Take courage. Get back up.
We’ve had the wind knocked out of us a bit, yes? All of us, in different ways. No matter where you stand, we’re feeling the effects of the fight.
Everyone’s been punched.
That’s just my hunch anyway, I can only speak for myself. I feel like a spiritual battle’s been going on that’s beating the tar out of me. Mine mostly took place Friday night, when the enemy took a good but hard thing and exploited it to create the perfect storm of condemnation, hopelessness, fear, anxiety. I don’t remember the last time I cried that hard or felt that utterly hopeless. Of course, I was scheduled to speak the very next morning on the topic of … wait for it … PEACE.
Perfect. Share on peace when I have exactly none of it to share.
Even my sleep was fitful. Sweat, dreams, tossing and turning. Then in the middle of the night, a text woke me up. A friend. Word of truth. Nothing earth-shattering but a voice from outside the storm, calling quietly, “God’s in this.”
Oh yes. That’s right. God is in this.
The next morning my eyes were swollen and misshapen from crying. So I sat & read the Scriptures with icepacks rotating each eye, trying to get the swelling down before I went to speak. I looked like I’d been in a fight. Ha! I had!
We all have in some way or another.
I don’t share this to whine, “Oh poor Kari she got sad.” I share this because we have ALL felt the effects. Not just of an election: Let’s not miss the real enemy here and he’s against US ALL.
Of course, by God’s amazing grace, He brought both the words about PEACE and the actual PEACE to rule my heart and mind. He also brought amazing women, of all different types, to come together and bust our tails (it was a fitness camp) and pursue peace together, to love and cheer each other on. We were all so deeply encouraged.
But the battle isn’t over, right? We are still facing a foe that wants nothing more than to steal, kill, and destroy. Us all. He wants to trick us into thinking we are each other’s enemies. He wants us to turn on each other. He wants to lure us into self-protection and fear. He wants us to sink down into hopelessness and despair.
But we won’t.
I urge you, believer: Take courage. Get back up.
Believer, we need to contend for revival. And I’m not talking tent-meetings or traveling evangelists. The word revival simply describes being revived.
We need this. The church needs to be revived. Individuals need to be revived. Hope and faith need to be revived–not faith in our country per se, but faith in Jesus Christ. The good news is, even though believers may be divided on what the best political course of action may be, the good news is:
It’s driving us all to PRAY. My hope is that the turmoil takes us to our knees like never before. That it leads us to repentance, to self-examination, to return to the Scriptures, to love the lost, to recognize this world is not our home, that our citizenship is in heaven, and our Eternal King has never lost an election and never will.
He is the hope of the world.
Wherever you have been knocked down, however you are hopeless or discouraged … get back up.
You know how we get back up? We get back down on our knees in prayer. We get back in the fight, not against what we can see, but against the invisible forces at work in our world, against despair and fear, against pride and greed, against blame and bitterness.
Not sure what to pray? Jesus suggested something like so:
Our Father, who is in Heaven,
make holy your name above all names,
Let your rule and reign, your plan and purpose, your kingdom be established,
here on earth as perfectly as it is in heaven.
Give us the provision that we need, just as you’ve promised to do,
And forgive us our wrongs,
as we choose to forgive any who have wronged us, in any way,
Please lead us away from all temptation, from any thoughts or actions that would lead us astray,
And deliver us from the Evil One and all his works and schemes.
For Yours, O God, is the Kingdom, and all the power, and all the glory, forever and ever.
Let it be.
Have a blessed week, friends. Thanks for reading.
Will you forgive me?
It’s funny how things happen. What’s been on my mind is the word “forgive.” That is, in order for our nation to move forward, the first step we have to take is to forgive each other. I knew that was where we had to start, but I didn’t think I’d have to go first:
Not in forgiving, but in asking for forgiveness.
I’m asking you to forgive me, because when I shared my story, The Way I See It, I was not sensitive to the way that it could be incredibly hurtful to those who think differently from me. My heart was certainly not to brag, it was to share HOPE, that God was in this and had a plan for us all. My intention was to give hope!
However, I have this amazing brother, who loves Jesus and the world, and who works hard to advocate for the marginalized. He wrote me a letter, and with humility and grace, confronted me on how my public story was hurtful for many who felt they were on the other side.
I’m so grateful for a brother who loves me enough to privately, lovingly, and humbly confront me. There are so many things he did right when he confronted me.
- He encouraged me with genuine affirmation. As I read through the letter I could tell that he genuinely respected me and loved me. I felt loved.
- He didn’t question my motive. That is, he believed the best about me, my motive, my heart. In fact, he affirmed my intentions while addressing the outward situation. I didn’t feel judged.
- He pointed me to Christ. He wasn’t just trying to be right, or trying to get me to think like him, he was trying to help me be like Jesus. I felt helped.
Of course, the letter made me feel sad. It made my heart race and made tears come to my eyes because I felt so sad that I had caused such pain to people who God dearly loves. I still feel sad. But it’s a good sorrow. The Bible says that godly sorrow produces repentance that leads to life. That’s good!
So, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for sharing my story in such a way that people were hurt. That, perhaps, you were hurt. I AM still encouraged because I see evidence of God moving mightily in our midst, but the greatest evidence of the movement of God isn’t in certain events falling into place …
… it’s in forgiveness extended, one to another.
So, I ask you, all of you: Will you forgive me?
And, perhaps, someone comes to mind who maybe you might need to forgive. Or someone you might need to apologize to. Or someone you might need to lovingly and humbly, and privately confront (remember the 3 points above!).
Whatever it takes, whatever side we’re on. Let’s let forgiveness flow. Thanks for extending it to me. I’m so grateful to be surrounded by people of grace and truth. Thanks, Kris, for loving me. And thank you all for reading.
Her heart, our fears, His peace
Last night, a little parenting moment that seems so pertinent, in so many ways…
Heidi creeps quietly into the room where I’m putting clothes away.
“Mommy, can I talk to you?”
And she has that quivery voice that tells me something’s up so I turn to gather her up.
“Of course, Sweetie, what’s up?”
And then the dam breaks and a torrent of tears come, seemingly out of nowhere.
“I had my lollipop in my mouth when I was outside and it made me think that I looked like I had a cigarette in my mouth and I don’t like that. I don’t like that…” she sobs.
I smile. I don’t know what it is with my sweet girl and cigarettes but they bother her something fierce. We have a lot of loved ones who smoke, and no matter how many times I’ve told her it’s not a big deal, it still seems to bother her.
I hold her while she cries. I wait. No use correcting or chiding. She’s not misbehaving, she’s grieving. She’s not throwing a tantrum, blaming, or acting inappropriately.
She’s just sad.
Besides, we’ve done this enough times, I know there’s usually something more. Something lurking there beneath the surface.
“And then…”she takes a breath, “I had a dream. I had a dream that I had another mom and she wasn’t you and she was smoking a cigarette.”
Of course I smile at the cigarette bit, but I can understand more why the triggered sadness. There’s always something deeper, right?
I continue to hold her while she cries. I wait.
A few minutes later, she pulls away slightly to say something else. I can tell she wants to say something.
“Mommy I just … I’m … “
Her face crumples into tears again but she gets it out:
“I’m afraid of when you aren’t here on earth anymore! How can I go through life without someone on my side???”
Oh. Oh my girl. My sweet girl.
And now my eyes fill just a bit, because although I can’t empathize with cigarette-trauma, I do know this feeling.
Oh we know this feeling so very much.
How can we go through life without someone on our side?
There’s always a fear behind the fear. Yes? It might seem ridiculous, the stuff of cigarettes and lollipops, but beneath that fear there is a bad-dream, a fear that’s real. Legit even.
Sure, in some ways all our fears are unreasonable, but our unreasonable fears are usually just symptoms of a much greater fear. And the truth is:
Fear is legit. We battle fear because, quite frankly, there’s stuff to be afraid of.
This world is’t friendly. Tragedy happens. There are evil forces at work against us that could scare us out of our wits.
So it doesn’t help to launch logic-bombs at the tearful and tell them to get a grip.
So I pull my girl even closer into my arms, and we lie there on the bed, arms and legs wrapped around each other, her cheek resting on mine so that her tears dampened my dry cheek.
I get close enough that her sorrow spills over onto me.
And I offer the only real antidote to the paralyzing power of fear: PEACE.
We pray for peace. We ask God for the peace that surpasses all understanding, the peace that doesn’t make a lick of sense. The peace that defies logic and leaves us baffled at how it guards our hearts and minds … in Christ Jesus.
He is the only one who can offer this unshakable peace because He is the Prince of Peace. The world cannot offer this peace.
It’s supernatural.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27
After praying, we stay there, arms around each other, silent. I wait.
Soon, she lifts her head,
“Can we play Uno?!”
I laugh, “Of course!” and out we go to play the game together. By the time we deal she’s back to her giddy, silly, giggly, ridiculous self, and I’m so glad I got a glimpse of her heart, our fear, His peace.
Thanks for reading.
The way I see it.
Of all the shocked Americans, I may be the most.
There are a slew of status updates out there, a combination of horror, disgust, excitement, praise, lament. It’s fascinating that we can all watch the same event unfold, and yet see it in drastically different ways. So I share with you here, quite simply, the way I see it. It is my own perspective, so I share it with you not to campaign my convictions but simple to tell you my story.
I’ve shared some already here. In the midst of my Trump-disgust, we embarked on a corporate 40-day fast, and to my everlasting surprise, in the middle of the fast, I felt clearly a conviction to the core of my being, that I was to vote for Donald Trump. Not because he was a saint, but because God had a plan through this man, to “access” him somehow, for God’s glory.
I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that the battle in my heart these four months has been the most fierce I’ve ever felt. God convicted me of my cowardice and called me to share my conviction publicly, first with my most cherished family and friends, and then here. The challenge was real. I have never in my life felt a conviction that my husband didn’t share. I wept in prayer, in angst, asking God to help me reconcile honoring my husband and honoring His word to me. With all my heart I wanted to be obedient, without causing division in relationships I greatly valued. Thankfully, as I prayed and surrendered, God paved the way for peace. Every word I’ve spoken or written has been with my husband’s blessing.
