from a place of peace.
We don’t have to like our circumstances, but we can choose to look for the unexpected gifts they may bring.
Because we don’t find our identity in a cause, we are secure in who we are in Jesus.
And then there’s this: when we make the brave shift from victimhood to gratitude, we arm our understanding that God remains committed to redeeming all things.
Paul told the Philippians he was sure that everything that had happened to him had happened for a specific purpose. That purpose, you might guess, was to spread the gospel—God’s good news of love and grace.
By choosing gratitude over victimhood, Paul centered his thoughts on God’s purpose behind the pain.
He could focus on the impact of his imprisonment, which involved the palace guard coming to know Christ.
He could see that God would always be on the move, whether in his life or through his death, whether in his peace or in his suffering.
“To see God’s good purposes, we have to focus our gaze beyond our immediate situations.”
The ministry of the gospel through Paul was far from over; in fact, it was only just beginning.
But to see God’s good purposes, we have to focus our gaze beyond our immediate situations.
We have to remember that, even now, we have a choice:
We can choose to praise and honor God right where we are, trusting that we serve a God who is both transcendent and immanent—fancy words for saying that His ways are beyond human understanding—
yet He chooses to be near us, to be with us, even in the hardest times when we cannot yet see how He could possibly bring anything good from our circumstances.
Jennie Allen is the founder and visionary behind IF:Gathering, an organization that equips women to know God more deeply and to disciple others in their own lives. She is the author of several books and Bible studies, including Restless, Anything, and Nothing to Prove. Jennie has a masters degree in biblical studies from Dallas Theological Seminary.
Jennie knows what it’s like to swirl in a spiral of destructive thoughts. But she also knows we don’t have to stay stuck in toxic thinking patterns. As she discovered in her own life, God built a way for us to escape that downward spiral. Her brand new book, Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts teaches you how to renew your mind through Christ.
Jennie makes herself your personal trainer in these practical, transformational pages, alight with holy fire. She shows you how to take down anxiety, take back the mental high ground, and take more territory for the kingdom.
Jennie draws on biblical truth and recent discoveries in neuroscience to show exactly how we can fight the enemies of the mind with the truth of who God is and who He calls us to be. Get of your highlighter, and get ready to gain the victory. You are about to get out of your head and get to where your heart has always hoped to be.
[ Our humble thanks to Waterbrook for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
January 27, 2020
4 Lessons Children Can Learn About God from the Creation Story
For the past five years I have invited my friend Matthew Paul Turner to the farm’s front porch. Today, he’s sharing how we can teach our children about God through the creation story in honor of his gorgeous new book When God Made the World. Shiloh and I have enjoyed it multiple times since reading it. I’m captivated by the many layers Matthew brings to a story we all know well. It will bless your story times tremendously. Today is the last day to preorder When God Made the World and then get any one of his other books free too (after preordering fill out this form for your gift).
guest post by Matthew Paul Turner
In the very beginning, before anything was, before God started doing what it is God does. When all that existed was wide open space, God imagines a universe and began to create…
As a child, few stories sparked my curiosities about God more than the first two chapters of Genesis. Which of course makes sense in a lot of ways.
There’s something about the sheer magnitude of Creation that perfectly describes the bigness and power and mysteries of God.
Every time I heard a Sunday school teacher talk about Creation, I always tried hard to comprehend what it might have been like to see that first glimmer of light or to hear the roar of trees bursting from the ground.
Long after the Sunday school lesson was over, my imagination would still be working overtime, trying to conjure up mental pictures of God creating space and stars, planets and moons, oceans and mountain ranges.
And while the mental pictures that my mind created never came close to revealing the realities of how things began, I realized while writing When God Made the World that many of the things that I love and adore about God today are truths that God revealed in the very beginning, truths that I want my kids to know, truths that I believe all parents of faith hope their kids will learn and hide in their hearts.
Here are four truths that children (and grownups, too) can learn about God from the Creation story.
...Among the stars and planets and cosmic, God made a place for the story of us…
“God is with us and has always and will always be with us.”
Truth #1: God is with us and has always and will always be with us.
Is there anything more comforting, more mysterious, and more hopeful to people of faith than God’s presence? Isn’t that the core tenet of nearly every story from scripture— from Creation to life and teachings of Jesus – that God is with us.
