Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 97
July 29, 2019
Tired of all the indifference? Try this:
John Cortines and Greg Baumer are two guys who get money. But far more importantly, they love Jesus and have allowed Him to renovate their hearts in a radical way. Their two families met at Harvard, which was the beginning of a transformation that took them from wanting more, to giving more. Their book True Riches: What Jesus Really Said About Money and Your Heart captures a new way to think about money, rooted in what Jesus taught. It’s a grace to welcome them to the front porch today…
guest post by John Cortines and Greg Baumer
“H
ey, Daddy. What’cha doin’? Can I help?”
My (John’s) four-year-old has asked me this question a thousand times. No matter what my answer is, he wants in. Fixing a curtain rod, restringing the Weed Eater, sending an email, cooking breakfast, running to the store. He wants in on all of it!
Does he love curtain rods, emails, or shopping trips? Not really. He loves me.
“What if we approached God with the enthusiasm of a four-year-old?”
He wants to be with me, to be taught by me, and to receive the loving affirmation that only a father can give, as we take on a project together.
And you know what? I love when he comes to me like this. Even though I’m an imperfect dad, I nearly always invite him in.
Our Father God is the perfect dad, and like a good earthly dad, he loves when we approach him. He invites us into what he’s doing. What if we approached God with the enthusiasm of a four-year-old?
“Hey, God, what’cha doin’? Can I help?”
God has lovingly already said yes. He’s adopted us as His children through Jesus and has invited us into His work.
He answers us, “Yes, my child. Here’s my to-do list today. Do you want to help? I was hoping you’d join me.”
God’s To-Do List
Throughout scripture, God reveals three top priorities– three big things He is up to in the world.
He invites us to help with each of these, and we get to join our eternal Dad in doing His work.
As we take on these tasks, God grows our capacity to love, breaking us free from indifference.
“As we take on these tasks, God grows our capacity to love, breaking us free from indifference.”
Task 1: Serve the Poor (Mercy and Justice)
Why do Christians care so much about the poor? Because God does.
Psalm 113 describes the glory and grandeur of God in His heavenly majesty, but then takes a turn, claiming that He “looks far down” to the earth and “raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap.”
Psalm 68 identifies God as the “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows.”
Psalm 82 goes further. In a poetic contest of the gods, our God is the greatest god not because of His omnipotent power, but rather because He gives “justice to the weak and the fatherless” and “rescue[s] the weak and the needy.”
Jesus affirmed that the stakes are high, even telling a parable about how the cups of cold water we give to, or withhold from, the poor are being counted. In His story, those who fail to serve the poor are thrown into hell, away from God!
We believe in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone. We can’t earn our way to heaven by doing good things.
So why did Jesus tell this story?
Perhaps Jesus is telling us that we never truly know Him as Savior and Lord, unless we know Him well enough to figure out that His business is in caring for the downtrodden. As Jesus’ brother James wrote, “pure religion” is to be found in caring for orphans and widows in their time of need.
Claiming to be a Christian but not giving to the poor is like claiming to be a chef, but not knowing how to cook.
It just doesn’t make sense; it’s a contradiction of terms. Christians care for the needy—it’s in our spiritual DNA. As the church Father John Chrysostom puts it,
“Do not tell me you cannot look after others. If you are Christians, what is impossible is for you to not watch after them.”
“Jesus had a clear vision that His gospel would reach the ends of the earth, giving all people a chance to respond to God’s invitation.”
Task 2: Save the Lost (Evangelism)
More than once, Jesus’ instruction after helping or healing someone was, “Go and sin no more.”
What a strange thing to say! Why not, “Enjoy your life! Be blessed!” One time before He healed a paralyzed man, He said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Why would He say this?
Jesus cared for the whole person. He fed the hungry and healed the sick, but He did so in the context of holistic healing, including an invitation to enter the kingdom of God.
He knew that there was limited value in making people more comfortable in life if they were still hurtling toward eternal separation from God. He wanted to truly save them, forever.
Physical pain and suffering is secondary to our spiritual reality. In fact, Jesus’ final instruction to His disciples, known as the Great Commission, was this:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
Jesus had a clear vision that His gospel would reach the ends of the earth, giving all people a chance to respond to God’s invitation.
Today, two thousand years after Jesus walked the earth, we are within reach of this goal.
You may not be called specifically to go to the edges of the world to share the gospel, but you can give generously to support those who do.
Despite the clarity and force of the Great Commission, less than 0.1 percent of Christian income is given to global foreign missions (less than eight dollars per person, per year).
“The truest love we can show our neighbors around the globe is to bring them an opportunity to know the God who made them and loves them.”
The truest love we can show our neighbors around the globe is to bring them an opportunity to know the God who made them and loves them.
Task 3: Strengthen Believers (Discipleship)
The first half of the Great Commission is baptism, or salvation.
The second half is “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
This is the primary and ongoing task of our local churches. Jesus cares deeply about His followers having a maturing, growing, healthy faith that guides their daily lives.
In fact, the Bible clearly instructs that those who provide spiritual instruction are to be paid well: “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages.’”
The church is God’s plan for the world—His chosen vehicle to grow His family, and to serve the poor and save the lost.
Without our local churches, we would have no place to take our children for regular worship, no steady stream of biblical teaching to sit under, no gathering place for fellow believers. God is all-in for the church.
We should ask the same questions of our churches that we’d ask of any nonprofit regarding how diligently they use their resources. But we should also know that we have a huge head start as potential supporters of our churches, relative to other nonprofits.
We’re already conducting due diligence—we visit every week, we know the staff, and we witness much of the work firsthand.
Most of us know far less about the charities we support than we know about our local churches.
These three tasks are our invitation to change the world with our generosity.
Our Heavenly Father invites us into what He’s advancing in the world.
What an amazing opportunity to have our hearts shaped to be more like His, while having a positive impact on the world around us!
John Cortines and Greg Baumer are a dynamic duo who passionately advocate for a grace-driven, Jesus-centered perspective on money. They each pursued a Harvard MBA in order to pad their lifestyles, but God intersected their journey and showed them the joy of simplicity and generosity.
In True Riches: What Jesus Really Said About Money and Your Heart, they invite us to explore the words of Jesus and experience four transformations in our financial journey with Christ.
[ Our humble thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
July 27, 2019
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [07.27.19]
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:
Dirk Dallas via www.fromwhereidrone.com/gallery
Dirk Dallas via www.fromwhereidrone.com/gallery
Dirk Dallas via www.fromwhereidrone.com/gallery
take it all in? the most breathtaking views you may see all weekend…
because we all need a friend
9 Things You Didn’t Know About the Semicolon or… maybe you did?!?
so who knew? The story behind the park in the center of a city
RAINBOW BALLET © Christian Spencer / instagram @christianspencerphoto and for paintings @christianspencer_art / These photos capture the exact moment in which the sunlight penetrates the wings of a Black and white Jacobin hummingbird revealing a secret of nature that cannot be seen with our eyes. Photos contains no digital manipulation.
