Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 87
January 15, 2020
Wrestling in the Dark: What Every Wanderer Needs To Know
It was in the early days of writing for (in)courage that I first met Robin Dance, a southern belle of grace and a gift to me. I am deeply, deeply grateful for her…her courage, her vulnerability, her transparency, and her wisdom. The world needs her words – I have so many times – and you’ll be changed by the vulnerable stories she shares in her much anticipated book, For All Who Wander. If you’re trying to know how to best navigate your one life, know that, in it, you’ll be holding life-giving, life-changing knowledge because she’s chasing the One who gives life and changes lives. There have been moments Robin’s friendship has healed me, and her love, care, and wise prayers have meant the world to me. I love her beautiful heart and wish she lived around the corner, and if you haven’t yet met, it is my absolute joy to introduce her to you as we welcome her to the farm’s front porch today…
When you’re wandering in a spiritual desert or wrestling with your faith, one thing is certain: you feel so alone.
What I didn’t believe when I was in the thick of it, and what you need to know if you’re finding yourself in this place, is that you aren’t actually alone.
“Incredibly, moments of doubt or confusion can be evidence of God at work in you, not His abandoning you.”
Feelings are deceptive, and I promise, there are others struggling just like you. Most important, God is with you. If you’re having trouble believing that right now, I’ll believe extra for you because I remember what it was like when I didn’t.
Regardless of the battle you’re facing, isn’t it always helpful to hear the experience of another?
To help you feel a little less crazy, a little less lonely, and maybe a little more hopeful that God understands and that He’s not threatened or offended by your questions?
Incredibly, moments of doubt or confusion can be evidence of God at work in you, not His abandoning you.
Isn’t that a revolutionary, almost scandalous thought?
This flips struggling with unbelief on its head and disarms the strength of an enemy who is always and only against us.
Parsing out the tensions of our faith is part of the growth process. In his book, Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt is Not the Enemy of Faith, Barnabas Piper says doubt isn’t really the enemy of faith, it’s a catalyst for it. When reading about his experience with that famous phrase in Mark 9, “I believe, help my unbelief,” I felt a little less alone and like someone understood.
Maybe this internal battle, this wandering, this ruthless and unending tension was normal after all.
The mere act of someone else understanding makes a difference.
My own wrestling match with unbelief seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere.
The difficulties of moving to a new place and starting over, of feeling marginalized and dismissed, of my age and measure of success, of church frustration and disappointment, even the monster of myself, were all dubious “evidences” against the idea that God was really there for me, or even there at all.
“Bringing our darkness into the light diffuses its strength.”
Bringing our darkness into the light diffuses its strength.
It may not resolve our doubts and questions to admit them out loud, but somehow it minimizes their power over us or makes them less frightening. Sensing this, I finally mustered the courage to admit my doubts to my husband, explaining that I wasn’t sure if I believed some things I had long-professed—and maybe I never had.
His response wasn’t emotional or condemning—he simply pointed out I didn’t seem to be seeking God for answers in the midst of all my questions. And he was right.
Numbed to my plight, my flesh had been winning its battle with the Spirit as my old self kept trying to come back to life. Simultaneously, Satan was doing everything in his power to defeat me.
My husband’s insights were trustworthy, and I decided to make an effort to “do.” Skeptical, I was hoping if my behavior changed, maybe my feelings — and my faith — would follow.
In a small act of obedience, I began praying, though even throughout years of wandering spiritually, I had never stopped praying altogether. But these prayers were different.
“To me, there is no greater evidence of God at work in this world than a changed mind that leads to a changed life…and my life was changing from the inside out.”
Though mechanical, they were gut-level honest. Praying out loud, feeling every bit a fool, I told God I didn’t know if I believed He was real. If He was real, I needed Him to convince me.
I was no longer willing to profess something I didn’t believe.
I could no longer accept the prescribed faith of my youth, my church, our culture or anyone around me. If I was going to continue in this thing called faith, God was going to have to make Himself known or I was done.
And then something began happening I didn’t expect, something for which I was too short-sided to ask: God began transforming me, literally changing the way I was thinking.
Slowly, my thought patterns started shifting.
To me, there is no greater evidence of God at work in this world than a changed mind that leads to a changed life…and my life was changing from the inside out.
In an incredible demonstration of His kindness, patience, and faithfulness, God began revealing Himself to me, His love changing how I viewed others and how I saw myself in relation to them.
“God’s faithfulness has nothing to do with mine.”
Sometimes He showed up in what I call God-winks, the sort of things some people chalk up to coincidence but instead tell me He really knows me and genuinely cares for me.
Sometimes I’d stumble across a verse that spoke directly to my circumstances. His presence was palpable in our new church home.
I’ve never heard God speak audibly, but when I was dangerously teetering toward unbelief, He gave me a vivid image of His faithfulness, a vision that remains fresh years later: nearing the end of my spiritual rope and close to opening my hand to let go, God reached out, gripped my wrist, and held tight.
A veil was lifted and I could finally see:
God’s faithfulness has nothing to do with mine.
For all who wander – there’s wild hope in this wonder.
Robin Dance is a former marketing and PR professional who now encourages others in life and faith as a writer, speaker, and small group leader. She has been a regular contributor to (in)courage, DaySpring’s online community for women, since its inception and advocated for children in poverty as a trip blogger in Kolkata for Compassion International. For nearly 15 years, Robin has encouraged and inspired readers as a warm and inviting storyteller on her blog, Instagram, and as a featured writer for a dozen or so book collaborations.
For All Who Wander is her first solo project, an “uplifting memoir,” according to Publisher’s Weekly, that “offers hope for Christians who have wrestled with doubts about their faith.”
Inviting you to find hope and healing in your own story with the pages of hers, Robin will help you to abandon the guilt and shame attached to your questions or doubts, grasp a broader understanding of God’s unrelenting faithfulness, reframe your view of difficulties and disappointments as you understand their redemptive and transformative value, and trust that God is working in your wandering to restore and strengthen your faith.
[ Our humble thanks to B&H Publishing for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
January 13, 2020
Casting Off the Labels that Limit this Year
The last time Esther Fleece Allen pulled up a chair to the farm’s front porch, she taught us how to pray to God when we’re broken. Her bestselling book No More Faking Fine gave us the permission to bring our pain to God through lament. And now Esther’s back, writing on life after lament, and inspiring us to be made new. After we go through a season of lament, God will restore us and make us new. In this new year how can you leave old labels behind, and listen to who God names you? It’s a grace to welcome Esther to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Esther Fleece Allen
Our names are the most essential thing about us. It’s often the first thing people know about us, and yet this one word holds far more significance and sacred history than any first impression could ever capture.
My name is Esther, and like every name, mine has a story.
In 1937, a film debuted featuring a musician who discovers a talented younger singer, only to later fall in love with her.