And while I’ve certainly walked through seasons when I’ve doubted God’s existence, one thing that always jars my heart awake to the presence of God is nature. A forest of pine trees, the crashing waves of an ocean, the beauty and power of a storm—nothing sings of God’s presence like the ever present whir of nature.
And while nature doesn’t answer all the questions we have about God and it doesn’t explain away the very real pain that people experience, it does sometimes help remind us we’re not alone.
I know that for me, few things calm my anxious heart like being outside amid the things that I believe God created. My hope is that one day when my kids are walking through a difficult time, a moment when life’s noise are loud and overwhelming, they’ll know to get outside, that they’ll surround themselves with the constant presence of God that’s growing and moving all around us.
…God made tropics and plateaus, glaciers and meadows, marshes and tundras, and erupting volcanos… God made some places high, with peaks in the sky, and places where snowflakes still fall in July…
Truth #2: God is detail-oriented.
As I got older and began to learn and understand how things worked, I often found myself wishing that the writer of Genesis had offered us more details about how it all happened. And yet, even though the Genesis story isn’t overly flowered with intrigue and description, Creation itself speaks of God not only being present, but present in all of the intricate details of life.
“Creation itself speaks of God not only being present, but present in all of the intricate details of life.”
Jesus spoke of God’s attention to detail when He talked about God’s concern for the lily.
During the last couple of springs, my daughter, Adeline, and I planted a few flowers in our front yard. And while I didn’t make every seed we planted a lesson about the nature of God, my hope is that by engaging the simple act of gardening — planting a seed, watering that seed, and watching it grow up — that Adeline began to comprehend how God shows up in the small things of life.
Through gardening and nature we can teach out children that God is not only concerned with big things, but that God also cares about the little things happening in our stories.
Helping our kids know and understand God’s concern for the details of our lives will offer them a multitude of ways to see God’s handiwork in their lives and as well as the world around them.
…God made bluebirds and blackbirds, big birds and small birds, a few birds quite absurd, and the loudest birds you’ve ever heard. Crows crowed, doves cooed, chicken’s clucked, owls booed, robins chirped, pheasants whirred. The world got noisy when God made birds…
Truth #3: God is creative.
One of my favorite parts about Creation is how it showcases God’s creativity, which is such a tangible idea for children to grasp.
“That’s something the child in all of us can find hope in—that we are all created in God’s image, a human impression of our Creator.”
That God made Earth to be a biodiverse, color-filled, planet with a rich variety of plant life, wildlife, and climates is something that kids can see, feel and hear.
And people—the world is a family made up of people from all different ethnicities, a reality that should unite us and never put us at odds with one another.
And as people made in God’s image, this idea of God being creative is one way to offer little ones a clear example about how they’re a reflection of God. Moreover, because children spend so much time being creative in art and play, it gives parents and caregivers an easy way to connect their image to God’s image.
That’s something the child in all of us can find hope in—that we are all created in God’s image, a human impression of our Creator.
…Discover a star, a planet, or moon, or help keep a forest from dying too soon. Save a whale, hug a tree, protect every bee. Recycle, repurpose, reject apathy…
Truth #4: God wants us to take care of our planet.
After creating life—plants, animals, birds, and fish—and calling all of these things “good,” God puts humanity in charge of caring for Earth. In fact, taking care of God’s creation is the first human responsibility mentioned in scripture, a responsibility that sadly we as people have often failed to take seriously.
“The importance of caring for our planet is such a good and holy gift that we can give to our children.”
The importance of caring for our planet is such a good and holy gift that we can give to our children.
We need little ones who care about living creatures, who know and understand the importance of rivers, lakes, and farmland, who do not take for granted where our food supply comes from, and who not only take ownership of all that God has given us, but loves and protects and responsibly uses all that God has given us.
…’Cause all of creation whispers God’s story—the mountain, the ocean, the blue morning glory, the raindrops, the sunshine, the grapes on the grapevine. With nature, God gives us a glimpse of divine…
And this is why I decided to write a book about what happened “in the beginning,” to hopefully empower families to fall in love with creation all over again and to play an active role in caring for all the things that God has made.
And too, to give kids (and the kid in all of us) a glimpse of who God is—because few things reflect the beauty and power and glory of God like this beautiful planet that all of us call home.
