Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 89
December 13, 2019
There’s No Time Like the Present: Give the Gift of Presence This Christmas
Kristen Welch and I are sorta, kinda, soul sisters? As I serve on the board of directors of the ministry Kristen founded, Mercy House Global, I get to see it first hand again and again, what we can all do together to change the world for women, if we say our brave yes. — and I am all in here with Kristen, with Mercy House Global, and togESTHER — we are the Esther Generation. Called for such a time as this, right where we are, to change the world for our sisters…. I absolutely love this woman with all my heart — a grace to welcome my soul sister, Kristen, to the farm’s front porch today…
It was the biggest Christmas poinsettia I’d ever seen.
She held it out, blocking my view, filling the space between us.
My arms automatically reached out and our hands touched as I received her gift. And even though I couldn’t see her face, I knew she was smiling. Because I was, too.
“It’s humbling when someone with so little gives you so much.”
It turns out when you show up at the door of a refugee on a regular basis, your presence is a gift you both get to unwrap because He is also present.
We drank strong, hot coffee, and ate the good kind of chocolate wrapped in gold foil.
It’s humbling when someone with so little gives you so much.
You know it’s costing them more than they have to give.
Somehow, this has become my life.
This simple showing up, exchanging stories, overwhelmed by each other’s gifts of time and presence.
It’s the kind of present I want to open every day of the year.
beautiful tree wrapping paper – included in the December box
Baby Jesus ornament – included in the December box
Cozy home dish towel for every home! Included in the December box
Winter White candle included in the December box
The phone rang and she gave me a look to say this is important and answered it in her native language and I could see the concern etched on her face. Is everything okay? I asked once she hung up.
In her best English, she explained her aging parents, and so much of her family, still lived in a refugee camp across the ocean. Life was hard. Her father was ill. She longed to be present with them every day, especially this time of year.
She stood and left the room, leaving a heaviness behind that was hard for me to understand. I will enjoy the holidays with my family. I have the gift of presence.
She returned carrying a box and I drank my last sip of coffee. I knew it was time for business.
“The margin between what those in poverty have and what they need is thin and they are begging God for someone to show up, to use what they have, to be present.”
My refugee friend set it down on the table between us. I looked at the contents inside with expectancy. Hope. And I caught her glancing at me with the same look.
This wasn’t just a box of handmade, beautiful earrings for Fair Trade Friday.
No, it was much more that — it was provision for her to put food on the table, pay a bill, provide for tomorrow.
It seems unbelievable that in this day and age when we have access to so much, a Fair Trade item can really provide all of that.
I knew she would stretch the money to also send a bit to help provide medicine for her father.
It’s the same everywhere I travel, from refugees in the inner city to every woman I meet around the globe– it’s the eleventh hour and time is running out.
The margin between what those in poverty have and what they need is thin and they are begging God for someone to show up, to use what they have, to be present.
And we have this crazy, easy opportunity to purchase an affordable last minute Christmas Fair Trade subscription for someone we love this holiday season that will show up in the nick of time.
It’s not too late for this last minute gift.
Isn’t it high time we give the gift of presence by giving presents that change lives?
When we join Fair Trade Friday, a monthly club that shows up every month, we are showing up in the lives of the poor.
We are also filling our lives with meaningful gifts that provide hope and access for women in poverty.
There’s no time like the present.
Give the gift that gives all year long!
Fair Trade Friday:
A Fair Trade Subscription Box that empowers women around the world through dignified jobs
Fair Trade Friday exists as an avenue for women to empower women.
When Kristen started Mercy House Global a decade ago, she just wanted to help pregnant teens in Kenya.
But she quickly learned that when you take a girl out of trafficking, you’ve also taken away her job, so creating dignified work moved up to the top of her list.
So they create dignified jobs for those teen moms and their families in Kenya and they do so for thousands of other women in more than 30 countries through their monthly subscription clubs at Fair Trade Friday because business is the best way to end poverty.
With just a click of your mouse, you can join a club and send a gift subscription this Christmas at the very last minute — it will not only provide a lovely, trendy, unique gift; it will provide a dignified job just in the nick of time.
Click to give the gift that gives all year long.
Fair Trade Friday exists as an avenue for women to empower women. We are tackling poverty through dignified job opportunities in Jesus’ name. 100% of the proceeds from Fair Trade Friday support the artisans and their families – thousands of women, men, and children around the world. Fair Trade Friday is a ministry of Mercy House Global, a non-profit organization based in Magnolia, Texas.
Rescue a Girl. Empower A Family. Redeem A Generation.
December 12, 2019
What Happens When Love Shows Up?
Wherever Kellie Haddock goes she is waking us up to greater intimacy with our Maker. She is no stranger to suffering both in her own life and in stepping into the brokenness of the world around us. As a songwriter and peacemaker she lives on mission to bring hope wherever she goes, whether it’s in conflict zones or sharing songs in someone’s living room. Her words and music inspire us, propelling us further up and further in like spotlights illuminating the path ahead. It’s an absolute gift to welcome Kellie to the farm’s front porch today…
“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.”
It’s midnight. I’m walking through the dark streets of Iraq with my best friend.
We enter the sterile hospital passing a man in the hall crying for his son. We enter the crowded Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (where only women are allowed), and hold Sozan’s hands tightly as she updates us through fear filled tears on her baby Aram’s fragile condition.
“My biggest hopes melted into my greatest fears.”
As the night passes the baby slips out of consciousness. Jessica looks at me and says, “I think you need to sing to him.” So I put my face right next to his and gently sing over and over:
“The Lord has promised good to me. His word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.”
As the hours passed by I wept for this boy.
Ten years earlier my husband, our baby boy and I were in a tragic car accident.
My husband was killed instantly.
My baby and I were life-flighted to the hospital where I watched him flatline in the PICU.
My biggest hopes melted into my greatest fears.
Our son is still walking his road of recovery, and though I’ve remarried, I still walk the long road of learning to grieve in a healthy way.
This requires showing up to life even when it’s not convenient.
“O ye beneath life’s crushing load, whose forms are bending low, who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow.”
Grieving in a healthy way means making NO EMOTION off limits.
“It’s ironic how death somehow illuminates the preciousness of life, and makes me want to be more alive.”
Grief shows no partiality.
Grief doesn’t respect time or busyness.
Grief demands our hearts.
It’s ironic how death somehow illuminates the preciousness of life, and makes me want to be more alive.
Through its lens it’s easier to see the gift we’ve been given to be alive today – to love well today – to really see those around us…to do whatever we can to be peacemakers and hope bringers… to make this world a better place as long as we have breath for today.
So I embrace the grief, however it looks, grieving the significant and the simple losses and disappointments all along the way.
“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.”
After nearly a week in the PICU Aram made a full recovery and is now thriving.
“Weary world, rejoice tonight. Love has come, spread its light.”
Love comes in a myriad of ways. Sometimes it doesn’t look like we expect.
No one expected Love to come as a baby in Bethlehem. Bethlehem, a place of holy birth and a place considered by some as ‘the wrong side of the tracks’.
Love showed up in a culture swirling with chaos, fear and danger. Love Incarnate, Jesus, the son of God entered this weary world, sharing in our suffering to bring hope and healing to all the broken places.
“O Come though day-spring, come and cheer our spirits by Thine advent here. Disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death’s dark shadows put to flight.”
Emmanuel. God with us. It’s more than good sentiment and miraculous spectacle at Christmas.
