Sundi Jo Graham's Blog, page 41

Join the 10 Day Dear Dad Challenge

Maybe you’ve heard about Dear Dad and you’re wondering what it’s all about. Or, maybe you’ve bought the book and want a little something extra.

That’s why I took some of my favorite truths from the book and put them into 10 daily devotionals you can get for FREE.

It was hard to narrow down bits and pieces of the book and pack them into ten days, but I’m happy about the results, and I’m even happier to share them with you.

Oh.. PS – in case you haven’t heard the news, the book releases on May 7th. Stay tuned for some great details regarding the first week release.

Just sign up in the box you see below and you’ll receive one email a day for 10 days.

 

It would be my pleasure and honor to walk with you for the next 10 days as we learn more about finding freedom, restoring relationships, and seeking hope.

Here’s a screen shot of the email you’ll receive:

 

Hope to see you on the ten day journey soon!

 

What if I Had Died?

I used to be afraid of death. After a classmate drowned in the 8th grade, I became so fearful that I woke up every morning and wondered if I would die that day.

photo credit: jc_sharp (creative commons)

 

I even woke up in the middle of the night once and knocked on my parents’ door because I thought I was going to die. They didn’t wake up, so apparently I didn’t knock hard enough. Turns out I wasn’t dying.

I’m happy to announce that fear is gone. I don’t remember exactly when it went away, but I know it has something to do with Jesus, so I just leave it at that.

In the past, if I was going on a trip somewhere, I would write a letter to those closest to me, explaining if they were reading this letter, then I didn’t make it back home. I wrote a letter to my mom, best friend, and little cousin, Caleb. When I would return home safely, I’d throw the letters away. Weird, I know. (Hey.. I’ve got issues. What can I say?)

When I left for my recent mission trip, I didn’t write those letters. The thought actually didn’t cross my mind. I didn’t fear death either. I was just excited to go where God was leading me. That’s where my focus was.

On the plane home I thought about those letters. Why didn’t I write them? Why didn’t I leave powerful words to be said in case I didn’t return? Because I didn’t need too.

Everything that needed to be said had already been said. 

My parents knew how much they mean to me. I tell them all the time. I didn’t try to throw in a bunch of words prior to leaving to make sure they knew.

Caleb saw me off at the airport and he knew then, as he always has, how important he is to me. We didn’t have tearful goodbyes and “In case I don’t come back, I hope you know how much you meant to me,” words. Instead, we talked about stuff boys like to talk about. Then I hugged him and headed for the plane.

I told a few of my friends I’d see them in a week or so.

I didn’t leave with any regrets. No unforgiveness. I just left. Happy. Ready. Set. Go.

I didn’t have to write those goodbye letters because I’ve been trying to live intentional. 

I tell people how I feel about them when I see them. I don’t wait for a powerful moment. That’s the freedom of living real life.

I used to wait. I told people how I felt about them on special occasions. Or I waited until I was flying to another country to write them a letter telling them everything I should have all along. I’m so glad that’s over.

The fear of death no longer entangles me. Better yet, the fear of real relationships doesn’t either. Thank you Jesus!

Tell those close to you today how you feel about them. Don’t wait for a special occasion. Just do it. Swallow your fear and go for it. You won’t regret it. Be intentional.

If you left today, would those closet to you know how you felt about them? Leave a comment below…

His Name is John

His name is John. He is 15. His blonde hair and innocent looking eyes draws my attention quickly. I’m here to teach him English. I forgot to take a picture of him before I left.

photo credit: katiew (creative commons)

The country of Transnistria is his home. Russian is his native language, but today we will talk to one another in English.

I ask him if he attends church here. He shakes his head no.

“I don’t go to church,” he says, shaking his head. “I’d rather be with friends.” I smile. He smiles.

Then he pulls his phone out and swipes through pictures that take my breath away. 

He sits with his friends, all no older than 15, in a smokey room. There is a picture of the bong. A picture of his friend blowing smoke out of his young mouth. John laughs as he shows me pictures.

I don’t smile. My heart breaks. I ask God for the words. 

I’m taken back to my teenage self. I too sat in a room with friends smoking pot, laughing, thinking I was having the best time of my laugh. I remember the moments of “freedom.” The nights of drinking, getting high, giving my body away.