Quite frankly, I never in a million years actually expected Trump to win. In fact, in some ways it felt “safe” to share my conviction with people, because I was equally convinced that DT would never win! Plus, I live in the bluest of the blue states. My vote basically didn’t even matter.
But amazingly, my prayers did. As the election neared, we began to sense more and more urgency to pray. A small group of us who shared this conviction, in response to Lou Engle’s call, agreed to fast lunch for 11 days, to pray and ask God for His mercy on our nation. Each day as we fasted, I admit it seemed a little futile. Skipping lunch for a guy who basically had no chance to win? But we prayed. And I know millions of others did too.
Over the days, my prayers changed. I saw things. Realized things. Scripture leapt off the page. More and more it didn’t matter that this man DT was the “lesser of two evils.” Of course he was! Jesus Christ has never run for president so even the best candidate is the lesser of two evils. Plus, I began to see Trump’s past, his shortcomings, as potential for God to move and work, to glorify Himself.
We continued to pray. On Monday we experienced the darkest day I have possibly ever felt. It was bizarre. Hopelessness, discouragement, weird thoughts, everything going wrong. Jeff and I both felt strangely despondent. Another dear friend who was also fasting, had a severe health attack that rendered her incapable of getting out of bed. But that night, we had our weekly prayer meeting at our house, on the eve of the election, at the same time I know millions of others were too. And the heaviness lifted. We didn’t pray for DT or a certain outcome, we just prayed for God’s mercy. We prayed Joel 2:12-14,
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love … Who knows whether He will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him?”
Yesterday morning, I woke with unquenchable joy, even though I figured the election was a done deal, in Hillary’s favor. The polls were clear. I figured we were done. But that morning in prayer, the Holy Spirit rebuked me—We’re not done! Keep praying. This isn’t a done deal. I texted my friend, “Let’s keep praying!” So we did, even though I honestly didn’t expect much.
That night, we went to my parents’ house. At 5pm, I joked with Jeff that we should splurge and drink a Coke that night as a consolation prize. I was 100% expecting a Hillary win. I just wanted to be there to pray and watch this whole thing unfold.
And then, before my very eyes, a miracle unfolded. Within hours, the entire election flipped upside down. Before my very eyes I saw the same vision I had seen in prayer, of states literally morphing from blue to red. Before my very eyes I saw history change. I wept. I got on my face. We prayed. We worshipped. We repented and confessed and asked for mercy. We asked for states, then watched with jaw-dropped amazement as those states gradually crept toward Trump, over and over and over.
I have never seen anything like it in my entire life.
PLEASE hear my heart. I am NOT equating Republican=good, Democrat=bad. I am not gloating, boasting, bragging. I am just as shocked as anyone else, probably more so. I do not put my hope in ANY human president. But I believe that God has a plan that is greater and more glorious than we ever imagined, even if it also includes a lot of pain and difficulty, confusion and complexity. All I know is that I witnessed a miracle last night, and I spent most of the evening on my face, worshipping our amazing God who hears our prayers.
We do not need to be afraid. Sure, we don’t know what the days ahead of us hold. WE NEVER DO. If we have EVER hoped in a person or certain government as our security, it is high time we trusted in the perfect plan and provision of God instead. Let’s stop lamenting and begin PRAYING. Let’s recognize that although we may not be in the ideal situation, God’s MERCY on us is great.
Friends, please hear me: I’m not asking you to like Donald Trump. I’m asking you to PRAY. I was so convicted by the fact that I was PRAYING over our nation, and over states, and over people, like nobody’s business last night. I am challenged to KEEP PRAYING WITH THAT SAME FERVENCY. This isn’t the end. This is only the beginning. It is time for the church in America to wake up, repent, love, serve, submit to the Scriptures, uphold the holiness of God, and birth true HONOR and JUSTICE. It’s time for America to be a blessing to the world God loves.
Let’s unite under the great and mighty name of the Lord our God, who alone is in control of this crazy world we live in. Let’s pray like never before, love like never before, and live for God like never before. Thank you for reading.
My own prayer on election day
I read Daniel all last week, Hosea over the weekend, and Joel this morning. Amos will meet me tomorrow. It just happened that way, of course, reading through the Bible, but it was no accident. The messages of these books is clear.
They are a plea for God’s people to return to Him.
I’ve prayed many and written some Daniel-9 types prayers. Prayers of repentance, for our nation. This morning I read this post, and wholeheartedly agree that corporate confession, repentance, fasting and prayer is where we need to be right now.
But I think it needs to go a step further. Or rather, closer.
Honestly, it is easy for me to publicly confess the sins of abortion, sexual immorality, racial animosity. For me personally, they are far from home. Not that I’m perfect, but I’ve not engaged in those. It’s easy for me to confess how the church has become a performance, how we’ve neglected speaking the truth, because again, not that we’re perfect, but Renew isn’t that.
