Heather Holleman's Blog, page 136

Instead of Always Working

I do love to work, and I love productivity. I love lists and goals and “making the most out of the day.” But something I forced myself to do last night was something joyful and creative for its own sake–not to produce or achieve or work.

Watercolor painting!

I based my painting on one I’d seen online (so I hope it’s OK to post my version! I don’t know the rules!).

Tonight, I will try a forest and a creek painting. It was joyful and restful to sit and paint, and I highly recommend it!

Helping Neighbors Deal With Fear

Ashley and I made a video for Moody Publishers to answer the question, “How can we help our neighbors deal with fear?” Here’s the link to the video:

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Though so much has remained uncertain throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the one thing that is certain for many, unfortunately, is fear. Join Ashley and Heather Holleman, authors of the forthcoming title Sent: Living a Life that Invites Others to Jesus, to learn how you can share the saving love of Jesus Christ with friends, family, or neighbors who may be struggling with fear and anxiety during these difficult times. Consider ways you can not only help comfort those who are afraid, but also see how you can point them towards the Great Comforter, Jesus Christ.

A post shared by Moody Publishers (@moodypublishers) on Apr 14, 2020 at 7:51am PDT

Because of What You’ll Now Build

Today I remembered something beautiful about robins. I had been looking out at the swaying trees and the dark sky as the rain pelted the grass and turned the dirt into mud. I had remembered the way the rain fell all night. Normally, I wouldn’t become so excited about the rain. But I remembered what comes next. I remembered what the mud means, something I learned two years ago for the first time.

Robins require mud to build their nests. This is precisely why they make nests after rain storms (or why they suddenly begin to build them under a darkening sky that promises rain). In fact, if you like finding nests as I do, watch where the robins go after a rainstorm. Most likely, they’re now building there.

I remembered how, when I first learned about the robins and the mud, I thanked the Lord for the stormy conditions in the heart that provide essential sturdy building material. I think of the growing perseverance, hope, and trust growing in me in the COVID-19 storms. The mud of it fortifies my faith like never before. It’s building material. The hardship around me offers the right kind of conditions to now build something new, something essential, and something I could have never built without the storm.

The Simplest and the Greatest

Our Easter was the simplest it’s ever been in my memory. But in its simplicity, it was the greatest one I can remember having. It included prayer and Bible reading, a meal with just my husband and daughters, a church service from our living room couch where we worshipped together, a time on Zoom with my sister’s family and my parents, a time to watch the Sight and Sound production of Jesus, and then a walk to come.

I thought about Jesus all day. I thought about how so many people are coming to know Him as I do because of what COVID-19 has stripped away in their hearts.

I thought about Psalm 22 and how Jesus quoted this psalm from the cross as He was dying. In this psalm, we read, “They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.”

After all these years of knowing Jesus and trusting Him with my life and all that concerns me, I know it was true then and now: We place our hope in Jesus. And just as the followers of Jesus came to the empty tomb with hopes dashed and fears growing, the disappointment dissolved as the risen Lord revealed Himself. And He continues to reveal Himself now.

I Painted Them in Watercolors: A Little Easter Joy

A Good Day To Search the Heart

I keep thinking of the power of having true moments of confession and repentance. It’s a beautiful thing; it’s not a shameful or condemning experience. I often ask younger women who feel far from God or troubled in their souls this simple question: Is there anything in your life that doesn’t please God? It’s an invitation for the Holy Spirit to do the white-hot work of conviction in the soul. And this is a radical form of joy–the best kind I know. Because of Jesus, we don’t stand under condemnation, so we receive forgiveness and cleansing. We enact 1 John 1:9 that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

What I’ve noticed about the COVID-19 world I’m in is how it reveals our true nature. We’re stripped down with none of the regular comforts or activities. We find ourselves alone with ourselves and increasingly helpless, dependent, and fearful. Some of us move into anger, controlling behaviors, cynicism, and despair. This morning I looked at 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 as Paul writes about a moment in his own life that sounds like what so many experience today:

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us. . .

I think about being in situations that feel “far beyond our ability to endure” and people around us in despair. I’m amazed at Paul’s rather simple (but ultimately profound) explanation: this happened so we would rely on God not ourselves.

So we would rely on God. On God we have set our hope.

This is something to talk to God about. How have I relied on other things? On whom or what have I set my hope besides Jesus? I believe we might see a great turning toward God as the systems we rely on fail. I believe we might see more and more of our own weaknesses. It’s a kindness of God because as Paul David Tripp writes, these situations cause us to “humbly run to God for the help that only he can give.” He ends his thoughts on feeling discouraged today with this powerful statement: “So your weaknesses are not the big danger you should fear. What you should really fear are your delusions of strength. . . Paul actually celebrated his weaknesses, because as he did, the power of God rested upon him.”

On Good Friday, I think about Jesus carrying our sin on the cross. I think about what it means to exchange my sin for His forgiveness, my weakness for His strength, and my fear for His power and control of all things. It takes a humble heart. Why not receive these things today? It’s a good day to do so. It’s a good day to take a moment to ask the Holy Spirit to lead us to the kind of repentance that makes Easter mean more than ever before in our lives.

When Nothing Works But Prayer

It’s a good day to pray. However you do it, do it.

In your kitchen, in your chair, in the bed, while brushing your hair. With your Bible, with a pen, with a journal. With music, with silence. In the bathtub. Together. Alone. On the front porch, on the back porch, on the stairs. Anywhere. Everywhere.

My Creative Neighbor on Zoom

My neighbor across the street always dresses in elaborate costumes with fun Zoom backgrounds when he’s teaching or attending faculty meetings. He’s hilarious! I mean, wouldn’t you want to listen to a lecture on acoustics from him aboard the Millennium Falcon or in the Hobbit world?

For the Vikings end zone picture, I tagged the Minnesota Vikings, and they actually liked it!

And We Shall Find Nests

It’s my favorite time to walk and discover the marvelous little bird nests all over the neighborhood. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved bird nests. I cannot adequately describe the sense of joy and wonder in finding a nest and, most importantly, the little egg inside.

My oldest daughter and I walk around the sunny neighborhood today, and I note the mourning doves darting in and out of the pine trees. Mourning doves mostly nest in pine, so I know to look there in the next few days. In fact, as we walk by a large pine tree down the street, I see the shadowy beginnings of a mourning dove nest. The loose construction of these nests always worries me. The sticks balance in the pine tree, and it seems like nothing holds them in place. How can that egg stay safe in there?

I’ll return tomorrow to see the completed nest. Meanwhile, the Northern Cardinal and the Robin compete over the winterberry bush and the weeping cherry. I never know who will win out, but this year, I’m rooting for cardinals.

Soon, the tiniest little sparrows will build their nest in the bushes that line the sidewalk up the road.

The Strength We’ll Need

All morning, I pray that God strengthens me by the power of the Holy Spirit to respond with wisdom and steadiness for whatever might come.

And I realize my greatest source of strength: God’s word. My soul sings this morning when I read Psalm 9:10

Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

I know this confidently, and it’s God’s word animated in my soul. The writer of Psalm 119: 28 knew this. He writes this:

My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word.