Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 9

Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend {04.26.2025}

Happy, happy, happy weekend!

Let yourself smile, be crazy inspired, laugh, love & really live the gift of this life
just a little bit more this weekend…

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:

Meg Loeks

Linger for a moment and exhale… so grateful for the beauty that Meg Loeks always sees. Heart Vitamins for you this week:“Married for Good”You don’t want to miss this“How to Stay Grounded”TUNE IN: WATCH HERE“Not by Might, Nor by Power” A MUST READ“Perfect Love Casts Out Fear” THIS, THIS: Watch here:Soul strengtheners for you this week“He Gives Grace: Battling for Your Child’s Heart”LIFECHANGING LISTEN “How God’s Love Can Heal Your Hurts & Trauma”YESSSSS! The best!Can’t We ALL use some extra uplifting So encouraging! WOW! “Shaken and Sifted, Yet Secure” YES! THIS!!Make a Joyful Noise unto the Lord:“Matthew 28:6” Pretty incredible! I’ll still praise On repeat!! Something to help guide your spring: A time of new beginnings“ A Spa For Your Soul: 5 Proven Secrets to Rest & Revive”

“For there to be any real rhythm — there has to be real rests. You’ve got to listen know where the rests come,” and she tried to show my little grade 2 self in my scuffed up Mary Janes and green polyester pants, how to clap it out.

Beat, beat — rest. Beat, beat — rest. 

But I’ll just straight up confess that I never quite got the hang of the rhythm of music and moves, and I am far older now than Mrs. Martin was then — but when I saw Mrs. Martin the other week in the produce section of Zehrs grocery, checking out the firmness of the tomatoes, I wished I’d been brave enough to tell her what I kinda get now:

Life beats you down unless you get the rhythm of the rests. 

You don’t want to miss this read: Can we just have a little section for the Boston Marathon? Can you even imagine?! WOW! JUST WOW! Did you know this? This is crazy! This is so true!! CLICK HERE TO WATCH The kindness of a stranger He gave up his race! Kids giving us the truth: This is the BEST! THE SWEETEST“DO YALL BE FORGETTING” YES! THIS!! Ready to smile this weekend?!!Teaching hearts to follow His example I LOVE this:They do this to get to the WORD!! This is AMAZING! the way to the richest life I can’t stop watching this! The BEST happy Birthday! Can’t stop watching!It’s the “Hiya” for me So ADORABLE!!confidence from Jesus  No hesitation!! YES!!Thoughts to Really Ponder this week“Why Is It So Hard To Rest?” with Ruth Cho SimonsDon’t miss this: “Overcoming Distractions from the Enemy”Doesn’t this resonate: LISTENIs that true praise? Watch here:Our nation would change! DON”T MISS THIS:What we’re Listening to on the Farm this week“Build My Life”“Been So Good”Post of the Week From Around These Parts: How to Actually Live Easter? How to Live Eastertide? How Easter Is Just now Beginning & is the Real New Year

God held nothing back for you – why would you withhold anything now from Him? 

DON’T LEAVE THE INTERNET UNTIL YOU READ THIS! RELATED:What to Think When You Think of the world, Ukraine, & the Heart of Jesus “If we turn from compassion, this holy call to co-suffer with others, our own hearts suffer, our witness suffers, our world suffers, and the gospel of Jesus Christ suffers.“CLICK HERE TO READ:on the book stack at the farm

If you and your spouse feel stuck, disconnected, or just longing for deeper intimacy, this book is for you. It’s not about perfection—it’s about learning how to fight for each other instead of against each other.

Let Elle come alongside you as you are challenged, encouraged, and equipped to pursue God in every season. As you embrace the call to delight in the Lord, may you find great joy in the truth that God delights in you, always.

wow! Look at us all Reading this together (!!!) got yours? gifted one to a friend? GET YOURS HERE

We can’t get over all your Beautiful Messages of how God’s using this one to literally change lives!

what others are saying about loved to life On Amazon: GET YOURS HERE

Pick up  Loved to Life: A 40-Day VISUAL Pilgrimage with Jesus, that will:

give you enlightening insights to calm your real worriesground your identity in who you really are, regardless of failuresspeak to your deepest doubts in a profoundly steading wayand walk you in fresh, intimate ways with Jesus, Love Himself, that will grow your soul into real LIFEBonus FREE gifts:

This bonus free 40-day habit tracker is an invitation to cultivate rhythms of prayer and presence. Each day,
as you engage in your chosen sacred rhythm, you’ll fill in a quilt square — stitching together a beautiful life woven together with Christ’s love…

“40 Ways to Abide in Jesus” comes in TWO DIFFERENT, BOTH Bonus FREE, PRINTABLES (one as original beautiful art prints by my beloved daughter-in-law, Aurora (!!), to place around your home, or as one stunning cross-centered compass to frame and hang) —

24 “Who I am in Christ” cards with original woodcut illustrations 40 illustrated ornaments from the life of Jesus, for your own Easter tree —40-Day Bible Reading PlanPocket Prayers for your PilgrimageA Complete “Loved to Life” Community Pilgrimage Guide With the 7 I AM Statements of Jesus — to do a Lent Pilgrimage with your people 40 Days of Seeing Yourself in Jesus’ Story: Captivating artwork paired with prompts to help you personally – and very powerfully – step into the very scenes of Scripture, immersing your life in Jesus’ story

and so many (truly incredible!!!!) more deeply spiritually formative, profoundly helpful tools coming that will help grow us in connection to each other and the Vine of Life Himself… 

My heartfelt thanks for your support of ordering “Loved to Life” here, where you can also claim all the deeply formative and soul-nourishing THANK YOU gifts… from my heart to yours, connecting us all to His.

ORDER LOVED TO LIFE & CLAIM ALL YOUR BONUS THANK YOU GIFTS Download yours here: Come and let’s settle into Spring together:

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. 

If You Want Joy in the Darkest Valley…

As Christian women, we have been given a beautiful charge to delight in God and His Word. But if we’re honest, this is easier said than done. Elle Cardel, founder of the Daughter of Delight ministry, has experienced her share of struggles, including navigating care related to her daughter’s heart defect, but she will be the first to tell you that a life of delight is possible and there is joy to be found in delighting in God’s ways over our own—even when things don’t make sense. As Elle shares her story of finding joy in the darkest moments, may we be encouraged to embrace and grow in our own delight in the Lord in every season. It’s joy to welcome Elle to the farm’s table today…

Guest post by Elle Cardel

My birth experience was beyond chaotic.

Nothing about it was what I had hoped for.

I wanted a natural birth.

Because of my daughter’s needs, however, I endured a forty-seven-hour induction instead.

And just when I thought things were hard enough as I watched my daughter, Selah, fight for her life through one open-heart surgery after the next, she went into cardiac arrest in my arms the day before we were supposed to officially take her home.

It was the day after Thanksgiving in 2021, Black Friday.

And it was a very black Friday indeed.

It was around five in the morning, and Selah’s nurse had walked in to check her vitals. Doing so woke Selah and she began to cry. Having just finished a pumping session, I got up to comfort her while the nurse cared for her. As I cupped her sweet little face with my hand, she closed her eyes and her head suddenly fell into my palm as the alarm for her oxygen started blaring.

She was crashing, and fast.

Before I knew it, the nurse pushed the emergency alarm in our room while turning up Selah’s oxygen. Within the blink of an eye, I was standing in the back of the room crying and yelling for my husband, Michael, to wake up while watching several people try to save my daughter’s life. One of the doctors in the room stood by and explained what was happening, but my brain could not comprehend what she was saying because I believed I was watching my daughter die.

Selah was hooked up to an emergency oxygen tank, and they rolled her out of there and rushed her to the ICU as fast as they possibly could.

I didn’t even get to take another look at her.

“As our family journeyed through this valley, I knew I could either curse God in it or I could praise Him throughout it.“

I was frozen, trembling, and devastated. Michael and I were left behind to pray, weep, wait, and wonder if our darling Selah would still be alive when we saw her next.

Hours passed before we could see our girl again. When we finally stepped through the doors of her room, we could hardly recognize her. The moment I saw her swollen body hooked up to countless wires and screens, I just lost it.