Matthew Paul Turner has done it again. Like his other children’s books, When God Made the World is full of encouragement, profound truth and hope. It is a book you’ll want to read again and again.
Please preorder When God Made the World today (it releases tomorrow) and then click this link to have one of Matthew’s other books sent your way for absolutely free. Two books full of truth and hope for the price of one.
January 25, 2020
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [01.25.20]
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:
Jean-Marie Fox: Facebook / Instagram
Jean-Marie Fox: Facebook / Instagram
Jean-Marie Fox: Facebook / Instagram
start your weekend right here:
she captures the Art of Slow –
Life Full of Deep and Emotional Connections You Miss When You Live in a Hurry
because we all need someone to help us smile sometimes
30 truly Stunning Winning Photos From The Ocean Art 2019 Contest
what’s a normal day to some… is extraordinary to another
Dito Tediashvili / Instagram
Dito Tediashvili / Instagram
Dito Tediashvili / Instagram
anyone else wanna visit here too? must come see this gorgeous town and amazing photos
can you even?!? some residents in this remote village ‘speak’ a very unique language
Where I’ll be in the months ahead…
it would be a joy to meet you at one of these upcoming events
reunions like this? never, ever get old
Man finds $43K in donated couch
His initial reaction was to keep the cash but his faith made him think twice
what a graduation speech!?! The 16th second… so worth a listen here
oh, my heart: Shakul — the Story Behind the Striking Eyes
how a simple letter – showing you care, can really save a life
How God’s Words Lead to Our Prayers
some good words to encourage… how do you start to really live?
an honest conversation in the midst of a struggle
Living for Jesus…
Post of the week from these parts here:
I see your brave, see you facing hard things, see you working on choosing better ways for all the things & trying to believe that you can change, that things can change.
It really is possible & this is the game plan & we can share the hope together:
A Doable Game Plan to Defeat Bad Habits & Win the Ultimate You
we’re all terminal – we just need to treat each other like we know it…
Books for Soul Healing:
Take the dare to discover: Life is not an emergency…Life is a GIFT.
Start counting gifts and find joy — right where you are.
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.
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.
Let your brokenness be turned into abundance.
Be the Gift invites you 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.
glory, glory, glory
February is almost 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 this week: Glorious Day
…it’s a hard world out there & everyone’s fighting their own hard fires —. and there’ll be many ways to get through today:
You can race, pace or chase —
but your best mode of transportation through anything
is always a leap of faith.
So let’s believe:
Commit to more than a prayer life.
Make your life a prayer.
Make your work your worship, make your days your doxology, make your life your liturgy, and make Christ your only King.
Your work may burn up or cause you to burn out, but the prayers enfolded into the stacks of laundry, the stirred soup, the stairs swept — they will survive fire.
So I’m still learning, still staying hungry, still staying needy:
The cure to an overwhelmed life
begins with a daily overdose of Scripture.
Leave a Bible open to the Psalms by the sink, on the desk, at the table, eat His book every time you eat because the truth is: Stay in His Story to stay walking on waves.
Today, just hold on to these three words, your refrain for the climbing, the overcoming, the pressing through wind:
God. is. Greater.
[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.
January 23, 2020
A Doable Game Plan to Defeat Bad Habits & Win the Ultimate You
Watching them plant hope and bulbs and possibility in the early morning light, it’s pretty clear that it’s true:
And it’s true for the guy procrastinating and the woman struggling to change old habits and every parent and every teenager and every single one of us going through hard things:
I know there feels like there’s only one of you. The you right now. The one who Feels All The Things.
But believe the impossible things, because it’s true: There are two of you, really.
“You may always make mistakes—but that is very different than always making excuses.”
The Short-Term You — and the Long-Term You. The Now-You — and The Becoming You.
The Immediate You. And the Ultimate You.
And if you only loved the right now Immediate You — and let The Immediate You come and go and do whatever she wanted, whatever made her Feel All The Good Things, whatever made her happiest —- you wouldn’t be loving the Ultimate You.
It’s true personally, and it’s true in parenting;
There isn’t one fibre in any pulsing heart that likes seeing the Short-Term Immediate You Hurt.
But you’ve got to love the Long-Term Ultimate You wider and deeper and longer — the You that can ultimately be — so you’re willing to take the resistance of your Immediate Self right now.