It’s also an invitation to participate with Christ‘s coming and dwelling among us, when we as image bearers reflect His heart of love for an aching world.
“Awake thy long and dreamless sleep. Bring peace to men on earth.”
So we are invited to wake up to the realities both within our own hearts and also to the things that make this world weary.
We each can illuminate the way of hope as we shine the light and love of Christ.
This is the way of love.
This is the gospel of peace.
“Truly He taught us to love one another. His law is love and His gospel is peace.”
I’ve found myself on an unexpected journey of going into unexpected places where there is suffering.
When we show up as image bearers of this Love Incarnate Christ, hope cannot be held at bay.
Like a tsunami, hope floods in.
“There is power in showing up. Relationship in proximity breaks down walls.”
There is power in showing up. Relationship in proximity breaks down walls.
“O come desire of nations, bind all peoples in one heart and mind. Bid envy strife and quarrels cease. Fill the whole world with heaven’s peace.”
I’ve spent time in the war-torn Holy Land pursuing peace through listening: sharing meals with Palestinian Muslim families, walking on farms with Israelis, grieving with parents who’ve lost children in the conflict and sharing Shabbat dinner with a Holocaust survivor.
Though each story was unique there was a common thread of hope and fear. There was no us and them, only us.
Their bravery inspires me, but what if I told you that they were ordinary? What if I told you that you and I are ordinary? What if I told you that Moses, Mary, David and all our biblical heroes (except Jesus) were ordinary?
We are all just ordinary people.
But we have an extraordinary God who invites us to do extraordinary things.
And He wants to do extraordinary things through you. He wants to bring peace on earth through you.
People sometimes think of religion as a set of rules that constrain.
I see faith as a set of invitations that excite.
“Then peeled the bells more loud and deep. God is not dead nor doth He sleep. The wrong shall fail, the truth prevail with peace on earth, good will to men.”
Are you weary today? Are you weary from hoping? Weary from hurting?
“No matter how dim the way ahead, how winding the path, Christ Emmanuel will walk with you.”
“He knows your need, your weakness is no stranger.”
Are you longing for more peace?
Step into the invitation to be a peacemaker.
Choose the path of peace.
Choose to love anyway.
“And with true love and brotherhood each other now embrace this holy tide of Christmas filled with love and grace.”
No matter how dim the way ahead, how winding the path, Christ Emmanuel will walk with you.
He will always give you enough light for the step you are on.
“Through thy dark streets shineth an everlasting light. The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.”
This is the great invitation of Christmas.
Kellie Haddock is a singer, songwriter, wife and mom. As a former widow, she’s lived through tragedy and found new hope and joy on the other side. Her music draws from real-life stories of beauty, heartache, hope and the celebration of life.
The Thank You Project, a short film featuring Kellie’s story of gratitude after tragedy, has attracted more than 150 million views and has been featured on The TODAY Show, The Huffington Post, and Cosmopolitan among other national and international media outlets. Kellie has performed in Iraq, Israel, China and across the US, offering music that engages the soul in all of its beauty and vulnerability.
Her newest album Peace on Earth offers a set of socially conscious Christmas songs speaking straight to the heart of today’s struggles. Kellie’s music is infused with hope and longing for healing in the broken places and in every heart that hears it. Featuring John Arndt of The Brilliance, inspired by her time in Iraq and in the Holy Land, Peace On Earth combines nine traditional carols and three original Christmas songs waiting for you to sing along!
[ Our humble thanks to Kellie Haddock Music for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
December 10, 2019
The 1 Unlikely Word that Heals All (Christmas) Brokenness
W
hen I take it out of its storage box and see it etched into the side of the cradle, that word engraved right into the wood… I kinda catch my breath at how it erases a bit of the pain.
Emmanuel.
God with us.
I run my fingers across the etched letters of the manger, like I’m reading Braille, like I’ve been blind and now I see.
“Christ-followers do more than believe somethings are true, they trust that SomeOne is here.”
But I don’t just see it, don’t just assent to it — I actually sense it, like the way you sense the wind turning, the way you can’t see it, but feel it on your face. Emmanuel. EMMANUEL.
Christ-followers do more than believe somethings are true, they trust that SomeOne is here.
SomeOne is actually here — SomeOne unseen who is actually closer than the next unseen breath that fills your lungs, and that which is unseen can be here, keeping you alive.
Someone is actually here, and the weight carried in the knots across shoulders, the tender hurts that don’t know how to fit into words, the hope that’s grown heavier than bearing but there is no letting go of this hope, SomeOne is here to lean in, touch the tenderness of those places and put the whole of Himself under the bulk of that load.
Breathe. SomeOne is here.
Not some idea, not some philosophy, not some theology — SomeOne. I could not go to Him, so He has come to me. We follow more than words on a page, we follow a Person who stays at our side.
“I feel utterly alone,“ a friend texts me those four words while boarding a plane, and I crack a bit. There is no fixing this. I have no idea how to fix this for her.
How do I tell her: We all are.
Our favorite family heirloom: wooden Advent wreath, with Mary on a donkey, headed toward the manger and the coming of Emmanuel.
Our 24 hole wooden Advent wreath, with Mary on a donkey, headed toward the manger and the coming of Emmanuel.
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019
Our 24 hole wooden Advent wreath, with Mary on a donkey, headed toward the manger and the coming of Emmanuel.
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift (Family Edition): Best Inspirational Book of the Year, CBA, 2016
The Greatest Gift (adult edition): Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014
Our favorite family heirloom We all are starkly alone in our own skin — no one will ever see the world the way you do, through your eyes, from your vantage point.
“I do not want someone to reach out and touch my hand, but to reach out and touch my soul and this is why I need God.”
You are utterly alone looking through your eyes into the world — and sometimes there is existential terror in this. No one will feel exactly what you feel, when you feel it, how you feel it — the feelings that run through your being are forever yours alone.
You are locked up in the aloneness of you.
Feeling lonely is more dangerous to your health than smoking or high blood pressure — and there are public service announcements warnings about both, why not about the risks of loneliness?
Maybe the loneliest moment in your whole life is when dreams are imploding in on you — and you wonder if anyone is with you, and you reach for a hand — and there is no one anywhere reaching back.
I may know a bit of this implosion:
I may miserably fail at this mothering deal and not seem good enough to pass muster in all kinds of eyes.
And we may have no niggling of an idea what’s around the corner for the farm or the fields or the animals in the barn come this next spring, and the doctor’s report for Mama’s next round of tests could end up as some alarming news being batted around on the church’s prayer chain for the next 6 years, and the diabetes alarm that jolts us awake at 3:17 am may have us holding a seizuring son while his eyes roll back in his head and someone fumbles with the glucagon needle to shoot a lifeline of glucose into his blood.
Prodigals may never come home. Addictions might suck the hope right out of the veins. Mental illness may lurk omnimous around the edges of family, strained relationships may yank out chunks of pulpy heart, and I may go ahead and let myself down so hard for the gazillionth time that I smash all my hope in any shiny tomorrows.
But God. But. God.
“God stands with you in the imploding and God infuses you with strength to withstand.”
That is what I text her — what her Maker, her Lover, her Rescuer says:
“Do not yield to fear, for I am always near. Never turn your gaze from me, for I am your faithful God. I will infuse you with my strength and help you in every situation. I will hold you firmly with my victorious right hand.’” Isaiah 41:10 TPT
Somethings are brutally hard — but SomeOne is literally here.