There were so many people in the room, but I didn’t care. Sobbing, I made my way to her side, grabbed her sweet little hand, rubbed her head, and whispered songs of worship and joy over her.

I don’t know how much time passed before she had to be taken down to surgery to correct the problem that had caused her to crash and end up in the ICU. I also didn’t know how much more my own heart could have taken, let alone hers.

Hours passed with the occasional phone call that provided us with an update—each with promising news, thanks be to God.

Finally, the surgery was over, it was successful, and we could see our beautiful Selah again.

The next morning, we woke up to amazing news that only God could ordain. Selah’s heart function and vitals both looked great, and her body had proven overnight that she was ready to be taken off ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) support. This child, after almost losing her life and going through an emergency surgery one day prior, only needed ECMO support for sixteen hours. Something like this is unheard of.

You cannot tell me this is not the working of our great God.

Miracles upon miracles.

The days to follow were filled with alleviating Selah’s pain while she healed and we, slowly but surely, made our way out of the pediatric cardiology ICU and back to the general cardiac wing so we could eventually be discharged and go home.

As our family journeyed through this valley, I knew I could either curse God in it or I could praise Him throughout it.

One of the things I prayed over and over again while preparing for birth and the unknowns that lay beyond it was “Thy will be done.”

My heart kept coming back to this declaration because I deeply desired to believe it—to cling to it—with every ounce of my being.

“We knew the hands that held our daughter were the same hands that held us. And we knew that was the place to be, no matter what.“

I longed for my strength, courage, and joy to be found in the hope-filled words of Psalm 23:4: “Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me” (nlt).

It was this very prayer that my husband and I prayed in the hours when we weren’t sure if Selah would pull through. We knew the hands that held our daughter were the same hands that held us. And we knew that was the place to be, no matter what.

My entry into motherhood was, undoubtedly, my darkest valley. But as I continued to keep my eyes on the Lord, I started to see how His faithfulness was with me—and Selah—and how it was carrying us through, every step of the way.

The next time you find yourself in a valley, no matter how dark it may be, know this: if you don’t look to the Lord, you will lose your way.

Even when life takes an unexpected turn, the Father’s joy can reside in your heart. He is with you, He is for you, and His joy is yours for the taking. We could live like it—with the joy of our risen Savior set before us. 

We could choose joy—for today, tomorrow, and all eternity.

Elle Cardel is a multi-passionate stay-at-home mom of two who finds great joy in being a mom; running her online women’s ministry, Daughter of Delight; writing on the truths of God’s Word; and encouraging women to keep their hearts and minds set on Christ. She is married to her college sweetheart, Michael, and they live in Tennessee with their two children, Selah and Aidan. For more information on Daughter of Delight, visit daughterofdelight.com. 

Do you genuinely want to find delight in the Lord and the life He has given you but some days have no idea where to start? In She Delights, through Elle’s personal story and unique teaching style, she will encourage you to:

– Learn what God’s delight in you actually looks like

– Discover what it realistically looks like to have a heart of delight for God

– Explore how God’s delight in you inspires and transforms your delight in Him

– Reflect on how a life focused on delighting in God looks different than a life centered on the world– and why that’s a good thing! 

Let Elle come alongside you as you are challenged, encouraged, and equipped to pursue God in every season. As you embrace the call to delight in the Lord, may you find great joy in the truth that God delights in you, always.

{Our humble thanks to Tyndale Momentum for their partnership in today’s devotional.}

How to Actually Live Easter? How to Live Eastertide? How Easter Is Just now Beginning & is the Real New Year

I water the Easter lilies on Day 2 of Eastertide. 

I confess:

Have I sometimes been far too quick to put away all the celebration decorations, because maybe somewhere, somehow, there’s been a part of me that considers what we’ve  been celebrating is more of an optional decoration in our life – instead of a reality to be sustained and actually lived? 

“Resurrection Sunday is more than a day to celebrate, resurrection power is a way of life to be sustained.” 

Resurrection Sunday is more than a day to celebrate; resurrection power is a way of life to be sustained. 

And as I sweep out the mudroom, as I leave the Easter Tree up, as I commit to sustaining the season of Eastertide, that 50-day season from Resurrection Sunday to Pentecost Sunday, I keep thinking of what Mary, and the disciples, said on Resurrection Sunday: “I have seen the Lord.”

The angel may have announced, “He was risen,” but it is the real disciples who say, “We have seen the Lord,”  which is the beginning of whole new Life rising up in them. 

An angel may notify: He is risen. 

But it’s only the true disciples who can testify: I have seen the Lord. 

Notifications can get turned off and ignored— 

But it’s only what we have actually seen – that we can never unsee.  

““He is risen” is more like a press release from a divine, angelic herald.  “I have seen the Lord” is an actual personal release from the hopeless dark. “

That’s what I keep returning to on Day 2 of Eastertide, that season that marks those sacred days when Jesus looks straight into the faces of His disciples, so they see the Way, the Truth, and the Life Himself and live now a whole new way. 

And isn’t the reality that:

Easter makes us the eye-witness people, the encounter people, the endlessly rising people!

As I wash dishes, change laundry, haul hay, feed sheep, that echo of Mary’s words (Jn 18:25), of the disciples’ words (Jn 20:25): “I have seen the Lord… I have seen the Lord… I have seen the Lord.” 

Eyes that have seen the Lord … see everything different in the world. 

“Greeting each other with news that He is risen… is not the same as literally living the news.”

Greeting each other with news that He is risen… is not the same as literally living the news –  that we have personally seen Him, and He’s living and alive in us, so that our hope’s rising, so that our love’s rising, our grace is rising, our commitment is rising, our faithfulness is rising, so others can now genuinely see how the life of Jesus is rising in us.

“He is risen” is more like a press release from a divine, angelic herald.  “I have seen the Lord” is an actual personal release from the hopeless dark. 

“He is risen indeed” is indeed just a news account. 

“I have seen the Lord” is an intimate encounter that makes you literally new within. 

“There’s no rising to a new you, until you come face to face with the resurrection power of the risen Lord. “

A woman had turned to me on the Saturday eve before Resurrection Sunday and she says this, wide-eyed and smiling:

“It just struck me right now – for the rest of my life, the Saturday before Easter is always going to be my New Year’s Eve …. and Resurrection Sunday, from now on for me, is always going to be my New Year’s Day.” 

There’s no new you unless you stand before the empty tomb.

Every day that I can say: “I have seen the Lord, I have seen the Lord” – is when I will see real change in me. 

Where you encounter an empty tomb is where you can finally experience the resurrection power and hope of a completely new and fulfilling life. 

There’s no rising to a new you, until you come face to face with the resurrection power of the risen Lord. 

And the reality is: When Jesus walked out of that tomb for you, He came to bring you more than just a new way of life – He came to give you actual life.

Apart from the risen Jesus living in you, there is no real life.

Unless we have seen the Lord today, we haven’t seen The Way for this day. The wise are the see-ers. Where there are no daily see-ers of the Lord, there is no wisdom.

It’s not that we were living before we met the resurrected Lord, and now we experience new life – it’s actually that before we met the risen Jesus we were the walking dead, and now we are actually alive, now we finally living, now we are fully living –  because the One who is Life is living within and rising in us. 

“Looking comes first,” is what C.S. Lewis said, which is to say: seeing comes first, seeing comes first in our change, in our transformation, in our new life, it is seeing that comes first in our rebirth.  Which is precisely why the first words that Mary and the disciples speak after the resurrection was not merely a statement of the fact of His rising, but ultimately a testament of the first act of rebirth: “We have seen the Lord.”

“We need a baptism of clear seeing. We desperately need seers who can see through the mist,” the singular, prophetic voice and pastor, A.W. Tozer urged. Which is to say: The wise are the see-ers. Where there are no daily see-ers of the Lord, there is no wisdom.

Unless we are daily see-ers of the Lord, we have no wisdom for the day.

Unless we have seen the Lord today, we haven’t seen The Way for this day.

Outside my workroom window, a robin’s weaving a curl of a nest out of dry things, new life resurrecting out of dead things.