This story line was so popular that it later became a musical and then a rock musical and then a Bollywood romantic film. This movie was remade again in 2018, and it featured Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
The 1976 version of the movie A Star Is Born starred Kris Kristofferson as a rock-and-roll star and Barbra Streisand as the lead actress, who was named Esther.
“There are many labels in life that limit us—labels assigned to us by our circumstances, our past, our deficiencies, the things others say about us, the backgrounds we come from, and the lies we believe.“
I was told that this is where my name, Esther, came from. My biological mom saw the name Esther in this movie and decided it was the name for me.
In the ancient world, names were given to reflect who a person was or who they were to become.
A lot of names had the name of God woven into them. “El” is a word for God that is often incorporated into the biblical names for God.
The most common name for God in Scripture is “Elohim,” appearing more than two thousand times. We hear this “el” syllable in a number of the human names we read in Scripture, like Daniel (“God is my Judge”) and Nathaniel (“gift of God”).
Moving to the New Testament, we see names still bearing significance but also being chosen to honor a family member.
Did you know that all of us who are in Christ have been given a new name?
When we become a Christian, we immediately bear Christ’s name. Luke teaches that “the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:26). Later in the first century, Christians were called followers of “the Way” (Acts 9:2).
Naming matters. Especially when God names us.
Yet there are many labels in life that limit us—labels assigned to us by our circumstances, our past, our deficiencies, the things others say about us, the backgrounds we come from, and the lies we believe.
Maybe we have been labeled a “loser” or a “dropout” or “unemployed.”
Maybe we’ve labeled ourselves “unattractive” or “overweight” or “undesirable.”
“He gives us names that call us into a new identity that He has crafted just for us—names with meanings and names that speak to who we will become.”
What’s more, it’s tempting to reduce others by identifying them by their labels. I hear it when women use ugly words to describe other women as “too assertive,” “controlling,” or “gossips.”
I see it when Democrats and Republicans give one another unfair labels that diminish the fullness of who they really are.
We do it when we label a precious and complex human being as “too emotional” or “a piece of work” or “unstable.”
Yet we are not our old labels, and when we assign others to one of these reductionist categories, we miss out on the opportunity to really know them and to affirm who they are in God.
The good news is God doesn’t settle for labels that limit.
Instead, He gives us names that call us into a new identity that He has crafted just for us—names with meanings and names that speak to who we will become.
God sees us individually, has good plans for us individually, and wants us to have a distinct name, purpose, and calling.
“God sees us individually, has good plans for us individually, and wants us to have a distinct name, purpose, and calling.”
When we become Christ followers, we take on the new name of “Son” or “Daughter.”
God planned our adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ, and it was His pleasure and will to do so (Ephesians 1:5). This means that if you are a follower of Jesus, you are a child of God with a new name.
To all of us who receive God, and to those of us who believe in His name, He gives the right to become children of God (John 1:12).
Previously, I was an orphan, but now I have the name of “Adopted.”
I exchanged the label “orphan” for the new name of “Daughter,” and it has made a world of difference.
Naming is more significant than labeling, perhaps because labeling only speaks to the titles others put on us, while naming speaks to our very core.
Labels are about what’s on the outside. Naming goes so much deeper. A label is a name you are called or a category you place yourself in.
A new name is given when God does something inside you.
God’s name for you is not some elusive secret that only “super” Christians figure out in this life. No, God’s name for you is the truest thing about you. It is core to your very identity.
“The identity He proclaims over us has been there from the beginning, and it is the invitation of a lifetime to discover the name, identity, and inheritance He has given us.”
Your name may be several names that God speaks throughout Scripture. Knowing your new name makes it personal to you. For every label that limits you, God speaks your true name.
What new thing has God done inside you, and are you living out of the new name He has given you—this name that is different from your old label or circumstance?
Your new name will make you different and cause you to live and believe differently.
How are you experiencing this newness, this kainos, where you are “not found exactly like this before”?
And guess what? One of the clues we’re given to discover who others really are and who we really are is found in God’s own names.
The identity He proclaims over us has been there from the beginning, and it is the invitation of a lifetime to discover the name, identity, and inheritance He has given us.
Isn’t it time we throw off the labels that have limited us, and ask God for our name?
I am confident that whatever suffering or trial you’ve faced, God is in the business of making you new.
Life is full of labels that limit, but God has a new name He longs for you to hear – a name that boldly declares freedom from your past and hope for your future. Join Esther Fleece Allen bestselling author of No More Faking Fine, in this profound exploration of your God-given identity that no label can limit and no circumstance can shake.
In Your New Name, join Esther in this profound exploration of your God-given identity that no label can limit and no circumstance can shake. People might pin toxic, untrue labels on your back. Life might knock you down. And you might even wrongly label yourself. But God never does. Our God-given identity is the truest thing about us, and God spends a lot of time in the Bible telling us who we are. It’s time to take Him at His word.
God’s names for you are not post-it-note provisions; they are names to be studied, taken to heart, and believed, all in the journey of becoming your truest self just as He created you to be. Let Your New Name be your first step in this journey of a lifetime.
[ Our humble thanks to in today’s devotion ]
January 11, 2020
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [01.11.20]
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:
Matt Trivett
Matt Trivett
Matt Trivett
he captures our world in extraordinary ways — go and enjoy the gift of today
anyone? Here are seven, one hundred per cent real, dream jobs for book lovers
yes, please! so who else is in with us?!? A Challenge for Readers: #ReadYourBooks
A Man Decides to Film a Tree in the Woods for a Year. and what the camera captured here?!
cheering loudly: This Moving Company Helps Women Leave Abusive Homes at NO Cost – and they’re not stopping there
amazing! 17-year-old high school student discovers rare new planet 3 days into NASA internship
they’re saying? Cancer death rates are falling, largely because of this…
reunions like this? never get old
Professor’s nonprofit pays it forward using therapy, literature to assist women in need
23 and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health?
“It made me feel alive again”: 92-year-old’s boyhood dream of skiing finally fulfilled
the sounds and art of skating on thin ice
Eric Siemens
Christine Caine shares about choosing obedience to God’s call
What Every Marriage Needs Most
changing the world? can be a lot easier than you think
a nurse’s patient needed a caregiver – so she stepped in and invited him home to live
#BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
how she found purpose and hope through Jesus following tragedy
Levi Voskamp
Post of the week from these parts here
…in the last decade, I scarred people irrevocably,
I fought self-harming daily,
I nearly died by self-loathing repeatedly. I doubted I could ever really change.
And then this happened — and if you’d like something in your life to truly change, this raw-honest story of transformation with practical tools is for you:
The Secret to Moving Forward, Instead of Being Stuck, & Totally Changing Your Whole Life
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: Nobody Loves Me Like You
…yes, I hear you: the problems ahead of you are great — but the God ahead of you is Greater.
“Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because *God, your God, is striding ahead of you.* He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; He won’t leave you.” Deuteronomy 31:6 MSG
There’s the secret to being brave: Be awed by the God ahead of you & the fears will fall behind you.
[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 10, 2020
When it’s So Dark All You Can See is Faith
Few people I know have delved into the darknesses of life both personally and professionally as Dr. Lee Warren—and few point me to God’s light so beautifully. As a surgeon, Dr. Warren knows what it’s like to see the end of a patient who was just diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor. As a father, Dr. Warren knows what it’s like to lose a son. As a Christian, Dr. Warren knows that the reality of God’s goodness is not dependent on circumstances or even on our belief….and that faith is a way to see what was there all the time. It’s a privilege to welcome Dr. Warren to the front porch today…
In pondering the twenty-plus years I’ve walked among the sick and broken and the several years I’ve been the father of a lost son, I’ve come to realize the difference between survivors (even those who perish) and the dying (even those who live):
the survivors have a prism—faith—that allows them to see through the pain and hardship to the hope and purpose and beauty in their lives.
Two common responses to life’s troubles are (1) a belief that we’re alone in the cold and random universe and (2) a belief that God is real but either is against us or doesn’t care.
The problem with the first response is this: When you hear me, as your doctor, say “glioblastoma” or “terminal” or “We did everything we could for her,” you have no rational basis for hope.
The second response—the belief that God doesn’t care or that He is actually against us, mad at us, or punishing us—produces feelings on a spectrum from shame and regret on one end to anger and hostility on the other.
In this paradigm you hear me give you a diagnosis with a poor prognosis, and you respond by blaming yourself or God, withdrawing into yourself and becoming an empty person, or lashing out and becoming a grade IV cancer in the world regardless of your ultimate physical outcome.
But there is a third response.
This response requires bending the light of our current circumstances in such a way that we can see God’s presence in the moment, despite the outcome.
“Faith is the prism we need to see hope when all seems lost, to survive the furnace of suffering, to grow despite the pain.”
That’s what faith is, after all: It does not magically change our circumstances and make everything happy, it merely bends the light to show us what’s really there.
Faith is the prism we need to see hope when all seems lost, to survive the furnace of suffering, to grow despite the pain.
Faith allows us to see that it’s okay to have doubt, but we doubt the doubt more than the promise of the One who never breaks his word. It allows us to hold on and even grow into better people during and despite the troubles of this life.
Faith doesn’t keep us from having problems. It just gives a clearer view of how God is responding to them.
So what happens when our messy lives mess with what we think we believe?
I faced the greatest surgical challenge of my life after my son died and I tried to stitch together Christian clichés to heal the faith I’d lost.
Over time I realized a truth I still cling to: There has to be something that is always right, always true, even when life seems to say otherwise.
“Faith doesn’t keep us from having problems. It just gives a clearer view of how God is responding to them.”
In other words, the ground beneath us is always going to present wrong turns, potholes, and opportunities to get lost. We need something better to reference, something that will actually guide us when the ground is difficult and confusing.
We need a map that is always right, no matter what the ground seems to say.
The map that’s always right is faith in a God who loves us, in the good news that someone loved us enough to die for us although we didn’t deserve it, in the truth that this God is present in our lives even when circumstances make us doubt it, and in the knowledge that all His promises hold, all the time.
So many things in life can plunge us into such darkness that seeing is impossible.
And my answer to how to survive those times—the tumors, the traumas, the terminal nature of life—is to somehow see anyway.
We must be able to reach a place where, when the ground doesn’t agree with the map, we believe—we know—that the map is still right.
When we see the cluster of tumor with its malignancy and certain death, faith gives us the eyes to see that the map will lead us through it.
I’m not downplaying the devastation and pain these things bring us. I’m still living with the crushing weight of losing my son and the frequent nightmares from my time in Iraq.
“We must be able to reach a place where, when the ground doesn’t agree with the map, we believe—we know—that the map is still right.”
But I am saying that the map will lead us to a place of shelter where those things cannot destroy us.
Faith, my friend, is being able to look for hope even when it seems impossible to find.
I’ve been waiting for it since the night I received the worst news of my life. I’ve been trying to show it to my patients, even moments after I’ve given them their worst news ever.
Sometimes it’s right there and it’s everything.
Sometimes it’s so far away that all I can hold on to is the memory of the map, God’s promises, the touch of my wife’s hand.
But I must believe in the map so deeply that I can know even when I cannot see.
Because there is an important difference between faith and knowledge: if you have to lay eyes on everything to believe it or put your fingers in the holes of it like doubting Thomas, you won’t know what to believe when it’s too far away to see or touch.
That’s why Jesus said those folks who believe even when they can’t see are more blessed:
because we humans spend a good bit of our lives in places where it’s too dark for knowledge and only the candle of faith can light our way.
Lee Warren, M.D. is a brain surgeon, inventor, Iraq War veteran, and the author of No Place to Hide. In his latest book, I’ve Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon’s Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know, Dr. Warren eloquently explores the tension between faith and science, death and hope, our doubt and God’s presence.
Page-turning medical stories serve as the backdrop for a raw, honest look at how we can remain on solid ground when everything goes wrong and how we can find light in the darkest hours of life.
I’ve Seen the End of You is the rare book that offers tender empathy and tangible hope for those who are suffering. No matter what you’re facing, this doesn’t have to be the end. Even when nothing seems to makes sense, God can transform your circumstances and your life. And He can offer a new beginning.
[ Our humble thanks to Waterbrook for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
January 8, 2020
Maxim of The Year: The Fog Always Rises
Kara Lawler is a mother, wife, teacher who grew up in and lives again in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, part of the Appalachian Mountain Range. After struggling with depression and anxiety, Kara remembered and accepted her identity—the person God made her. Kara loves children, animals, and drinks her coffee on her porch every morning, no matter the weather, so she can admire the mountain view and listen to her rooster, Henry, greet the dawn. It’s a grace to welcome Kara to the farm’s front porch today…
Memory’s fog is rising.
~Emily Dickinson
When life feels heavy, sometimes it’s hard to remember that eventually the fog rises and lifts over the mountains.
“Struggles actually can advance us on the path of seeing beauty again and finding God and, for me, discovering who I really am.”
I never paid much attention to the patterns of the fog until I embarked on what would become a life-changing and horrible bout with anxiety and depression that ultimately became a true reckoning in a coming-to-Jesus moment.
It was a bending of the knee, a breaking of will that finally resulted in various forms of help, yet as hard as it was, in it I found the power of pain, recovery, and the promise of the sun peeking through the fog.
One day, when I was practicing one of my very favorite stilling practices to escape my own mind—walking through the fields across from our house—I prayed as I walked and begged for help, the fog only just lifting away from the grass.
At one point, I felt a brief peace wash over me and a thought crossed my mind: the fog always rises.