Strangely enough, it’s easy to confess things that I haven’t done.
Oh wait. That isn’t confession. That’s accusation cloaked in religious jargon.
The things that are hard to confess are the things I’m actually guilty of. Specific things.
Because we sin in specific ways our confession must be as well. It’s easier to confess “the great wickedness of our nation” but what about the fact that I was terribly rude to my husband yesterday?
Honestly, of all the various articles surrounding this season, and how the church must return to God, the most impactful for me was written 200 years ago. It has to do with something so much greater than the election.
It has to do with revival. It has to do with rending our hearts, not our garments (real repentance verses outward shows of repentance) and returning to the LORD, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster (Joel 2:13).
I think America is in for a rude awakening, but may it be a Great Awakening.
But while there is most certainly a place for confessing on behalf of our nation, for interceding for wrongs that we haven’t committed, if we begin there that can just lead to subtle stone-throwing. First, we must repent for the sins we’ve actually committed. Logs must come out first.
I love Charles Finney because he calls us to the hard work of repenting specifically. He says,
“General confessions of sin will never do. Your sins were committed one by one… they ought to be reviewed and repented of one by one.”
I went through his exercise at length this summer, during our 40-day fast. I highly recommend! But believe it or not, I’ve sinned since then. 😉 And sometimes, when talking about confession, it helps if someone else goes first.
- Ingratitude. Generous God, I have been ungrateful. You have lavished me with life, health, food and clothing and abundant provision, and I have OFTEN ignored your blessings and neglected to thank you for the everyday abundance that you give. More than any other area, I see this as the most-committed sin in my life, and I am so sorry for my frequent lack of thankfulness.
- Focus. Father, I have read your Word each morning, but I have often pored over the news, Facebook, and blog posts with more intention and fervor than I have pored over your holy Scriptures. At times I have probably watched the polls more than watched for you in prayer.
- Prayer. God, I have worried more than prayed. I have touted and talked about prayer, and have prayed some, but not nearly as fervently and faithfully as I could.
- Lack of Concern for the Souls of others: Holy Spirit, I have not loved my neighbor enough to seek then out and share the gospel. I seek plenty of things–I search high and low for sales and deals, I research healthy options and homeschool curriculums, I peruse Pinterest, and yet I give very little effort to seeking out those who I can share the gospel with.
- Neglect of Family. Good Good Father, I confess that even as a Stay-at-Home-Mom I often put my own needs and wants above my husband and kids. In subtle ways, I can still be super selfish in daily life.
- Worldliness. Jesus, I confess that I OFTEN love the world. I have often longed for new kitchen appliances, a prettier kitchen, skinnier legs, cuter clothes, better skin. I have often let my attention be lured back to all that the world offers, instead of consistently putting my hope in eternal things.
- A Critical Spirit. Holy Spirit, I confess that I am quick to inwardly criticize others. I am quick to make myself the hero of every situation and assume that I am right.
- Preference. I confess that I gravitate toward people like myself, who make me feel comfortable, or seem to approve of me or agree with me, and I naturally avoid those who are different, who make me uncomfortable, who irritate or annoy me. I tend to be most generous to the people I naturally like.
- Pride. Gracious God, I confess that I have often posted things on social media that are flattering toward me, or make me look good, or promote an image of myself or my family. I have wanted to prove that I am “right” more often than I have sincerely loved those who think differently from me.
- Lack of Empathy. Compassionate God, I confess that I have not been broken-hearted for those who are suffering. And yet, I want empathy and confession when I have a cold! I am a wimpy sufferer, God. I’m sorry.
God, we’re sorry. I’m sorry. We’ve not loved you with all our heart or our neighbor as ourselves. May this rude awakening bring a great awakening. Lead us back to life in You.
{Thanks for reading.}
*Perhaps, if the Spirit leads, you might share your own confession as well? Not for show, but if it is sincere. On your own FB page, your blog, or just with your church family. Let’s plant seeds of revival.
How our cause can cause a crash
Sometimes it seems like life is one long course correction. I’d venture to say I’ve probably only been “right on” course for about 13 seconds of my life. And I have no idea when that was! The rest of it is a series of small corrections—a little left, a little more, oops not quite that much, a little right, there perfect—whoops!—not so much, there we go.
Right? We veer, swerve, and narrowly miss catastrophe more times than we probably we even realize.
Recently, I’ve been chewing a lot on what causes us to become so blinded, distorted, or deceived that we tailspin out of control and plummet to our demise.
A month ago my friend had a vivid dream, which I’ll talk more about later, but it was of a plane flying backwards, plummeting toward earth, then crashing in an enormous explosion. There were some aspects that applied to a certain situation, but the overarching gist of it was the danger of the church (Christians) going backwards, being led by the tail instead of the head.
I’ve been praying about this dream for a month, so struck by its vivid imagery, asking God to show us in what ways we’re susceptible to letting the tail lead.