As I wash all the windows along that side of the house, begin another layer of spring cleaning, I keep thinking of the real New Year beginning in me, with this commitment to daily seeing the Lord — in His Word, in worship, in the world — and I keep returning to this question that frames Eastertide, that fuels this living out Easter:  

Because Jesus took a step out of that tomb toward you, to see you: Where is He calling you to take one step of faith toward Him, to more fully see Him? 

“God held nothing back for you – why would you withhold anything now from Him? “

Because Jesus walked out of that tomb toward you: Where is He moving into you, so you can walk now in obedience toward Him, straight out of death and into real life — so others might see Him more fully in you? 

If you have really seen the Lord — how do you now see people, how do you now see new ways to love the unlovely, how do you now see new ways to serve the hurting, new ways to welcome the stranger, new ways to care for those on the margins, new ways to live given, new ways to lay your life down — so Jesus can continue to rise in you?

Because the tomb is empty, where is resurrection power now filling me, to empty me of lesser loves, so I can rise to real life in Christ, so the upside down ways of Christ might be seen in me?

Because Jesus took a step out of that tomb toward you, to see you: Where is He calling you to take one step of faith toward Him, to more fully see Him? 

Cut to the quick, I write these questions down in my journal, undone and remade… and this is the beginning of my new year… new me.

When Jesus came riding into Jerusalem, those disciples thought that Jesus came to finally take over control of the empire — but when Jesus walked out of that Garden Tomb, it’s the real disciples who finally understand that Jesus came to take over control of our hearts. 

God held nothing back for you – why would you withhold anything now from Him? 

Easter is now only just beginning. The living of resurrection life is only now just beginning.

The work rooms windows washed, I can see clearly now, see this nest of new life opening up now.

RELATED: What to Think When You Think of the World, Ukraine & the Heart of Jesus

Are you ready to say: “I HAVE SEEN THE LORD!”

If you long to live Easter, live RESURRECTION POWER, live out Eastertide and truly live a meaningful life — that is genuinely beautiful… start here with this book that has been touching hearts and changing lives all over the world. 

Meant for any time of year, but an especially meaningful way to journey through Eastertide, embark on this 40-day spiritual pilgrimage following the resurrected Jesus through the Gospel of John — a 40-day journey to move you from barely getting through — to passionately living the fullest life.

Come see the Lord — come be Loved to Life.

How to Make Your Marriage Better: From Silence to Intimacy — Why Listening Matters in Marriage

Sometimes, love looks like asking the right question at the right time. And sometimes, it’s about the courage to answer honestly. That’s why I’m thrilled to share the words of really wise voices, and friends, Rebekah and Gabe Lyons today. If you’ve ever found yourself drifting emotionally apart from your spouse—or wondering how to rebuild connection when life’s demands pull you in opposite directions—this post is for you. Their new (incredible!) book, The Fight for Us: Overcome What Divides to Build a Marriage That Thrives, is the marriage resource we’ve all been waiting for. In it, they share how curiosity, vulnerability, and faith can help couples reconnect and heal—even after seasons of hurt and silence. What they’ve discovered is that sometimes healing starts with a single question: How are you really feeling? It’s my joy to welcome Rebekah and Gabe to the farm’s table today…

Guest Post by Rebekah and Gabe Lyons

“Marriage is not about having all the answers; it’s about being willing to ask the questions.”

Gabe and I sat on the edge of a pool in the shade after a long afternoon on the beach in the hot sun. Joy was playing nearby; Cade was off eating a snack. I thought we were just cooling off for a moment before heading inside for a lazy afternoon when Gabe drew close to me and cradled my waist.

Every now and then, I see it. Gabe looks at me a little more intently, looking as though he has something on his mind.

There by the pool, he had that look in his eyes.

“I want to learn more about your childhood and memories and all the things that have made you, you,” he said. “Like, when did you start playing the trumpet? Why the trumpet, and not the violin or the flute?”

It wasn’t the most romantic set of questions, but it meant the world to me.

I answered him and shared more about my classical music journey from fourth grade through senior year. I described aperture— the pursing of the lips that makes a woodwind or brass instrument play— and all the ins and outs of band camp. I shared why I chose the trumpet (my brother already had one and we couldn’t afford another instrument), and how I became the first chair among all the boys.

That led to more questions.

“That moment reminded me that sometimes the deepest connection comes not through grand gestures but through curiosity— the simple desire to know your spouse more intimately.”

“Do you feel like having C-sections made you miss out on childbirth the way so many other friends have experienced it?”

“Tell me more about your first kiss? Who was that lucky guy?”

After sharing more details than perhaps I ever had before, I found tears spring to my eyes in gratitude as Gabe gently posed all his questions. Normally, those quiet conversations would center around plans, work, or our task list. But in this moment, when we had the margin and time to just talk, all his attention was on me— getting to know me, my heart, and how I came to be the person I am today.

Gabe reached for my hand. “I know I don’t always ask the right questions,” he said.

“But I’m trying. I really want to know you better.”

That moment reminded me that sometimes the deepest connection comes not through grand gestures but through curiosity— the simple desire to know your spouse more intimately. When your best friend helps you excavate just a little deeper into yourstory, both of you gain perspective on your life. You’ll discover epiphanies that are otherwise easily missed. Your spouse will learn how to jump into the ring with you and help you fight your triggers, temptations, and traumas. As a united couple intent on helping each other heal, you’ll both gain perspective, become more whole, and set the stage to truly experience intimacy.

“When your best friend helps you excavate just a little deeper into your story, both of you gain perspective on your life.“

Our marriage hasn’t always been easy. Like most couples, we’ve had seasons where resentment quietly built between us. After Cade was born with Down syndrome, we were thrust into a new reality— one that involved medical appointments, therapy schedules, and emotional exhaustion. During that season, we were often too tired to engage in deep conversation. It was all we could do to survive the day. I remember lying in bed at night, Gabe on his side of the bed, me on mine, feeling miles apart emotionally even though we were inches apart physically.

I would think to myself, “Does he even know how much I’m struggling?” But I wouldn’t say it aloud. I expected Gabe to read my mind, to understand my pain without me having to say a word. And when he didn’t, I resented him for it.

Meanwhile, Gabe felt helpless. He wanted to support me, but he didn’t know how. And because I wasn’t communicating what I needed, he didn’t know where to start.

We were stuck in that place for a while— circling each other but never really connecting. Until one night, after a particularly difficult day, I broke down in tears. “I feel so alone,” I said.

Gabe pulled me into his arms and said, “I’m here. But I need you to tell me what you need.”

That conversation marked the beginning of a shift in our marriage.

We started being more intentional about checking in with each other.

We stopped assuming we knew what the other person was thinking and started asking instead. Gabe made it a habit to ask, “How are you feeling?”

And I learned to be honest with my answers.

“Healing happens when you feel seen, known, and loved— even in your most vulnerable state.”

This new rhythm of intentional communication brought us closer together. We learned to ask deeper questions, to truly listen, and to hold space for each other’s feelings. Healing happens when you feel seen, known, and loved— even in your most vulnerable state.

Sometimes healing begins with a single question: How are you really feeling?

Gabe’s willingness to ask— and my willingness to answer— helped us build a foundation of trust and intimacy that continues to grow.

Marriage is not about having all the answers; it’s about being willing to ask the questions.

It’s about creating a safe space where you and your spouse can share your hearts without fear of judgment. It’s about choosing to lean in, even when it’s uncomfortable.

Healing doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process— sometimes slow, sometimes messy. But when both partners are committed to understanding each other’s hearts, real transformation is possible.

THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE Marriage Book!

Rebekah and Gabe Lyons have learned that building a thriving marriage isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about being willing to ask the questions. Their new book, The Fight for Us: Overcome What Divides to Build a Marriage That Thrives, offers couples a roadmap to reconnecting emotionally and spiritually, with practical steps and honest insights drawn from their 28-year marriage.

Rebekah is a bestselling author and national speaker whose wisdom on emotional and spiritual health has helped millions find peace and purpose. Gabe is also a bestselling author and the visionary founder of THINQ, helping people navigate the intersection of faith and culture. Together, they host the Rhythms for Life Podcast and have raised four children—two with Down syndrome—while building a marriage that’s not just surviving, but thriving.