THE ECLIPSE © Christian Spencer / instagram @christianspencerphoto and for paintings @christianspencer_art
WINGS OF LIGHT © Christian Spencer/ instagram @christianspencerphoto and for paintings @christianspencer_art
pause at this wonder right here: A Rainbow of Light diffracts through hummingbird wings in these extraordinary photos
at 97? what he’s doing and what he shares here? really good stuff
doctors weigh in – and tell how hiking can change our brain let’s get out there today!
grateful for the gift of a beautiful sunrise with new sight – may it never get old for any of us
Cultivating Friendship with Children – a podcast with Sally Clarkson
If we as parents can learn to embrace our relationship with God, we will be empowered to create for our children and anyone else who crosses our doorsteps a true culture of love—a home environment where the life of God is breathed through all moments and love becomes the fuel for living with hope, purpose, and expectation.
now if this doesn’t make you smile a mile wide…!!!
the best: Couple helps transform blighted community, one block at a time
Miracles of Jesus: A Study of What Jesus Makes Possible
In this study you will spend time exploring all four gospels of the Bible and discovering the ways Jesus healed, provided, calmed, and resurrected. This study is about believing in the power of God who can accomplish anything. There’s nothing too big and there’s nothing too small for us to bring to Him.
Dig deeper in this new IF:Equip study in partnership with RightNow Media!
an inspiring and hopeful story: we are placemakers
A legendary Ozark chestnut tree, thought extinct, is rediscovered
glory, glory, glory
since 2015, she has has raised $40,000 for Pediatric Cancer Research
“We always say in my family that we have two choices. We can either sulk around and be really upset about what’s happening, or we can turn it into something good and be able to give back.”
5 star: come see how young Julius is giving the homeless a second shot:
“our job is to help them escape that negative cycle” #BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
Edwin Estioko
Vera Aurima
Vera Aurima
The Extreme Jobs of People in Poverty
Come see a few of those who do extreme jobs to feed their families. Though their occupations are harsh, they can teach us the dignity of work and the beauty of sacrificing to care for your loved ones.
grateful for miracles… thank you, Lord
don’t miss this one…how the wrong shoe size can change your life
how they’re finding peace… in remembering
Post of the week from these parts here
Why Wait Till Marriage? What I’d Wish I’d Known
“Girl, Who’s your Daddy?” this one never, ever gets old
bethany.seibel / Instagram
livingrealmag / Instagram
How do you live a genuinely abundant life?
In sixty vulnerably stories, the tender invitation of The Way of Abundance moves you through your unspoken broken — into the abundant life.
Pick up your own Way to Abundance & start your journey to the abundant life
How a Fool Responds to Suffering: Job 2:4–10
on repeat this week: I will Rescue You
…blessed is the one who perseveres,
who does the hard things & puts feet to the floor & just begins,
who doesn’t stop putting one brave step in front of the other
because tough times never last but those who hang on tight to God always do.
We’re remembering again today, that the God of invincible reliability, of infinite resources, of insistent love, says, “Give me everything you are carrying — because I want to carry you.”
Just exhale (right now) … and Smile. Sometimes smiling is an act of defiance against what’s pressing down hard. Sometimes smiling is an act of sheer bravery. Sometimes smiling in brokenness is how we re-member:
We are the Resurrection People & there is more happening than what seems & we practice our faith. Practice Smiling. Practice Joy. Practice counting gifts.
He’s got us today. No situation is more hopeless than our Savior is graceful.
“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you” Ps. 55:22
[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.
July 26, 2019
Would today’s church make Jesus mad?
Tim Harlow, a pastor who, 30 years ago, went to a small struggling church in Chicagoland. Today, it’s one of the largest and fastest growing churches in the country. He didn’t do it with flashing lights and free coffee. He did it by understanding the heart of a good Father in heaven, who cares more about the one sheep that’s lost, even if the 99 aren’t always happy about it. As it turns out, this principle is so important to the Father, that it was the one thing that always made Jesus mad. It’s a grace to welcome Tim to the farm’s front porch today…
We’ve got a magnet our kitchen refrigerator that says, “If Momma ain’t happy . . . ain’t nobody happy.”
It’s funny, because we all know it’s true.
I want to make one for the church that says, “If Jesus ain’t happy . . .”
Have you, like me, read the words of Jesus so many times that you don’t even realize how many red, red letters there are?
“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” (Matt. 23:33).
If someone tweeted that today, it would seem a bit inflammatory, don’t you think? That was Jesus! Though He was loving and tender, His words were sometimes sharp and biting.
We often learn more about a person from the things they don’t like than what they do like.
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
If you know anything about Jesus’ life, when you first read the title of this book, your mind likely went to the scene where Jesus threw the money changers and animals out of the temple. Exactly. Jesus was angry, and He did something positive with His anger.
He made a whip. He drove out. He scattered. He overturned. And He said, “How dare you!” (John 2:15–16)
Other times Jesus threatened people with damnation. He used some seriously condemning imagery, he even warned that it would be better if they had a big rock tied around their necks and were thrown into the sea (Matt. 18:6). That sounds more like a mafia movie, doesn’t it?
What Made Jesus Angry?
In every scriptural instance where Jesus expresses anger—the rawest of all emotions—this is the match that lit His fuse:
“Do not get in the way of God’s love.”
Think about it this way: Jesus came to provide His people direct access to the Father as demonstrated by the veil in the temple being torn at the crucifixion (Matt. 27:51).
This was an enormously symbolic part of the crucifixion that most people miss.
The area behind the veil was the Holy of Holies, where God dwelt. Only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies, and only once a year.
God set it up this way because, although He wanted His people to know how much He wanted a direct relationship with them, there was too deep a divide between their sinfulness and His holiness. He was preparing them for a Savior.
At the crucifixion, the veil was torn “from top to bottom.” This was God’s way of showing us that Jesus’ mission was complete. IT IS FINISHED.
“We have less excuse for blocking access to the love of the Father, because we’re supposed to be learning from the example of Jesus!”
Therefore, if access to the Father was Jesus’ purpose on earth, then it logically follows that it angered Jesus the most when people created barriers to that access.
There are three obvious instances of Jesus’ anger in response to the barriers people put up:
In the temple, where money changers were literally denying access to the Father, especially for the non-Jews and the poor.
During His teaching, when little children were denied access.
On the Sabbath, when religious leaders put rules above relationship and suffering above healing.
There are many more times when Jesus’ language seems to be directed in anger. I mean it’s hard to call someone a “child of hell” (Matt. 23:15) with a smile on your face. Go ahead. Try it.
Did you notice at whom His anger was most often directed?
It was at the religious people of His day. Well, the leaders of the religious people.
That would be me today, okay? He was mad at the people who supposedly spoke for God.
He was angry because they were blocking the little people from Him: children, non-Jews, women, tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners. Nope. Access denied.
It’s very easy for the church today to fall into the same bad behavior that the Pharisees, Sadducees, and religious teachers exhibited in Jesus’ day.
“Let’s look with fresh eyes at the attitudes that made Jesus angry and see if we can move things in the right direction.”
But we have less excuse for blocking access to the love of the Father, because we’re supposed to be learning from the example of Jesus!
In the movie Gladiator, the central character, Maximus, states, “Caesar once had a vision of what was supposed to be Rome, and this is not it.” Like Maximus, I believe Jesus had a vision of what the church was supposed to be, and many times, where we have ended up is not it.
If you’re confused or upset because the church dumped on you or you’ve been hurt by one of its leaders, Jesus wants you to know that is not the way He wants it to be.