Turns out, there are so many ways, but the gist of it is this: When our gospel follows our cause, we’re headed for a crash. And actually, let me reword that because even “gospel” has become sort of a buzzword these days, and it’s difficult to define.
When our “God” follows our cause, we’re headed for a crash. Our strengths become weakness. Our good cause can become the very CAUSE of our veering off course.
Let me explain. I remember when God was radically ruining our lives, in the best way, by giving us a love for the poor and a desire to ditch the American dream and live differently, I was absolutely obsessed with this newfound love and passion. Which is GOOD. It was God’s leading, and so incredibly fruitful in our lives. But, in the middle of that there was a danger. There was a subtle tendency to filter everything through my “give to the poor” cause. This is a great cause, but IF I shift my focus off of HIM and onto “my cause”, I begin leading with my cause, and the whole thing gets wonky and weird. I cannot tell you how many times He has had to course-correct my life so that I’m not letting my cause lead my life. See, there are so many great causes.
We can be all about serving the poor.
We can be all about “encountering the presence” of God.
We can be all about creating a “safe space” for seekers.
We can be all about signs and wonders.
We can be all about stopping abortion.
We can be all about foreign missions.
We can be all about planting churches.
We can be all about “winning souls.”
We can be all about healing.
We can be all about a certain method of preaching.
We can be all about upholding traditional marriage.
We can be all about racial reconciliation.
We can be all about discipleship.
We can be all about “relational evangelism.”
We can be all about Bible Study.
We can be all about the environment.
We can be all about loving the LGBT community.
We can be all about loving Muslims.
We can be all about America.
We can be all about homeschool.
We can be all about Israel.
We can be all about a certain political candidate.
We can be all about the KJV.
Clearly not all of these are AS noble of a cause, but different people are ALL ABOUT each of these things. It might be easy for us to see how becoming ALL ABOUT this cause can lead us astray, even those that seem the “highest” or most noble. (Arguably, “making disciples of all nations” encompasses pretty much everything, Jesus seemed to place this pretty high up there.)
But, the thing is:
No CAUSE is meant to lead our lives.
Christ is meant to lead our lives.
Please hear my heart: MANY of these things listed are AWESOME. They are passions of mine. Bring up some of these things and I can get fired up in no time flat. We invest thousands of dollars each year to some of these things. And, some of them are clearly more biblical than others. Many of us need MORE of a cause in our lives. This isn’t a post excusing apathy! 🙂 My point is, when our CAUSE (no matter how good it is!) becomes what drives our lives, we begin flying backwards and are prone to crash.
No cause was meant to lead our lives.
Now, again, this most certainly isn’t something we can judge from the outside. The last thing we need is more fodder for Facebook rants and mud-slinging. Let’s look at ourselves for examples of this. Scripture tells us to “examine yourself, as to whether you are in the faith.” When a cause leads our lives, we become narrow-minded, we love less and judge more, we reinterpret Scripture to fit our cause. We criticize those who don’t champion our cause.
But Christ is the only one who can safely steer my life. Christ is the only one who can lead this plane into safe landing at the end of the age. Christ Himself, who never does MY bidding but demands I do His, for my own good.
Seeking God has got to become our focus, our gaze, our goal, our aim, once again. Ministering to Him, loving Him, seeking Him, worshipping Him (minus strobe lights and fog machines) must become what leads my life.
God, help us let You lead.
{Thanks for reading.}
What we need to navigate these crazy days…
Baking bread can wait; we need to talk.
Today’s my beloved baking day, where we make no plans besides our normal homeschool routine, and I heat up the oven and chop the veggies and knead the dough and whip up all sorts of wonderful all afternoon long. I love Tuesdays. I measure and munch and inhale heavenly aromas and revel in domestic deliciousness. There’s just nothing like loaves of fresh-baked bread lining your kitchen counter.
BUT, today baking can wait.
We’ve been busy and I haven’t been able to write much, and quite frankly there’s so much happening around me I can barely keep it all straight, let alone articulate anything with any hope of cohesion. It’s no wonder God led me to quit reading books for a season — He knew that just reading LIFE would require all my attention. No need for the distraction of additional inputs!
Here’s why I’m writing: I hope to share some simple ways help us navigate these crazy-days we’re living in.
I’m not going to include links and, “Did you hear about???” stuff here. My point is not to draw attention to the insanity out there, but to help us be prepared just in case we need to navigate it well. We probably will at some point.
I will say this. I’m not a dreamer. I’m not a vision-person. I’m a regular ol’ girl who reads her Bible and tries to pray. But in the last 18-months, things have ramped up in the spiritual realm something serious. I’m not trying to be dramatic, I’m just saying that I wholeheartedly believe the “last days” described in Acts 2, quoted from Joel … are here. Specifically, much of what’s been brought to my attention has to do with false teaching, deception, and potential natural disasters. I’m not shouting doomsday here, I’m just saying these are serious times and we need to stay awake and pay attention. Here are some thoughts. These are three things we desperately need in order to navigate crazy-days.
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We desperately need truth.
The Word, prayer, fasting, and the local church community are no longer optional items we can take or leave.