If you and your spouse feel stuck, disconnected, or just longing for deeper intimacy, this book is for you. It’s not about perfection—it’s about learning how to fight for each other instead of against each other.

Get your copy of The Fight for Us —and take the first step toward healing your marriage today. Learn more at RebekahLyons.com and GabeLyons.com.

{Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotional.}

Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend {04.19.2025}

Happy, happy, happy weekend!

Let yourself smile, be crazy inspired, laugh, love & really live the gift of this life
just a little bit more this weekend…

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:

James Wheeler

John Murphey

Daniel J. Schwarz on Unsplash " target="_blank" rel=" noreferrer noopener">

Daniel J. Schwarz

the Light is dawning, and the Stone Will Roll Away & The Rock of our Salvation Holds & Sunday Morning is Coming! … Heart Vitamins for you this week:“How To WALK in VICTORY Through the CROSS”You don’t want to miss this“You’re Where You Need to Be”TUNE IN: WATCH HERE“It’s gonna be ok” WOW: WATCH HERETHE REFUGE COFFEE HOUSE THIS, THIS: Read here:Soul strengtheners for you this weekNow and Forever with Christ: Behind the Curtain READ HEREHis Blood on My Hands: A Good Friday Reflection YESSSSS! The best!Resurrection Hope For you! So encouraging! WOW! Are you making room? YES! THIS!!WOW! We need to hear this! You need to watch this:So deeply moving! Who can we love betterMake a Joyful Noise unto the Lord: “Promises” Pretty incredible! Revival is Happening! On repeat!! Resources for you this week:10 Key Bible Verses Series DON”T MISS THIS:Followers of “The Way” So so good!! Some Real Easter Hope for you this week:Co-Hosting on 100 Huntley & our Journey to the Cross every day of Holy WeekBe blessed this Holy Week with these Rich, meaningful conversations

Tune into the 5 Holy Week Episodes here to prepare for Sunday

“How Jesus LOVED me back to life” “How to live a surrendered life”Co-hosting… Tune in here:“What Friday actually means”Deeply meaningful… How To Journey To Resurrection Sunday Free Scripture Cards to Reflect on this Weekend

How to Journey Through Holy Week to Resurrection Sunday — with Free Scripture Cards Inspired by Stations of the Cross

“ 3 Favorite Traditions to Prepare For Easter “

These 3 traditions are our family’s absolute favorite to really enter into Easter in a meaningful way

EVERYTHING YOU NEED RIGHT HERE FOR EASTER & HOLY WEEK

Rick Steves’ European EasterReady to smile this weekend?!!So so fun! I LOVE this:Crazy Talented! This is AMAZING! New Life is Beautiful! I can’t stop watching this! The joy is contagious! Can’t stop watching!Absolutely priceless!! LET”S LEARN TOGETHERThis is the best! How much fun is this?Thoughts to Really Ponder this weekWhat Your Teenagers Need from YouDon’t miss this: What Am I Supposed to Do With My Life?Doesn’t this resonate: LISTEN“The Sin of Comparison” READ HEREPrayer: Our Wartime Walkie-Talkie DON”T MISS THIS:What we’re Listening to on the Farm this week“Calvary’s Enough”“Thank You Jesus for the Blood”Post of the Week From Around These Parts: How to Let Your Easter Weekend be Free of all the Trappings …

If You’re Longing for a Deeply Meaningful Easter Weekend that’s Truly Beautiful and Meaningful Start Here

Hurting Relationships? You Need This….

When It’s Really Hard to Forgive? Or You Feel Betrayed? And You Aren’t Sure of the Way Forward? You Don’t Want To Miss This:

How Holy Week Heals: The Secret Mandate That Changes Everything

on the book stack at the farm

Have you ever considered that the hardest things in life might be our greatest areas of passion, through which we find fulfillment in everything we do? In What If I’m Wrong?, from bestselling author and speaker Heather Thompson Day, you’ll discover that we might just be wrong about our biggest fears and failures. They aren’t drowning us; they are part of God’s plan to make us stronger.

Julia’s new book, Declutter Your Heart and Your Home: How a Minimalist Life Yields Maximum Joy, provides practical tools for decluttering our inner and outer world, and shows us how to find freedom from hurry, chaos, and consumerism by reclaiming God’s peace in our hearts and our homes. Find Julia at www.richinwhatmatters.com and order Declutter Your Heart and Your Home.

wow! Look at us all Reading this together (!!!) got yours? gifted one to a friend? GET YOURS HERE

We can’t get over all your Beautiful Messages of how God’s using this one to literally change lives!

what others are saying about loved to life: GET YOURS HERE

Pick up  Loved to Life: A 40-Day VISUAL Pilgrimage with Jesus, that will:

give you enlightening insights to calm your real worriesground your identity in who you really are, regardless of failuresspeak to your deepest doubts in a profoundly steading wayand walk you in fresh, intimate ways with Jesus, Love Himself, that will grow your soul into real LIFEBonus FREE gifts:

This bonus free 40-day habit tracker is an invitation to cultivate rhythms of prayer and presence. Each day,
as you engage in your chosen sacred rhythm, you’ll fill in a quilt square — stitching together a beautiful life woven together with Christ’s love…

“40 Ways to Abide in Jesus” comes in TWO DIFFERENT, BOTH Bonus FREE, PRINTABLES (one as original beautiful art prints by my beloved daughter-in-law, Aurora (!!), to place around your home, or as one stunning cross-centered compass to frame and hang) —

24 “Who I am in Christ” cards with original woodcut illustrations 40 illustrated ornaments from the life of Jesus, for your own Easter tree —40-Day Bible Reading PlanPocket Prayers for your PilgrimageA Complete “Loved to Life” Community Pilgrimage Guide With the 7 I AM Statements of Jesus — to do a Lent Pilgrimage with your people 40 Days of Seeing Yourself in Jesus’ Story: Captivating artwork paired with prompts to help you personally – and very powerfully – step into the very scenes of Scripture, immersing your life in Jesus’ story

and so many (truly incredible!!!!) more deeply spiritually formative, profoundly helpful tools coming that will help grow us in connection to each other and the Vine of Life Himself… 

My heartfelt thanks for your support of ordering “Loved to Life” here, where you can also claim all the deeply formative and soul-nourishing THANK YOU gifts… from my heart to yours, connecting us all to His.

ORDER LOVED TO LIFE & CLAIM ALL YOUR BONUS THANK YOU GIFTS And YOU REally DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS:Can you even believe it?! 

Nope, we can’t either!  And none of us want to miss out on all these beloved leaders who are joining us live during Lent!

This has never happened quite like this before! A fresh, new live way to interact, where these beloved leaders will jump in with us weekly, as Companions during our 40-Day Pilgrimage with Jesus during Lent, & you’ll get to lean in in real-time, ask questions, face-to-face, & we’ll all fall more in love with Jesus together, as Jesus changes us, & Loves us to Life! It’s about Jesus… and You…and Love. Every single week of Lent, right up to the empty tomb & Resurrection Sunday & living the fullest life!

Weekly livestream conversations! Incredible companions on this 40-Day Pilgrimage! We’ll be face- to- face so you can join us, ask questions, and journey through Lent in real community! Grab a friend, the book, and let’s do this together!

You Really Belong. And You Do Not Want to Miss This! COME JOIN US!Linger Here: the Wonder of the Resurrection

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. 

Hurting Relationships? How Holy Thursday Heals: The Secret Mandate that Changes Everything

It’s okay to say you’ve felt deeply betrayed.

 It’s okay to honestly confess: Betrayal doesn’t just leave your heart broken; it leaves your soul jaded. 

It changes your heart when you know Christ died for those who’ve hurt your heart. 

It’s okay to quietly say it: It’s harder to give forgiveness to a close friend than to someone who never was a friend. Because when trust was deep, the feeling of betrayal cuts deeper. 