If you are a Christian trying to walk faithfully but struggling to see how to do so, let’s look with fresh eyes at the attitudes that made Jesus angry and see if we can move things in the right direction.
If we could learn, or relearn, the heart of Jesus, we could play a more effective role in accomplishing His goal.
Tim Harlow is the senior pastor of Parkview Christian Church, one of the largest, fastest growing churches in America. He has spent thirty years working with people who have baggage from their past church experiences. He knows what drives people away and that the Jesus of the Bible is ultimately the hope that brings them back. Tim and his family make their home in the south suburbs of Chicago.
What if, by coming to understand God’s holy anger, we come to know a Savior we never knew before? With compelling storytelling and enlightening examinations of Scripture, in What Made Jesus Mad?, Tim Harlow journeys through the gospels and looks at what, and who, ignited Jesus’ anger. He asks, how can we respond like Jesus when good intentions, prejudices and judgments, traditions and rules, and selfish and joyless people conspire to keep others from God’s presence?
What Made Jesus Mad? retells Bible stories in a refreshing, eye-opening way, and offers readers an unforgettable reintroduction to the true character of Jesus and invites us to get to know the savior who was gracious but also blunt, and wildly passionate about bringing people to the heart of God.
[ Our humble thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
July 24, 2019
Why Wait Till Marriage? What I’d Wish I’d Known
So when I ended up walking around the block with a mama of some teenage girls this week, she turned to me and said that the stats show that there’s less than a 2% chance that her girls, or any high school kid at all, would end up marrying their high school sweethearts.
And under a high noon July sky, while we racked up steps and kept in step, she just laid it all down:
“So, because that’s the case, this is the conversation we need to have. My husband turned toward my daughters’ boyfriend and said:
‘So, Son — how do you plan to treat my daughter who will most likely end up being someone else’s wife — and how would you expect some other guy right now to be treating your wife?’“
And this mother of 4 sons, between 16 and 24, slowed right down, and I talked about how somebody sent me words that seriously gave me pause, words of a woman who seriously regretted waiting until she was married.
How she’d waited until her wedding night and how she wished she hadn’t.
How waiting wrecked a deep and real part of her.
How all those years of “no” made her ashamed of when she finally said her marital yes.
How she couldn’t be intimate after she got married because she still felt she’d be in sin.
She felt the only way she could heal, that her marriage could survive was if she chose: a God relationship or marital relations. Guess what she chose — and your first guess doesn’t count.
Hey — I get it.
I really, really get it.
I waited and, in my own kinda way — I was her.
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty
Joy Prouty After getting it into your head that you don’t — it can take a long time after you say “I do”…. for the rest of you to say I do.
There’s a story I know about that, that’s likely never going to be told. You don’t need to know the self-hating, shaming pain of that story – just that there are very caring men who know that a woman’s soul needs to feel a deep safeness before anyone should ever touch a woman’s skin.
And I guess that is exactly the point that I wished I had the language for, that I had far more fully understand in a nuanced way, that I want our sons, our daughters, to understand:
Your skin is the outer layer of your soul.
Your skin and your soul are one in ways that Hollywood and MTV and the mall won’t ever tell you.
Your skin and your soul are profoundly connected and this is a profoundly beautiful thing. There is no shame in this — only the glory of God who made your body art to reflect your soul.
So contrary to what hook-up culture may be touting in the back halls of high schools and behind the closed doors of university dorm rooms — there’s nothing casual about giving away your soul.
The union of two bodies is nothing less than the union of two souls.
“The union of two bodies is nothing less than the union of two souls.”
Physical oneness is a holy God-created ceremony to express nothing less than a soul oneness.
I guess maybe that is the tender, prayerful question: Why do with your body what you aren’t ready to do with the whole of your life?
When someone isn’t ready for forever oneness, emotional oneness, legal oneness — consider why you’d give anyone physical and soul oneness with you?
I somehow found the words to just say it outloud what had been a personal story for many: After years of saying no, and then after you say I do, sometimes there can be shame about what your body now is supposed to do — instead of beauty in what your soul gets to give.
For some of us, somehow the focus during our youth had been on mere skin — instead of on ultimate soul-intimacy.
But maybe now we could humbly and honestly talk to our kids in ways that may make waiting until marriage make more sense — and would make marital intimacy make real happy love :
The joy of physical oneness is but an echo of the joy of spiritual oneness with Christ.
“The joy of physical oneness is but an echo of the joy of spiritual oneness with Christ.”
That is the breathtaking, otherworldly miracle:
“The ecstasy and joy of sex is supposed to be a foretaste of the complete ecstasy and joy of total union with Christ,” is what theologian Tim Keller writes.
Keller powerfully, unforgettably offers:
“Great sex is a parable of the Gospel—to be utterly accepted in spite of your sin, to beloved by the One you admire to the sky.”
That might just right upend a whole hurting world of us: “Great sex is a parable of the Great Gospel.”
As God calls His people to exclusively commit to Him alone — so we’re called to commit to exclusive intimacy alone—an echo of Belovedness.
As God commits to wholly, unconditionally, and covenantally accept us forever in spite of our sin and flaws, to love us passionately to death —- so physical intimacy mirrors a whole, unconditional and covenantal acceptance of us forever in spite of our shortcomings and flaws, to love us with a passion that is willing to die-to-self.
Hook-up culture may have cheapened it and legalistic cultures may have shamed it, but the real Truth is you can’t contain the otherworldly beauty of it: Physical union is a parable of union with Christ .
Maybe: Scripture’s call to abstain from premarital and extramarital relations is not about controlling the power of sexuality — it’s about reflecting the otherworldly power of God-soul exclusivity.
Our exclusive physical oneness is to be witness of the people of God’s exclusive oneness with God. The exclusive communion between husband and wife is to reflect our exclusive communion between soul and Christ.
“The exclusive communion between husband and wife is to reflect our exclusive communion between soul and Christ.”
They may be saying something different on the university campuses but listen for the holiness of it: Union isn’t merely physical self-expression to feel good— it’s ultimately about soul self-giving to love well.
Physical union is a God-made ceremony to express the exclusivity and intimacy and totality of oneness—- and if you use physical intimacy to express anything less than that, you’ve destroyed its very meaning.
It may not be popular, but I’m thinking it’s deeply powerful: Unless physical union is about making committed, covenantal love— the essence of its God-given meaning is destroyed.
“But, I told my daughter, that she can always trust: No matter what’s happened in the past, what happens in the future — Jesus wants you, Jesus chooses you, Jesus holds you, Jesus keeps you and there isn’t one of us that hasn’t been broken and there isn’t one of us that doesn’t belong, that He doesn’t stop calling “Come, Beloved.”
And I couldn’t stop nodding, couldn’t stop blinking it back: No matter what’s happened to the rose — Jesus desperately wants the rose.
And as us two mothers of teens talked and walked and unpacked our past and what we might hope for our brave kids, I spun that ring on my finger and thought of how 25 years ago, one farm boy wanted and claimed even me and he and I have lived it: Feelings come and feelings go and feelings cannot sustain a relationship.
A relationship needs something stronger than feeling for it to endure and flourish — Relationships need the safety and strength of a binding covenant to thrive. A covenant is the most powerful infrastructure to be powerfully intimate.