I do not face the way alone, I face the face of God.
That is the bare truth: I do not need to understand all the things — I simply need to not stand alone.
And by this, I simply mean: I do not want someone to reach out and touch my hand, but to reach out and touch my soul and this is why I need God.
Either we are utterly alone in this universe or God is utterly close. Both take your breath away — until God takes your hand.
God stands with you in the imploding and God infuses you with strength to withstand. It is only the withness of Emmanuel, God with us, that lets us withstand.
We can only withstand life because we have a God who stands with us.
My crisis needs His withness. Selah.
“Christ-followers know that suffering is a given, and suffering alone is unbearable, but we are given SomeOne who bears the suffering with us.”
His withness sits with my mess. Selah.
His withness is my hopefulness. Selah.
I need not know the way — I only need to know the WayMaker’s here.
We light the candle of the wooden Advent Wreath and witness the silhouette of Mary on the donkey moving closer everyday to Bethlehem, to Emmanuel coming, to His coming close live in Withness with us. Three times a day, I hand our baby girl her beta-blocker to slow down her racing heart. I lose count of how many times a night the diabetes alarm goes off and I stumble through the dark to our boy.
All through the wait of Advent, we keep moving, we keep following the Light, waiting and trusting, and turning toward the Light. We are not alone and I believe.
Christ-followers actually do more than turn pages of ancient text — we turn to the Ancient One who reads their soul.
Christ-followers know that suffering is a given, and suffering alone is unbearable, but we are given SomeOne who bears the suffering with us.
Christ-followers hold to certain truths— and know ultimately that they are truly held by SomeOne.
The Greatest Gift (adult edition): Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014
Our 24 hole wooden Advent wreath, with Mary on a donkey, headed toward the manger and the coming of Emmanuel.
Advent Resource: Our favorite family heirloom
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019
Our favorite family heirlom: wooden Advent wreath, with Mary on a donkey, headed toward the manger and the coming of Emmanuel.
The advent candle flickers and kids lean in and there is light even here and a moment can feel like relief: We believe that God is not only in the world — we believe that all the world is in God.
“I need not know the way — I only need to know the WayMaker’s here.”
This is a heart-broken planet, but this is not a forsaken planet.
When our baby girl with the brave, broken heart reaches across the Advent wreath, light falls into the waiting manger and right across that one word that remakes our reality.
Emmanuel. No one is alone.
His Withness heals our brokenness.
I move the candle a day closer on our winding way to Bethlehem — and this journey of Advent feels like walking the Emmaus Road, a waking to Emmanuel here with us.
Is that why Advent is all this light, all this lights everywhere — all our hearts burning within us?
Jesus came down — and a bit of heaven can begin now, even here. With every step, we are walking into our forever now.
Come let Jesus touch your wounds & heal your hurt with His Peace.
This Advent, Stay in the Story that the rest of your year, your family, will need.
3 Award-Winning books for the Whole FamilyThe Greatest Gift (adult edition): Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift (Family Edition): Best Inspirational Book of the Year, CBA, 2016
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019
(pop-up edition with your own 14 inch tree, 25 days of readings, 25 day advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age)
When our holidays are about Staying in the Story, being with Him —
Peace leads us — and we have ourselves The Greatest little Christmas yet!
December 9, 2019
You Don’t Need to Know the Path to Trust The Guide
Chelsea Hurst’s breakdown of scripture invites us all in the sit at the table as we remember that Jesus is our great shepherd. In the process of following our leader that can be trusted, we find security and the longing to know our God more. An inspiring role model and a leading voice for millions of young adults around the globe, she writes with incredible grace and undeniable truth. It’s a joy to welcome Chelsea to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Chelsea Kay Hurst
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and
my sheep know me—just as the Father knows
me and I know the Father—and I lay down my
life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not
of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They
too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one
flock and one shepherd. John 10:14–16
I used to believe that all the passages in scripture about sheep were a little off.
I asked myself often, “Why does the Bible talk so much about sheep?”
Until I did a little research online about the qualities and habits of these puffy cotton balls, I was clueless.
Now I know how intentional God was to use these animals the way He did.
You and I are more like sheep than we realize.
Which is why Jesus intentionally refers to us as sheep in John 10.
Sheep are some of the most defenseless animals on earth. For example, these fluffy guys will get dehydrated if they are not led to water, because they’re totally unaware of their surroundings.
The intriguing thing is that sheep have a natural desire to follow a shepherd. They can’t do too many things without guidance.
Similarly, Jesus is our good shepherd. He leads us to all the places we need to go.
Trusting His leadership means you may not know ahead of time all the places (both physical and emotional) you’ll end up; it requires faith and trust that you’ll be led where you need to be at the right time.
When you stay close enough to God to hear His voice and listen to His guiding words, you also take the most important step toward loving God with all your heart and seeing His love for you.
Chelsea Kay Hurst
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Chelsea Kay Hurst
Trusting a leader is a much simpler choice when you have confidence that they know you inside and out.
“That awareness for me has changed everything. I’m not riddled with anxiety or asking everyone I know to calm me down.”
This is true with the God we serve.
Since we are made in His image, and He made us Himself, we can trust He knows what He’s doing.
In the verse above, Jesus says He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him, just as the Father knows Him and He knows the Father.
Whew. Read that line a few more times.
Just as intimately as the Lord knows His Son, He knows us!
We are fully known by the God of the universe because we are His beloved creation.
At the beginning of time, He saw the world and all that He had made, and He deemed it all “good,” but He didn’t call it “very good” until it included us.
Isn’t that wild? I want to encourage us to not only see Jesus as our leader but for us to come into the awareness that we don’t need to know the path He’s taking us on if we trust Him.
That awareness for me has changed everything.
“Ask the Lord to change and shape you into the person you were created to be: someone who trusts in Him for everything.”
I’m not riddled with anxiety or asking everyone I know to calm me down.
It is simple trust, and this trust is only formed in relationship and stillness with our Shepherd.
I’d love to give you a challenge for today as I’m not someone who just likes to write with no practicality. Here we go!
Ask the Lord to change and shape you into the person you were created to be: someone who trusts in Him for everything.
It might not make sense to the world, but loving God with our all takes spending time with Him.
This doesn’t always mean sitting on your bed in your room deciphering the Bible.
Sometimes it’s praying in the car, running in your neighborhood with awareness of the beauty around you, or taking a break from your phone and work to spend time with those you love.
The more time you spend with Him, the better you will know Him as He knows you.
Rest in Him today, and He will draw near to you.
Chelsea Kay Hurst is the author of Your Own Beautiful, a full time YouTube blogger, and co-host of Encounter Now with Nick and Chels podcast.
Her latest devotional: Above All Else: 60 Devotions for Young Women is honest, personal, and filled with hope. This devotional just might be what young women need to hear most in their lives right now. Chelsea speaks to women, whether they are experiencing their brightest or darkest moments, inspiring readers to overcome challenges, celebrate the beauty of life, and pursue God above all else. Whether it’s body image issues or bullying, beauty and fashion or family and friendship, Chelsea’s got your back to help you put your best self forward in truth.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
December 7, 2019
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [12.07.19]
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:
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
when I sit with her photos, the world stop & exhales
Empty Nesters: Missing Our Kids is Also About Missing Who We Used To Be
a powerful experiment: close before you doze – so who knew?