I grab a hold of his arms and shake him, in my mind anyway. Do you see what you’re doing to your life? Open your eyes! Walk away. Run to Jesus! Please run to Jesus.

We talk. The conversation is shallow. Before he leaves I tell him in my best broken Russian, “God loves you.” He is gone.

Does he really know how much God loves him? Does he know there is a better life for him? Has he ever had a childhood? Does he know my heart is breaking watching him walk away without Jesus? Does he know Jesus is weeping over his brokenness?

The face of Caleb, my little cousin, fills my mind. He is 12. The day he came into this world is marked as one of the greatest days of my life. The innocence of his blue eyes captures my heart every time he looks at me. Does he know?

Does he know how much God loves him? Does he know there is a better life for him? Does he know Jesus weeps over his brokenness? 

I’m reminded of a broken world as I think about John today. Where is he? What is he doing? Does his father hug him? Does his mother tuck him in at night? The anger in my heart of innocence being stolen wants to pick up that bong and shatter it against the wall.

I want to hold John in my arms and repeat the name of Jesus over and over again. I may not be able to do it with him, but I can do it with Caleb.

Will you pray for John? 

From Food Addiction to Freedom

Some prefer cocaine.

Others choose their job. Another clings to alcohol. My preference? Cheeseburgers, pizza, and anything else that would make the world disappear with every bite.

photo credit: edog1382 (creativecommons)

I don’t remember the age I realized I was overweight, or that I used food to survive the life I hated living. It just was what it was, perhaps because I lived in it so long. Food helped me avoid reality.

For every bite and every binge, I didn’t have to focus on my heart.

I didn’t have to concentrate on the pain of sexual abuse or the truth of my dad’s abandonment. He chose alcohol over me. It never occurred to me I was choosing food over others. Before I knew it I was 25 years old and 330 lbs, still trying to hide the pain of my childhood and the fact that my father’s diagnosis of cancer was going to leave me abandoned yet again.

Then one day everything started to change.

I was flat on my back in a hospital bed with headaches I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I couldn’t hold my head up because the vertigo was so intense. I couldn’t help but see this as a fork in the road — a sovereign chance to make a change. I could keep doing what I was doing or try something different.

Read the rest of the article over at Prodigal Magazine here….

Mind Praying for Me?

If you’re reading this right now, I’m probably on a plane. I could be in Chicago, Germany, Austria, or my final destination, Moldova.

Today is the day I embark on the mission trip journey. It’s my first time. I’m not really sure what to think, and I probably forgot to pack something. A friend told me the other day,

If you have your passport and a clean pair of underwear, you should be good to go.

Check. Check.

Would you pray for me and the other members of my team on the trip? We left this morning and we’ll be back on the March 17th.

Here are some specifics, if you don’t mind:

My energy
Strength
No headaches
That I use the Holy Spirit to be my voice and not my self.

Oh… and maybe that I can sneak a sweet child from the orphanage I’ll be visiting into my suitcase for the trip home. I wouldn’t be opposed to God making that happen – just sayin’.

I’ll see you when I get back!

The Power of a Dream

This is a guest post by Joseph Iregbu. Joseph is a writer, purpose guy and speaker, with a huge passion for raising the next generation of leaders. His new devotional (SELAH: A 90-Day Journey of Grace and Hope) just released on Amazon and until March 8 he’s giving away 7 awesome bonuses. You will find more details at the end of the post. You can connect with him on Twitter @J_Iregbu, and his blog.
What do you do with a 7-year dream that refuses to go away? Here’s what you do:

You fold your sleeves, get stuck in and chase it with every breath in you.

Don’t Quit On Your Dream

You don’t sit back; you step out.

You don’t wait on others for inspiration; you inspire yourself.

You don’t give up; you keep at it.

You will be discouraged along the way… but that’s okay. Discouragement is not enough to keep a man or woman with a vision down.

People will call you ‘crazy’ when you’re determined to live out your dream. But that’s cool. Allow it inspire rather than discourage you.

I know of a certainty that… (read the image quote):

I have lived through hopelessness and I have been knocked down so many times. I have been at the lowest points of life and have tasted pain, destitution and shame (read My Story of Hope).

But through these harsh experiences of life, I also learned the power to dream; to dream of a better tomorrow, to dream of inspiring a generation, to dream of telling my story to a world in desperate need of hope.