With those words, I have embraced how to live, despite the fact that I can’t control everything, especially the lifting of the fog and the eventual revelation of the sun.
It seems simple, but so many of us try to control things that are simply beyond our control.
Struggles actually can advance us on the path of seeing beauty again and finding God and, for me, discovering who I really am.
Like the birds I listen to every morning, I have learned to sing, even during the difficult times.
“Sometimes, it’s by walking into that very mist that we grow in ways we never would have otherwise.”
Sometimes, it’s by walking into that very mist that we grow in ways we never would have otherwise.
Sometimes, it’s through what becomes the fog’s reprieve that we can appreciate the blaze of the sun.
A few years ago, in the depths of this struggle, there was only one place I wanted to go: to my childhood home and to the clearing behind it, wondering if the clearing was still the way I remembered it.
My parents sold the house in 1996, but that didn’t stop me from driving the forty-five minutes from where I live with my own family now to the dirt road that house sits on and walking on the road in front of the house.
My dream was to get to the clearing tucked back behind the house. I wondered what the clearing would look like to me, at that time, a woman in her late thirties.
I went to the back road by my old house whenever the opportunity presented itself, often even unexpected to me, and I walked up and down the road, stopping to pick up decaying black walnuts in green casings—“stink bombs” we used to call them.
I marveled at the total silence, the memory of what it was to be a kid enshrouded by trees, and as I walked, I questioned if this was the place I could find myself:
What is missing from my life? Maybe I can find God on this road, by this small creek, meeting me on these walks if I only allow Him?
Maybe I can get to the clearing again, if I could only gain the courage to?
“Sometimes, it’s through what becomes the fog’s reprieve that we can appreciate the blaze of the sun.”
Maybe I can find myself? Maybe I can remember who I once was?
And that’s what my walks became on those late summer days that turned into the frigid days of November—a place to meet God, a place I felt just a little bit okay, a place I could catch my breath, a place I could remember who I once was, a place that seemed to whisper, “Yes, this is holy enough. I’ll meet you here.”
And God did meet me there, amid the dusty air of the breeze.
After these visits to the road by my old house, I would return, saying a prayer that I could be the mother my children deserved and would be able to get it together enough until they were fast asleep.
Intermittently, I’d get relief.
One day, after a horrible three weeks, I found myself singing, something I love to do and something my children have come to expect from me. I was singing and Matt smiled at me, surprised to hear it.
When I saw his surprise and realized the sound was coming from my own mouth, I smiled back. And I knew, despite what happened, that I’d be okay.
The song, coupled with the smile, was a brief reprieve from heartbreaking worry and soul-crushing fear. It was the confirmation that I could carry on—just like you, no matter what you are facing.
“It was the confirmation that I could carry on—just like you, no matter what you are facing.”
One day, I was walking outside with my daughter, Maggie, by then two, and realized I was able to focus on her for the first time in over a month.
At first, I was sad and started to berate myself with thoughts of all I hadn’t done, hadn’t noticed, hadn’t been able to be, but then I just stood and stared at her, committed to notice now.
Her ringlets had gotten longer and now fell past her shoulders. How? When? How hadn’t I noticed?
When she held up a purple flower, the lavender of the flower complemented the hint of lavender in her blue eyes. She looks so pretty in purple, one of my most favorite colors to see.
I knew it was confirmation of my calling to be her mother — to notice color, to breathe in the faces of my children like air.
I tucked the flower in her hair, and she smiled at me and said, “Mommy, do you want to run?”
She took off, her suddenly long curls bouncing as she ran.
I chased her up the mountain, watching her curls against the backdrop of all the lush green of a fall not yet upon us.
Kara Lawler is a writer and teacher whose work has been featured in various publications and her website where some of her essays have been read millions of times.
In Everywhere Holy: Seeing Beauty, Remembering Your Identity, and Finding God Right Where You Are, Kara shows women how to embrace the sacred in the everyday so that they can see the holy and the beautiful — and in the process, discover themselves.
In beautiful prose, she describes the unique sacredness found in God’s creation and offers 15 inspiring insights for cultivating it day-to-day. She encourages you to make this lifestyle change through the observance of small acts. In so doing, you will discover a holy space that honors God and the life you’ve been given–and will discover yourself and your unique place in the holy that is everywhere, whether it’s in the woods behind your house or in the face of a stranger on a bus in a busy city. No matter where you are, there is holy free for the taking.
[ Our humble thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
January 6, 2020
The Secret to Moving Forward, Instead of Being Stuck, & Totally Changing Your Whole Life
T
he woman staring back at me from the mirror in these embryonic days of a new year, a new decade, she’s moving forward.
She needs to.
Ten years ago, on a January night: I handed in the manuscript for my first book, One Thousand Gifts.
And in the last decade:
We didn’t move anywhere.
We bought one used mini van.
My babies started leaving home.
They started coming back home holding someone else’s hand.
One kid dropped out of high school with our blessing.
One kid dropped out of university with our blessing.
Though there were agonizing stretches of being stretched to breaking points, all our kids are flourishing in the Lord, which is only a blessing from His hand.
Levi Voskamp
Levi Voskamp
Levi Voskamp
Grace Crafted Home
Levi Voskamp
Levi Voskamp
Levi VoskampI ate feasts of grace with oppressed in Iraq, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Haiti, Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, Lebanon, Greece and Bulgaria, and was made rich with purpose. We built a vocational school in Guatemala, dreamed up one fair trade subscription box, The Grace Case, launched one fair trade store, The Grace Crafted Home, and empowered countless oppressed families around the world.
We brought home a family from Syria.
We brought home a family from the Congo.
We brought home one baby from China.
One child was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
One child was diagnosed with Graves Disease.
One child had 2 open heart surgeries on her palliative heart while I prayer-paced hospital hallways and begged God for her life.
I wrecked holy things I never imagined I’d destroy.
I ruined things I couldn’t repair and I couldn’t imagine how to live through the next day.
I scarred people irrevocably.
I fought self-harming daily.
I nearly died by self-loathing repeatedly.
We survived a drought.
I survived heart failure.
We survived raising six teenagers. (That’s not one in the same thing, though some days it felt like it.)
Levi Voskamp
Levi VoskampI stopped putting anything with sugar in my mouth.
I stopped living without boundaries.
I stopped living like I had no agency, no hope, no way forward.
I stopped everyday to count my gifts and notice my givenness.
“Things can change. People can change, stories can change, lives can change.”
I started therapy. I started spiritual direction.
I started practicing a daily SACRED way of life.
I started fasting —from screens, from toxicity, from food, from noise — so I could feast more on God.
I started a daily examen, started praying the hours.
I started grad school at Wheaton.
I started walking at least 25,000 steps a day.
I started practicing a Daily Glory Soak outside every single day, rain or shine.