“Change is a marathon won by a million baby steps.”
Love the Ultimate You.
Be committed to the Ultimate You and don’t sell out the long-term Ultimate You.
Sometimes the short-term Immediate You cannot have what she wants — so that the long-term Ultimate You can be who she wants to be.
Sometimes the short-term Immediate You won’t feel loved —- because this is about ultimately loving the long-term Ultimate You.
Sometimes the short-term Immediate You can’t have immediate gratification — so you can give the long-term Ultimate You what is ultimately best.
Do the hard and holy things for the Ultimate You and tell yourself:
You may always make mistakes—but that is very different than always making excuses.
“Focusing on what is going right is the only way to keep going.”
Be a tender guide to your soul:
Expect mistakes— but accept no excuses.
Mistakes happen—but berating ourselves doesn’t have to.
Every day: expect it to be hard.
Every day: Expect it to be worth it.
Change is a marathon won by a million baby steps.
Slip ups aren’t downfalls if you rise again.
Focusing on what is going right is the only way to keep going.
Back up plans keep you from giving up goals.
“You’re meant to do hard & holy things because they are the next thing — to get to the best thing.”
Today’s failure successfully gives you information on how to succeed tomorrow.
And honestly? It’s only failure if we fail to rise again.
Just keep saying it over and over again:
You’re meant to do hard & holy things because they are the next thing — to get to the best thing.
There are two of you — the Immediate You. And the Ultimate You. Who are you going to ultimately focus on?
All of us have things in front of us that are hard and they hurt.
And we all have a Father and it literally killed Him to see us hurting through the hard — and we need to believe it:
When my own Short-Term Immediate Self is hurting, my Father’s hurting with me — to grow me.
When they are finished planting the last of the bulbs, they water them slowly, trusting miracles happen, that hope can unfurl one day at a time, that things can profoundly change.
I set pots in all this light and actually believe.
Books for Soul Healing:
Take the dare to discover: Life is not an emergency…Life is a GIFT.
Start counting gifts and find joy — right where you are.
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.
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.
Let your brokenness be turned into abundance.
Be the Gift invites you 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.
January 22, 2020
How Changing Your View Can Give You All You Need
She was unraveling and all she felt compelled to do was hide. Meredith McDaniel, a licensed professional counselor, has spent the past 15 years counseling clients through the choppy waters of overwhelm. Yet, when her own anxiety and longing took root, she found herself ironically defaulting into a silent struggle of shame and doubt. In her practice, milk + honey counseling, Meredith uses a combination of her own life experience and narrative therapy to create a safe space for people to process their own story and trace our Maker’s hand in the Grander Narrative. She takes us all on a guided journey to hunt for the manna in our midst. It’s a grace to welcome Meredith to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Meredith McDaniel
Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes. —Elizabeth Barrett Browning
In Exodus 3–4, Moses found himself in the presence of God at the burning bush, and God spoke directly to him.
His reaction? He hid his face.
Sound familiar?
It’s as if we are back in the garden with Adam and Eve, who hid because they could not bear to be in God’s presence after the fall.
Where might you be hiding?
We all do it, of course; it just looks different for each of us. I think it feels easier for me to walk around faking it most days, when in reality I am just hiding.
Hiding from friends and family, hiding from myself, and trying to hide from God.
Joy Prouty
Levi VoskampSometimes we can feel like we are “both too much and never enough” as Jess Connolly and Hayley Morgan say in their book Wild and Free.
When we live out half-truths and walk in a false identity that is not our own, we are hiding from other people.
“When we live out half-truths and walk in a false identity that is not our own, we are hiding from other people.”
We fear that if they see who we really are and what we really think, they won’t like what they see.
What if they are disappointed?
What if they find the ugly hidden underneath our facade?
We need God’s compassion and unrelenting love to provide us with courage to show up and be seen.
I imagine Moses felt a similar fear when he stood before God in the blazing flames. He recognized that the powerful Being burning in front of him knew his whole story.
Moses could hide his face, but he could not hide his backstory.
God knew everything that Moses had done in Egypt.
God knew every detail about his life and yet was still calling him to lead the Israelites.
Moses felt unqualified and guilty. He didn’t think he was the person to do this job. He offered every excuse imaginable. He lacked confidence and focused on his flaws to try and avoid God’s calling.