A 7-Year Dream Comes Alive

Allow me to share with you one of my many dreams – this time, a 7-year dream that became a reality a few days ago…

SELAH is more than a book (Christian devotional) – it’s a journey of life. It’s about a daily walk with an awesome God who gives grace to the lost and hope to the hopeless.

In 2004, I began sending daily text messages to members of my cell group. We were 6. By 2011, my list had grown to over 100 daily recipients. I was inspired by the testimonies of those who shared with me how the daily word encouraged and ministered to them personally.

It’s taken 7 years but it’s finally out. A dream is finally born!

Magnificent S-E-V-E-N For You

SELAH is now available on Amazon Kindle. When you order and email your receipt to info@selahthebook.com, you will receive access to 7 awesome resources that are guaranteed to change your life.

How are you using the power of your dream to tell an awesome, God-centered story? Leave a comment below…

The Church I Never Knew Existed, But Always Wanted

It was December 2005. My parents came for a Christmas visit and wanted to visit a church. They had become believers two months prior. I hadn’t yet made the decision to surrender my life to a guy named Jesus I barely knew anything about. I was, however, willing to go to church.

photo credit: whfc

As far as I was concerned, I was a Christian. I didn’t need a church to confirm that. Being a Christian meant saying your prayers every night, saying sorry to God when you had a hangover the next day, and praying fervently when a loved one was dying.

I wore a cross necklace everyday, so that meant I was a Christian, too. 

We walked into this giant purple castle inside of a theme park. There was loud music playing, kids running around, and people smiling. It seemed cool so far. Then my life was changed forever.

I’m featured over at Prodigal Magazine today.

Click here to read the rest of the article. 

The Wind Will Blow – Are You Ready For It? (Repost)

Change is consistent. It’s the one thing you can always count on. As Country singer Tracy Lawrence sings, “The only thing that stays the same is everything changes.”

photo credit: shirokazan (creative commons)

Change is all around us. Starbucks changed their logo. Facebook is consistently changing something. Your latest and most up-to-date technology changes in an instant.

What does that do you for you? For me, it rocks my security boat. It takes me out of the control of my own situation and I start to get nervous. It rocked Peter’s security boat too. As the disciples stared at Jesus walking on the water their immediate reaction was “It’s a ghost!”

But Jesus said, “Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Peter followed Jesus’ instruction and got out of the boat with faith. But, when the wind came Peter got scared.

Don’t we all do that? We’re fine as long as the wind isn’t blowing. But, when the breeze comes in and the change starts to happen, we freak out. I tend to anyway. I must learn, however, to embrace that change and trust that God is in the driver’s seat.

Let the wind blow and go with it, not toward it.

How are you dealing with change?

Go Ahead, Get Angry

This is a guest post by Allison Vesterfelt. Allison is a writer, managing editor of Prodigal Magazine and author of Packing Light: Thoughts on Living Life with Less Baggage (Moody, 2013). She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her husband Darrell. You can follow her daily on Twitter or Facebook. 

My best friend in college lost her dad when we were juniors.

He was struck by cancer for the second time around Halloween that year. I still remember getting the call. We were in the kitchen making sandwiches and I had just reached in the fridge for a Diet Coke, when our home phone rang, back when home phones were a thing. I only heard her end of the conversation but I knew right away something was wrong.

photo credit: katbphotography (creative commons)

The Cancer was back.

Hopes were high. He’d beat it once before, and everyone knew he could do it again. But his body must have been tired this time around because, by Christmas, he was gone.

She was mad at God, and I understood. Somewhere deep inside of me I was mad at God, too. After all, I had stayed up late in our apartment, while she was at the hospital, praying and praying that he would pull through. I even told her on the phone one night, “He’s going to be okay,” because I believed he was. But months later I felt like God had let me down, and maybe even made me out to be a liar.

I think I felt like I had to prove to myself, and to her, that He wasn’t.

So I spent a long time trying to coax her out of her dark spaces, her hiding places, trying to usher her into the light. My intentions were good. I wanted her to know that she was deeply loved and valuable, and that everything was going to be “okay.” The intensity I brought was commendable, but it wasn’t helpful.

She would stay up crying, or drinking, and I would stay with her. I would tell her, “There’s a purpose for everything” and “God never gives us more than we can handle,” and at first, I think she listened gracefully, trusting my intention. But before long before she got tired of acting like she believed me, or that she cared. Our friendship fizzled, and she went her own way.

