Heather Holleman's Blog, page 38

10 Years Later

This past weekend, I spoke at the Cru Dallas Winter Conference on Seated with Christ. I began speaking on Ephesians 2:6 in 2013, so I’ve been giving this message for 10 years! What a joy! In that time, I’ve learned more and more about how to apply the truth of being seated with Christ to everyday situations that provoke jealousy, comparison, or a sense that a better life exists somewhere else. I’m so thankful to the Lord for the power of His word and how He used Ephesians 2:1-10 to change nearly everything about me.

Photo credit: Cru Winter Conference

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Leave the Results to God

I’ve learned a few things after over a decade of public speaking and 25 years of teaching in college classrooms. The one thing I know now is that you can never really know what people are thinking. Sometimes, I think I’ve done a horrible job, and an audience seems bored and unimpressed. Later, I find out they were deeply challenged and quiet because of contemplation and conviction. I interpreted their demeanor all wrong! Or, a class that felt disconnected and sullen later sends emails saying it was the “best class they’ve ever had.” Or sometimes an audience cheers and celebrates, but I wonder if the message will bear any lasting fruit. I cannot see God’s invisible work in the soul. I’ve learned, therefore, to minimally evaluate a class or public presentation and leave the results to God. One can’t always measure impact or effectiveness, so it’s best to move on, not worry about it any more, and thank God for the blessing of serving others.

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Happy New Year 2023!

As you’re reading this, I’m in Dallas at the Cru Winter Conference to speak on Ephesians 2 on being seated with Christ. What a life-changing message I continue to preach to myself daily!

I love Ephesians 2:1-10 as a fresh start to a fresh year because it tells us everything we need to know about ourselves, Jesus, and our purpose. Consider memorizing this passage and thinking how your life would be different if you knew you were already seated at the greatest table with the Greatest King. Here’s what Paul writes (most likely from a Roman prison):

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,��2��in which you used to live��when you followed the ways of this world��and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air,��the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.��3��All of us also lived among them at one time,��gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.��4��But because of his great love for us,��God, who is rich in mercy,��5��made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions���it is by grace you have been saved.��6��And God raised us up with Christ��and seated us with him��in the heavenly realms��in Christ Jesus,��7��in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,��expressed in his kindness��to us in Christ Jesus.��8��For it is by grace��you have been saved,��through faith���and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God�����9��not by works,��so that no one can boast.��10��For we are God���s handiwork,��created��in Christ Jesus to do good works,��which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We are already seated! What if you stopped fighting for a seat at the table and started living in the new reality of being seated with Christ? Here, you’re adoring Jesus, accessing all the riches of God’s kingdom, and abiding deeply to produce the good works prepared in advance just for you. No more jealousy. No more comparison. No more fear. No more self-consciousness. No more sadness that you’re missing out. No more anxiety that you need to create a perfect life or maximize each moment. 2023 is our year of joyful surrender as we sit back with Jesus in our seat in the heavenly realms. And we pray with fresh authority for God to work powerfully within us, our families, and our communities.

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If I Could Pick Two

Since most everyone considers New Year’s resolutions today���as they prepare for 2023���I thought about the two essential practices that I would start if I were telling a younger me what to do: I’d commit to daily reading the Bible (and journaling what I learned, prayer requests, and gratitude), and I’d take a daily walk. That’s it. Bible and walking.

I couldn’t live my life without Jesus and growing in my faith through reading the Bible. And the daily walk keeps a body healthy to live a life of service and love to others.

My dear friend brought me my favorite prayer journal. It’s one I wish I had designed myself. I’ve looked everywhere for the journal online, but I cannot find it anywhere. Perhaps it’s out of print! It includes categories I’ve been using in my own journal for years. What I’m thankful for, prayer requests, who I might serve that day, and what I’m excited about. I love organizing my time with the Lord like this every morning on a page of my journal. You can do this as well, even if you make the categories yourself on a blank page.

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Record Your “Unexpected Joys”

My wise mentor tells me she’s praying for “unexpected joys” on my travels. The phrase sticks to my soul; I’m eagerly anticipating the Lord’s “unexpected joys.” It’s a fun game to play each day of my life. Where did God surprise me with an unexpected joy? It might not arrive as a tangible thing. I might enjoy a fresh experience of God’s presence; I might find myself displaying the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5) against all odds (especially self-control); I might notice how a friend calls and delights my heart. I look for the tangible and material as well: a beautiful sunrise, a special bird, a gift in any form.

It’s an “unexpected joy” because joy shouldn’t necessarily be there. Unexpected means it arrives despite all evidence to the contrary. Maybe we’ll all be in a discouraging situation, and suddenly, something sparks joy.