God built a way for us to escape the downward spiral of our toxic thoughts, but we rarely take it.
We too often buy the lie that we are victims of our thoughts rather than warriors equipped to fight on the front lines of the greatest battle of our generation: the battle for our minds.
Jennie Allen wrote a new book to remind us of what is true and if you pre-order you’ll receive a set of scripture memory cards, mailed to you, to help submit every single thought to Christ. (yes, love these!)
Pre-order the book and then fill in the form here to receive your scripture cards!
on repeat this week:
to encourage you, right where you are, again and again and again:
God sees you…and will love you back to life again
More Of Jesus Only — and have a STRESS-FREE, WONDER-FULL Christmas.The Jesse Tree Ornaments which use the artwork from Unwrapping the Greatest Gift.
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift (family read aloud edition)
The Jesse Tree Ornaments which use the artwork from Unwrapping the Greatest Gift.
This year, let His wonder to awaken you again, captivate you, capture your heart!Come experience a Christmas like you’ve always dreamed?
So come Christmas morning, you haven’t missed Him?
This Advent, Stay in the Story that the rest of your year, your family, will need.So you don’t miss out on Jesus this year & the The Greatest Christmas.
When our holidays are about staying in the story, being with Him — we reclaim the wonder — and have ourselves The Greatest little Christmas yet!
come quietly: O Holy Night
Kellie’s beautiful music is infused with hope and longing for healing in the broken places and in every heart that hears it. Her newest album, Peace On Earth combines nine traditional carols and three original Christmas songs waiting for you to sing along and praise Jesus!
How do you hold onto faith when faith itself seems lost?
In a world that pulled away from pain, Jesus pushed in.
He reached for it, experiencing pain so we would know we’re not alone in ours.
so they’ve weighed in? Blue spaces beat green spaces when it comes to mental health, study finds
The Pantone Color of the Year for 2020 is “Classic Blue”
“When I didn’t know Jesus, my life didn’t make sense.”
Thank you, thank you, Samaritan’s Purse – Operation Christmas Child
yes… Uncomfortably Human
Why Jesus Can Sympathize with You
Amen: let your gratefulness overflow
updated: he finally has his chance to get outside again!
Want to preach Gospel to yourself every day through December?
Free Stress-Free Holiday Sticky Notes for Your Soul, right here: No Stress Holiday ManifestoPrint this set of 25 Note Cards, one for each day in December.
For mirrors and sinks and dashboards, for pockets and walls and office cubicles. For this Christmas.
Each card is an affirmation, a prayer, for each day this month.
They are quotes from The Greatest Gift and Unwrapping the Greatest Gift, rewritten to be words that you can pray every day,
to keep the focus…to celebrate Christ!
Celebrate Advent by retelling the greatest love story every told
Tigist Gizachew
A Beautiful Orphan Story: Finding Jesus After Trauma
sure to remind you of the love, beauty and hope in the world
come visit a restaurant where no one is ever turned away, ever
don’t miss: If you’re missing someone this Christmas this song’s dedicated to you
this Christmas? How about giving the gift of time
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019
Advent Resource: Messiah Manger with Star: Joywares.ca
Post of the week from these parts here
… yeah, the holidays can be messy. And yeah — we can feel messy. But somebody really needs to know this, right in the midst:
Come experience a Christmas that restores your Hope again
Jesus came down — and a bit of heaven can begin now, even here. With every step, we are walking into our forever now. Come let Jesus touch your wounds & heal your hurt with His tender Hope.
This Advent, Stay in the Story that the rest of your year, your family, will need.
3 Award-Winning books for the Whole FamilyThe Greatest Gift (adult edition): Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift (Family Edition): Best Inspirational Book of the Year, CBA, 2016
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019
(pop-up edition with your own 14 inch tree, 25 days of readings, 25 day advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age)
When our holidays are about Staying in the Story, being with Him —
Hope finds us again — and we have ourselves The Greatest little Christmas yet!
on repeat this week: Let There Be Peace
JoyWares
JoyWares
JoyWares
… that wonderful time of the year to pull out one of our most favourite family traditions:
Our 24 hole wooden Advent wreath, with Mary on a donkey, headed toward the manger and the coming of Emmanuel.
…do not be afraid of what could fail when His arms are stronger than any failure & He cannot fail or let you fall.
And do not be afraid of any evil because greater is He who is in the depths of you and breathing the wild courage to love right into your bones.
Do not ever be afraid of suffering because suffering can birth a greater resurrection. When His love wins you over – no fears can pull you under.
We keep #UnWrappingTheGreatestGift and Staying in the Story because the truth is:
Advent is about the coming of God — and the end of fear.
[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.
December 6, 2019
Hope for Every Mom Who Thinks Someone Else Would Do a Better Job
As a new mom, Becky Keife had a sinking suspicion she didn’t want to admit to anyone: “There’s something wrong with my child or there’s something wrong with me; either way we are not a match. Surely another mom would do a better job in my shoes.” As the mom of three spirited boys, Becky knows the ups and downs of motherhood and how easy it is to feel inadequate. In her new book, No Better Mom for the Job, Becky shares her journey of discovering that parenting with confidence doesn’t come from just doing more or trying harder, but from leaning on the One who made you a mother. With humor, vulnerability, and biblical insight, Becky speaks hope into all the unsure places of a mama’s heart. It’s a grace to welcome Becky to the farm’s front porch…
Parenting in public sure can crash a person’s confidence.
When there’s an audience to our mothering, we can’t escape the question: What are other people thinking?
“I know I shouldn’t get caught up in this what-are-they-thinking whirlwind, but it’s easy to do in the moment.”
Do they think I’m too harsh, too stern, or too strict? Am I not firm enough? Are my boundaries too rigid, too loose, or off base? Do they think I’m talking too close to my fussing child’s face?
I know I shouldn’t get caught up in this what-are-they-thinking whirlwind, but it’s easy to do in the moment.
When your kid becomes that kid who is whining like an entitled punk because you said no to the jumbo box of Ninja Turtle fruit snacks and you’re vacillating between screaming unkind things and just giving in to make the fussing stop.
In that moment, the assumed judgment of onlooking strangers can have an unhealthy sway in what you do or say.
What sticks to my ribs and sinks in my gut in those meltdown moments is that somebody else in my mama role could do a better job.
Someone else could have avoided the scene altogether. But the trouble is, there is nothing in that posture that will help me mother my kids better.
Believing that another mom would do a better job becomes like a bunch of rocks in a backpack I’ve doomed myself to carry.
If you have any idea what I’m talking about, you know how spirit-breaking that weight can be.
My motherhood spirit was often broken because of it.
When all I could do was rest my head on the dirty shopping-cart bar and take a deep breath, begging God to make the meltdown stop, I wish I had known the words of Zephaniah 3:17: “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
“This means that as God’s chosen—His children—you and I get to claim all the promises of God.”
The prophet who wrote this was addressing God’s chosen people, assuring them that despite all the ways they made a mess of their lives and religious practices, God was still a God of hope and love and restoration; discipline was for a season, but God’s delight over His people was forever.
This means that as God’s chosen—His children—you and I get to claim all the promises of God.
Read this verse again and make it personal:
The Lord my God is with me, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in me; in His love He will no longer rebuke me, but will rejoice over me with singing.
That’s not a picture of a God who is standing at the end of the Target aisle shaking His head and thinking I’m a failing mess. No! That’s the picture of a God who is standing right there next to me.