I started long listens of the Sacred Word.
I started running.
I started forgiving myself — because Jesus already has.
Things can change. People can change, stories can change, lives can change.
Things can move in a direction that you only dreamed.
Turn the pages of His Word and your life can turn around. Put one step in front of the other and you can have another life.
For too long, decades, I’ve struggled with agoraphobia, anxiety, panic attacks, self-harming. Old demons can revisit you when you thought you left no forwarding address.
“Turn the pages of His Word and your life can turn around. Put one step in front of the other and you can have another life.”
So I did this: When I wanted to run away from myself, from the heartbreak, from parts of me, from all I was getting wrong, I started lacing up my shoes, and running slow down our lonely country road.
You don’t have to be good at doing something for it to be good for you.
I heave-panted through lumbering runs that were more like slogging slow jogs.
My lungs screamed. My heart pounded.
But what was loudest was this new narrative about a new me. For too long, I had felt like I was running out of time to become things I always wanted to be: Strong. Determined. Capable.
But running was proving I hadn’t run out of time: I could still change. I could become someone who wasn’t afraid of facing hard things, or who still was and did it anyways. I could forge forward, even when it seemed impossible. I could have a new identity, I could move from one painful way of being— into a sacred way of being.
This is what I discovered:
When I run, I run into a strength within I didn’t know existed. Every step forward proves that there is always a way forward. When you do something you thought you couldn’t do, you realize you can become someone different than you’ve been.
When you challenge yourself to move, you challenge your own perception of self.
I became someone who moved forward — even when she was overwhelmed.
And then on the hardest days, when I did hard things anyways: I was stuck by the epiphany:
Moving every day is how you move through stress.
“Moving every day is how you move through stress.”
Daily movement is how you ensure a daily stress movement. I found: If you don’t move daily, you experience stress obstruction in your soul.
When I move, stress moves out of me. A run helps anxiety run out of its adrenaline. One day at a time, I changed: The way to mental health is often by means of physical health.
Movement is a free strategy against discouragement.
And I moved every day not at a gym, but outside. Moving outside creates something of a miracle inside. The Japanese have a term for moving outside into nature; they call it “forest bathing.”
But I call it “Glory Soaking.” Because the whole earth is full of His glory, moving outside calms a heart full of trouble.
Daily Glory Soaks cleanse the mind, so the heart can fill with hope. When you feel like you’re drowning, a Glory Soak outside can keep the soul afloat on the inside. Running under trees began to root my soul.
Moving under sky moved me toward God.
Levi Voskamp
Levi Voskamp
Levi Voskamp
Levi VoskampAnd when I couldn’t run away from the relentless story of failure that kept running on replay in my head, I began to listen to His Word while I ran and I let God’s Story in me play louder than any other story around me.
“I began to listen to His Word while I ran and I let God’s Story in me play louder than any other story around me.”
When I listened to Scripture while running, I could run away from the narrative of me and right into the narrative of grace.
The relief of this was everything. I turned off all the noise of news and drama and distractions around me, and all the noise of fear and failure within me, and I just ran with my headset in, leaning into the language of God. With every step, worries quieted, hushed, stilled — and all I could hear was the voice of God in my headsets, heart keeping time with His.
I move less for my physical health and more for the health of my soul.
And we have more than enough time every day to move toward physical, mental and soul health.
Every single one of us has 1,440 minutes every single day — and every single one of us can use 30 of those minutes to move in some way, while being moved by the Word of God, to change the health of our whole lives.
30 minutes a day of movement — will change every other moment of your life. Guaranteed.
This is what changed my life as I started moving and the let the Word of God move me:
God became my Pacesetter.
“I move less for my physical health and more for the health of my soul.”
God is my Pacer — and I just stay with the Pacer so I can finish impossible races.
The impossible race of parenting 7 children, of more than 25 years of marriage, of renovating an old stone church, of ministry, of serving, of life.
God is the steady, the consistent, the voice at the ear who shows how to take the next step, and the next step after that. I don’t have to keep up to anyone else — I simply have to keep company with God. I simply have to keep close to Him.
As I physically moved, and was spiritually moved by His Word, thoughts began to move through my mind differently, I began to process my world differently.
I felt stronger, braver, not just physically, but especially emotionally.
“Courage is highly contagious, and bravery to do a Hard Thing in one aspect of your life, quickly spreads to all of your life.”
The anxiety ebbed, the hope grew, hope that something was growing in me that I could rise to any challenge.
Turns out: Courage is highly contagious, and bravery to do a Hard Thing in one aspect of your life, quickly spreads to all of your life.
Running gave me this rash of brave that spread hope across all of my life.
If I let my feet literally keep rhythm with God, fears stop driving my life.
If I put one step in front of the other, I move past all kinds of paralysis.
If I tune my heart, my feet, me ears, to Him, I tune out everything that is making me anxious.
If I stay in The Story, my life stays the course.
Levi Voskamp
Levi Voskamp
Levi Voskamp“If I stay in The Story, my life stays the course.”
People keep asking me if I am training for a race. And the answer is yes: I am throwing off everything that hinders (Hebrews 12:1) and training to run with perseverance and finish the race marked out before us, to keep the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).
The answer is yes: I am literally learning how to put one step in front of the other, to carry on, to keep carrying on.
The answer is yes: As I move, I’m moving beyond a life limited by smallness, by fears, by pain, by regrets, and I’m moving into God.
Putting on trainers is training me how to live.
“Listening to His Word while running becomes a kind of soul medication and meditation.”
Move and you begin to move farther, and further up and deeper in, than you ever imagined. Move and Hope moves into you. Move and you move into a new identity.
Day after day, I run with God’s Word at my ear and let God set the pace of my life, and when He’s the pacer, the pace of life changes, and my soul finds the pace of grace.
Listening to His Word while running becomes a kind of soul medication and meditation.
Moving under trees, the answer YES moves through the veins:
YES, I can change, YES, I can do hard and holy things because they are the next thing to get to the best thing, YES, I can let God move into me, YES, God can move into all of my moments, YES, my new identity is found fully in Him, YES to whatever this day and decade and road holds, YES, I can be moved by God who is always making a way for me to MOVE FORWARD!
Levi Voskamp When I come back from getting in a run, getting in the Word, and getting the Word in me, I look at the sweating, panting lady staring back at me from the mirror.
We survived 100% of the worst days of the last decade — and God will make a way for us to move through every day of the year — when we let Him move through us.
And I exhale into a smile. I have moved on and there is no fear here.
When His Word begins to dwell in you, you come Home to rest.
“Get in the Word, get in a workout — and get the Word in you — to get back your Hope.”
– Ann Voskamp
Moved: Listen to the NT in 90 Days
Be spiritually moved by the Word of God, while physically moving — running, walking, cycling, any movement —- and watch your whole life move in the right direction.