Gone are the days where we lazily pull out our Bibles because we “should.” Here are the days where we desperately need to see current events, issues, and influences through the lens of God’s truth. ALL of the clear insights, warnings, guiding, and direction of this past year have been through the Word, prayer, fasting, and close, fellow-believers with whom I do life with. None of it has come through some famous person online, or a celebrity, or a politician. None of it is in isolation, but rather considered and prayed over with the community around me. Every dream/vision/impression been filtered, clarified, interpreted through Scripture. Too much is at stake to go without truth. We can’t be lone rangers trusting our feelings or be blind followers who swallow everything a certain leader says. No one is infallible except God. We desperately need His take on things. Jesus is the truth.
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We desperately need love.
We don’t just need open-arms love. We don’t just need truth-bombs love. We’ve got Gracers and Truthers but we need to be Lovers. We need Jesus love. God defines love. Jesus was the one willing to clean up messes he didn’t make. He didn’t ignore wrongs or error, he never swept sin under the rug. He called a spade a spade. He didn’t dance around hard topics. But He always spoke, acted, and responded in love.
For me personally, the Lord has put his finger on the importance of not just pursuing loving actions but on true love coming from my heart. I mean, I cannot act in a loving way toward another until I actually love that person. Recently, I felt a slight schism in a relationship and was agonizing over how to respond in a loving way. As I sat quietly and prayed about how to respond lovingly, I sensed God ask, “Do you love her?” Duh! What’s the point of trying to act in a loving way unless I actually love this person. I recognized that the problem was a lack of love, not a lack of understanding the right response. I stayed in prayer, asking God to change my heart until His genuine love was birthed in my heart. And He did! He’s amazing. Then, when genuine love was birthed in my heart, it was easy to know how to respond. It felt natural to respond lovingly because I loved.
It doesn’t matter a lick if we are on the “right side” of some controversy. If we don’t love, none of our super spiritually matters at all. (1 Cor. 13)
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We desperately need the mind of Christ.
Jesus was perfect truth and perfect love, on display for us. I believe that more and more, “conventional”‘ wisdom will not work. As Paul wrote,
6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.[d]
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
This does not mean we elevate our own fancies and notions, assuming every flitting thought is divine revelation. But this means we humbly immerse ourselves in the Word, in prayer, in fasting, in love, and ask God directly to guide us during these crazy days. It is so exciting to me to hear story after story of people who are hearing from God more than ever! In beautiful ways that totally align with Scriptures, in ways that bring peace and confidence, that cut through confusion and bring clarity and direction. Hallelujah! We need the mind of Christ.
No area is too small or insignificant to invite Christ into. Jeff and I prayed over our ballots, we pray over our budget, we pray over our big and little decisions, all the time. And we need to grow in this as well.
Guide us, Spirit of God, in your truth. Help us humble ourselves and submit to your Word. Make us brave. Make us loving. Make us unflappable and full of faith. We love you.
{Thanks for reading.}
On Fear: The only place that’s safe
Fear. There seems to be a lot of it these days. There seems to be a lot of bad news, a lot of fear-mongering and alarmists and constant worse-case-scenario thinking. I get it. Things do not look real awesome right now in America.
But God. More than ever I’m convinced that it’s critical we pore over the pages of God’s Word more than the latest news story. News is fine and good, but it’s sure to cultivate fear unless we read it through the lens of truth.
It’s this time of year I’m always reading through Jeremiah and I’m always reminded of the only place that’s safe. Check this out, hopefully it will encourage your heart:
The prophet Jeremiah is prophesying to King Jehoiakim about the impending disaster coming upon them if they do not repent and turn from their evil deeds. His words aren’t popular, as you can imagine, so
“when he finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, ‘You shall die!’ (v.8)
“Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, ‘This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city.” (v.11)
Is Jeremiah safe? How does he respond? First he exhorts them to mend their ways and obey the voice of the Lord, and then he says,
“But as for me, behold I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you … for in truth the LORD sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.” (v.14-15)
I am in your hands.
How could Jeremiah say that? How could he entrust himself into the hands of an angry mob of people who most certainly intended to kill him?
He knew whose hands he really was in.
Jeremiah could entrust himself to their hands because he’d first entrusted himself to God’s hands.
Perhaps he knew the song of David by heart,
Jeremiah was safe because his heart was free of fear. He was then spared from death. But you know what the very next story holds? Another prophet, Uriah, who had spoken the same sort of words. His story is told,
There was another man who prophesied … Uriah … He prophesied against this city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah. And when King Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt. Then … they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him down to King Jehoiakim, who struck him down with the sword and dumped his dead body into a burial place of the common people.” (vv.20-23)
Jeremiah knew whose hands he was in so he entrusted himself to the people and was spared. Uriah, who spoke the same message, was “afraid and fled and escaped,” and yet was put to death.
Where are we truly safe?
It’s true: this world is not safe.
The only place we’re truly safe is the place of refusing fear, of wholeheartedly trusting God. With our lives. With our children. With our future.