At night, or even the next morning, I record the “unexpected joys.”

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Absorbed

I’ve learned a few tricks to endure long car trips. Because our families live in the south, we must take day-long road trips to visit them for holidays. It’s one of my least favorite things in the world to be stuck in a car all day long. I dread it, and it nearly ruins the whole visit just thinking about the drive home. Every year, I try new techniques to get through the drive. This year, I had much better success by listening to Serial–the podcast from This American Life. It’s Investigative journalism in the form of a podcast about a crime, so it’s not for listeners who must endure gruesome details. But the point is that it absorbed my attention. I listened to it for 10 hours and could have listened for 10 more.

I love activities that absorb my attention: writing novels and reading a great book also do this. I also lose track of time (or at least time passes differently, quickly) when I’m walking in nature, teaching, or public speaking. It’s a great question to ask, “What are you doing that makes you lose track of time because you’re completely absorbed?”

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“Every Delay Is God’s Way”

One of our family mottos (besides “Every rejection is God’s protection) is “Every delay is God’s way.” Today, we learned this lesson in such a happy way. While visiting UNC, we stopped into a restaurant for lunch. The service was unusually delayed, and we waited a long time for our food and for the check. Finally, we finished and then went to a gift shop, only to discover my husband’s brother randomly in the same shop (even though he lives a few hours away in another town). Because of a change in his flight plans, he would spend the day in Chapel Hill. We enjoyed a delightful reunion that ended with ice cream and laughter. The meeting almost never happened. Had the restaurant served our meal sooner, we would have finished our shopping and missed one another. Every delay is God’s way.

We thought how this wasn’t actually random or a chance encounter; it was a divine orchestration for a wonderful afternoon. But God had to hold us in place in order to run into my brother-in-law at just the right time. Every delay is God’s way.

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Only Here

I find myself on a walk in North Carolina alongside the Longleaf Pine. These trees don’t grow in Pennsylvania; this explains why I’m marveling over their enormous pinecones. These pinecones grow up to a foot in length. I gather a few that fell onto the sidewalk. Later, I discover that my great aunt collected many of these beautiful pinecones and stored them in her basement. She offered two bags of stored pinecones for me to use as winter decoration. I learn that it’s possible to grow a pine tree (with much patience) from ancient pinecone seeds if they were stored properly. I notice several winged seeds that I might try to propagate. I’ll keep you posted!

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Keep Hoping

In Romans 5:5, Paul writes a transforming verse that, when applied to our lives, provides a perspective for our current reality. He insists that “hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” When we hope in God, in His promises to us, and in the certainty of heaven, we won’t be disappointed. How do we know? Because right now���this very moment���God is pouring His marvelous and overflowing love into our hearts. What does this mean? It means we have everything we need right now, and we know we’ll have everything we hope for in Christ. What are we hoping for? What do we want? Consider the words of A.W. Tozer: God is so vastly wonderful, so utterly��and completely delightful that He can, without anything other than Himself, meet and overflow the deepest demands of our total nature, mysterious and deep as that nature is. We keep hoping, and we keep letting God meet whatever our broken selves most require.

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The Gift You’d Bring

This morning we enjoyed a lovely, simple, and meaningful Christmas church service. We sang hymns and conversed with one another about our lives with Jesus. Little clumps of people gathered to reflect on Jesus. I sat near a retired hospice nurse who shared how much music meant to people as they neared death, especially old hymns like the ones we were just singing. I asked the nurse which song was the most sung by people nearing death. She said, “How Great Thou Art,” “In the Garden,” and “Amazing Grace.” We concluded that the soul sings even as the body and mind die.

Next, the pastor asked us something interesting about what gift we might give Jesus. Many of us sat stumped. Of course we give Jesus our heart and “offer our bodies as living sacrifices” (Romans 12), but was there something specific we could give Jesus? The nurse said, “Time.” She would give Jesus time. I liked that answer. I thought about offering my writing and speaking as a gift to Jesus. I thought about what my day would look like if I gave Jesus more time.

As we talked about the gifts we would bring to Jesus, we considered the gifts of the three wise men. The nurse asked, “What would Jesus’ family do with the gold?” How would they have used it? The myrrh was for embalming, the frankincense for incense. How was the gold used? A biblical scholar nearby said that the gold was most likely used to pay for Jesus’ family’s escape to Egypt. And we know the gold must have been spent by the time Jesus is presented at the temple because Mary and Joseph only have the means to offer two birds. If they still had the gold, they might have offered it then. Who knows? We enjoyed wondering about this gift of gold and how it could have been the amount needed for the coming escape.

We left the church and braved the bitter cold of a white Christmas morning. My heart was full of wonderful hymns and questions to ponder.

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