And this is the epiphany for us old and married to keep remembering, that keeps renewing and reviving everything through the years:
“Your naked body deserves the gift of being shared only with someone who is covenanted to never stop loving your naked soul.”
As the covenant is necessary to be powerfully intimate — so being powerfully intimate is necessary for the covenant.
Just as much as being intimate needs first the ceremony of the covenant, the covenant needs the constant renewal of being intimate .
That ring on the finger can ring us awake: we get to keep renewing the marriage covenant with that intimate ceremony of an old and practiced passion.
And maybe — for those living the grace and gift of singleness-that-is-fully-complete-in-oneness-with-God:
Your naked body deserves the gift of being shared only with someone who is covenanted to never stop loving your naked soul.
When we turned the corner under that July sky and walk in step with grace, it’s there in full, glorious view:
amazing grace that loves all of us all the way up to the sky.
July 22, 2019
When you need encouragement as you wait
Tricia Lott Williford is a rare person who wraps words around the depth of her heart and helps us all process the delights and sorrows of life together. She shares the hard pieces of her story, and the redemption that God offers in the midst of it. Tricia writes and speaks with raw transparency, honest grief, winsome joy, and a captivating voice. It’s a joy to welcome Tricia to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Tricia Lott Williford
I
completely love the GPS apps on my phone.
My mind serves me in a lot of ways, but wayfinding is not one of my strengths. Insert: All the driving apps.
I’ll admit, but I won’t apologize: I’m spoiled by them. Do you remember the days, even if only in childhood, when the person in the passenger seat held the giant map with the route highlighted in yellow marker, and the only possible way to know “how much longer” was to guess at the distance between your fingertips?
Detours and construction sure didn’t show up on that map, so your trip could be suddenly delayed by hours, and there was almost nothing to be done about it.
“Even if we can trust and believe that God is in control, we may not like how He is driving this bus we’re all in together.”
Those days are over; now we can know for reasonably certain that we will reach our destination in two hours and twenty-one minutes, and if there is an ever-so-slight change in that plan, the GPS will quickly inform us.
But making our way through this road trip of life seems to be more of the old-fashioned map variety. “Looks like I should go this way, maybe that’s the best plan, but I can’t know for sure, and I can’t tell where I would find any Starbucks on this route.”
Give me my trusty apps, complete with updates and icons and police alerts, thank you very much.
Waiting feels hard because we aren’t in control.
We are living in a time when something is wrong every single day. Hurricanes. Investigations. Allegations. Another mass shooting with another list of victims.
Perhaps each year of being single on another birthday reminds us that we’d dreamed of being married by this age.
Other years of wedding-anniversary dates remind us that we thought we would stillbe married at this age.
There are diagnoses. Disappointments. Natural disasters.
All reminders of how very little we can truly control. When we lose control, we get terrified quickly.
And even if we can trust and believe that God is in control, we may not like how He is driving this bus we’re all in together.
I cannot make you believe He is good. But I can only trust the sovereignty of God because I also trust the sweetness of Jesus.
“I cannot make you believe He is good. I can only trust the sovereignty of God because I also trust the sweetness of Jesus.”
He is not a flippant God without care for His children. He can see things we cannot see; He has information we do not have.
If He says no, then I can choose to trust that this answer serves for a greater plan—and maybe even my greater good—that I cannot see.
When I cannot make sense of it, I can remind myself that I do not hold all the pieces of this puzzle. And I can recall that He has always been with me, closer than my own breath, even when He didn’t give me what I wanted.
Even, and perhaps especially, when He gave me exactly what I didn’t want.
I deeply love this verse: “You did not forget to punish the guilty or listen to the cries of those in need” (Psalm 9:12, cev). Those first four words have captured my heart. You did not forget.
In the midst of the waiting seasons, and even in the midst of the seasons-after-the-wait, I need to rest in this deep truth: God did not forget.
Those four words prompted me to list the things my God has not forgotten. I discovered this practice is good for the soul, whether the sun is shining or not.
You did not forget about me.
You did not forget about Tucker.
You did not forget about Tyler.
You did not forget about my aching heart.
You did not forget that my children were fatherless.
You did not forget how I love to love.
You did not forget that I was single, or even more importantly, a single mom.
You did not forget that Peter longed to be set free from gripping addiction.
You did not forget that children everywhere are hungry.
You did not forget about the senseless violence that is happening all around us.
You did not forget that you are the Lord of lords, the Prince of Peace.
You did not forget that we are waiting for you.
You did not forget your promises.
You did not forget the sparrows.
You did not forget to remember.
“God did not forget.”
Make your own list. Say what your heart needs to know he remembers. In your honesty, may you make way for truth and new perspective.
He has not forgotten your sadness.
He has not forgotten that you still want a baby in your arms.
He has not forgotten your cry for healing.
He has not forgotten that you need a job.
He has not forgotten that you have bills to pay.
He has not forgotten that you long for a companion.
He has not forgotten what you have lost.
He has not forgotten our nation.
He has not forgotten you’ve been betrayed.
He did not forget about you.
Even as you wait, He has not forgotten.
You do not wait alone, and you do not wait for nothing. He did not forget.
When my friend Sheri visited Kenya a couple years ago, she learned that the Kenyans’ concept of time is very different from ours. They are never in a hurry. It’s almost as though they have learned to refuse to be rushed. They are fully in this moment, doing what is now.
Kenyans have a saying in Swahili: Haraka Haraka Haina Baraka. It means, “Hurry by hurry, and the blessing is lost.”
Lift your head, oh patient one. Look for the blessing in the now.
The whole earth is full of God’s glory, so keep your eyes wide open.
“May the God Who Sees open your eyes to see glimpses of His work beneath the soil and behind the scenes.”
Waiting is a time for watching.
May the God Who Sees open your eyes to see glimpses of His work beneath the soil and behind the scenes.
The long days that feel empty and useless, the lists of questions without answers, they will become something. The jobs you must work before you get the one you’re waiting for.
The people you will date before you find the one you’re waiting for. The pages in your journal that hold your many questions.
The long walks of wondering and wandering.
These are making you. These are your becoming.
Just you wait.
~ ~ ~
Lord, today You know what I need to do.
But You can do more in my waiting than in my doing I can do.
“To Those Who Wait,” Bethany Dillon
For he will complete what he appoints for me,
and many such things are in his mind.
Job 23:14, esv
Tricia Lott Williford is a remarried widow, a writer, teacher, reader, and thinker, and the author of three books. Thousands of readers join her each morning as they sign online to read today’s funny, poignant stories that capture the fleeting moments of life. She collects words, quotes, and bracelets, and she lives in Denver with her new husband and two sons.
Tricia has recently released her book, Just. You. Wait.: Patience, Contentment, and Hope for the Everyday. Everybody waits. We wait for a spouse, wait for a baby, wait on our children, wait for our parents. We wait for clarity and direction. We wait on a job, a promotion, a new direction. We wait for hope, for healing, and for miracles. We wait on God. And when we misunderstand what waiting is about, we can get confused about what God is up to.
Waiting is one of God’s favorite tools. He can do certain things in our hearts, our lives, and our relationships while we wait―things we cannot experience once we’ve opened the gift we have been waiting for. So just you wait, because everyone takes their turn in the waiting room. It’s a long and painful fact of life, but shortcuts and microwaves aren’t the answer. God is at work behind the scenes in invisible ways you can’t see . . . yet. Just you wait and see how ready you’ll be if you spend your waiting well.
