Who is not broken in some way?

Ann Voskamp writes,

The Body of Christ may have a thousand different opinions, a thousand fractions and divisions, and circles. But there’s not one of us that isn’t broken in some way.

And acknowledging our own brokenness is what makes high walls between people crumble.

Because it turns out — that when you know you are broken – it’s always your pointing finger that is broken.

You can’t point at anyone else anymore as the only sinner.

Brokenness breaks us from our need to be “right” and breaks us open to our need to extend the grace we have been given.

Read more here.

"If we only got into the Christ-faith through the door of forgiveness, how can we claim Christ as our home if we aren’t people who forgive?"

Ann Voskamp writes,

Who hasn’t argued hard, been misunderstood, wounded, hurt, who hasn’t been cheated on, talked down, lied about, pierced right through and left heart-broken on some beaten-down back road?

There are a thousand ways to bleed, to nurse wounds and bitterness, and no one knows, a thousand ways to feel like everything is breaking around you.

...How many years have I have stood in sanctuaries and murmured that one line of the Apostles Creed? “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.” Have I really believed?

...If we only got into the Christ-faith through the door of forgiveness, how can we claim Christ as our home if we aren’t people who forgive?

Words and ideology on a page are cheap. Grace and incarnating the love of Christ isn’t.

Read more here.

There’s no harvest without a storm.

Ann Voskamp at A Holy Experience today offers this quote from Karl Barth,

“Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth.

Grace evokes gratitude like the voice an echo.

Gratitude follows grace as thunder follows lightening.” ~Barth

Farmer Ann adds,

There’s no harvest without a storm.
Gratitude follows grace — as thunder follows lightening. And the storm is grace because whatever drives us into God, is a grace from God.

God gives grace and ours is to give thanks and in the midst of full days, this is God’s unconditional demand: That we live thankful.

...there’s grace that comes as storms and the only answer to God’s unending grace — is man’s unending gratitude.
the only answer to God’s unending grace — is man’s unending gratitude.
When you live in a covenant of grace, you can’t help but live out a covenant of gratitude.

Read more and view Ann's photos here.

Gender is not enough

Lesley Leyland Fields writes,

A man or woman, a boy or girl who tends toward the features considered “the other” may question his or her identity in a way that may not have happened a few decades ago.

It seems to me that men are hit particularly hard on this, from two directions. Women and girls enjoy a generous allowance that encourages the athlete, the supermodel, the CEO and the mother as equally valid expressions of femaleness. Many parents, like me, encourage our daughters to be pitchers and point guards (and fishermen) rather than princesses. But cultural expectations of masculinity are far more stingy. If a man is gentle, compassionate, artsy, empathetic, cultivates beauty in his life, talks with his hands, enjoys the friendship of women, his masculinity and sexuality is instantly questioned.

Nor are the stereotypes themselves gender equitable. After suffering generations of sexism, women fare much better than men under the current spotlight. Women are lauded for their neural plasticity; are seen as flexible, cooperative, compassionate, honest. Women outpace men in higher education, in employability, and in a score of other measures. And at the movies, they’re as glamorous and sexy as ever but they’re also Avengers, superheroes, as kick-ass as the men. Angelina Jolie, all 100 pounds of her, can flick a 300 pound villain over her gorgeous head. Women can do and be it all.

And men? Yes, athletes and superheroes, but not much else. They’ve been lame pathetic fathers in sitcoms for more than 20 years. The moral failures of male politicians has come to feel like the norm. Physiologically, men are critiqued for their single-lobed rigidity, for their lone-wolf leadership style, leading one social observer, Hanna Rosen, to her 2010 provocative cover story for The Atlantic, The End of Men. In my day, many girls wanted to be boys, myself included because the boys held all the power. No longer. Now it is men who want to be women: three times as many men as women are undergoing sex reassignment surgery.

I’m not explaining away Jenner’s transformation on the media-ized ascendency of women in our time, though it may be a contributing factor. That double image of Bruce and then Caitlyn is a fitting poster for the increasing gap between the genders. But even more than this, Jenner’s interview and his Vanity Fair coverage poignantly highlights that our sexualized obsession with gender is failing us.



This is my hope, that whoever we are, we will be known not for our gender category but for our mercy, our wisdom, our kindness, our humility, our grace, and our love. If we allow the Holy Spirit to do this in us, we will be exactly who we were created to be, inside and out.

Read more here.

Are you finding joy in your life?

Ann Voskamp reminds us at A Holy Experience that

You can have joy any moment you turn hidden greed for more into honest gratitude for now.

Joy isn’t about how much our lives have — but how much we enjoy our lives.

Joy is never made by Having More. Joy is always made by EnJoying More.

More Christ, more now, more grace.

Read more here.