Your Jesus knows what it’s like to have your own Judas. Jesus wasn’t betrayed by some Tom, Dick, or Harry down the street; Jesus was betrayed by one of His very closest friends—one who kissed Him warm on the cheek and then turn coated on Him, leaving Him out in the cold to be crucified alone. 

It was on Thursday of Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, when Jesus sat at the Last Supper. On each side of Jesus sat one of His disciples. One of them was the one “whom Jesus loved”— the way John refers to himself four times in his Gospel, because John was hidden in the love of Jesus. 

There is no way to really fully live, apart from being hidden in the passionate love of God. 

While on the one side of Jesus sat “John the divine, [on] the other was Judas the devil. One of them was the seer of the Apocalypse, the other was the son of perdition,” writes Charles Spurgeon.  

While we were yet struggling to live with the difficult, Christ died even yet for them.

Jesus was flanked by John, who was leaning against the heartbeat of Jesus, and Judas, who was just against Him. 

But Jesus’ love presses against those who are against Him: While we were yet sinners, while we hated Him, Jesus loved us to death, so we could really live (Romans 5:8), and He loves to death exactly those we struggle to live with.

While we were yet struggling to live with the difficult, Christ died even yet for them.

It changes your heart when you know Christ died for those who’ve hurt your heart. 

The love of God doesn’t become lesser, but grows greater, in the face of great heartbreak. 

As God-with-skin-on bent low with a basin of slopping water to wash dirty feet to show us the way of passionate love, He would now hand the dipped sop of bread to Judas. Like Jesus sopped the bread and passed it to Judas, so we drown all evil in an ocean of grace. 

If Jesus could dip from the same bowl as Judas and then pass along the bowl with grace, how can we who have been washed in the grace of Christ not find ways to pass on all the grace we’ve known? 

If Jesus could dip from the same bowl as Judas and then pass along the bowl with grace, how can we who have been washed in the grace of Christ not find ways to pass on all the grace we’ve known?

How can we not pass on the goodness of the grace we’ve tasted? 

Jesus finds your eyes in this moment and whispers the mandate “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

Turns out: You only get to be known as a disciple if you’re known for your cruciform love.

It’s possible, with cruciform love: Where there is a relational break, instead of breaking fellowship, you can break open your heart in prayer and ask the Lord if there is maybe, perhaps, a genuinely safe way to somehow still break bread together. 

It’s possible, with surrendered, cruciform love: You can live by just eight words: Love one another just as Christ has loved you.

On the night Jesus was betrayed, He gave thanks. If Jesus can give thanks in that kind of heartbreak, how can we not find ways to give thanks even in ours? 

This is what happened on Maundy Thursday of Holy Week: On the night Jesus was betrayed, Jesus found ways to still be Love. 

Your life, too, has known all kinds of betrayals: the night when the prodigal cut your heart, the night when your boss betrayed your trust and you lost your job, the night when your person said words that can’t be unsaid and stomped out the front door, the night when the toilet stopped flushing and the dog puked all over the back mat, the night when all your hopes and your everyday life seemed to betray you, the night when it looked like dawn would never come again. 

Even on those nights, the people of Jesus can still give thanks for the closeness of Jesus, the comfort of Jesus, the compassion of Jesus, the kindness of Jesus, the kinship of Jesus. 

When Jesus had to fight through the dark, staring right into the most impossible situation of the Cross, abandoned by His circle of friends, what did Jesus do? 

Out of a universe of supernatural options at the tip of His fingers, what did Jesus determine was the most revolutionary way forward? 

On the night when Jesus was betrayed, He gave thanks.

 If Jesus can give thanks in that, might it be possible to give brave thanks in anything? If Jesus can give thanks in that kind of heartbreak, how can we not find ways to give thanks even in ours? 

Because of the night Jesus was betrayed, we can give thanks too. We give thanks that He gives grace to Judases like us too. When we know how much grace we’ve been given to cover our own betrayals of Jesus, how can we not give others grace for theirs? 

And when it’s brutally, impossibly hard? 

Jesus comes and sits down beside you. He breaks this bit of soft bread, and we can feel it—how our broken hearts soften too. 

He reached out with one hand to hand the bread to Judas, and with the other hand — He hands the bread to us. 

We are all the Judases who have betrayed Jesus too. 

And what can we do but take the bread and murmur our heartfelt thanks, too, and reach out and sacrificially love too?

And this… this is no less true: Because of the night Jesus was betrayed, we can give thanks too. We give thanks that He gives grace to Judases like us too.

When we reflect on how great our own sins are, how can we not have great gratefulness and great grace for every other broken sinner? 

When we know how much grace we’ve been given to cover our own betrayals of Jesus, how can we not give others grace for theirs? 

After Jesus was marked with scars and left this world, love would be the mark of His people, to leave a mark on the world. 

Because of love, life can come.

And Jesus showed us that loving forgiveness is always the most life-giving. 

As Judas walked out of the upper room, Jesus turned toward the Cross. He knew what lay ahead—arrest and trial and torture, humiliation and condemnation and crucifixion— and Jesus called this kind of sacrificial love nothing less than glory. 

After Jesus was marked with scars and left this world, love would be the mark of His people, to leave a mark on the world. 

Heartbreak and hardship are not hindrances to our love for God, but are often the catalysts that make us fall into the arms of His love. 

While the world might look and say, “How terribly crucified,” those living in the love of Jesus can trust that miraculous good can come out of even this, and say, “Still beautifully glorified.” 

And… The mandate of those who follow Christ is to live the passion of Christ—to love every day we’re on earth, like Jesus loved us to death on His last day on earth. 

This is the secret mandate that changes everything, this is the way to rise to new life every day, this is the cadence of our days, just this refrain: “As Jesus has loved me . . .” 

As Jesus has loved me, let me take care of that for you. 

As Jesus has loved me, let me give you not just the benefit of the doubt but amazing grace. As Jesus has loved me, let me forgive you. 

As Jesus has loved me to life, let me love you with my life. 

Give thanks for God’s grace, even in your hard places, and you see you actually have more than enough of God’s grace to pass on to others in theirs.

As we love each other as Christ loves us—even those who have broken our hearts—we end up loving others far more than we ever thought possible, because we feel how we are loved by Christ far more than we could ever imagine.

The forgiving love of Jesus gives us a way to keep miraculously giving love, especially when it seems impossible. 

Maundy Thursday is a pause, even now in holy week, in the midst of our hard stories… and there it is: 

Give thanks for God’s grace, even in your hard places, and you see you actually have more than enough of God’s grace to pass on to others in theirs.

~excerpt from Loved to Life: a 40-Day Pilgrimage with Love Himself to Change Your Life

Life & Relationships Hurt? This Pilgrimage With Jesus Will Change Your Life, Love You to Life & Life to the FULL

Click Here if you’re ready to let Jesus meet you in the tender places

& truly love you to life & life to the full

Holy Wednesday: How to Have a “Silent Wednesday” Instead of a Judas “Spy Wednesday”?

It’s just a few days before Easter, a few days before everyone sheds their old grave clothes to be decked out in beauty and a bonnet for Easter Sunday morning, when she turns to me and says,“I just really wanna buy something that’s beautiful and lovely for Easter — something light and lovely.”

Sometimes we want to possess lovely things — because we’re actually still figuring out that Love is a Person…

That’s what the woman tells me. You could see that look in her eyes, looking just for something lovely.

Something new and shiny and lovely, that catches the light in it’s own way.

Sometimes we want to possess lovely things — because we’re actually still figuring out that Love is a Person…

Love is a person and the Wednesday of Holy Week is the only day of Holy Week that Scripture is silent about, and doesn’t tell us exactly what that person, Jesus, Love Himself actually did.

Which is why the Wednesday of Holy Week is often called “Silent Wednesday.” Knowing He’s about to face deep, unfathomable suffering, on the cusp of the very end of His earthly life, Jesus quietly retreats into the silence and solitude of beautiful intimacy with His Father… so He can be the beauty of real Love in a broken world.

“Something — beautiful,” is what the woman said, “I just want something really light and beautiful.”

“Your life is only a blink long —and then you wake up to the forever that your life chose.”