Then His peace rules our hearts and gives us the courage to enter dark places with the light of His love, and refuse to cower in fear. Then His Spirit empowers us to speak truth with bold love, no matter how those around us respond. Then He can entrust us with His message, His heart, His mission.
Fear will always lead us to captivity.
Faith will always lead us to freedom.
May we fully ENTRUST our lives to His good care, and actively intercede for those around us, with the faith and courage that only He can bring.
{In God we trust and we are not afraid. Thank you for reading.}
My one and only political post
I type these words with trepidation, feeling hopelessly ill-equipped and under-qualified to speak on political matters. For my 18-years of voting, I have never muttered much of an opinion. I basically avoided the topic, maybe mentioning I was voting for Jesus, or something like that. I also of course believe that Jesus is the answer to our issues, not some new political leader, so I honestly wasn’t tuned in much to current affairs.
But something happened during our 40-day fast, and I’m convinced I’m supposed to share about it here. My intent is not to persuade you to vote a certain way, necessarily, but to simply vocalize what I believe to God’s heart in the matter, at least for me.
During the 40-day fast, we prayed for our country, and about the election. I don’t want to say I labored in prayer, I didn’t, but it was one of the things on my spiritual radar, to be sure.
During this time, I was sick of Donald Trump. He was such an idiot, I never dreamed he’d make it past the primaries. I was shocked when Ben Carson endorsed him, and I was a bit disgusted when I heard that some highly respected people I know were supporting him as well. Not me! I found myself feeling happy every time the media discovered more “dirt” on him from his past. Serves him right, slime-ball!
So, imagine my surprise when, during our fast, I was cleaning my kitchen and out of the blue I felt very clearly that I *heard* in my heart, “I want you to vote for Trump.”
It literally stopped me in my tracks. I stood still. Wait, what?! Lord, WHAT DID YOU SAY? Um, do you even known him? He’s kind of a jerk. Like, you DO know about those nasty things he’s done, right???
Nothing. All I was impressed by was the story of Nebuchadnezzar. Somehow, I sensed that Trump was likened to Nebuchadnezzar who God used to judge the nation of Israel AND who was publicly humbled in a extraordinary way (going insane, eating grass like an animal for 7 years), in order to bring about a supernatural transformation that brought glory to God in front of an entire nation.
Now, I wasn’t sure what to do with this, but I definitely didn’t want to tell anyone, not even Jeff. I figured I’d just sort of see how things played out, and I sort of forgot about the whole encounter.
But then, it was time to vote in the primaries. I let Jeff fill out my ballet, as a way of sort of skirting around the whole ordeal. Let’s just say he didn’t check the Trump box. I stayed quiet. But, as I was signing my ballot and sealing up the envelope, I heard so clearly in my heart, “I told you how to vote.”
Oh. Yes. So apparently that really was a thing. I’m ashamed to say I still didn’t speak up, I just sent in the ballot as it was, and still never said anything to Jeff.
Fast forward. Months go by, the election gets uglier, we’re left with Hillary and Trump.
And then, two weeks ago, in prayer during my morning quiet time, while sitting in a lawn chair in Arizona, the Holy Spirit convicts me big time that He had told me what to do and I’d ignored it, not even telling my own husband about the conviction. I was ashamed to say to anyone, “God told me to vote for Trump.” It sounded preposterous.
But I knew I couldn’t ignore Him any longer. As I sat there I just happened to be reading Luke 9 and verse 26 leapt off the page:
“For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
Yikes. I had never before considered this verse applying to anything other than Scripture. I’m not ashamed of the Bible! But, was I ashamed of the word that the Holy Spirit had clearly spoken to me during our 40-day fast?! Was I ashamed to admit that I thought I’d heard from God? Was I willing to endure the ridicule of looking like an crazy lady who thinks prophecy should inform our politics? Besides, I’m not exactly a wealth of political knowledge. Who was I to weigh in on such a matter?
Besides all that, if you say you’re voting for Trump many people automatically think you’re a racist bigot who doesn’t care about the poor. I’m not that! I would gladly welcome refugees into our home, just like we have welcomed the homeless, a drug-user & a prostitute. We welcome them not because they’re refugees or druggies but because they are PEOPLE, created in the image of God. (Just like the unborn are.) Our entire life has been drastically altered by choosing to give to the poor, especially those in foreign countries.
So, I was afraid of being misunderstood, but I prayed for a little further information on why this was God’s choice (for me), and I heard: “I have access to him.” I don’t think it’s that Trump is a godly man (he’s not), but I believe somehow God has access to him in a way he doesn’t to other candidates. Similar to Nebuchadnezzar, who God accessed through a dream and the prophetic gifts of the prophet Daniel, I believe somehow God will have access to Trump and use something (humiliation?) to exalt Himself publicly.
So, I told Jeff. I told our elders’ wives. I told my family.
And now I’m telling you. 😉
So there. I’m not ashamed. There’s much more I could say, but I am PRAYING with far more fervor than lobbying or rallying, I am not saying I agree with all Trump’s choices or lifestyle. I’m not saying you need to agree with me, or vote this way. I believe there are wise, godly followers of Jesus on both sides of this election. I just knew that I needed to share my experience with you, as crazy as it sounds.