Amazing grace up ahead

Ann Voskamp reminds us that

The whole point of welcoming kids into your life is to wave good-bye to adults embarking out on their own lives.

...Parents aren’t supposed to be the loud police voice in your head — but the gentle pastor at your side.

...You can do this thing — because you were made to do hard and holy things.
You are always enough — because You have Jesus and He is always enough.
You don’t have to get it perfect — you just have to get back up and keep going.

...You’ve got to want to be one with Him — more than you want to be a Someone.

...You’ve got to want to serve more than you want to be seen, you’ve got to care more than you want to be comfortable, you’ve got to want to give more than you want to get.

... The journey not only matters more than the destination — the journey actually becomes the destination.

Success is always showing up and bending down.

...You know there’s no way around pain — there’s always either the pain of disappointment or the pain of discipline.

...The world’s going around with a big sign: Wanted: GIVERS. (Sorry — The world already has enough takers.)
Be a Giver — and you will get the most.

People may forget what you did or didn’t do — but they won’t forget how you made them feel. Hearts have the longest memories.

Lean in and make eye contact and simply listen to hearts.

Listening is a revolutionary act of liberation — it will liberate you from the prison of your prejudices and free you to love large.

...It doesn’t matter if you have some big title — what matters is that you have a big heart. A big heart will trump a big title every time.

...You can’t even begin to imagine how there’s always amazing grace up ahead.

Read more here.

Even the shadows can't help but speak of His light

Ann Voskamp reminds us that

there’s a bridge in the middle of it all — a way through. Grace is a bridge that has no weight limits.

Grace will bear the weight of the burdens — the weight you carry, the wounds you bear, the world you feel on your shoulders.

All the shadows we all live with everywhere just prove there is Light.

Even the shadows here can’t help but speak of His Light.

Please read more here.

Caught in the idolatry of smugness

Ann Voskamp writes:

This is what Jesus always does: He unsettles the comfortable critics, the smug judgers, the pious and proud — and He comforts the unsettled sinners, the unwanted strugglers, the undone stragglers.

The Grace that grows the Tree to cover sins —-
is the Grace that grows a soul toward obedience.

Please read more here.

Radical gratitude

Gloria Steinham writes and speaks about radical feminism. She says "fire in the belly doesn't come from gratitude.

Ann Voskamp writes about another kind of radical. It comes from gratitude. Ann has learned

When you are radically grateful for what you have, you will go to radical lengths to share it. When you are radically grateful for being blessed — you are radically generous to the oppressed.

And that’s what I don’t know if Steinhem knows: When you’re overwhelmed with the goodness of God to you — you overflow with the goodness of God to others.

The radically grateful can never stand for injustice –- because they are moved by radical grace.

You can’t know grace and not be moved. Grace starts movements.

Grace is a catalyst.

And I’m all turned around in just south of Port-au-Prince: When gratitude to God revolutionizes your life, God uses you to revolutionize the world.

It’s why God said to give thanks in everything.

Don’t hear me, Ms. Steinem. Hear God: Radical Gratitude is the attitude of the revolutionaries.

So Ann and her family have arrived in Haiti. She will be writing this week from there. She asks us to read about the A21 campaign against human trafficking.

A21 represents victims of human trafficking. It builds shelters for them. It estimates that 27 million human beings are in bondage across the globe. The average age of victims is 12-years-old. Only 1-2% of victims are ever rescued. Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings, mainly for the purposes of forced labor and sex trafficking. As the world’s fastest growing criminal industry, it affects every nation across the globe. Every thirty seconds, someone is forced into this type of bondage—modern slavery.

Grace and mercy

Ann Voskamp writes about grace, mercy, and Snowmageddon today.

Mercy is about not getting; Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve.

Grace is about getting; Grace is God giving us gifts, exactly what we don’t deserve.

This isn’t Snowmageddon — this is Graceageddon.

Graceageddon. It won’t stop coming, covering your mistakes, covering you in love. There’s got to be more than 5 feet out there in the orchard?

We get grace! Gift upon gift, grace upon grace, covering mistakes — a daily canvas to make art that is always seen from heaven — art. that. is. eternal.

That’s what all this is: Graceageddon. Grace is one-way love that just keeps coming.

Go read the rest of Ann's post and see the snow art created by a man named Simon.

Practice, practice

Ann Voskamp observes,

Seems there are a whole lot of men who see more glory in ESPN and superbowls than in Christ, in supernatural hope. They prefer pigskins.

I would just add, Ann, living here in Colorado, that there are at least an equal number of women who share that enthusiasm. Number 18 is being worn everywhere by all genders and ages in these parts, just like John Elway's number 7 used to be worn everywhere at the end of the last century, when the Denver Broncos last tasted the peak of earthly glory.