[ Our humble thanks to Navpress for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
It’s hard to be confident when you feel overlooked
Tricia Lott Williford is a remarried widow, and she is closely acquainted with the desperate, lonely feeling that God has overlooked her while he gives miracles to other people. Six years ago, her husband was healthy and vibrant and here. After a twelve-hour illness, he died suddenly, leaving her as a widowed single mom with two fatherless children who weren’t yet in kindergarten. Take a look at her honest words on how we can still believe God is good, even when we feel like he has overlooked our pain. It’s a grace to welcome Tricia to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Tricia Lott Williford
I
have a really hard time with stories of miraculous healing.
It’s not because I don’t believe it happened to that person, it’s not that I don’t believe it’s possible, and it’s not because I don’t believe God can—and does—heal when He wants to.
“It’s hard to keep your confidence when you feel overlooked.”
It’s just that it hasn’t happened in my life.
When God gives to other people in a way He hasn’t given to you, it’s easy to feel left out, and it’s hard to want to hear how good He has been to other people.
When miracles are happening around me, sometimes the sovereignty card is a hard one to hold.
It’s hard to keep your confidence when you feel overlooked.
Has this ever happened to you?
Perhaps you’re in this place right now, where miracles are happening all around you while you’ve been asking God for one.
Maybe someone you love is ill with cancer, paralysis, or dementia.
“Perhaps you’re in this place right now, where miracles are happening all around you while you’ve been asking God for one.”
Maybe you or someone you love is dealing with depression, bipolar disorder, a different mental disability, or thoughts of suicide, and you’re asking God to heal their mind and lift that oppression from them and from you.
Maybe you live with the sorrow of infidelity or infertility, or maybe you’re recovering from a miscarriage or the unspeakable heartbreak of losing a child.
Maybe you’re reeling with unwanted singleness. Perhaps you know how pervasive loneliness can be, especially inside a difficult marriage.
Maybe you’re aching over a financial crisis, an embarrassing failure, an ongoing conflict in your family, a loss of reputation, or a prodigal child you wish would come home.
Maybe you wish your parents would get back together or stop fighting.
Maybe you wish your depression would go away, or you could stop cutting yourself, or start eating.
Maybe you wish you could see the beauty in you, or maybe you wish you could disappear all together.
Maybe you have a miracle that you begged God for, and He said no.
Maybe you haven’t reconciled that severe brokenness, and you’re still pretty angry and hurt.
My goodness, I get that.
“We can’t figure out what He’ll decide, and we can’t base our own confidence on His favor. We can, however, base our confidence on His faithfulness.”
Some people claim that strong faith is defined by throwing our energies into begging God for a miracle that will take away our suffering, and then believing without doubting that He will do it.
But faith is not measured by our ability to manipulate God to get what we want. It is measured by our willingness to submit to what He wants.
The truth is, there’s no formula we can count on for when Jesus says yes and when He says no. That’s the catch with sovereignty: He gets to decide yes, no, if, when, and how.
We can’t figure out what He’ll decide, and we can’t base our own confidence on His favor. We can, however, base our confidence on His faithfulness.
Miracles are temporary, but the word of Jesus, His teachings—they bring eternal life. Real life.
Your faith in Him, your belief that He is real, even when the miracle isn’t yours, even when He doesn’t say yes to you—this is what brings eternal life.
If our hope is centered in this life, in what we will have while we are here, then we will forever be disappointed.
But if we hope for what we do not have, if we believe God is for us, then we can wait patiently for what He has promised.
Our ability to endure hardship is almost limitless—if we have the confidence to live in hope.
Where are you struggling with God in your life?
In what circumstances do you need to hear God say to you—even in the midst of your deepest longing, your deepest grief, your deepest desires unmet—“Do not be afraid; trust me”?
“Our ability to endure hardship is almost limitless—if we have the confidence to live in hope.”
It might begin with you simply confessing that you don’t trust Him.
I encourage you today to start the discipline of being honest with God. Write it down, draw it, or sing it. Just promise to be honest.
My journals bind the pages of my life.
I have been deeply and brutally honest with God about my anger, doubts, and loneliness.
I have written down breaths of honesty I could not bear to say out loud.
Saying to God, “Lord, I don’t trust you, but I want to,” is the beginning of hope when the miracle isn’t yours.
This is the root of confidence even when God doesn’t say yes.
Ask Him to show you where He is as He says no.
He’ll show you: He’s with you.
Tricia Lott Williford is a remarried widow, a writer, teacher, reader, and thinker, and the author of three books. Thousands of readers join her each morning as they sign online to read today’s funny, poignant stories that capture the fleeting moments of life. She collects words, quotes, and bracelets, and she lives in Denver with her new husband and two sons.
Tricia has recently released her book, Just. You. Wait.: Patience, Contentment, and Hope for the Everyday. Everybody waits. We wait for a spouse, wait for a baby, wait on our children, wait for our parents. We wait for clarity and direction. We wait on a job, a promotion, a new direction. We wait for hope, for healing, and for miracles. We wait on God. And when we misunderstand what waiting is about, we can get confused about what God is up to.
Waiting is one of God’s favorite tools. He can do certain things in our hearts, our lives, and our relationships while we wait―things we cannot experience once we’ve opened the gift we have been waiting for. So just you wait, because everyone takes their turn in the waiting room. It’s a long and painful fact of life, but shortcuts and microwaves aren’t the answer. God is at work behind the scenes in invisible ways you can’t see . . . yet. Just you wait and see how ready you’ll be if you spend your waiting well.
[ Our humble thanks to Navpress for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
July 20, 2019
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [07.20.19]
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 right here:
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
grateful for friends who continually capture the extraordinary — and kindly share with us here…
breathtaking: 50 Winning Photos: #Light2019 Photography Contest
Launching a rocket into space is one of humankind’s crowning achievements.
Come learn about how rockets work, what happens during a launch, and how centuries of innovation made space exploration possible.
so when her lemonade stand for charity was robbed? the community stepped up big time
#BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
love it! this officer’s selflessness? sparked a chain reaction.
Who can we help today?!? #BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
the man who wrote a message in a bottle 50 years ago? has been tracked down
so who knew? come see how she forages weeds — that are served in high end restaurants
love: Man who was once in foster care adopts 3 children of his own
glory, glory, glory
Lina Marcela Alarcon Molina
Jonatan Ruiz
Galia Oropeza
LOVE!: Shooting for the Moon: 6 Kids in Poverty Share Their Dreams
how community and gratitude helped to pull him out of depression
because kindness matters
For over 25 years, Seed Company has worked tirelessly to bring God’s Word to the heart languages of the world.
They’ve already engaged with 1,600+ languages through 1,300+ active local partners, and continue to mobilize our thousands of prayer partners to actively intercede on behalf of the 100+ countries where they serve—transforming communities and lives.
an absolute must-read , this one.
On Becoming Conservative Liberals
After nine months of homelessness, he found his feet and is doing amazing things
the incredible story of the small army of women behind-the-scenes —
who fashioned and sewed the Apollo’s spacesuits
tears: you’ve got to meet them. So much for us to learn right here.