He’s looking tenderly into my eyes, whispering encouragement to my heart for the one next thing I can say or do to love my kid and raise him well.
Will I recognize His voice? Will you?
Chances are higher that I will when I take my gaze off the onlookers, who, let’s be honest, probably don’t care about my mothering tactics, and fix it squarely on the One who both promises to walk with me and has the power to equip me.
“When we feel inadequate, depleted, and ill-equipped, we can stand on the truth that God has already supplied everything we need.”
That’s another assurance we can stand on: “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3).
When we feel inadequate, depleted, and ill-equipped, we can stand on the truth that God has already supplied everything we need.
Yeah, but what I actually need is more hours to close my eyes, more wisdom to make that impossible decision, more money to pay off that loan, and if the cleaning fairies could stop by my house, say, every other Wednesday, that would be great.
Is that what you’re thinking? No shame in admitting it, friend. That’s often the trail my thoughts travel down too.
When you’re in the thick of motherhood, what feels most real are the physical things around you—veggies to chop, dishes to wash, bottoms to wipe, try not to gripe. It can seem like there’s a disconnect between God’s promise to equip us and the concrete needs in front of us.
I need someone to burp the baby, buy the birthday present, return the library books, and figure out where that trail of ants is coming from. Can God help me with that?
Parenting with confidence means letting God’s song of delight become the soundtrack of our motherhood.
“Parenting with confidence means letting God’s song of delight become the soundtrack of our motherhood.”
Your circumstances may not change, but when you know—really know—that the God of the universe is holding your hand through every grocery store tantrum, tense parent-teacher conference, and emergency room visit, you will begin to recognize His presence.
You will hear His voice more clearly, walk a little straighter, and have confidence in your true source of help.
“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. . . . The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore” (Psalm 121:1–2, 8).
Yes, this is the help and hope I want to cling to in motherhood.
Therefore, I resolve not to lift my eyes to the expectations of others—perceived or real.
I resolve not to rely on my own goodness or effort or ability to hold it all together.
I resolve to believe that there’s not a backup mom waiting in the wings ready to do my job better than me.
I resolve to trust that God made me my kids’ mom on purpose, for a purpose, and that He is faithful to go with us every step of this growing-up journey.
I will quit fretting and guessing and spinning my wheels wondering how another mom would handle XYZ situation.
Instead, I resolve to ask:
How does God want me to handle this? Where is He at work? What am I lacking that He can provide?
Wisdom, patience, energy, grace? He’s not in short supply! I just have to ask.
You just have to ask.
Becky Keife is the community manager for DaySpring’s (in)courage, a widely followed online community where authentic, brave women connect deeply with God and others. She is also a popular speaker and author of the new book, No Better Mom for the Job: Parenting with Confidence (Even When You Don’t Feel Cut Out for It.)
If you’re a mom who is tired of trying to muster up enough creativity, joy, and patience by your own sheer grit; if you long to be known and seen, for your struggles to be validated, your blessings to be celebrated, and your soul to be strengthened—lean in. No Better Mom for the Job will help you: cultivate deep friendships that enrich your mothering, understand the unique wiring of you and your child, grow a vibrant faith in and through the demands of motherhood, and so much more!
[ Our humble thanks to Bethany House for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
December 5, 2019
Holidays When Things are Messy: Think of “The Four” (How to Prepare for Advent & Christmas When Life’s Kinda Messed Up)
Snow’s coming down here now like confetti for a party that just won’t stop and the orchard just keeps on welcoming the whole thing.
That’s what Advent means — coming.
This waiting for the coming of the holy party.
And Kai’s shaking trees like a big kid at the party and grinning that there are apples still hanging on the trees in the orchard in the middle of all our shaking snow globe.
24 Candle Advent Wreath & Manger with Star: Joywares.ca
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019
Levi Voskamp
Kai’s got the trees feting him now and the dog’s romping like some circus act under the shaking branches –and if snow falls off trees in the orchard does anybody hear the sound of wonders coming?
“This, this, is the love story that’s been coming for you since the beginning.”
It happens when you open the pages of Scripture to read of His coming, of this first Advent,
before you ever read of the birth of Jesus —
you always have the genealogy of Jesus.
Yeah, maybe that’s the way the Gift unwraps: you have to have Christ’s family tree . . . before you have a Christmas tree.
We’re standing out there in trees and the snow coming down and it feels like relief:
If you don’t come to Christmas through Christ’s family tree and you come into the Christmas story just at the Christmas tree — it’s hard then to understand the meaning of His coming.
Because without the genealogy of Christ,
the limbs of His past,
the branches of His family,
the love story of His heart that has been coming for you since before the beginning –
how does Christmas and its tree stand?
Its roots would be sheared.
The arresting pause of the miracle would be lost.
Because in the time of prophets and kings,
the time of Mary and Joseph,
it wasn’t your line of credit,
line of work,
or line of accomplishments
that explained who you were.
“The coming of Christ was right through families of messed-up monarchs and battling brothers, through affairs and adultery and more than a feud or two, through skeletons in closets and cheaters at tables.”
It was your family line.
It was your family tree.
It was family that mattered.
Family gives you context,
and origin gives you understanding,
and the family tree of Christ always gives you hope.
The coming of Christ was right through families of messed-up monarchs
and battling brothers,
through affairs and adultery
and more than a feud or two,
through skeletons in closets
and cheaters at tables.
It was in that time of prophets and kings, the time of Mary and Joseph, that men were in genealogies and women were invisible.
But for Jesus,
women had names
and stories
and lives
that mattered.
The family tree of Christ startlingly notes
not one woman but four.
The Four: Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba, and Ruth.
Tricia Robinson Art
Four broken women—
women who felt like outsiders,
like has-beens,
like never-beens.
Women who were weary
of being taken advantage of,
of being unnoticed
and uncherished
and unappreciated;
women who didn’t fit in,
who didn’t know how to keep going,
what to believe,
where to go—
women who had thought about giving up.
And Jesus claims exactly these who are
wandering
and wondering
and wounded
and worn out as
His.
And then?
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift (Family Edition): Best Inspirational Book of the Year, CBA, 2016
Advent Resource: Messiah Manger with Star: Joywares.ca
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift (Family Edition): Best Inspirational Book of the Year, CBA, 2016
Then He turns to you, right where you are — and:
He grafts you into His line
and His story
and His heart,
and He gives you
His name,
His lineage,
His righteousness.
No matter your story —Jesus is writing you even now into a restorative story.
He graces you with plain grace.
Is there a greater Gift you could want or need or have?
Christ comes right to your Christmas tree
and looks at your family tree and says,
“I am your God,
and I am one of you,
and I’ll be the Gift,
and I’ll take you.
Take Me?”
This, this, is the love story that’s been coming for you since the beginning.
You don’t want to miss it — miss Him.
Advent Resource: Messiah Manger with Star: Joywares.ca
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019
The Greatest Gift (adult edition): Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014
The Greatest Gift (adult edition): Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014
So there’s this pause and investing in what matters.
There is a Stilling.
Pondering.
Hushing.
Each day of Advent, He gives the gift of time — so we have time to be still and wait.
Wait for the coming of the God in the manger who makes Himself bread for us near starved.
For the Savior in swaddlings who makes Himself the robe of righteousness for us worn out.
“No matter your story —Jesus is writing you even now into a restorative story.”