People are worshipfully amazed that Peyton Manning, he of the number 18, has a well-practiced, experienced arm that can throw the ball in all directions, over long and short distances, to sure-handed receivers who catch the pigskin and run to glory with it.

But, Ann is talking about a different arm and a different Glory.

His arm will go anywhere, to redeem anyone, from anything.

That changes any temptation to judge or reject.

That keeps you over the egg crud on the stove praying for your own blurry scales to fall off.

So what is the life of a Christ follower all about?

“Grace then — that is what the full life is full of, what God’s glory is full of.

To see His glory, name His graces.

Retune the impaired senses to sense the Spirit, to see the grace.

Couldn’t I do that anywhere? Why is it so hard? Practice, practice.

Glad tidings of great joy

Though she rarely posts on Sunday, Ann Voskamp is out with her Advent video number three. Her first video was about Hope, which the presence of Christ brings. Number two was Peace, and the third, this week, is the Joy candle.

Ache is not the last word for those who believe God. Jesus is. Because of God's gift of Jesus, grace is now our oxygen.

Ann describes joy as an unstoppable reality for the Jesus follower.

When our lives are "large with Christ," our lives will birth joy.

Being a Jesus follower means more than just believing. The opposite of joy isn't unhappiness. The opposite of joy is unbelief!

Very real sacrifices turn into very real joy. Gospel = joy news. Eucharisteo = grace. We give thanks, and get joy. Joy is possible wherever you are, because Jesus is wherever you are.

The enemy of our soul is a prosecutor. He gets you to say that God and others are not doing enough, and you, yourself are not enough.

What stops joy? Ann says it is expectation. She asks, why deprive ourselves of joy's oxygen?

Joy is a flame that glimmers only in the palm of the open and humble hand. Flames need oxygen to light.

Hebrews: "For the joy that was set before Him, He went to the cross."

Do you see why I go to Ann's blog every single day?

Your grace finds me

Your great grace, oh such grace...

From the Creation to the Cross. Then from the Cross into eternity,

Your grace finds me!

There in the every day and the mundane,

Enough for this whole wide world.

I'm breathing in your grace, breathing out your grace.

Forever, God.

Thanks again to Ann Voskamp

Getting married in order to fall in love

Russ Ramsey writes,

The Puritans used to say you got married in order to fall in love. They reasoned: How can a man and woman possibly hope to know the wonder, joy, and depth of real love—the kind where you are truly known and truly loved at the same time—without making those two lives into one thing?

Traumatic situations don’t create a person’s character so much as they expose what’s already there. Silence a man’s inner dialog and take away the filter through which he runs what he chooses to say and what he keeps inside, and what comes out of him will likely fall closer to the truth than to fiction. If this is true, then it is in me to belittle kindness and glare at beauty. It is in me to tell the ones who love me most to go away. It is in me to reject the advances of grace. And it is true. I know it is.

There in my brokenness I had so little to give. But grace, she never left. She met me in all my frailty, raw and wrathful, as exposed and defenseless as the day I was born. There she stayed, tending to me with kindness and mercy, weeping both for her sorrow and mine while I slept, in a chair scooted up next to my bed so that she could lay her head by my side because she loved me.

Thanks to Ann Voskamp for linking to this post by Mr. Ramsey.

Ohio coffee shop holds food drive to help thief who stole from tip jar

Thanks to Ann Voskamp for linking to this video.

Stretching

Ann Voskamp writes today about wanting to be a womb where God can dwell. I was praying something similar today, as I prayed to be a person who God could use to be a gift of grace to the people I came into contact with at work today. It was a wonderful morning, interacting with lots of people.

Then, at lunch I turned on the car radio and heard of the latest Colorado school shooting. The tears poured down my cheeks. Finally, I could not listen any longer, and turned off the radio, and just let the tears flow.

My mood changed dramatically from morning to afternoon. I just could not shake the sadness.

Then, as God does, I was given the gift of God's grace in a surprise encounter. I met a woman who turned the lights back on inside my soul. She had just lost her husband to lung cancer. She was buying provisions for a long car trip, 16 hours, for a trip back to Michigan with her two children, to be with her grandparents at Christmas.

Her grandfather is 90 years old, and has cancer. Her grandmother is 89, suffering from Alzheimers. The woman is driving all the way back from Colorado to Michigan to relieve her aunt, who has been caring for the old man and old lady. That way her aunt will be able to spend Christmas with her own family.

What a selfless woman, to be stretching herself that way, after losing her husband so recently. Stretching herself, like Mary, the mother of Jesus.

It inspired me to regain the momentum of the morning, all the while thinking of the trauma being experienced across town by so many students, staff and parents at Arapahoe High School.

Do you know who was the most pleasant person I met today? It was a woman in a wheel chair. I didn't ask her why she was in a wheel chair. I just enjoyed looking into her beautiful face and receiving from her the gift of God's grace.