I don’t know about you, but there are many days when I wake up and don’t feel worthy.
I ask myself all the time, Who put me in charge of everything I am supposed to steward well?
Does God really remember all the ways I’ve messed up and how my heart turns ugly on a dime and how I so easily forget to trust Him and all He has done in my life?
I relate to Moses and how he pleaded with God to find someone else to lead the masses.
We each have our corner of the world, territory that God has entrusted to us for His glory.
“None of us feel qualified 100 percent of the time, and we find ourselves making excuses.”
For many of you that may be loving the people in your office or in your neighborhood. For others it may be the people beside you in class or the kids you pick up from preschool.
None of us feel qualified 100 percent of the time, and we find ourselves making excuses.
So what do we do with that paradox, knowing we can have an impact but also knowing we are weak?
As we look back at Moses and hear him fumbling over his words, reminding God about his stutter and pulling his brother Aaron into the equation, do you see your yourself in his struggle?
Maybe someone else can just do this for me.
Maybe I can just keep my head down and clock in and out and try not to ruffle any feathers.
Maybe I can just do the bare minimum to get by.
But what happens when God calls you higher and deeper out of His great love for you?
God saw Moses.
“In the same way God equipped Moses, He gives us all we need through His mighty power and His ability to see farther down the road ahead than we can.”
He knew the ugliness in Moses’s story, yet He still called Moses to follow Him. Moses needed God’s mighty power to enable Him for the task at hand. We do too.
This calling is a form of manna; it’s an opportunity to find a richer life instead of settling for less.
It was by God’s holiness and power that Moses was able to go back to the people and share with them the promises of their Creator.
God provided just what he needed to do it and more. Moses had no certainties, but he had faith, and that’s what kept him going.
What kept Moses humble was remembering who made him, who called him, and who provided manna along every step of the journey.
In the same way God equipped Moses, He gives us all we need through His mighty power and His ability to see farther down the road ahead than we can.
May we wake up to the provision right here, right now, believing we have a God who loves us.
Meredith McDaniel is a licensed professional counselor and owner of her private practice Milk + Honey. A graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, she has also served on staff with Young Life and as the lead counselor with Inheritance of Hope. Meredith says she feels called to sit with and listen to the stories of women and men, helping them discover who they are and live out their story more fully.
In her debut book, In Want + Plenty: Waking Up to God’s Provision in a Land of Longing, Meredith invites you to walk alongside God’s people in Exodus as they wake up each morning to manna, God’s provision for them in desert places. As she unfolds their story of complete dependence on their Creator, you’ll discover through guided journaling how God is providing for you right now, where you are in your own unique story.
[ Our humble thanks to Baker for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
January 20, 2020
Your Body Matters as it is: Self Care and the Christian’s Body
Touch has become a theme with polar extremes: inappropriate or abusive touch on one end of the spectrum and complete avoidance of touch on the other. Yet, over and over again in the life of Jesus, we find Him ministering through touch. The blind see, the sick are healed, and the lame walk. Lore Ferguson Wilbert believes there’s power in touch and God has called us to minister to others in the way Jesus did: through touch. It’s a grace to welcome Lore to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Lore Ferguson Wilbert
When I first moved to the Dallas area in my late twenties, I came with dreadlocks in my hair and patchouli in my wake.
I stuck out like a sore thumb in the land of teased blond hair, perfect noses and teeth, and sculpted bodies.
I could not understand the obsession with a seemingly perfect physique—a uniform look almost immediately identifying someone as “from Dallas.”
“We cannot seem to find peace with the bodies we’ve been given by God, and so our meager attempts at caring for the bodies we have indulges a foray into caring for the bodies we wish we had.”
I recently saw a photo of a dozen women on social media; they all wore the same outfit (skinny jeans, leather booties, oversized sweaters, and beanies), had the same smiles, displayed the same soft curls in their long balayaged hair, and cocked their knees at just the right angle for prime photo taking.
This drive to have a uniform appearance has created an infuriating flatness to the complexity of creation as God designed it. None of us is immune from it though.
We think that by finding sameness—or friendship—with others, we’ll find it with ourselves.
The poet Jane Kenyon calls this struggle to find peace with the body a difficult friendship: “This long struggle to be at home / In the body, this difficult friendship.”