Join the online #Moved90 community with @annvoskamp for encouragement: check out the hashtag #Moved90 on IG and FB.
Get in the Word, get in a workout — and get back your Hope.
Moved: Memorization Companion Plan
What you know by heart, is what your heart will know in the dark. Scripture meditation and memorization is key to the eradication of lies — and the transformation of lives.
Join the online #Moved90 community with @annvoskamp for encouragement: check out the hashtag #Moved90 on IG and FB.
Get in the Word, get in a workout — and get the Word in you — to get back your Hope.
[ (Not an affiliate, not an ad, not sponsored —- just being Moved by God’s Word while I moved every day — has completely transformed my life & am all in for more to get in a workout, get in His Word, get His Word into them — and get their hope back.) ]
January 4, 2020
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [01.04.20]
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:
Kyle Fredrickson
Kyle Fredrickson
Kyle Fredrickson
exhale right here — and enjoy your weekend
so much kindness
for every reader: 8 Bookish New Year’s Resolution Ideas to Improve Your Reading Life
now how’s this for efficiency?!?
love: A man donated his kidney to his wife of 51 years after finding out he’s her perfect match
let’s go! this restaurant serves pizza – and so much more!
Here are some good news stories you may have missed this year
It’s a story she credits for saving her life – please don’t miss
Rural Colorado town tries innovative ways to attract teachers
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!
Turns out sometimes you don’t need New Year’s resolutions — like you need SOULutions — for a new you.
So these free printables? The practice of following this roadmap — it became a lifeline to my year last year. Because I figure that unless you can daily see your Life SOULutions…. maybe the year can end up to be more of a dissolution of your life.
a local family surprises police officer —
with a stuffed animal that resembles his K9 that recently died
couldn’t agree more: 12 Ways to Commit to the Year of the Bible
because sometimes? we lose our way
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.
thank you, Scott Sauls: New Years Resolutions, Slow Progress, and the Grace of God
so who knew?! all about the art of harvesting mussels
Looking Backward and Forward by Faith
come meet the first black star of New York City Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’ – and she’s only 11
a bus driver that goes & loves way beyond his duties
just really beautiful – in so many ways
Post of the week from these parts here
How To Stop Procrastinating (Free Guide): Do that Hard Thing in the New Year
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: We all bleed the same…Father, open our eyes to see…
Dear Lovely You,
who doesn’t want to do that hard thing in the New Year,
who doesn’t want to get on the treadmill,
or go for a run,
or sort through the closets,
or tackle the garage, or the piles of paperwork,
or the project that’s hanging over you like a ton of bricks,
or do that big thing that feels like an impossible thing—
okay, yeah, boy, do I hear you.
Hard things just keep calling you because you’re meant to answer to higher & better things.
You’re meant to do hard & holy things because they are the next thing—to get to the best thing.
You’re made to do hard and holy things—because there’s no other way to get to the happy & holy things.
You know how we wrote it up there on the chalkboard in the kitchen years ago, & we all memorized it? Well, it’s true, & it’s hard, but there’s a brave hope in it:
Life is Pain — and you get to choose: either the Pain of Discipline or the Pain of Disappointment.
Nothing happens without discipline. No music gets played without discipline. No games get won. No finish lines get crossed. No freedom gets tasted. And you want that.
Yeah, look, we had a kid who scored in the 99.7 percentile on the ACT, & that’s all well and good & all kinds of extraordinarily wonderful, but it’s like my Dad always said:
Brilliant doesn’t matter, if you can’t get out of bed.
Talent doesn’t mean a thing, if you let Fear be some terrorist that takes you hostage.
Potential doesn’t add up to anything, if you get addicted to perfectionism because perfectionism is slow death by self.
Fire your perfectionism & your procrastination will quit too.
Because here’s the thing:
You’ve been given a gift—& you’re the person who is trying to be present to this present moment, & do the hard work of unwrapping your gift, your talent, your vision, your God-given dreams.
So as we look ahead into this New Year,
we may pierce our shoes,
& the road may wear us right down
…we’re just the prodigals
stumbling back into His presence,
back into the only air that is not toxic: grace—the only air we can safely breathe this year…
and He catches us with His nail scarred hands & holds us with the only thing that can ever hold us: His arms of Grace.
We are not held by a standard of perfection—because we are held by His arms of 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.
January 3, 2020
The Search for Rest in a Hurry-Up World
It was about 15 years ago (over a pile of tangled hangers!) that Jenny Donnelly realized that life had become “too much”. Simple life tasks, like putting away a pile of tangled hangers, led to tears. Why did simple life tasks feel so hard? Some would describe her as having anxiety or even experiencing bouts of depression, but she believed there was no way she could be one of “those people” struggling to cope with everyday life. She was doing all the “right” things. She read her Bible regularly. Prayed. Exercised. Was a successful businesswoman. Loved her husband. Loved her kids. But after examining her heart, she realized that stress and anxiety were her “go-to” fuel. God revealed to her there was a way to live in a state of rest, even when life was swirling around her. Today, she shares with us how she found rest as a permanent place to live and the gift of being still even in the middle of chaos. It’s a grace to welcome Jenny to the farm’s front porch today…
My daughter Esther pulled a children’s book off the shelf and began to read it aloud. From the kitchen, I overheard something like this:
Make your bed! Hurry up! Hurry up!
Eat your cereal! Hurry up! Hurry up!
“Has being in a hurry become our normal?”
Run to school! Hurry up! Hurry up!
I made a beeline for the living room and snatched the book out of her hands.
As a recovering hurry-upper, I didn’t want my kids to fall into that habit.
The book conveys an innocent idea and is rather descriptive of how most families live.
Is it any wonder we are more anxious than any other generation that has come before us? We are living in a world that screams, “Hurry up! Hurry up!”
This revs our mental engines, and we blow past our lives. Hours turn to years, and suddenly we realize that we have hurried our way through life so much that we have missed most of it.
The other day I caught myself in the act of hurrying for the sake of hurrying.
I didn’t look like I was in a hurry, but my thoughts were badgering me forward for no good reason. I realized I hurry because I feel like that’s what I’m supposed to do—rush off to the next thing.
As a culture, we are in a hurry. Fast food isn’t fast enough. High speed internet isn’t speedy enough. Has being in a hurry become our normal?
A few years ago, I was confronted with my hurry-up habit.
“Rest means that we are resting in what is happening right this second with a complete trust that God will meet us in our next moment.”
What I have discovered is that I build the hurry-up habit subconsciously during those times when I am stressed or overwhelmed with all I need to accomplish in what seems like too little time. Am I suggesting we lollygag through life? No way! There is a lot to accomplish in a day.
But I can tell you that you can move with speed and productivity without a frazzled mind—which absolutely steals our rest.
Rest means that we are resting in what is happening right this second with a complete trust that God will meet us in our next moment.