Post of the week from these parts here
…yeah, we all came from somewhere.
And maybe today needs us to reach past all the headlines & fence lines & lines drawn in the sand, & reach out.
Because where we come from is more than countries — we come from stories.
And this story is for all of us — because: Outreach can change the world like outrage never will.
About Where We’re From & Refugees & Where We Are All Headed
Be encouraged. Be expectant.
Maybe right now, we all just need the gift of Joy… a bit of Hope? To stand together — FOR each other — knowing that an act of kindness, giving it forward, can be more powerful than any sword in starting movements that move us all toward Love.
Want the gift of light breaking into all the broken places, into all the places that feel kinda abandoned? Break free with the tender beauty of Be The Gift …
And if you grab a copy of Be The Gift? We will immediately email you a link to a FREE gift of THE WHOLE 12 MONTH *Intentional* Acts of Givenness #BeTheGIFT Calendar to download and print from home or at your local print shop! Just let us know that you ordered Be The Gift over here.
You only get one life to love well.
Pick up Be The Gift & live the life you’ve longed to
Lake Volta, Ghana: the world’s largest man-made lake sustains thousands of lives – but its fishing industry is built on the backs of vulnerable children.
So grateful for the saving work of Compassion International
How to Respond to Tragedy: Job 1:6–22
on repeat this week: In Christ Alone
…so, you know how you’re sticking with it & doing that hard thing? You’ve just gotta know, you don’t stand alone, you don’t walk alone, you don’t go alone: “But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength” 2. Tim4:17
And nothing can happen today that will stop Him from sticking right there with you & giving you strength to do this thing.
There is nothing to fear today —
because there is nothing, not mess-ups, not distractions, not less-than-hoped-fors, nothing in the universe that can happen today to separate you from the loving hands of God.
There is nothing to fear no matter what —
because there is nothing, not sickness, not pain, not diagnosis, Not Even Death, nothing in the universe that can ever separate you from the loving hands of God.
There is Never. Anything. to fear — because there is Nothing in the universe that can Ever. separate. you. from the loving hands of God.
So Go Live Brave! His Love Makes You Brave!
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
July 19, 2019
I am no longer gullible, and neither are you
Kat Armstrong’s passion for the scriptures, and for women, is unmatched. Although we haven’t met in person, I feel as though our hearts are knit together in the sisterhood of Christ. He is her everything, and it permeates her writing. The word of God, holy, true, and sacred, is even more beautiful read as a literary masterpiece. What better way to honor the inspiration of the Bible than by reading it in a way that brings the Old and New Testaments together as a whole body of God’s message to us. It’s a grace to welcome Kat to the farm’s front porch today…
Make an entire gender uneasy about loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, and you will see how our enemy effectively sidelines women.
Women are often told we need to be careful with Bible knowledge, as if a universal holy reverence for the words of God is not for all people.
I wonder if we are picturing ourselves in a garden, facing a serpent, tempted to be snared like Eve, and disregarding what Jesus redeemed on the cross.
I used to believe it’s not wise for women to be students of theology or hold positions of leadership in the workforce or in the church because we are all daughters of Eve.
And she did not steward her knowledge well; look where it got us. The gospel message was not safe with Eve.
So that natural next question is, will it be with us?
Joy Prouty
Joy ProutyWhile there are a few verses that are confusing about the role of women in the fall of humanity and in the church, there are plenty of timeless truths that all agree apply to women: We are image bearers of the one true living God, and we reflect his glory because we were made in his likeness (Gen. 1:26).
“We are image bearers of the one true living God, and we reflect his glory because we were made in his likeness (Gen. 1:26).”
We were designed to wage war against spiritual forces to push back the powers of darkness (Eph. 6:10–17).
We have been sealed with the Spirit of the almighty God. As a result, we are competent ministers of the gospel (2 Cor. 3:6).
We have been called by God into a holy calling, not according to our gender, abilities, or education, but based on God’s grace, an irrevocable calling to be God’s own (2 Tim. 1:9).
Matthew tells us we are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14–16).
Sister, Paul says we have everything we need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3) and every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph. 1:3).
And we probably need to be reminded that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection secured us all an epic Eden redo.
John, the beloved disciple, started his gospel with “In the beginning” the same way Genesis does. As a parallel work to Genesis, John’s gospel is like a second Genesis or a second beginning.
“Saying her name, Jesus caught Mary’s attention, and she found her Great Teacher.”
By the time we get to John 20 and Christ’s resurrection, John has prepared us to see Jesus’s words and actions as a movement of redemption. He wrote:
On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him!” (John 20:1–2 hcsb)
As Peter and John sprinted to the garden tomb to verify Mary’s story, they found the stone rolled away and Jesus’s linens just as she described. Likely distraught by the missing body, both men headed back to the Upper Room to mourn, but Mary stayed at the grave site to cry.
Two angels appeared to Mary and asked her why she was sobbing, but they already knew why. Jesus’s body had disappeared, and she didn’t know where to find it.
Turning around, she saw Jesus, mistaking Him for the owner of the garden. Mary supposed Jesus was the gardener and—I want us to catch this—she was not right, but she wasn’t wrong either.
Jesus is the Cosmic Gardener, and He was about to replant humanity in the second garden.
Saying her name, Jesus caught Mary’s attention, and she found her Great Teacher.
“Don’t cling to Me,” Jesus told her, “for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My brothers and tell them that I am ascending to My Father and your Father—to My God and your God.”
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what He had said to her (John 20:17–18 hcsb).
For anyone like me, who assumes a woman’s passion for service is restrained by Eve’s example, look again at John’s gospel, which highlights Mary Magdalene as a model disciple in the resurrection story.
In the first garden, Eve was placed inside it by God’s initiative, and we can assume it was during the day because the lights had already been turned on (Gen. 1). In Mary’s story, she comes from outside the garden by her own initiative, and it is still dark outside.
“Eve was deceived, but Mary was commissioned.”
In the first garden, Eve was created after Adam, but in Mary’s story, she is the first person to see the resurrected Jesus—before Peter, before John. She’s the first. Hashtag it, please.
In the first garden, Eve faced the fruit-producing tree of life and initiated with her rebellion a curse of death for all. And the fruit was available when she reached for it.
In the second garden, Mary Magdalene faced a tomb of death, only to find Jesus had initiated the resurrection life for all. And in the grave, there was no body.
In the first garden, the serpent approached Eve with cunning questions that sow doubt.
In the second garden, angels greeted Mary Magdalene and then Jesus Himself appeared, all asking compassionate questions that sow hope.
In the first garden, Eve hid her naked shame from God’s presence before being ousted from Eden.
In the second garden, Mary wept without shame in Jesus’ presence, and it was Jesus’ clothes that were missing.
Eve was deceived, but Mary was commissioned.
“The curse of being easily deceived died when Jesus rose from the dead.”
Eve rebelled, but Mary obeyed.
The contrast and the repurposing is so vivid, so clear. I can barely make it through either passage without weeping.
I am no longer a gullible daughter of Eve, and neither are you.
When my concerns about biblical deception arise within me, I stand condemned as I hear my enemy say, “You are just like your mother, Eve.”
Instead, I should replay my Savior’s words to Mary: “Go and tell your brothers.”