“Somedays — I just want all the beautiful things, you know? Floral and light chiffon.” She’d turned, and this light catches her eyes…

I know exactly what she means.

And then a woman turned to me in a car the other week, and asked me what I didn’t see coming in the least.

“So what do you want your life to really be about?”

Her question left me hushed and silent.

Your life is only a blink long — and then you wake up to what forever that your life chose.

And then we’d pulled up and the GPS announced that we had arrived at our destination. She opened the car door. And I sat there, silent, fixed and yet a kind of jarred, broken, staring out the windshield, heart unshielded. Exposed.

What do I really want? What do I want my one life to really be about? Even the calendar this holy week is turning to look toward Jesus and what He did with His one life. Because He wanted to live given into an intimate relationship with us most.

What you most want — is what you most love.

And what you most love — is what you’ll ultimately have for all eternity.

And I’m thinking:

“Any craving for the beautiful — is really a craving for Jesus.

Doubtful that you’re standing at the feet of Jesus, thinking you wanted anything that was more beautiful than He is and the way He loves in deeply beautiful ways — that are different than the ways of this world.

There is no doubt:

Beautiful things can genuinely be made into meaningful things, beautiful things can definitely be made into faithful things, and certainly, thank God Almighty, there is no definitive black and white line in the sand between beautiful and meaningful.

But there are times … we may be better to simply seek out the most meaningful — and see that as the most beautiful.

Meaningful over beautiful. The most fulfilling lives actually see what’s meaningful — as the most beautiful.

Any craving for the beautiful — is always really a craving for Jesus.

“You were meant for greatness — and greatness is about loving greatly. And living greatly given.“

Because honestly —

It would be a travesty to have a life about only collecting all the beautiful things for some — instead of recollecting that we were made for greater things.

You’re meant for more than collecting beautiful sea-shells, or just protecting your own self-interests. You were made of the beauty of intimacy — relational intimacy with God and with people.

When I light the last candles on the Lenten wreath, the flames waver.

While the Wednesday of Holy Week has Jesus spending His last hours in silence and solitude with God, Judas is in the midst of what is called “Spy Wednesday,” where he spies on his intimate friend, sells his friend, His Lord, for 30 pieces of silver.

Judas sold Jesus, the One who came to set the captives free, for the same amount of coin that it would take to buy one slave.

Judas betrayed one of his closest friends, to buy what he’d thought was worth it — only to realize he’d sold his soul and made his own soul a slave to the dark.

In the darkened shadows, the candles of our lenten wreath are disappearing, melting lower, giving themselves away to be light.

Let this Holy Week free us from selling out Jesus for our own interests. Let this Holy Week free us being slaves to lesser loves. Let this Holy Week free us from betraying the way of Jesus, for the way of the loud, proud and bullying powerful. Let this Holy Week dismantle everything that isn’t about eternal things.…

On Holy Week “Spy Wednesday”, Judas decided to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver: How does what we pay attention to — mostly to what makes us feel good — betray the worth of Christ?

The Wednesday of Holy Week can either be “Spy Wednesday,” where our preparations for Easter betray the way of Jesus, betray the compassion of Jesus, betray the sacrificial heart of Jesus, betray the upside down way of the love of Jesus, to buy what isn’t really worth it… to grasp a kind of life that sells out the name of Jesus for the name of our own power and interests first.

On that Holy Week “Spy Wednesday”, Judas decided to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver: How does what we pay attention to — mostly to what makes us feel good — betray the worth of Christ?

There is another way….

There is the open invitation for our Wednesday of Holy Week to be “Silent Wednesday” — where we quiet our hearts and and the jockeying noise of the world, to retreat into the sacred silence and the beauty of Jesus, to be so close to His exquisite heart that we become like His cruciform heart, and sacrificially reach out to someone who has been exiled, marginalized, forgotten, abandoned with the beautiful heart and love of Jesus.

What if we moved from “Spy Wednesday” — and spying for more ways for our agenda and our interests to be furthered — and we lived “Silent Wednesday” — and this was the day of Holy Week that we made space for sacred silence with the Spirit of God, to speak clearly and directly to our hearts about how we might live so that our testimony would not be silent, but speak loudly of the ways of humble, loving ways of Jesus in the world?

Silent Wednesday is for taking time to intentionally turn off the world, and hushing our souls, lighting a candle, and sitting with His Love Letter, His very Word, and paying attention to the beauty of the heart of the only One who has ever loved us to death and back to the realest life in His Love.

Silent Wednesday is for the free beauty of taking a walk under some trees, soaking in His glory, and having a prayer walk in silence with the One who never stops whispering your name, beckoning you to Himself and His upside down ways of love.

Silent Wednesday is for making time for the beauty of worship, the beauty of loving someone that someone else who has perhaps been labeled unloveable.

“A life given to God, given to people, given to community, given to those are forgotten and marginalized and maligned — is what gives our lives the deepest beauty.“

Silent Wednesday is about pausing to gaze on the beauty of God, the only loveliness and beauty who ever fulfills, because Love is a Person and His name is Beautiful, and He calls us to be His kind of beautiful love in the world, and like He loved us when we were unlovely, how can we love someone else who feels unlovely?

The most beautiful life is a given life. The most beautiful life — is one that looks for ways to give away our life…. so others feel His love… and we feel the beauty of His smile.

You were meant for greatness — and greatness is about loving a great God greatly, and about living greatly given.

I sit before the flames of the lenten wreath with the wooden silhouette of Jesus carrying a cross around the wreath, around the world, around time and the cosmos and at the heart of the universe is a servant bending low, giving away His heart, never doubt this.

A life given to God, given to people, given to community, given to those are forgotten and marginalized and maligned — is what gives our lives the deepest beauty.

God doesn’t call us to an impressive life — He calls us to an important life. And a life of importance isn’t found in a life that impresses other, but in a life that presses into the cruciform ways and heart of Jesus.

On the Wednesday of Holy Week, candle flames flicker brave, flicker on against the dark, and there is time to simply still and make intentional space for silence and prayer.

I met a woman once who said she wanted to buy something kinda lovely for Easter…

But then her soul turned around — and decided to pay attention to all the broken and beautiful ways to live what is meaningful — to love the unlovely in meaningful ways. And it began to happen — she herself started to become more beautiful… as beautiful as her sacrificed and given Jesus.

Her people said that she really had no idea how she was becoming, quietly, silently, beautifully, over time, more and more like light Himself.

Like all the meaningfulness of His light.

If you long to live a truly meaningful life — that is genuinely beautiful… start here with this book that has been touching hearts and changing lives all over the world.

Embark on a 40-day spiritual pilgrimage following the entire life of Jesus through the Gospel of John — a 40-day journey to move you from barely getting through — to passionately living the fullest life.

Come be Loved to Life.

If you are considering how to have a meaningful, Memorable Easter, Consider Our Free library of printables & tools to retreat into the Beauty of His Presence:Sign Up / Sign In to our beautiful library of freely given resources to encounter more of the beauty of God

(the Easter Resources are found under “Lent & Easter”)

A Dare to Live Lighter: Making Space for the One who Truly Matters

Our hearts are made not for the things that fade, but for the things that are forever. Not for expendable things, but for the eternal things. How do we detach from our possessions and remember that our deepest wantings aren’t material but are otherworldly? This was the real-life question that faced Julia after her grandmother’s passing shifted the way she viewed her possessions at a heart level. She hopes her story of focusing on what truly matters—the things that never parish or fade—will help you grow closer to the ever-present God. It’s a joy to welcome Julia to the farm’s table today….

Guest Post by Julia Ubbenga

A powerful personal experience finally made my detachment concrete.

One December evening, while sitting in my car outside my favorite coffee shop—the one nestled on the corner of our town square, facade adorned with white globe lights—I had an overwhelming urge to call my grandma.

I was new to these intuition-filled calls to action, but I was noticing them more now that I was focused less on stuff and more on God.

Eager to unload my daughters, sink into my favorite booth, and wrap my hands around a large, café-au-lait-filled mug, I tried to shake the feeling. My fingers grazed the car door’s handle, but the voice telling me to call Grandma became deafening, so I grabbed the phone and dialed. 