We cannot seem to find peace with the bodies we’ve been given by God, and so our meager attempts at caring for the bodies we have indulges a foray into caring for the bodies we wish we had.
Our truer obsession is being beyond the body, beating the body we’ve been given, adding or subtracting to our substance, pressing back aging and sagging and the effects of bearing babies and hard work.
The obsession is not the right self-care for the body as an image bearing being, but a pursuit of the body of our dreams.
What we ultimately want, if we can admit it, is immortality. We desire eternal youth, vitality, beauty, and rigor.
The problem is, while those things are coming for us after the resurrection, they aren’t going to happen for us on this side of it.
Our bodies as they are today—the ones riddled with decay and brokenness and discomfort and frustration—will not live on into eternity.
They will get out of the grave and they will change. Living as if we can somehow achieve an immortal, resurrected body now isn’t respectful of the person God has made us to be on this side of the earth’s story.
“Our world wants to think of our bodies as gods, using tropes like ‘you’re worth it,’ or ‘it’s our right.'”
For the Christian, respecting our body as it is today matters, because it shows we understand we are not God, we are not infallible or unlimited. We work within the limitations of these bodies for as long as we live in them this side of heaven.
“Respect for the person is inseparable from respect from the body. . . . A biblical ethic is incarnational. We are made in God’s image to reflect God’s character, both in our minds and in our bodily actions. There is no division, no alienation. We are embodied beings.”
Our world wants to think of our bodies as gods, using tropes like “you’re worth it,” or “it’s our right.”
But as Christians, we should know it’s far more mysterious, glorious, and ordered than that.
Caring for our bodies to the point of worshipping them is no longer “care” at all. It’s idolatry. It’s putting our body in the place God should be.
There’s an order to the way we love things, and God should be our first love. Love and care of our bodies should always go underneath that.
God’s design for our bodily care is right and good, and the only way we will follow that design is if we love God most. “If affection” of our bodies, as C.S. Lewis wrote, “is made the absolute sovereign of a human life, the seeds will germinate. Love, having become a god, becomes a demon.”
“There’s an order to the way we love things, and God should be our first love. Love and care of our bodies should always go underneath that.”
Saint Augustine’s City of God was based on the idea that all sin is a result of a disordered love, and this is what self-care—specifically the touching of our bodies as we care for them in all their complexities—has become for many: a disordered love.
Each of us needs to hear the same message about our bodies, but for different reasons.
The Christian who thinks their body is bad needs to hear that their body matters—it houses the living God, the Holy Spirit. It certainly can’t be bad if God dwells in it.
On the other hand, the person who treats their body as a god needs to hear the very same message: their body houses the living God, therefore it cannot also be God.
They need to move their muscles and lift things that feel too heavy at first in order to strengthen their arms for God’s good use, not to make them sculpted and toned.
They need to eat as though their body was a temple, not to be worshipped, but to house the One they do worship. They need to care for their body not as a god but as a worshipper of the God who made it.
The poet John O’Donohue wrote, “May you keep faith with your body / Learning to see it as a holy sanctuary.” As long as we live in the bodies we have (and not the bodies we want to have or someday will have), we will sometimes drink the cup of suffering or decay.
“We’re on the way to glory, and our bodies are coming with us, but better, more perfect than we can imagine.”
We will have circles under our eyes and crooked teeth and love handles and aching muscles and unmet desires.
We will have literal itches that need to be scratched and hands that need moisturizer and faces that need to be washed—all by our own hands.
Many of us will have strength in our muscles, light in our eyes, mobility to work and explore, and bodies that keeps on working for our good—all things we recognize as we touch them with our own hands.
We are temples, but not the perfect ornate ones we imagine them to be or want them to be.
Our temples are earthly tents, and we get wet when it rains or hot when the temperatures are high or cold when it snows.
We are subject to the elements of living on earth.
But these tents aren’t our home. These biological itches are not the end of us, or the beginning.
We’re on the way to glory, and our bodies are coming with us, but better, more perfect than we can imagine.
Lore Ferguson Wilbert has lived all over the United States but will always be most at home in the Northeast. She holds a degree in English from Lee University. She has been published by Christianity Today, Fathom Magazine, LifeWay Leaders, LifeWay Voices, The Gospel Coalition, Revive Our Hearts, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and more, on spiritual formation, faith, culture, and theology in life. She also teaches writing and edits on the side.