Now, looking back, I wish I would have just let her stay angry.

I wish I would have let myself stay angry.

Anger gets a bad rap if you ask me. We talk about anger like it’s a huge problem, like it’s some sort of sin tendency people should just get over, or grow out of. We talk about how anger turns to bitterness when it’s left alone, and yet that’s my point exactly. Anger is dangerous when we leave it alone. We can’t talk people out of anger. We can’t talk ourselves out of it. The only way out is through the thick of it, into the muck of it — getting our feet stuck until we’re so tired we have to yell out and ask for help.

If I had it to do over again, I’d wouldn’t try to fix her anger, or talk her out of it.  I’d tell her —

Go ahead, get angry. 

Anger is productive. It’s effective. It shakes us and rattles us and moves us from the inside out. It means something. The worst thing we can do is ignore anger. Because anger talks. Anger is telling us something. We can’t be scared of it, or push it down. We cannot tame it or wrestle it to the ground. It will win.

We have to ask the questions it’s telling us to ask, protect what it’s telling us to protect, ask for healing in the areas it’s revealing as hurt.

Or we’ll never find a way out.

I think we worry if we let people get angry, they’ll stay angry forever, but I don’t think they will. Anger unfolds on itself, rolls itself out, leads us to someplace else. People don’t get stuck in anger, they get tired of it. At least I do. I rant and rave and rail against the world and, when all is said and done, the anger is what propels me forward. It is what ushers me out.

Trying to “get over” anger is what’s keeps me stuck at the bottom of it.

Maybe you’re angry about something and you’ve been angry for years. Maybe people have tried to talk you out of it. Maybe they’ve told you that anger isn’t healthy, that it isn’t Christian, and that you have to “let go and let God.” Let me be the one to tell you the words I’m finally brave enough to tell myself:

It’s okay. Go ahead, get angry.

Slush around in the muck of it. Let your boot sink in until you’re so tired you have to yell to ask for help out….

What I Hate about Being on the Prayer Team at Church

photo credit: trevor coultart (creative commons)

How do you handle change? What happens when God calls you out of your comfort zone into the uncomfortable?

That’s exactly what happened to me almost two years go.

I used to serve every Sunday morning in the media booth at church. I was that person that made sure you could follow along with the words to the songs. I picked out backgrounds, fonts, videos, etc. I always had to be one step ahead of the worship band, which meant I actually had to keep a beat.

Then one day things changed. 

God called me out of my comfort zone and showed me it was time to step it up on the prayer team. I had already served for the last few years, but I prayed for people, not with people. Now God was telling me He was taking me to the next level. He actually wanted me to pray with people. What nerve!

I was obedient and resigned from serving in the media booth. I gave up doing what was comfortable and routine to do something that called me out of my comfort zone.

Some days I really hate being on the prayer team. 

Not for reasons you would think. It’s not because it’s out of my comfort zone. It’s not because I don’t always enjoy holding hands with people and their germs. It’s because of the heartbreak and tragedies I hear about and see.

Last week alone I prayed for a woman who buried her daughter and brother after a heroin overdose. I’ve prayed for a gentleman who attempted suicide. I prayed for the salvation of so many lost people. I prayed for healing over cancer that is destroying lives. I prayed for broken relationships to be restored. These are just a few.

It breaks my heart. It angers me. I can’t stand to see others hurt. I’m reminded of the broken world we live in and the evil that surrounds each of us. I’m reminded that every day is a spiritual battle and sometimes it makes me tired.

Praying wears me out. 

But I’ll keep doing it because I know the most powerful thing I can do is pray. Speaking God’s Word over the lives of other renews me and refreshes me, even though my heart hurts in the process.

I’ll keep praying because I know nothing else will draw me as close to God as talking with Him, whether on my behalf, or the behalf of others. I’ll continue praying with others, crying with them and hurting with them.

Sometimes I see my prayers answered. I see people healed. I see relationships restored. I see people give their lives to Christ. I rejoice because of the answered prayers.

Sometimes I don’t see my prayers answered. Cancer still isn’t cured. Suicides can’t be reversed. Children die. I still rejoice because I know we serve a sovereign God, even though I don’t know all the answers.

What about you? How has praying changed your life? Leave a comment below…