The one thing I would say is this: PRAY AND VOTE. Do not pass up on the incredible privilege we have to influence our world through prayer and voting, for the glory of God. Please.
God, give us wisdom not only as we vote, but as we LIVE. May our lives be one giant ballot cast in favor of King Jesus, our only hope, the Lord and Savior of our country and of the world. Make Your Kingdom great again!
{Thanks for reading.}
What 100 churches have shown me
Saturday night I googled something I’ve never searched for before: “Churches near me.” It was so interesting, scrolling through the options, getting a “outsider’s perspective” as I perused websites and read About Us pages.
Such a variety.
Since Jeff would be competing in the Ironman 70.3 race, it would just be the kids and I attending, and we needed to be done by 10:30am in order to get to his race, so I made my super-spiritual selection simply based on who was nearby and had the earliest service.
8:30am, Grace Community Church, 3 miles away. Done. It was lovely. We might have been the only ones under 70 :), but it was simple, humble, beautiful. Everything pointed to God. The Scriptures were taught. Christ was exalted.
It was so refreshing to my soul, I wept my way through worship, my parched soul gulping down the amazing grace. Jesus is so glorious!
See, we visited three different churches during our road-trip, everything from extremely charismatic to Southern Baptist to non-denominational community church. God did some measure of work in my heart at all three, even though they were vastly different in doctrine and style.
Earlier in the trip, at the conference we attended, a woman seated next to me had talked to Jeff, and somehow it came up that I had recently spoken at a retreat located near the woman’s hometown. She was familiar with the venue, and raised her eyebrows as she remarked,
“Wow, I’m surprised they would have hired a conference speaker who would be attending this.”
I smiled. I sort of knew she’d say that. You see, I speak at a wide-variety of churches and conferences. Everything from Assemblies of God to Nazarene to Calvary Chapel to Southern Baptist to Presbyterian. And honestly? I absolutely love it.
I love the wide variety. I love that I have no idea what to expect until I get there. I love seeing the ages range from 18-88, dressed in sweatpants and stilettos, rich and poor. I love that to some being “led by the Spirit” means they sing a song verse a second time through, unplanned (!), while others think this involves spontaneously speaking in tongues. I love that some sit quietly, heads bowed, and some are dancing in the aisles.
I think Jesus can handle that.
I think God is big enough to move mountains in our midst, no matter our personality or preference or style. I think the Holy Spirit can change the course of someone’s life no matter how ecstatic he feels.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from partnering with nearly 100 churches in my years of speaking and teaching, it’s that I think we make a way bigger deal about our distinctions than God does. I think we place way too much emphasis on getting our distinct position exactly right and way too little emphasis on getting our hearts right.
Jesus rebuked people saying, “You tithe mint and cumin! But you neglect the weightier matters! Give as offering the things that are within.”
So many are concerned about creating exactly the right atmosphere for the Spirit of God to move. I’m raising my hand: Guilty as charged. The right lighting, volume, sound, the right graphics and humor and don’t botch the transition… and and and and and…
“The offering of God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite spirit God will not despise. (Ps. 51):17”
Oh! If only we would just focus on the atmosphere of our hearts! NOTHING can keep you from truly worshipping God. Even if everyone around you is yawning, even if the music isn’t perfect, even if the preacher isn’t polished, even if the lighting isn’t just so, or EVEN (*gasp*) if your toddler is squirming in your arms.
YOU might not have as much of an exhilarating experience, but GOD IS BLESSED by our offering when our hearts are truly set on Him.
Isn’t He the One that matters anyway?
Isn’t our worship about Him?
Isn’t HE the reason we go to church? How did we end up thinking this was all about us?
Saturday night, when I told the kids we’d be getting up early to visit a church before going to Daddy’s race, they both complained.
“We don’t like going to new places. I don’t want to get up early. I don’t like having to meet new people. I only like our own church.”
And I responded:
“I know this isn’t your preference. I know it isn’t your favorite thing. But you know what? We go to church not because we feel like it, or it’s our first choice, we go to church because it honors God. It’s for Him, not us. So, I will make it as comfortable as I can for you. You can stay with me and not go to kids’ class. If you don’t want to chitchat with strangers, that’s fine. I’ll talk for you. But we will go with a happy heart because it’s the Lord’s Day and we will honor Him, just as we’ll then go to Daddy’s race to honor him.”
By God’s grace, their hearts changed, and they agreed without complaint.
And we were so blessed.
Friends, I have an urgency in my heart to plead with you: Choose to worship God no matter what your atmosphere, how you feel or don’t feel, no matter how imperfect your situation. I believe there will come a day when it will truly COST us to worship God. Will we choose Him now, no matter how we feel? Will you honor Him, not only on Sunday, but every day, because He is worthy? Let us rend our HEARTS, not our garments, and give as our offering the things that are within. Our hearts. Our lives. Our all.
{Thanks for reading.}