The conversation, as always, was soul-filling. I asked her questions about how in the world she managed raising nine kids. She shared a parenting tip, or at least some general encouragement, which I always welcomed. I promised to visit her in the not-too-distant future. She smiled—I could hear it in her voice—and said, “Oh, wouldn’t that be nice. But a phone call is wonderful too.” 

“Remembering death, living with the end in mind, propels us to use the time we have on earth to be less focused on inner and outer clutter and more focused on what truly matters.“

After I had talked for twenty minutes, restless voices from the back seat cued the conversation’s end. Eva requested a turn to talk, and in true five-year-old fashion, she excitedly spoke of the present moment and her long-awaited hot chocolate. Grandma said the call had meant so much and thanked me for it. I told her I loved her. And I told her goodbye.

Five days later, Grandma passed away unexpectedly. Nothing could have prepared us for the timing of her passing, and nothing could have left me more grateful for the evening when I postponed coffee to make that call.

As I placed a long- stemmed red rose on her casket one snowy December day, I was reminded again of the brevity of our time here on earth. I watched my warm breath form a white cloud as I exhaled into the frigid cemetery air. Then I watched it vanish.

Our journey through life is like that—transitory, fleeting, temporary. There is power in this perspective. Remembering death, living with the end in mind, propels us to use the time we have on earth to be less focused on inner and outer clutter and more focused on what truly matters.

The bottom line is this: You can’t take your stuff with you.

And chances are, when you come to the end of your life, you’re not going to wish you had more of it. Moments of connection, beauty, and generosity are the “things” worth collecting as we journey through life.

Saint Francis of Assisi said, “When you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received—­only what you have given.”

“When you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received—­only what you have given.”

Love is what we’ve given, and love is what remains (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Keeping our own mortality in mind naturally shifts our focus away from our stuff. It increases our detachment and our propensity to let go. 

In her book Slow: Simple Living for a Frantic World, Brooke McAlary explains how a simple writing prompt changed her life. The prompt? Write your own three—sentence eulogy. The result? Amazing clarity on what truly matters in life.

In her eulogy, McAlary describes herself as a quick—to-laugh, creative, loyal, spontaneous person; a firm believer that we’re all responsible to leave the world a better place than we found it; and a mom who raised daughters with both “roots and wings.”

“I looked at my kids and husband and tried to imagine no longer being with them,” McAlary writes. “The thought was painful, and I felt guilty. But what I also realized as I struggled to get the words on paper is that a eulogy doesn’t leave any room for the unimportant things. The stuff we own, social media statistics, work success, having a nice home—I discovered that none of it really mattered.”

“I wasn’t scared of death, I was scared of leaving too much of my life unlived. I was terrified of having a legacy of tedious existence—­being known for doing, amassing, and striving, but never really living.“

“The truth is none of us has any idea what the future holds,” she continues. “I (now) knew what the most important, eulogy—worthy parts of my life were—­family, adventure, having a positive impact in the world—­I realized I wasn’t living that life.”

While I wasn’t scared of death, I was scared of leaving too much of my life unlived. I was terrified of having a legacy of tedious existence—­being known for doing, amassing, and striving, but never really living.

I feared living a life incongruent with what I’d want in my eulogy, which, I decided, included faith, family, presence, and adventure. I wanted to be remembered for beach trips where I ran through the waves barefoot and bedtime stories that ended in tears of laughter, for lingering on summer nights to gaze at stars and being present to the people I was blessed to be doing life with.

After that December, my view of possessions finally shifted. Yours can too. The things to hold close, to be remembered for, aren’t things at all.

Fixing your eyes on Christ (Hebrews 12:2) and thinking of things above (Colossians 3:2) creates space to declutter your soul and align your life with your desired legacy.

Observe each possession, enjoy it, then let it go.

Because none of it is ever really ours in the first place.

Julia Ubbenga is a bestselling author, speaker, and blogger whose mission is to help other women let go of inner and outer clutter and reorder their lives around what and Who matters most. 

She loves Jesus, her husband, their five young kids, the sound of ocean waves, and the adventure found in any kind of travel. 

Julia’s new book, Declutter Your Heart and Your Home: How a Minimalist Life Yields Maximum Joy, provides practical tools for decluttering our inner and outer world, and shows us how to find freedom from hurry, chaos, and consumerism by reclaiming God’s peace in our hearts and our homes. Find Julia at www.richinwhatmatters.com and order Declutter Your Heart and Your Home.

{Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotional.}

How To Journey with Jesus Through Holy Week: Free Scripture Cards

Just after a winter sun rose scarlet across snow white fields, I find a curled newborn lamb shivering, still freshly wet, in the corner of the chilled tiny barn. 

The narrow way is the only way to life.  

Sometime in the still dark of the  early dawn hours, she’d made her way down the dark and narrowest of passageways – the birth canal – and slipped out into this cold world and she trembles. 

Since the beginning of time, ours births down the narrow canal testifies to the larger, cosmic truth: 

The narrow way is the only way to life.  

In the days just before Passover, in the days just right after Palm Sunday, in this midst of all these tired pilgrims making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the temple with their sin sacrifice, there were more than a quarter of a million crying lambs being herded through the streets of Jerusalem, lambs to be slain for Passover and the sins of all the people trying to find the narrow way.

The question I have to answer every day is: What does it mean to let your heart expand wide while taking the narrow way?

Sometime after the sun warmed mid-sky, after I try to get the newborn lamb up to it’s mother to nuzzle that full udder, hungry for those first swallows of milky life, a friend reaches out to ask how I’m navigating, how we’re all called to keep navigating all the things along the obstacle course that is life, and I find myself writing back: 

The question I have to answer every day is: What does it mean to let your heart expand wide while taking the narrow way?

This is always the way: Narrow way. Expansive heart.  

The narrow way leads to more than the expansive life; the narrow way leads to an expansive heart.  

This is always the way: Narrow way. Expansive heart.  

“Wide is the gate and broad is the road that lead to destruction,” says Jesus, the Lamb of God who is the Way. “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

The way of sin is wide-open and easy—- but it narrows until life becomes crushing. The way to the fullest life? This way is as hard as it is worthy.  

The way to the fullest life is narrow, but it expands the sidewalls of your heart into a spacious place full of grace.

The pathway of least resistance leads to the least life. And it’s only the narrow pathway, of great resistance, that leads to the great life.

She tells me she’s writing that down, carrying that with her, the way through: Narrow way. Expansive heart. 

I tell her that I don’t know this way — at all, but this is the way I’m learning. This narrow way, with an expansive heart, this can only be a work of God. The only way to know this way through life is to intimately know the Way Himself, and let the Way Himself do that holy, heart-expansive work in me, His ways above mine. 

The pathway of least resistance leads to the least life. And it’s only the narrow pathway, of great resistance, that leads to the great life.

I intimately trace the outline of His heart as the sun rises, reading now every morning through the book of Jeremiah, lingering with the curvature of His face and His ways, as purpose to do what I read, and what He whispers: 

 “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls.” (Jeremiah 6:16)

Ask for the ancient way, ask where the good way is, to find the way to rest for your soul. 

And Jesus Himself answers the prophet Jeremiah’s words: 

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”  (Matt. 11:29).

The way of the Cross is the only way to come across any rest for your soul. 

Echoing the very same words of Jeremiah 6:16, where God said the ancient way is the good way to find rest for your souls – now Jesus is saying He Himself fulfills Jeremiah 6:16, that He is the ancient way, the good way, the narrow way, THE WAY, to find rest for your soul. 

Ask for the narrow way of Jesus, and, however the wind blasts and the storms hit, don’t wander away from the way He carried His cross, don’t wander from the way that carries a cross. 

The way of the Cross is the only way to come across any rest for your soul. 

Real rest for your soul is found when you leave the rest — and take the narrow way of the cross with its expansive beams that stretch a heart wide open to real life. 

Those looking for something sacred travel slow. Those looking for the holy linger. 