Living in worry will steal your REST.
Have you ever been so nervous about an upcoming event that you played the potential scenarios over and over in your mind? This is especially common if you’re embarking on something new or if you don’t like unknowns (most of us don’t!)
The first time I was invited to speak in public I was so nervous. I was turning the event over and over in my mind, which was keeping my anxiety stirred up. I began to pray that God would help me overcome the worry I was experiencing.
When we mentally obsess about the future and try to live out a moment before we are in it, we anticipate what that moment might feel like without the benefit of the grace of God.
We assume it will be difficult – and we haven’t even done anything yet.
The grace of God we need to do anything in life will be available exactly when we need it. Overanalyzing our lives or letting our imagination run wild will never create peace.
We can let go of turning things over and over in our minds, knowing that God will be there when we get to those things.
We can REST in the right now, even if it’s a moment we don’t want to be in.
We can relax and be, because God Himself is peace and He’s committed to be right there with you in the present!
Rest is where we place great faith in our great God.
“Rest is where we place great faith in our great God.”
We are conditioned to do-ing, so be-ing can be challenging. Like many people, I have a very full life.
But I chose a majority of it. I chose to get married. I chose to have kids. I chose to plant a church. I chose to start a business. I chose to write a book.
I know that people settle for being stressed, anxious, depressed, worried, and alone. They write off their dreams as childish or insignificant.
But Jesus came to give us life and life more abundantly (John 10:10). He came to give us joy. He came to give us peace and rest.
Stress, depression, anxiety, unrest—these are all products of not understanding who Jesus is to us.
Jesus said that if we have heavy loads, burdens weighing us down, we can come to Him and He will give rest to our souls. That’s a promise! “Come next to me all you weary, picking up your loads: I am your oasis” (Matt. 11:28).
When we are in our resting place, we aren’t ignoring our responsibilities, challenges, and projects and just checking out for the sake of peace. No, Jesus calls us to sit next to Him and bring our burdens with us.
And here is the best part: He is our oasis.
“Jesus is the oasis providing life in the middle of a dry place.”
An oasis? This is so exciting! An oasis is a fertile place in the middle of a desert. Are you getting this?
Jesus is basically saying that he is a fertile place in the middle of our dry places. Fertility is what we want.
We want things to multiply, grow, break through, and explode in our favor. We want relationships, jobs, projects, and responsibilities to flourish with fruit and goodness. This is what happens in an oasis. In a desert, they shrivel up.
As you align with His presence and love, it becomes a place where burdens lighten, and the oasis of rest creates an environment of fertility where your life assignments can flourish, multiply, and grow.
Bearing our own loads can leave us feeling as if we are dragging them through a desert.
But Jesus is the oasis providing life in the middle of a dry place.
Discover the resting place God designed for you.
Jenny L. Donnelly is an author, speaker, and business leader. She is the founder of Her Voice Movement, a national community gathered for the purpose of equipping and empowering women to live and lead biblical truth. She is a cofounder, with her husband, of The Collective Church in Portland, Oregon. They also founded Tetelestai Ministries, which develops and equips biblical leaders through online courses, conferences, and resources.
In Still: 7 Ways to Find Calm in the Chaos, Jenny Donnelly shows you how to experience true, life-giving rest even in the midst of chaos. Sharing her own personal story of struggling with life’s pressures and emotional exhaustion, she introduces you to the source of peace and rest: Jesus. She shows you the steps to take to access rest any time, any place, under any conditions. And she reveals how operating from a place of stillness powers your identity, creativity, relationships, and so much more.
[ Our humble thanks to Baker for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
December 31, 2019
How To Stop Procrastinating (Free Guide): Do that Hard Thing in the New Year
Dear Lovely You,
who doesn’t want to do that hard thing in the New Year,
who doesn’t want to get on the treadmill,“You’re meant to do hard and holy things because they are the next thing — to get to the best thing.”
or go for a run,
or sort through the closets,
or tackle the garage, or the piles of paperwork,
or the project that’s hanging over you like a ton of bricks,
or do that big thing that feels like an impossible thing—
okay, yeah, boy, do I hear you.
It doesn’t matter a hill of sprouting beans if you’re 9 and stomping your feet or 16 and slamming doors or 40 and distracting on your phone —
hard things just keep calling you because you’re meant to answer to higher and better things.
Resource: Advent Wreath from JoyWares.ca
You’re meant to do hard and holy things because they are the next thing — to get to the best thing.
“Life is Pain — and you get to choose: either the Pain of Discipline or the Pain of Disappointment.”
You’re made to do hard and holy things — because there’s no other way to get to the happy and holy things.
You know how we wrote it up there on the chalkboard in the kitchen years ago, and we all memorized it? Well, it’s true, and it’s hard, but there’s a brave hope in it:
Life is Pain — and you get to choose: either the Pain of Discipline or the Pain of Disappointment.
Nothing happens without discipline. No music gets played without discipline. No games get won. No finish lines get crossed. No freedom gets tasted. And you want that.
Yeah, look, we had a kid who scored in the 99.7 percentile on the ACT, and that’s all well and good and all kinds of extraordinarily wonderful, but it’s like my Dad always said:
Brilliant doesn’t matter, if you can’t get out of bed.
Talent doesn’t mean a thing, if you let Fear be some terrorist that takes you hostage.
Potential doesn’t add up to anything, if you get addicted to perfectionism because perfectionism is slow death by self.
“Fire your perfectionism and your procrastination will quit too.”
Fire your perfectionism and your procrastination will quit too.
Because here’s the thing:
The Presenter
You’re the Presenter.
You’ve been given a gift — and you’re the person who is trying to be present to this present moment, and do the hard work of unwrapping your gift, your talent, your vision, your God-given dreams.
Presenters want to be present to life and their calling and the joy and the work — but they know that the path is painful.
The Perfectionist Terrorist
“Sometimes you have to accept that you’ll never be acceptable enough for some people. And whether you accept that as their issue or yours — is up to you.”
Presenters know that the path is painful — because behind ever corner lurks The Perfectionist Terrorist. The Perfectionist Terrorist is a liar to the nth degree — he tells you that if you’d just get it perfect enough, do it right enough, be good enough —- that you’ll be liked by everyone enough.
But the truth of it is? Sometimes you have to accept that you’ll never be acceptable enough for some people. And whether you accept that as their issue or yours — is up to you.
The Perfectionist Terrorist claims to have High Road Motives, claims to want to make everything turn out perfect, but his policing pressures you and poisons you and prosecutes you, until it all paralyzes you.
The Procrastinator
So The Procrastinator tries to protect you, who is really The Presenter, from The Perfectionist Terrorist.
The Procrastinator tries to intervenes with distractions, temptations, and interruptions — or just pushes you to pull out and give up.
Honestly, The Procrastinator is just trying to protect you from the bullying of The Perfectionist Terrorist.