Because the curse of being easily deceived died when Jesus rose from the dead.
Somebody get my Wonder Woman crown; I’m feeling inspired.
Kat Armstrong is an innovative ministry leader, sought-after communicator, and the cofounder and executive director of Polished, a network that gathers young professional women to navigate career and explore faith together. Kat and her husband, Aaron, live in Dallas, Texas, with their son, Caleb, and attend Dallas Bible Church, where Aaron serves as the lead pastor.
What’s holding you back from living out your identity as a woman of God? Many of us as women feel conflicted about Jesus’ calling on our lives because a woman trying to love God beyond her heart and soul, with her mind and strength, can be thought of as crossing some line or unspoken boundary.
Bible teacher Kat Armstrong challenges us to ask: “Why am I allowing limitations on my pursuit of Jesus’ calling?” In No More Holding Back, she debunks five common myths about women: Women Can’t Be Trusted to Learn and Lead, I Don’t Have a Lot to Offer, My Greatest Joy Is Marriage and Highest Calling Is Motherhood, I Am Too Much to Handle, and Leading Ladies Don’t Fit in Supporting Roles.
No More Holding Back invites us to discover the joy and freedom of being all in for Jesus.
[ Our humble thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
July 17, 2019
About Where We’re All From & Refugees & Where We Are All Headed
H
e’s from the Voskamps, from the Netherlands, from the neighborhood of VanderHoefs and Van Veens and VandeBoogarts and VandeKemps, and he has older brothers and sisters who only learned to speak English when they slid into a desk at school.
Me, I’m from the Murphys and the Kehoes and the Kennedys, the starving Irish Catholics who about died in the potato famine and found themselves in “largest-single population movement of the 19th century.”
“Love let her in.”
My great-great grandpa William and his slip of a wife, Mary, were one of almost a quarter of the entire nation of Ireland that washed up as desperate refugees on the shores of North America in what was known as “coffin ships.” Newspaper advertisements for jobs regularly read in bold: “No Irish Need Apply.”
And our youngest daughter, she’s from China where more than nearly one million ethnic minorities are currently being tortured in concentration camps across the Chinese province of Xinjiang as this sentence is read, and she’s from crass cheap shots about being made in China and people constantly expressing surprise over how well she speaks English, and the very first who reviewed the medical file of her congenital heart defect looked me in the eye and said,
“Who let a child like this into this country?”
I looked that doctor right back in the eye:
“Love let her in.”
We all came from somewhere else and we are all going to be like no one else and we all get to belong above all else.
“We all came from somewhere else and we are all going to be like no one else and we all get to belong above all else.”
We all belong to the land under our feet because we all belong to each other.
We are all the same in that every single one of us is different — and that doesn’t effect our value any differently.
Where you’re from should never determine how anyone’s going to treat you.
Regardless of citizenhood, everyone, by God, has earned the dignity of personhood.
(And just because we are all from somewhere else doesn’t mean that we don’t get to have a voice now about how to make here better.)
Where we come from makes where we are now richer.
Where we come from isn’t one place on a map; where we come from is constellation of dreams and places and stars.
Where we come from is more than countries — we come from stories.
We come from narratives of hope and biographies of courage and we are more than the lands we come from and the languages we speak: we all come from fields of dreams.
“We are all the same in that every single one of us is different — and that doesn’t effect our value any differently..”
No matter what words anyone uses, hear the hope between the lines and believe the best in people because a house divided against itself crushes the whole community.
As a family, we spent months filling out a ream of paperwork to sponsor first a Middle Eastern family of 6 from the war-torn apocalypse that is Allepo, Syria, and then, an African family of 5 from the tangled bloodshed that has been the Congo.
And when our baby girl turned 4 we invited only family to the party — and our Chinese-born daughter blew out her candles between our Syrian girls and our Congolese boys, because nationality doesn’t determine family: all of humanity is family.
“Nationality doesn’t determine family: all of humanity is family.”
We are from farmers and we are from dirt and we are from mechanics and grease up to your elbows and we are from women who cut flowers from the garden to bring to Sunday morning services at Chapel.
We are from boterkoek with your afternoon coffee and oliebollen rolled in icing sugar for New Years and fried rice for breakfast and steamed dumplings from the Chinese grocery store as a weekend treat.
We’re from finding housing for newcomer refugees, and enrolling minority, non-English speaking children in a country-town school, and morning ESL classes with newcomers from Namibia and Turkey and Iraq and Burundi, we’re from Swahili music with heaping plates of mandazi and Syrian tea with second helpings of baklava and we are from Dutch Reformed and Irish Catholics and the storied history of ancient China.
Syrian ‘daughters’ reciting “Blessed are the merciful — for they will be shown mercy.” (I mean….)“Outreach can change the world like outrage never will.”
And last week, my Irish-descent Mama, she volunteered at Vacation Bible School hosted by Dutch immigrants, and every day she picked up her Chinese-born granddaughter and our Syrian-born Muslim refugee newcomers, and when they all memorized the Beatitudes together?
And I witnessed those Muslim girls who once lived under searing bombs dropping on their roofs of their whole town now stand safe before me and recite the words of Jesus: “Blessed are the merciful for they shall be shown mercy”?
The dirt under me about felt like holy glory and there is a mercy that meets us from somewhere else.
Evil may come from somewhere else, bombs falling from the skies over their heads — but love of mercy had let them in. Hasn’t His mercy invited us all in?
When I reached out and hugged those girls like the family that they are, it felt like, wherever we’ve come from, we can even now come a bit more into the Kingdom of God.
Outreach can change the world like outrage never will.
They, and he, and she, and we — we could all come from a place of grace and head Home with every nation, tribe, and tongue with love.
In Canada, our family & MCC warmly invites you to sponsor a refugee family
“Did you know that the number of people forcibly displaced from their homes now exceeds 70 million —including nearly 26 million refugees?
Choose welcome at a time where there are more refugees than ever before and Canada has the opportunity to respond – and a fund willing to cover most of the expenses! Learn how to sponsor a refugee family today!
Learn how you can sponsor a refugee family at almost no financial cost today!
Canadians have the opportunity to resettle refugees from crisis into community through the Blended Visa Office Referral (BVOR) Program! This program is designed to match private sponsors in Canada to vulnerable refugees who have been selected and screened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Canadian government – there are currently 1000 refugees on the list awaiting sponsors.
There is a unique opportunity currently available through the BVOR Fund. This fund is being managed by MCC’s partner, The Refugee Hub and will be open between May 2 – Aug 31 (or until it runs out)! With BVOR sponsorships, the government provides 6 months of financial support, this fund would match the remaining 6 months, and sponsors would be responsible to cover the start up costs (much of which can be donated in kind – see here).
Check out MCC’s Choose Welcome Campaign and be in touch with our friend Kaylee Perez at kayleeperez@mcco.ca to discuss how you can get involved today & Choose Welcome!
July 15, 2019
HEART EYES: Because His Amazing Grace is Prime!
So — interrupting our kinda regular programming around these parts to share grace that’s just too great to keep to ourselves:
And maybe? In the midst of all the good stuff happening in all the places, the greatest prime days — are the days when we live like Jesus & His amazing grace is prime, and honestly, who can pass up getting a chance to pass on His amazing grace by choosing fair trade — and make the story of your life tell a beautiful and fair story.
