Heather Holleman's Blog, page 140

Our Favorite Spring Cake

To celebrate my husband’s birthday, I make his request: The Lemonade Layer Cake. It’s a light, lemony cake. We add in a layer of raspberry filling and decorate it with fresh raspberries. This is a birthday cake, an Easter cake, a Welcome Home cake, and a bon voyage cake. Enjoy!

God Knows What We Don’t Know or See

This morning, my friend reminded me of a disappointing decision I made this past summer. I had been invited to speak to professors in Italy over Spring Break 2020. What a thrilling opportunity! How wonderful! Yet, because of our family situation and various factors, we decided to decline this offer until another year. At the time, it seemed like an inevitable decision but one that felt like a missed opportunity.

But my friend reminded me that God had already gone ahead of this decision and what seemed like disappointment was actually protection. The trip would have been canceled due to the COVID-19 virus; would have prepared to travel only to have our plans thwarted in the end. Or worse, we might have traveled only to endure illness or quarantine. Who knows what else the Lord protected us from?

My friend set my mind back to the sovereignty of God. She wrote this: “The mind of man makes his plans, but the Lord directs his steps. After years of getting upset when my plans go awry, I have learned this: If things are not working out the way I planned, it’s because God has a better idea.”

Indeed!

On Prayer

This morning I read something my friend Sandy posted on prayer from Dr. Timothy Warner. He says, “Sometimes we hear people say, ‘I can’t preach, I can’t sing, about all I can do is pray.’ That’s like a solider saying, ‘I don’t have a machine gun or a bazooka or a canon. All I have in an intercontinental ballistic missile’.” I smiled when I read that because I continue to remember the power of prayer to fight battles in the heavenly realms.

The Plumcot Progress

True Joy

I read this from Hannah Whitall Smith this morning:

“Our souls are of such a divine origin that no other joy but God can ever satisfy them. God has made the soul for this high destiny, and His object, therefore, in all the discipline and training of life, is to bring us to the place where we will find our joy in Him alone.”

It’s such a wonderful comfort to understand life like this. Whatever is happening to you–whatever disappointment, trial, or even happy experience–works to drive you into the presence of God where we may find our true joy and highest good.

When You Don’t Have Your “Chilling Requirement”

This morning, I called down to my husband that we lost winter. We just skipped right into 60 degree weather. As Pennsylvania residents who love the cold, this comes as sad news.

And I remember how, on this very month 8 years ago, I learned about how trees in our state have a “chilling requirement.” I wrote this:

Many folks plant peach trees in Pennsylvania because peach trees, like other fruit trees, have a chilling requirement.  Some peaches require over 1000 hours of below 40 degree days in order to go into the dormancy that allows a new season of peaches.  Without those 1000 hours of rest, the peach tree simply won’t bear fruit. Here, a peach tree gets those crucial chilling hours.So if it’s bearing great fruit, it means that tree had the right amount of rest. I have my own chilling requirement.  For days, months, sometimes years, I go dormant to prepare for the next year’s fruit.  We have to see rest that way.  It’s preparation.  It’s a requirement. 

As I think about what’s going to happen to our crops this year without these necessary hours of dormancy, I remember that when external forces don’t facilitate this, we must manufacture it. We must insist. We must create the conditions for rest when the environment around us no longer allows it. I’m not sure how this works for farming, but for the metaphor of personal growth, I know we can think about rest in our lives. Our fruitfulness depends upon it. For our spiritual chilling requirement, I think of prayer, of silence, and of waiting on the Lord.

3 Things You Don’t Have to Do This New Month

I love a new month. As I sat down with my Bible and journal this morning, I felt so content with the Lord. Nothing was troubling my heart. Nothing felt overwhelming. Nothing felt wrong. And then I felt terribly guilty that I felt so peaceful. Wasn’t I supposed to live a riled up, angry, offended, and miserable life? Isn’t this the way of the culture? Who am I if I’m not stressed out, overworked, and troubled?

But three things came to mind in rapid succession to reorient my heart. First, I remembered this little verse in Zechariah 4:6 where the Lord Almighty says, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit.” I felt settled again. My strength or application of power to any situation isn’t the source of change; it’s the Holy Spirit. You see this again in the Psalm 20:7 where we read: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” Lesson One: I don’t change things by my power, but by God’s.

Lesson Two: I don’t have to figure everything out. In fact, I recalled Proverbs 3:5:6 where we’re told frankly: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Can I admit that human reason and understanding must always submit to the wisdom and counsel of God? Can I admit that my rational thinking will always stand under what God has said first? I do not lean on my own thinking. I can submit to God and let Him lead.