For Jesus, who makes precisely what none of us can, but all of us want: Christmas.
There, here, in the midst of the inconceivable,
the loud claims,
the hard sells,
the big spectacles,
Christ comes small,
the micro- macro-miracle who comes in the whisper and says,
Seek Me. Take Me.
I take you… I still take you.
When Kai turns with Shalom to run in from the orchard with the dog, you can see it — hear it.
The apple trees hanging out in the orchard — they look ornaments hanging waiting even in these moments, like the decking has begun.
And when snow falls off a tree in the orchard and you are there to hear it — maybe it makes the sound of grace?
Advent, it is made of the moments of waiting —
waiting in all this slow unfurling of grace.
Come, especially when things are kinda messy, & experience a Christmas that restores your Hope again
This Advent, just as things are, Stay in the Story,
the Story the rest of your year, your family, will need.
3 Award-Winning books for the Whole FamilyThe Greatest Gift (adult edition): Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift (Family Edition): Best Inspirational Book of the Year, CBA, 2016
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019
(pop-up edition with your own 14 inch tree, 25 days of readings, 25 day advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age)
Even when things are messy & hurting, we can
Stay in the Story,
Unwrap the Greatest Gift —
& still have the gift, even now, of
The Greatest little Christmas
December 4, 2019
The Treasures We Find as We Walk the Darkest Journeys
David Gotts began the work of International China Concern 26 years ago in response to the plight of children with disabilities that were abandoned into China’s state welfare centers. He has spent the last quarter century bringing love, hope and opportunity into one of the darkest parts of China’s social welfare system. David’s love for those with disabilities went even deeper eleven years ago with the discovery that his second son, Kieran, had been born with a complex neurological disorder, leading him on a new journey filled with heartbreak and joy. It’s a grace to welcome David to the farm’s front porch today…
‘I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.’ Isaiah 45:3
T
here is a look that I often see on the faces of those that I speak with.
Usually, the look comes on the back of me having spoken at an event about the work that I have been doing in China for almost thirty years.
That look isn’t brought about by the words I have spoken that describe the pain and suffering of children in China with disabilities who have experienced abandonment.
Nor is the look brought about by the message of hope that my colleagues and I bring into that terrible situation of despair.
No, the look is usually brought by my response to a simple question, “How many children do you have?”
This simple question is a complicated one to answer.
“I held babies in my arms as they fought to live.”
My answer is always ‘two’ – but then I explain that my second son, Kieran, died in May 2017.
I go on to explain that this precious boy didn’t just battle cancer but was born with complex disabilities that left him unable to speak and only able to walk the shortest of distances.
It’s at that moment that I see ‘the look’- a look of pity, compassion, sadness, even love – and beyond that I sense a question and confusion.
I was 19 years old when I felt a strong call to China.
I left England and began a journey that included learning Mandarin, before ending up one day in 1993, visiting a Chinese welfare institution.
Having asked God to show me where I could serve, I found myself standing in the midst of dying babies and children with life-defining and, in that environment, life-threatening disabilities.
I held babies in my arms as they fought to live.
What I saw shook me and the desire for God’s Kingdom and justice to come into that situation rose up within me.
Honestly, it wasn’t the kind of work that I had wanted to do.
Overwhelmed by the darkness of the situation, I wrestled with what seemed like unending and insurmountable suffering.
Yet, I couldn’t escape the knowledge that God loved each of these children nor the invitation to step into this profound place of darkness.
“Pain and suffering eventually come to us all.”
After 9 months of wrestling, I told God it was just too hard. So many children, too much darkness. He simply agreed with me and then told me that He could change it. This was the day that International China Concern’s (ICC) began.
I grew to care deeply for the children that came from China’s welfare institutions into our care. I, my team that would grow into the hundreds, and these children became family. The darkness was great. Our work reduced mortality rates of 90% but on the days when a child still died our hearts broke.
It was 15 years after ICC began that our own son Kieran came into the world.
Our seemingly healthy boy began to have seizures at 3 months of age.
A lengthy hospital stay diagnosed a rare malformation of the brain. Whenever a seizure hit, we felt a deep fear, always needing to watch the clock in case it went more than three minutes and required us to administer rescue meds or call 911.
Whilst Kieran’s development was slow, develop he did. He was cherubic with strawberry blond hair and a gorgeous smile. In 2011, at three years old he was diagnosed with brain cancer. The diagnosis came late, treatment was tough, the impacts erased some of the gains that we had seen.
My wife, Linda, and I were left reeling and exhausted. Surely, we had faced enough.
When Kieran’s treatment was complete, life settled down and we began to feel like a ‘normal’ family.
Parenting a child with complex disabilities was hard, but there was no limit to what we would do to see a smile, or get a hug, or feel his little hand in ours.
“It seems to strike at the very heart of our erroneous belief that if we just do enough for God then He will keep suffering and pain from our door.”
We have so many great family memories. One of the greatest was travelling to China together in 2015 as ICC opened 20 group homes to care for 150 children with disabilities in the city of Hengyang.
I remember Kieran lying on one of the beds in a group home and snuggling down into the quilt seemingly quite at home.
In 2016 Kieran was diagnosed with a new aggressive form of brain cancer. He was given six months to live. There are few words to describe the pain of that time.
He passed away with Linda and I holding his hand after spending his last six weeks in Canuck Place Children’s Hospice.
So back to ‘the look’.
Behind the eyes that express pity, compassion, sadness, and love, there is a question and confusion.
Some voice it, others don’t.
Some express it as an irony, that I would dedicate my life to caring for children with disabilities that have experienced abandonment, and that God would give me my own child with complex disabilities.
The confusion reflects an idea that having given my life in service to children with disabilities I should somehow be exempt from having to experience this in my own family.
It seems to strike at the very heart of our erroneous belief that if we just do enough for God then He will keep suffering and pain from our door.
Here is what I long to say when I see that look, sense the questions and confusion…
“Thank you for compassion. May I share with you how I see it? Pain and suffering eventually come to us all. At some point, we will all find ourselves in places of darkness that will seemingly overwhelm, even destroy us.
But here is what I have learned. Every journey into darkness, whilst terrifying, has unexpected treasures hidden in it.
“Every journey into darkness, whilst terrifying, has unexpected treasures hidden in it.”
Journeying with China’s children and parenting Kieran has broken me into pieces. Both have involved incredible suffering and pain, that I almost couldn’t bear.
But because Jesus is present in that darkness, I am not left broken and shattered. Instead, in that place of pain and loss I have discovered treasures that can only be found in those dark places.
The treasure of shared lives where our presence to each other brings hope. The treasure of relationships that are rich with love. The treasure of being resurrected; awakened to life, beauty, sanctity and joy.
I know this may be hard to understand. But if, one day, you are called to walk through such darkness I pray that by God’s grace you will know He is right there with you. And, whilst you may not yet see them, there are treasures in the darkness that He will reveal as you walk that path.
I’ve found them, and you will too.”
He says to you, ‘I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
David Gotts is the Founder of International China Concern, a Christian non-profit that partners with the Chinese government in order that children with disabilities can experience the fullness of life that Jesus promises to us all.
David’s book China’s Oasis: Love, hope and opportunity for the hidden children of China tells the story of David leaving the UK at 19 years old, moving to China and discovering the suffering, as well as the moving story of parenting his own son who was born with complex special needs.