Our family here and our fair trade team at Grace Crafted Home, are kinda giddy happy to beckon you into a story where Jesus and His grace gets the prime glory for days and days and forever.
Softest. PJs. Ever. 75% off!All heart eyes — our girls reach for these favorite compfy PJ pants at the end of the day. #FairTrade
Softest. PJs. Ever. That’s what these are. Put them on and you might find yourself wearing them to the grocery store. Comfy Pajama Pants marked down to $22 ($88 value)–no code necessary, limited sizes & quantities available: Grace Crafted Home
Batik Boutique offers training to marginalized women in Malaysia. One of these women is called Sumarni. She now heads Batik’s Quality Control department and for this particular set of pajama pants, she led the team in dealing delicately with the hand-dyed textiles. Each pajama pant is unique in design and crafted by an artisan with love.
Comfy Pajama Pants marked down to $22 ($88 value)–no code necessary, limited sizes & quantities available: Grace Crafted Home
Additionally, each purchase directly benefits the woman who made it, providing her with safe work at Batik’s sewing center.
These pajamas are ready-to-wear-in-public, donning a classic black and white color palette in a trendy pattern. Nevertheless, who doesn’t need a soft pair of PJ pants?
These Ballet Flats are business in the front, party in the back.
And by party, we mean, gorgeous embroidered pattern.
Yep! 58% off!Packed only one pair of shoes when I spoke last spring in Romania and France –> These flats right here.
And you can only imagine how they walked thousands of steps each day — & if I had to pack only one pair of shoes all over again. Yep, only these, all over again. #FairTrade
These flats are business in the front, party in the back. And by party, we mean, gorgeous embroidered pattern. Ballet Flats marked down to $49 ($118 value)–no code necessary, limited sizes & quantities available
The Root Collective shoes are made by hand by various, skilled residents of Guatemala City, Guatemala.
These flats are business in the front, party in the back. And by party, we mean, gorgeous embroidered pattern. Ballet Flats marked down to $49 ($118 value)–no code necessary, limited sizes & quantities available
Otto, a skilled resident who was born in a slum called La Limonada and raised in a culture of gangs and violence. Despite his surroundings, Otto became a shoemaker and was able to rise above his surroundings and even help transform his own community. His dream is to teach former gang members his skills in hopes that those who come after will not have to grow up in such dark conditions.
Ballet Flats marked down to $49 ($118 value)–no code necessary Once these are in your closet, it will be hard not to reach for them every single day, because they look great with just about anything.
Leather Clutch 50% off!
Sleek, slim & stylish— hand-made to be a gal’s favorite accessory.This is my go-to clutch. To Zehrs’ grocery in town for the weekly grocery run. To our little stone church on Sunday mornings. To the doctors’, the coffee shop, prayer meeting — you name it, this clutch goes with everything and goes everywhere with me. Because, I mean — Look at the story it tells!
Leather Clutch marked down to $44 ($89 value)–no code necessary, limited quantity available
Leather Clutch marked down to $44 ($89 value)–no code necessary, limited quantity available
Sleek, slim and stylish—this clutch was hand-made to be a gal’s favorite accessory. Exquisite embroidery supplements this luxurious clutch in the chicest way. Leather Clutch marked down to $44 ($89 value)–no code necessary, limited quantity available
Each clutch is 100% hand-embroidered with the centuries-old technique of Tatreez, an art that deals with fine fabric, small holes, and lots of time. When you purchase a product from Darzah, you are enabling an artisan in Palestine to help sustain their family through safe, dignified work.
Leather Clutch marked down to $44 ($89 value)–no code necessary, limited quantity available
Annnndddd — 10% off entire order at Grace Crafted Home!
(no minimum purchase necessary)And because Jesus and His grace is PRIME — every single item at The Grace Crafted Home is 10% off too — just till tomorrow night — with 100% of proceeds supporting Mercy House Global and young, vulnerable mothers from the slums in Kenya. Because the grace we’ve been given is absolutely amazing enough to pass on and share with those in need.
Straight up: these artisan-crafted home resources? Are my favorites every single day in our farmhouse. When I do laundry, grab a cutting board, bake with the kids, exhale with a cup of coffee — it’s more than working with handmade art that it is beautiful. It’s knowing that what’s in our home — is changing and empowering families around the world. It’s passing on His amazing grace — that can make all our days kinda amazing.
We’re all in with you: Our home too is committed to being a Grace Crafted home. Because, I mean — it could come true: The story of your life can tell a beautiful & fair story — and change the story of the world.
Our favorite couch blanket, #fairtrade love: 10% off entire order (no minimum purchase necessary): From our Grace Crafted Home
10% off entire order (no minimum purchase necessary): at our Grace Crafted Home. Use coupon code GIVEGRACE10 at checkout. One use per customer. Offer ends Tuesday, July 16th at 11:59PM CST.
Since its beginning, Prescraft has enabled hundreds of disadvantaged handicraft producers to sell their products within the fair trade market and become self-reliant. As a project of the Presbyterian Church, Prescraft’s goals are to provide employment for rural artisans, stem migration from the rural areas to the cities, preserve traditional craft skills and cultural heritage, and to instill self-confidence in artisans.
I want more memories like this — moments that write a good story with her — and a good story in the world. 10% off entire order (no minimum purchase necessary): at our Grace Crafted Home
Weekender Bag: 10% off entire order (no minimum purchase necessary): at our Grace Crafted Home
Favorite Resource for a Meaningful, Beautiful Home: Grace Crafted Home — 10% off entire order! (no minimum purchase necessary)
I can’t even begin to tell you how SERIOUSLY smitten I am with this Measuring Spoon Set and Raashi Coffee Mug: Grace Crafted Home — 10% off entire order! (no minimum purchase necessary)
100% of all funds not only empowers artisans around the world, but partners with Mercy House Global to support several homes for young women and their babies in crisis pregnancies in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya
Your home — your life — can tell a story–that’s changing the story of the world.
a wonderful sale to pass along to you — for a limited time?[ The Leather Clutch, Pajama Pants, and Ballet Flats – ALL AMAZING SALE right now:
**plus a free Travel Cord Clutch ($18 value) with any $50 minimum purchase** ]
10% off entire order (no minimum purchase necessary). Use coupon code GIVEGRACE10 at checkout. One use per customer. Offer ends Tuesday, July 16th at 11:59PM CST.Every piece in our Grace Crafted Home collection is:
* fair trade
* dignifies, honors and empowers the artisan
* has a good story to tell — a story you’d not only want to know, but a story you’d want to tell — so you are part of changing story of the world for better
* 100% of all funds not only empowers artisans around the world, but partners with Mercy House Global to support several homes for young women and their babies in crisis pregnancies in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya
* 100% — every penny — of your Grace Crafted Home is giving grace back to those in need — and writing a fair, grace story not only in your home, but around the world.Annndddd — free, free, FREE!
FREE Travel Cord Clutch ($18 value) with $50 minimum purchase–no code necessary, while supplies last. Offer ends Tuesday, July 16th at 11:59PM CST.
Make Grace Prime today, choose a #fairtrade Grace Crafted Home today &
Pass on some of the Amazing Grace We’ve Known!Check out all the sales at our fair trade store: The Grace Crafted Home
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