In her first book, Handle with Care, Lore will lead you to rethink the place touch has in your days. What could it mean for families, singles, marriages, churches, communities, and the world to have healthy, pure, faithful, ministering touch?
[ Our humble thanks to B&H for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
January 18, 2020
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [ 01.18.20 ]
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
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
no one captures life quite like she does
how can we go do the same today?
can you even?!? Man who is Indiana’s oldest state employee retiring at 102!
here’s to great ideas! airless tires?
yes! anyone else wanna visit?!?
he found that doing small things can save lives #BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
An event designed for pastors and ministry leaders to explore what it means to shepherd and lead in the way of Jesus: the singular emphasis of this conference is to commune with Christ
please visit here for additional info
found this fascinating… everything you’d want to know and more about the octopus
Emily Gibson
Emily Gibson
Emily Gibson
parts of her world? Just too beautiful not to share…
because sometimes family isn’t always who we think
cheering loudly at his idea and how he’s helping others:
barber created “Young Barbers Club” to keep kids off the streets
#BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
trusting God in your unfinished story… and finding peace through it
Helen Manson
Helen Manson
Ben Adams
Beyond grateful for the saving work of Compassion International
Finding Home After Leaving Prison:
because we all need to be loved #BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
Three Qualities for Men to Imitate
some interesting thoughts on anxiety and depression
an inspiring life…through comas and foster homes, prisons and a rebirth in gratitude
replacing the lies with the truth of God and walk in freedom…Christine Caine shares how she dropped the labels placed on her life
Post of the week from these parts there:
… so turns out: Habits are hard. It’s the middle of January.
Now is exactly when you can’t give up — here’s a secret:
The Secret to Igniting Habits for a Beautiful Life (or How to be a Grace Flame)
Philippians 4:2–3
Life happens. Hurt & hard times happen. Healing can happen too.
Books for Soul Healing:
Take the dare to discover: Life is not an emergency…Life is a GIFT.
Start counting gifts and find joy — right where you are.
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.
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.
Let your brokenness be turned into abundance.
Be the Gift invites you 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.
Never underestimate His faithfulness…glory, glory, glory
2020 is here!
Maybe in this new year, 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: Your Name is Power
…you know how you’re sticking with it & doing that hard thing? You’ve just gotta know, you don’t stand alone, you don’t walk alone, you don’t go alone: “But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength” 2 Timothy 4:17
And nothing can happen today that will stop Him from sticking right there with you & giving you strength to do this thing.
There is nothing to fear today —
because there is nothing, not mess-ups, not distractions, not less-than-hoped-fors, nothing in the universe that can happen today to separate you from the loving hands of God.
There is nothing to fear no matter what —
because there is nothing, not sickness, not pain, not diagnosis, Not Even Death, nothing in the universe that can ever separate you from the loving hands of God.
There is Never. Anything. to fear — because there is Nothing in the universe that can Ever. separate. you. from the loving hands of God.
So Go Live Brave! His Love Makes You Brave!
[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.
January 16, 2020
The Secret to Igniting Habits for a Beautiful Life (or How to be a Grace Flame)
W
hoever tells you that what you really have to do is: Get up every day and light a flame and fall in love with all the same things.
“Same ways keep us sane.”
Who tells you that the secret to really living is igniting and loving the same things over and over again, that the art of living is falling in love over and over again with these same people, under this same roof, serving the same plates at this same table, sweeping this same floor, pulling on shoes and going for a run day after day out this same door — only to smile up at the same trees who are thriving still in the same place.
I once walked up to the door of a grandfather refugee from Syria, who now lives under a roof in Houston, and he flung open the door of his narrow townhouse, then flung his arms wide open and bellowed, “A million, million welcomes!” I smile shy. A part of my heart falls in love with him.
“Get up every day and light a flame and fall in love with all the same things.”
He’s only been on safe soil away from the missiles exactly 6 months minus a day.
He welcomes me into their small living room and tells me that they had raised their children under a roof in Damascus, Syria, and they kept count, until they counted 57 houses bombed in their neighborhood. “It was the same, day after day — danger, barrel bombs falling from sky, driving our children right into the ground.”