ICC provides love hope and opportunity for children with disabilities in China that have experienced abandonment. They operate both campus-style and community based group homes in two locations in China: Changsha and Hengyang, as well as supporting families that have a child with a disability in order to prevent abandonment and keep families together. This work is supported by eight National Offices around the world. Hundreds of children have received full time, life-changing care, and hundreds of families find hope through ICC’s work. This books shows that ordinary people can do extraordinary things through faith and love.
December 3, 2019
I Went to the Border: How to Make Room for Christ in the Border Crisis this Giving Tuesday
I reach my hand through the wall to pray with a woman on the other side of the border.
She still has scissors in her hand.
“The only way to see Jesus, is to look at the person across from you and see them through the Cross.”
She’d been bent and rummaging through garbage heaps, just on the other side of the wall, plucking out plastic bottles, to cut the tops off for manipulatives in her kids’ classrooms —- but she’d come near and here we are praying, me holding her hand through a slot in the border wall, while she’s standing there holding a pair of scissors.
It looks like we’re about to cut through all the noise to hear the heart of God.
Through the slats in the wall, just past her, just behind her, a steeple’s topped with a cross. When I look over at her — I can see the cruciform symbol of the Church everywhere —- and I can see light in the woman’s kind eyes here.
The only way to see Jesus, is to look at the person across from you and see them through the Cross.
The person on the other side of things is always an image of Jesus. Christ is the one in every crisis.
And Christ is in the crisis at all the borders — and often the crisis is at the borders too of our comfortableness, at the edges of our faithfulness.
Back behind me, there’s a cross atop a mountain on this side of the wall, facing her, and the cross atop the church on the other side of the wall.
“We are all more alike than we like to think we’re all different.”
When we make someone else into ‘the other’ — have we made for ourselves a god other than the One who died on the Cross — because He so loved the world?
She says she has 7 children. I tell her I do too. And she points at me, eyebrows raised — You too? I grin and try to joke — how we’re both mothers of one and a half dozen kids, and her and I, we laugh loud in the wind, because true, good news lets everything that destroys empathy blow away like hot air and laughs with hope at the days to come.
We are all more alike than we like to think we’re all different.
Are these the days that it’s considered a radical, dangerous act to simply see our shared humanity?
Maybe — it’s actually far more dangerous when we can’t see that. Standing in different lands, we squeeze each other’s hands.
And I’m on fire to simply ask her:
Why in the world are we all born where we are born?
Where we live has to mean more than getting something— it has to mean that to those who have been given much, much will be required.
It has to mean that:
“Does God commands us to love the stranger more than He commands us to love Himself — because loving the stranger is how we love God Himself?“
Those who have privilege can’t live indifferently, but are meant to live differently so others can simply live.
It has to mean that:
We are only living meaningful lives if we are helping others get to live meaningful lives.
Those seeking a meaningful life no matter where they have to go — are seeking exactly what we are. They aren’t like “animals or criminals” — they are like us.
And yes, it’s true, the world and governments are complicated, but what isn’t complicated is that every single believer has to wrestle with the fact that God commands care for the stranger more than other commandments in the Torah —- even more than the commandment to love God.
Does God command us to love the stranger more than He commands us to love Himself — because loving the stranger is how we love God Himself?
God commands care for the stranger more than other commandments in the Torah —- even more than the commandment to love God. Is the reason God commands us to love the stranger more than He commands us to love Himself — is because loving the stranger is how we love God Himself?
Does the Torah instruct care for the stranger far more than it commands rest on the Sabbath or any other law at all, because God doesn’t want us to rest until all laws find ways to care for the stranger?
Esther Havens
Esther Havens
Esther Havens
I look into the eyes of the mama of 7 just like me, just on the other side of the line, who is living in a world of people who just want what we all want — a good life for our families.
The crisis at the border isn’t about violent criminals — this is about those genuinely seeking asylum from violence and criminals.
Seeking asylum isn’t a dangerously wrong thing to do — it’s a human thing to do when you’re in danger.
“Seeking asylum isn’t a dangerously wrong thing to do — it’s a human thing to do when you’re in danger.”
This isn’t about disregarding the law, but about how to regard people made in the image of God.
And this isn’t about open borders, this is about being open to the compassionate, humane treatment of fellow human beings who are trying to make the best decisions for their families, just like we do for our families — so how to treat them like we would want to be treated?
Abraham, one of the fathers of faith, he lied at the Egyptian border, and tells his wife to lie, because he’s driven by starvation and desperation, and how can we have anything but compassion still for the same motivation?
Those who find themselves behind bars are not always against God or good laws: Sampson, Joseph, Stephen, Jeremiah, Peter, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Silas, John the Baptist, Paul and Jesus Himself, the perfecter of our faith, were all jailed for seemingly breaking a law, but man’s laws are not always God’s laws, and laws change all the time, and laws can change to reflect how our hearts are reflecting more of God’s.
The faithful always believe that there are ways to shape laws to be faithfully just and faithfully compassionate.
“The faithful always believe that there are ways to shape laws to be faithfully just and faithfully compassionate.”
The faithful believe there are ways to have a deeply robust Pro-Life ethic, and be Pro-Pro-Pro:
Pro-life, which is to be pro-life for all life, including a refugee’s life
Pro-security, which is to be pro-life for all life, including every community’s life
Pro-flourishing, which is to be pro-life for all life, including the economic flourishing of of every community.
Believers have to believe there are nuanced, considered ways to not create an “Either/Or“ world — but a “Pro-Pro-Pro” world.
Christians need not all agree on laws around immigration, but we all need to find real ways to move into Jesus’ kind heart toward those in need.
The woman on the other side of the wall, she pats my hand gently and I nod:
If any national citizenship is prioritized more than our citizenship in heaven, and the care of all the citizens of earth, can any of us claim discipleship of Jesus?
In that church right behind the woman’s whose hand I’m holding, I know what they read — because it’s the same thing I read:
How Jesus is compassionate to individual persons in need — and Jesus is always passionate about the structural policies that prevent showing compassion to the persons in need (Luke 6:6-11).
We are only truly caring about people — when we care about the policies that are truly effecting people.
And I want to somehow find words and tell the woman on the the other side of the wall how I wonder which side of the fence I’m actually standing on — the one Jesus calls the Blessed:
“If any national citizenship is prioritized more than our citizenship in heaven, and the care of all the citizens of earth, can any of us claim discipleship of Jesus?”
Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who hunger and seek for rightness… for they are on the right side of history.
Or do I stand on the side Jesus called out with The Anti-Beatitudes of the Multitudes — the 4 Woes of the Comfortable:
“But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already received your comfort.
Woe to you who are well fed now,
for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.
Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” (Luke 6:25-26)
Woe to those who are rich in comfort now,
well fed now,
who laugh now,
who are spoken well of now…
for they are on wrong side of things for all eternity.
Esther Havens
Esther Havens
I look down at my feet on this side — and her feet on the other side.
Maybe those of us who are on the comfortable side of things now — will be on the hellish side of things for forever?
“Which side of things you are on now, decides which side of forever you are on. Share what you have now — or you’ll have your share of woe for forever.”
And those who are on the poor side of things now — will be on the blessed side of things for forever?
Which side of things you are on now, decides which side of forever you are on.
I look up and look her in the eye — and all I can hear is Jesus, sorting goats and sheep :
Share what you have now — or you’ll have your share of woe for forever.