Lesson Three: Life should feel light and easy. That’s part of the unlimited privileges of being a child of God. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus invites us into a new way of living. He says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

So, to celebrate a fresh month, I consider what I don’t have to do. I don’t have to change things in my own strength. I don’t have to figure everything out. And I don’t have to live a weary and burdened life.

To celebrate a fresh month, I consider what I DON'T have to do. I don't have to change things in my own strength (Zech 4:6). I don't have to figure everything out (Prov 3:5-6). And I don't have to live a weary and burdened life…
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Sharing Your Life

I’m headed home from speaking in South Carolina. What a wonderful event centered on being at a grand table as we’re seated with Christ. The napkins were a silky gold if that tells you anything! Pictures forthcoming!

I love the honor of sharing my life with others. And I love the stories I hear while on the road. So many times, a woman will tuck a book into my purse, and I discover later it’s the book she wrote about her story. This time, in addition to a new book on a mother’s journey of trusting God through the illness and paralysis of her child, I accepted other gifts including the church’s Southern Recipes cookbook. I had the best conversation about missing all the southern delights, so a dear new friend made sure I had the only cookbook I needed. And I have a menu plan for “Sunday Supper” that includes pot roast, macaroni and cheese, greens made with fat back, and something called pineapple casserole. It’s good to add in a meal like this!

Meanwhile, I dressed up: Notice the pearls.

To Read the Bible to Embrace Christ

I’m traveling this weekend to speak in South Carolina. Please pray that Ephesians 2 would come alive to the listeners, and as a result, that they would embrace Christ more. Thank you! As I once again read Michael Reeve’s book Delighting in the Trinity, I underline this quote about his fear of how we read the Bible. He writes:

“I know, it’s a bit pedantic, but it comes from the fear that we’ll merely study the Scriptures as interesting texts instead of hearing them as God’s very words that hold out Christ and draw us to want him. For the Spirit breathed out those words, not that we might merely alter our behavior, not that we might merely know about Christ, but that, as John Calvin wrote, we might have a ‘sincere affection’ for him, that we might ‘cordially embrace him’.”

It’s easy for me to study the scriptures; after all, I have a PhD in literature. I know how to study, to dissect, to critique, and to analyze. But to approach the Bible as a book, not of texts to study but as words that lead to the Word, spurs us to love scripture and to allow the Holy Spirit to teach us this supreme affection for Jesus.

A Special Joy of Aging

This year, I’ve enjoyed something so special about growing older. I realize that when I’m with my students, I know I bring to them a lifetime of accumulated resources, expertise, networking connections, and mentorship. This semester, more than any other time in my life, I’ve been able to look at students and say, “I can help you. I know exactly what you need. I know exactly the person you want to meet. I know what resources you need and how to get them.”

I joyfully spend more time writing strategic job and professional school recommendations, nominating students for key scholarships, editing professional materials, and sending emails to introduce students to the right professional people. I’m also the one promoting others on social media. (If you wonder why I’m always tweeting about Mike Watkins–our senior basketball player at Penn State–it’s because he was my student last year, and I want everyone to know how great he is!)

Outside of my teaching life, I spend more time than ever before helping readers who email me with writing questions. I know about agents, about proposals, about marketing, and about publishers.

It’s so wonderful to be this person.

What a change from my younger days! I used to need all the help and the attention. I used to crave the fame and the success. But now? Now I look at you, and I imagine your success, the attention you might have, and the ways I might help make your dreams comes true. Maybe it’s my age. Maybe it’s sanctification by the Holy Spirit. Maybe it’s because God sent me so many people who personally invested in my dreams–the teachers, speech coaches, the agents, the publishers, and the spiritual mentors–and I am inevitably following in their path.

I am. I really am. I’m now the person I once needed.

Last night, I marched down to the floor of the Penn State Basketball game right into the swarm of reporters, photographers, and videographers. (That was me if you saw it.) It’s because I once met the Big Ten Network announcer, Shon Morris (one of the absolute nicest people in the world) on a plane to Chicago. I have a student in broadcast journalism who will need an internship and then a career path. I had to make this connection for him. I tugged on Shon’s arm. “Do you remember me?” He did. “Will you do me a favor?” He would. “Will you let me connect you with my student?” He was thrilled. And I was so full of joy the rest of the night to help make someone else move a bit further down the road in the directions of their dream.

A quick photo with BTN Announcer Shon Morris

So my encouragement to you in this next phase of living with flair is to see who in your life needs more resources, more connections, more training, or more mentorship. You can be the person to make someone else succeed. What do you bring? What do you know? Whom do you know? How fun to go now and help the younger folks.