His daughter stands at the table awash in later afternoon light, trimming wicks of candles one by one.
“The day the sky over our village exploded in black clouds, I called home and my daughter did not pick up the phone, nor my wife — but a soldier answers the phone in my house. And I knew. I knew.”
The white-haired father pauses — composes himself — then looks me in the eye.
“If you are actually killed — you die once. But if you actually have to live through the same nightmare, the same pain, the same misery, day after day, you die a hundred times. I am alive, but I have died a hundred thousand times.”
There are people who are living a life that feels worse than death.
After he managed a way to escape with his family out of Syria, for nearly 7 brutally long years, he lived with his wife and children in a refugee camp, before cruciform love welcomed him in to the land of the free, and now, he smiles a global mile wide and hands me an espresso coffee, a man kinda undeniably lit with love for the world that loved him back to life.
“There are people who are living a life that is gloriously alive after death.”
“You have come for the candles we have poured by hand?”
His daughter looks up from the table, her eyes glinting warm.
There are people who are living a life that is gloriously alive after death.
“Yes sir,” we return his smile, and wink. “We’ve come for the light we’re all going to make.”
And a new decade may be tenderly fresh while old wars and rumors of war rage on and the same trauma tears up the headlines even today: “Airstrikes kill at least 18 in Syria despite truce” — but there is a way to be light in the same world of pain.
When it sparks hope for someone else — it sparks joy in our homes. Join the Grace Flame candle subscription
“Habits are the art of falling in love with the same things every day. Commitments are the art of falling in love with the same people every day.
Faith is the art of falling in love every day with the One who is the same yesterday, today and forever.“
And I bring home light poured by Syrian refugees and I start a new year, a new decade, by lighting the same candle every morning, and every morning there is this same choice: To Live the Liturgy of Light.
This can be our Sacred Every Day: to live the light of Liturgy of Light every day.
To choose every day: The same ways of lighting a candle and praying for the world every day, the same ways of lighting a candle and reading His Word every day, the same ways of lighting a candle and taking one action to bring light into the world, these same ways give us stability and giving order to a painfully disordered and chaotic world.
T o light a flame of grace and choose one way, every day, to live out one same brave habit, or to be grace to one person, or to pray day for one person, one situation, this one hurting world.
Same Ways every day keep us sane.
Habits are the art of falling in love with the same things every day.
Commitments are the art of falling in love with the same people every day.
Faith is the art of falling in love every day with the One who is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Join the Grace Flame Candle subscription
When it sparks hope around the world — it sparks joy in our homes. Join the Grace Flame candle monthly subscription
This world, this year, direly needs those who will be Grace Flames — the brave who will love the same Light of the World, who will fiercely love all people, all made in and bearing the same image of God, who will love daily rhythms of grace.
“Falling in love with all the same things over and over again is how we keep rising again.”
At the beginning of a fresh decade — there are these refreshing new beginnings that bring hope to all the world, and all our own small worlds:
Falling in love with all the same things over and over again is how we keep rising again.
In January’s early morning light, I light the Grace Flame candle at the window sill and watch how the flame rises brave, moved yet again by these daily rhythms of grace.
In this new decade, your home — your life — can tell a story–that’s changing the story of the world.
THE (Best!) NEW SURPRISING MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION:
Grace Flame Candles
Joine the Grace Flame Candle Subscription — & be a Grace FlameEach Grace Flame soy candle is lovingly hand-poured by Muna and her mother Nadja, Syrian refugees resettled in Houston, Texas, in 2019 after fleeing war in their home country.
100% of every penny of a Grace Flame subscription gives grace to those in need.
How does Grace Flame work? Each Month:
You receive from us a different, seasonally scented beautiful candle, hand-poured by refugees, automatically be delivered to your door.
You’ll have the gift of a “calendar” on the back side of each month’s candle, to stroke off or track how each day of the month you were a GRACE FLAME and chose daily habits of being light, chose the same ways, chose to keep daily rhythms of grace.
You’ll be gifted a different monthly ACTION CARD that will give you prompts and ideas to be a Grace Flame every single day of the month — and be part of being light and changing the world!
Say yes every day to being a Grace Flame in the world!
Jump in with us… & literally help change lives.(and check out all the sales at our fair trade store: The Grace Crafted Home )
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