And my chest’s burning with conviction and I tighten my grip on my sister’s hand on the other side of the wall, and I can hear it loud, reverberating off all the walls within, and it’s like the rocks and the ground and the crosses on both sides of the wall are crying out with the the Word of God and it’s all I can hear, standing there:
“For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.…” (Ephesians 2:14)
A moment can speak to you, cut right to the quick — if you let it.
And the woman on the others side of the wall drops her scissors into her plastic bag of bottle tops and in a moment, what’s between us is cut right down, and my heart is cut right open. I look her right in the eye and this I know:
We can make room to love.
This Giving Tuesday — might you simply give the gift of your time to learn more about what is happening at borders?Simply give the gift of time to consider what it means to Welcome The Stranger and how Christians can Biblically understand immigration.
Give just a minute or two to consider these questions about the border crisis and the asylum process from World Relief.
Give the gift of your presence for just a minute over here at the Evangelical Immigration Table and consider “a bipartisan solution on immigration that:
Respects the God-given dignity of every person
Protects the unity of the immediate family
Respects the rule of law
Guarantees secure national borders
Ensures fairness to taxpayers
Establishes a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for
those who qualify and who wish to become permanent residents” — check out more at the Evangelical Immigration TableAnd if you are led, this Giving Tuesday, consider giving to World Relief (check out their work here) — and support World Relief’s work to keep families together at the border.
We are only truly caring about people — when we care about the policies that are truly effecting people.
So we press in and care because we have to quietly ask:
Does the reason God command us to love the stranger more than He commands us to love Himself —- is because loving the stranger is how we love God Himself?
December 2, 2019
Teaching Our Children We Have a Future: No Matter What We’re Facing
For many years, Patrick and Ruth Schwenk have faithfully encouraged and equipped parents to pass on faith to their children. Today, they are living with an even greater sense of urgency. Over the past two years they have helped their kids walk through the scariest time in their lives with Patrick’s unimaginable cancer diagnosis. This has only fueled their desire to help parents pass on their faith in order to prepare them for whatever they may face in life. With their newest devotional, Faith Forward Family, Patrick and Ruth help families nourish a faith that lasts a lifetime. It is a grace to welcome Patrick and Ruth to the farm’s front porch today….
guest post by Patrick and Ruth Schwenk
January 17th, 2018 transformed our lives.
We had just picked up our oldest son from school, when Patrick’s cell phone rang.
We were waiting for the results of lab work ordered the previous week.
“Would you spell that for me?” I (Patrick) asked. I began scribbling a word I had never heard of and couldn’t spell on the only piece of paper I could find in our car.
Sensing my confusion and wanting to break the awkward silence, the nurse on the other end finally said, “It’s a kind of blood cancer. I’m so sorry.”
The word “cancer” bounced around my head like a pinball, ricocheting off of everything in its path, looking for a place to land. And when it finally came to rest, it exploded.
Fear.
Questions.
Anger.
Doubt.
Deep and dark sadness.
All of it, and more, hit us – leaving its mark.
“What we need, and what our kids need, is the truth that our current reality is not our final reality.”
January 17th, 2018 changed our lives, thrusting us into a world we desperately did not want to live in.
But it was also a turning point for us.
We began to wrestle with how God wanted us to walk through our new normal.
How do we faithfully and humbly trust God in the midst of this?
And with four kids, who at the time were 15, 13, 11, and 9, how do we model an honest faith, one marked by trust, hope, and obedience?
Several days after the diagnosis, we gathered our kids in our family room for the hardest conversation we’ve ever had with them. We hugged them and reminded them of our love for them.
We told them to watch the church – watch how God’s people take care of us through this time. And finally we told them that God is good and faithful – no matter what.
We know everyone suffers in a unique way. And so like us, you know just how disorienting trials can be – not only for us, but also for our kids.
What we need, and what our kids need, is the truth that our current reality is not our final reality.
Because of Jesus, we have hope.
And because of Jesus, we have a future.
In 1888, J.C. Ryle, the English writer, pastor, and father of five, wrote a sermon called “The Duties of Parents.” It was a 17-point sermon on Proverbs 22:6. These were his closing words to his church that day:
“Train well for this life, and train well for the life to come; train well for earth, and train well for heaven; train them for God, train them for Christ, and train them for eternity. Amen.”
Though this sermon has many great biblical insights, encouragements, and reminders, there is one phrase that has both stuck out, and stuck with us.
It is the phrase, “train them for eternity.” To put it simply, Ryle is reminding Christian parents to teach and train children for what really matters.
As parents, we want to “train for eternity” by parenting with the right perspective.
We want to always keep in front of our kids the truth that God has given us a promise.
“We want to always keep in front of our kids the truth that God has given us a promise.”
And it’s a promise that has the power to sustain us in the midst of life’s deepest disappointments and pain.
It is the promise that we have a future – a promise given to us in the very last book of the Bible.
Everything that is wrong with the world is going to be made right one day.
All the hurt. The brokenness. The pain. It’s going to be fixed when God makes everything new!
This is the picture, the dream, that Jesus gave John. John was one of Jesus’ oldest followers, and he was living on an island called Patmos. He had been sent there as punishment for telling others about Jesus. But there Jesus showed John an amazing picture—a dream. God’s dream for His creation.
He saw Jesus dressed like a Warrior, riding a horse. He saw Satan being defeated once and for all. He saw a big and beautiful city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven. And he heard a voice saying:
Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people. . . . They will be His people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, Jesus, seated like a King on His throne, said,
“I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:3-4)
Hope and joy exploded in John’s heart. This news, this picture, this hope was so good that all John could say at the very end of the Bible was, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”
This is our future. This is the future of God’s creation.
Jesus is going to put an end to pain, suffering, tears, and death.
“They need us to teach them and model for them a faith that trusts God no matter what.”
One day we will finally be home, with God and with one another, forever!
Our kids need to know that no matter how disorienting the present is, we have a future. They need us as parents to pass our faith forward.
They need us to teach them and model for them a faith that trusts God no matter what.
By God’s grace, Patrick’s cancer is now in remission.
Our kids have seen the kindness of Jesus in His healing and offer of hope.
They have heard us talk more now than we ever have about our future.
So in the words of Ryle, let’s train our kids well for this life.
But let’s not forget to also train them for eternity.
Together, let’s not only press on in our faith, let’s pass on our faith.
Patrick Schwenk (D. Min Talbot School of Theology) is a pastor of nearly twenty years and the co-author of For Better or For Kids: A Vow to Love Your Spouse with Kids in the House. Ruth Schwenk is the founder of the popular blog, TheBetterMom.com, and along with Patrick, RootlikeFaith.com and FortheFamily.org. She is the trusted author of several books with Harper Collins Christian, including Settle My Soul, Pressing Pause, The Better Mom Book and Devotional and For Better or For Kids.
For many years, Patrick and Ruth have helped parents grow and learn to pass on their faith. But their newest devotional is near and dear to their heart as they have helped their kids walk through the scariest time of their lives putting into practice the very message of Faith Forward.
In Faith Forward Family Devotional, Patrick and Ruth help you pass on your faith with devotions you can do at your own pace as a family. Each devotion features a Bible passage, a teaching that’s applicable for kids of any age, key ideas to learn about God and His character, questions to spark family discussion, and a prayer. Whatever season of parenting you are in, sharing this devotional time together will help your children nourish a faith that lasts a lifetime.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
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