Natalie Scott on mundane days
A lovely reminder that God is in the ordinary.
Aline Lucas Meyer on letting our little children come to us
And Jesus said, “Unless you become like little children . . .”
Rachel Joyce, “All Grace”
We truly can never hear this enough.
Candace Wilcox, “Rest for Your Soul”
We’re not very good at this, are we?
This is still later than I wanted to get this up, but at least life is settling down again.
Aline Lucas Meyer, “I Knew You in the Wilderness”
Waiting is hard, and God is good.
Abby Ross on adulting
We were made to share the load together.
Natalie Scott reflects on Lamentations 3:23
I love this line: “Just because they’re new in the morning doesn’t mean they’re old by lunchtime.”
Joy Marker, “The Art of Noticing Without Judgment”
This is a fascinating . . . observation?
Like I said, not a lot of mental energy, so this was delayed this week.
Celia A. Miller, “Venting in the Presence of God: How to Relate to God in Your Anger”
As Margaret Becker sang, God’s not afraid of our honesty . . . but too few in the church believe that.
Abby Ross, “Butter and Jesus”
It’s the little signals . . .
Desiree Brown, “Church Attendance Is Not a Remedy for Church Hurt”
Sadly, admitting that “of course we’re all sinners” in general is almost always a bid to avoid admitting that we are these specific sinners.
Torrie Sorge, “Shine Your Light”
God created you, and me, and each of us, fitted for the purpose and plan for which he prepared us. Last I checked, he doesn’t make mistakes.
Jenn Whitmer on the value of the Enneagram and the importance of forging connections
The throughline to her post, imho: all leadership begins with self-leadership.
Becky Gonzalez, “Love Fights” [title mine, but I think it works]
So if love doesn’t rejoice at injustice, what does it do instead of rejoicing?
Jenna Kruse, “God at the Bottom of the Waterslide”
No, really, I’m not exactly like this . . . honest . . .
Elena Limoges, “The Work and Wonder of Words”
I think I posted a poem about this recently . . . 🙂 I appreciate Elena’s added emphasis on healing.
Kristin Vanderlip on hope, pain, and spiritual endurance
A moving reminder that there are “glimmers in the shadows.”
Jenn Whitmer, “Snap to it”
As a student of family systems theory, I would call this a discipline to learn to respond instead of reacting—which is the hardest part.
Aline Meyer, “Don’t Bargain on the Way”
A remarkable reflection on one of the saddest stories in Scripture, 1 Kings 13.
Jenn Whitmer’s parable of the refrigerator
I wouldn’t have imagined anyone could get this much insight out of an appliance purchase.
Colette Allen, “The Place of ‘In-Between’”
It occurs to me that to hunger and thirst for righteousness, we must learn to hunger and thirst . . .
This week’s fruit from some of my fellow hope*writers:
Jennifer Riales reflects on the challenge of waiting on God
Jennifer Denney (good week for Jennifers, I guess) looks back on “two years of nomad-life” and the importance of living intentionally for what’s actually important
Amy Noel Green struggles with skepticism and the ways other Christians can be stumbling blocks for our faith (Instagram link provided in case the Facebook link doesn’t work)
This week beat me; there’s no two ways about it. I won’t say I didn’t get anything done, but I had specific plans to write, and those didn’t get done; a blog post I started last Friday is still sitting as a draft, just to name one thing.
I also didn’t get my weekly hope*writers post up before this. I thought about doing two weeks’ worth in one post, but decided against it—it seemed to me that doing so would de-emphasize the writers to whom I’m linking, and I don’t want to do that.
I love the way Katie Scott put this: “God is predictable in His character and unexpected in His actions.” It always delights me when someone captures something I’ve been trying to say better than I’ve managed to say it.
Yolanda Lichty grapples with a terrible story which is little-known outside of Canada (I’m familiar with it from my time at Regent) in her post “215 Is too Many: Confessions and Questions of a White Canadian Mennonite”—the story of the residential schools to which indigenous peoples were forced to send their children and the abuses that happened in those schools. I commend Katie Scott’s post to you because it’s encouraging; I commend Yolanda Lichty’s to you as a point of entry into a hard story that needs to be heard.
It’s that time again—no, not for the Wheel of Morality, but to pass along the work of a few of my fellow hope*writers.
Jenn Whitmer argues that we need to ask better questions; in my friend Kent Denlinger’s terms, she’s making a good case for moving from condemnation to curiosity.
Jennifer Riales makes the point that if we are disciples of Jesus, we are missionaries wherever we go, and I love the way she describes it: “Changing the World One Front Yard at a Time”.
I recently joined hope*writers (hence the badge at the top of the sidebar); it has been a delight for a number of reasons, one of which is discovering some of the other writers on the site and their work. The logical thing to do, then, is to pass some of that on.
Rachel Rains on unexpected seasons: as our own unexpected season continues, I’m grateful for these words of encouragement.
Jun Shu, “For the Weary Hearts in Waiting”: this piece of comfort fits well with the post above. Apparently God really wants to drive this point home for me today.
Sarah Treanor, “Field of Dreams”: I’m also grateful for Sarah’s reminder that we need support—and for the encouragement to seek that support. (I also encourage you to check out her portfolio. Be aware that the first collection, “still, life,” was part of her way of processing the death of her fiancé; the images are appropriately powerful, cathartic, and unsettling.)