After the sun dips down into winter fields and the twilight thickens blue, after I’ve sat in the piled hay of the tiny barn, in the warming glow of the heat lamp, to bury my hand in the tight curls of the newborn lamb to feel her heat, to feel her tummy filled with the thick rich of filling colostrum, I curl up on the couch with our youngest to read to her the last pages of her E.B. White chapter book that her and I have been working our way through together, and I catch on this one line:

“A person who is looking for something doesn’t travel very fast.”

And I pause here. And my soul stills. 

Taking the Way of Jesus takes time.  It takes time to take the narrow way that births a large-hearted life. 

Those who aren’t looking for anything worthwhile, think it’s only worthwhile to travel fast. 

And that wide way beckons to the fast and the furious, to the hustlers and fear-mongers, to the big and loud, to the angry and soul-hungry and joy-malnourished. 

 But there is another way. 

Those looking for something sacred travel slow. 

Those looking for the holy linger. 

The way of genuine spiritual formation is slow. Taking the Way of Jesus takes time.  

It takes time to take the narrow way that births a large-hearted life. 

And there’s a way to slowly enter into Holy Week by the narrow gate, by the narrow way, to take the Way of the Cross, and pilgrimage with God, and linger with Love that lays Himself down.

And feel your heart expand with love, because Love Himself moves right into the deepest chambers of your heart  – the love of the only One who has ever loved you to death and back to the fullest life. 

In the middle of the night, I slip back out into the freezing night air, to check on the newborn lamb, to see if it needs to be picked up and returned to the safe circle of warmth under the heat lamp.

And the Lamb of God picks up all the willing at the beginning of Holy Week – so they can pick up their cross and pilgrimage with Him on the narrow way to real life.

Dawn is coming, just not the expected way.

Free Holy Week Pilgrimage: FREE PRINTABLE DOWNLOAD: Linger With Jesus at these these Free scripture CardsThis week

Freely enter into Holy Week with a Holy Week Pilgrimage — a free tool with these free, downloadable illustrated, Scripture cards to help you encounter Jesus through Holy Week, inspired by the Stations of the Cross.

Linger each day of Holy week with Love laid down — so you can rise up and be love.

Take a pilgrimage on the Way of the Cross this Holy Week — slow and steep in each day’s scripture and gaze on the Lamb of God – and feel yourself move through the narrow gate into the narrow way that expands your heart.

And if you’d like to enter the full 40-Day Pilgrimage & be Loved to Life: 40 Free Easter Tree Ornaments, each one telling the gospel story of Jesus’ love for us, so you have an Easter Tree that tells the Greatest News ever… of the deepest LOVE!

All the details Here for the 40 Printable, Downloadable Easter Tree Ornaments, a free bonus gift for picking up “Loved To Life“

What If I’m Wrong? How Can A Daughter Work through Her Father’s Legacy?

Heather Thompson Day, a heartfelt storyteller and bestselling author, has dedicated 13 years as a college professor to teaching the art of Christ-centered communication. Her profound insights have been spotlighted on reputable platforms like the Today Show, Christianity Today, and Newsweek. In her latest book, “What If I’m Wrong?: Navigating the Waves of Fear and Failure,” Heather invites us to reexamine our perceptions of struggle. Are we truly drowning in our challenges, or are they pivotal moments steering us towards a deeper connection with God? This excerpt delves into the notion that these struggles may be guiding us to uncharted, divine intimacy. It’s a joy to welcome Heather to the farm’s table today…

Guest Post by Heather Thompson Day

I’M DROWNING. 

I wrote these words in my prayer journal.

No context.

No amen.

Not so much a prayer as a cry for help.

Two words that felt like a metaphor for the chaos that was devouring my hopes, dreams, and vision for my future. Passion should come with caution signals. It’s a strong wave over all who dare to greet it. 

I learned about passion from my father. His lessons have haunted me my entire life. There is a fine line between faith and delusion. I can’t always tell which side of it my dad was on. I’ve never known anyone who trusted God more fully. Dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when I was twenty-five. He never once complained. But I’ve done enough complaining for both of us. 

When Dad was seventeen, he went into show business. He’d play his guitar outside the office of whatever record label executive he hoped would sign him. Sometimes he was kicked out, other times he was welcomed. He got a part in his first Broadway show by memorizing the dance routine in one of the numbers, then running onto the stage from the audience and performing it beside the cast. The bouncer kicked him out, but not before a producer gave him his card. My dad believed that risk was a small price to pay for reward. He also believed that God placed gifts within humanity and that using them honored God. 

I know what it feels like to have your dreams bury you beneath them. That’s why I was drowning. I jumped headfirst into the waves of passion, thinking it would bring me safely to my purpose. But passion does nothing safely. It’s a harrowing front stroke into deep water with a strong current. It offers only risk, pain, and reward. Stay on the shore if you want safety. 

Biblically speaking, the word passion literally means “to suffer.” It is about doing what we feel called to do, even though it brings us great suffering. The word finds its root in the Latin word passiō and the Greek word pathos. Both communicate suffering. That is why they called it “the passion of Christ.” I don’t know if it is even considered passion until the suffering starts. 

“Watching the person you love slowly forget everything they always knew changes what you remember.”

For Dad, his dream was to be an actor on Broadway. He starred in shows like Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair. One day, however, he felt a deeply supernatural call to leave New York City and pursue ministry. He packed everything up, including my mom and my sister (this was before I was born) and moved to a small Midwestern town near Lake Michigan, where he would spend the rest of his life devoted to that call. One day he was on the late show with Johnny Carson, and the next day he became the man I saw tiptoeing down into the basement to groan before the Lord. 

Who knows what could have happened for him career wise had he stayed in New York? He traded Broadway stages and lights for an old blue van we all piled in. He only made enough money to fend off the bank, but dad felt rich in purpose.

I don’t think my mom ever doubted my dad’s choice to give everything to his passion. At least not until the Alzheimer’s.

Watching the person you love slowly forget everything they always knew changes what you remember. All our happy memories have a twinge of sadness now. When I think about who my dad was to us, I have a parallel image in my mind of who the disease has made him become, and it sets fire to the background of a lot of my memories.

Dad didn’t know when he taught me to pray how those prayers would one day consume me. That I would pace my block for weeks and years begging God to reveal his goodness toward my family in some way that made my dad’s Alzheimer’s feel justified. Like God had made an even trade. I needed redemption for the broken pieces. 

“I think that while I was praying for stability, my dad was praying to serve humbly and with integrity. God honored those prayers. And God will honor yours.“

I texted my mom one day. I needed to share my feelings with someone who shared the experience. “I watched Dad devote his entire life to ministry, and a pain point for me is knowing he has nothing to show for it,” I wrote. “You say Dad has nothing to show for it?” she said.

“He has you to show for it. If you are continuing his passion, then it doesn’t really end with him, does it? It just keeps going, from generation to generation. Heather, what if you’re wrong?”

It’s a question I haven’t stopped asking myself since my mother sent that text message. It’s easy for me, on a bad day, to look at my life and wonder if I’ll ever have anything to show for it. I often worry that all of this passion will eventually drown me. But what if I’m wrong?

I’d be willing to bet that there is fruit on the branches of your life. Maybe it isn’t money or power. Maybe you don’t feel important. But what if those types of fruit aren’t the fruit of heaven anyway?

I think that while I was praying for stability, my dad was praying to serve humbly and with integrity. God honored those prayers. And God will honor yours.

QUESTION TO CONSIDER:

What was your parents’ faith like?Where do you find your stability?What are you passionate about?

Have you ever considered that the hardest things in life might be our greatest areas of passion, through which we find fulfillment in everything we do? In What If I’m Wrong?, from bestselling author and speaker Heather Thompson Day, you’ll discover that we might just be wrong about our biggest fears and failures. They aren’t drowning us; they are part of God’s plan to make us stronger.

Heather Thompson Day is a gifted communicator, a bestselling author, and, as a 13-year college professor, she is passionate about teaching people the art of Christ-centered communications. Her latest book, What If I’m Wrong?: Navigating the Waves of Fear and Failure, is now available everywhere books are sold. Heather has been featured in media such as the Today Show, Christianity Today, and Newsweek, and she has earned accolades as a contributor to the Barna Group and Religion News Service. 

{Our humble thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in today’s devotional.}