The Perfect Love
So Who’s missing in this struggling, messy triangulation of The Presenter, the Perfectionist Terrorist, and The Procastinator? The compassionate Words of Perfect Love.
“You fire your perfectionism every time you let His Perfect Love ignite you.”
You just need Perfect Love.
There is His Perfect Love who kicks all your fear to the curb.
There is His Perfect Love who accepts you 100% before you perform even 1%, there is His Perfect Love who speaks Protection and Peace and promises the Power of the Holy Spirit — so you can fire perfectionism and procrastination will quit too.
You fire your perfectionism every time you let His Perfect Love ignite you.
When you rest in Perfect Love — discipline comes easily because you’re being a disciple of Perfect Love — you’re following Perfect Love.
And Perfect Love says you don’t to have show anyone up — you just have to show up.
Perfect Love says you don’t have to impress anyone — you just have to press on.
Perfect Love says when you mess up — He’ll pick you up… and when you can’t carry on, He’ll carry you.
“Perfect Love says when you mess up — He’ll pick you up… and when you can’t carry on, He’ll carry you.”
So dear Lovely Kid, Trying Friend, Tired You, who doesn’t want to practice that thing,
clean up that thing,
study for that thing,
sweat on that thing,
or do that big thing that feels like an impossible thing —
You can bravely do the next thing, because God’s got this thing.
Perfect Love terminates The Perfectionist Terrorist — which eliminates the Procrastinator — which liberates you, the Presenter…. to unwrap the gift of right now, your one life.
There’s snow down in the woods, all down the road this morning, the ice clinging at the edge of things —- and you can feel it if you turn your face toward the sun —-
all those hard things melting in the heat of a greater and perfect warmth.
This is The Year
to maybe purpose to —
* Embrace Imperfect.This is The Year to be held by the arms of grace, not to any standard of perfection.
* Engage Silence — not screens.This is The Year to engage silences regularly & retreat to the “back side of the wilderness.” Because when you do not need to be seen or heard — you can see and hear in desperately needed ways.
You find your true self when you look for your reflection in the eyes of souls — and not the glare of screens.
* Be still.Be small. Be Loved. Beloved.
Let yourself be loved anyway He wants to love you. God is always, always good & you are always, always, always. loved.
Be still …. & know.
* Believe in Him for impossABLE things.Believe in Him who makes the ridiculously impossible into the miraculously possible,
the unbelievable into the you-better-believe-it,
the never into the now.
Be the brave people who pray it bold in the space between the end of one year & the beginning of a New Year: BUT GOD.“Ours is the God who whispers: “With Me nothing, Nothing, NOTHING is impossible.”
Believe in Him for impossABLE things — because as long Emmanuel, God is with us & we are with God: nothing is impossible.Believe in Him for improbable, implausible, impractical, impossABLE things.
* Break idols — or they will break you.Break free, break out of ruts, break idols — or they will break you.
* Daily 3 for 10:These 3 for 10 everyday: Word In. Work Out. Work Plan.
It’s not what you do every now and then, but what you do everyday, that changes everything.Word in: Get into God’s Word for 10 minutes and let it get into you.
Work out: Work out. Even 10 minutes of moving is better than nothing.
Work plan: Write out the Work Plan — even just 3 things. And then just start: 10 minutes working the plan.
* Do Less. Pray More.More than your doing hands, God wants your bended knees.
* Let Go of the Outcome.Come completely committed to the process — and completely let go of the outcome.
In the middle of things seemingly not working out for us —- God is working out something in us.
* Learn Endurance.Do Hard & Holy Things. Break the idols of ease — or they will break you.
* Live Given.Because #LoveGives.
Because God so loved He gave.
Because Living is Giving.
* GiveIt
Forward
Today — 3 times a day.
Give It Forward Today & be the #GIFT — give an act of grace forward, 3 times a day. Be a #GIFTivst
It’s the Giftivists are the activists who believe that radical acts of generosity counter radical acts of inhumanity. #GIFTivst
* Grow Brave. Grow in GraceGrow Brave. Grow in Grace. Which is basically the same thing.
I kinda scratched the whole thing down — then slipped the SOULutions into a frame. Figuring that unless you can daily see your Life SOULutions…. the year will end up to be more of a dissolution of your life.
Maybe that’s one of the keys I’d never turned:
Framable SOULutions — to frame up a new year, a new you.
Simply click here for these free tools plus a whole library of free printables too:
December 28, 2019
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [12.28.19]
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:
Andy Seliverstoff Photography
Andy Seliverstoff Photography
Andy Seliverstoff Photography
all smiles here: can’t get enough of these photos
he does all of this with just 2 fins?! What can we go do today!?! amazed!
so what do you think?!
Neuroscience Explains Why You Need To Write Down Your Goals If You Actually Want To Achieve Them
because everyone needs to be loved
A police officer donated her organ to a young stranger and then helped pay the medical bill
she knew from a young age that her life’s mission was to serve her community
#BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
exhale right here
anyone else wanna move to this town?
in ‘The Nicest Place in America’, Nobody Gets Left Behind
“If the church isn’t making an impact out on the world, what are we doing?”
End Your Year Intentionally with These 10 Questions
just so grateful for the teachers who pray
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!
and this too: Ten Questions for a New Year
some really good neighbors… because we all need community
Throughout history, when times are challenging, the world goes looking for heroes.
And this year, searches for heroes — both superheroes and everyday heroes — soared around the world — according to Google Trends of 2019.
From the epic headlines to the everyday moments… heart kinda bursting here…
can you even?!? The Atlantic’s ‘Hopeful Images From 2019’
YES, love, love this: 2019 reminded us how God transforms confusion into clarity, failure into redemption and fear into peace.
Emily Turner
How Healing One Girl’s Heart Is Healing a Whole Community
Even Mariam’s mother had given up hope for her daughter’s survival. Then came a gift.
When you feel like giving up, when you feel like giving in, His love is the reason, to keep on believing…
2020 is almost 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
one to revisit again and again: His love comes to set you free
on repeat this week: God’s Not Done With You
…yeah, all those dangling ads about how to find the best bargains today, about where to look for the best clearance prices, about how to hunt down the best buys — and we’ve just been given this Gift that’s more than a miracle, a Gift that costs you nothing & will carry you through everything, the Gift that murmurs that you are safe in Him & held by Him & strengthened through Him, the Gift that‘s better than any sale you could hunt down, the Gift that makes you the richer by the sharing of it.
It’s quite a thing that there’s no great deal to hunt down or look for or seek out right now, just to seek more of His Presence, the Gift that deals you rest & grace & deepest peace.
Really wise men & women never stop looking for God —
And because your really wise God is love — He never stops looking for you.
It’s quite a thing to simply sit in the quiet today & just feel profoundly found.
.
[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.
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