That Thing I Do Now - Vol 59

Happy Weekend, Everyone!

So last week, I snuck away for an overnight trip to meet with friends... writers... sisters.  It was a quick trip - but somehow we enjoyed time lingering and relaxing and enjoying each others' company with no agenda or timeframe to boss us around!

It was wonderful and more needed than I knew.  I pray that when you read through these Gatherings of Awesome, you find just a taste of what good company writing can do! Make you slow down, breathe deep, reflect and refuel, and maybe even laugh out loud...



Happy Reading!

Enjoy! (Ya'll know to click on the authors' names to read their whole posts, yes?)

* This one by Erika Morrison over at The Life Artist with Where Was Somebody? (To Ferguson, With Love)...
"She’s the kind of lady that doesn’t have hope behind her eyes or a belief in innocence or winning tickets or good luck for the weary and downtrodden; people like her. She’s held-up, locked and tight inside her thick, leather skin. She’s seen too much, done too much, been used too much–much too much. Everything under the sun on this whole wide globe is just too much and I know this to be the truth because her drooped down shoulders are less than halfway as high as they should be — arched over like someone’s great-great-grandmother with osteoporosis. One of her hands is clenched in a tight fist against her chest as she stumbles alongside her injured sobs. There must be a rip above her aorta and maybe she’s just trying to hold the blood in before all her life force spills out. Picture it and put yourself in her tough shoes; you’ve got nothing going for you. Nothing. You can hardly chew your food.

Dear God, who broke the child inside this woman? I ran to her and I wanted to cut myself open and hold her inside my own warmth and wholeness. I wanted to say: “Here here here here oh my God, here! Take some of my own red and white cells, I have millions more than I need!” But instead I opened myself another way just by looking lengthy and with Love into her heavy laden eyes and choosing to feel the labor of her weary breath; I wanted to share a yoke that was easy and born of Light...

...This woman needs clay vessels delivering the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth that she has always had Love’s heart. Will she believe it, do you think, if enough strangers unabashedly embrace her out of the blue and speak this wordless Gospel through a flesh-to-flesh and spirit-to-spirit communion? Hold somebody–anybody–don’t be afraid. We’re all family anyway."

(Seriously, ya'll... go read the whole thing... and then let's go and do it!)


* This one by Shelly Miller over at Redemptions Beauty with Why You Need to Stop Shoulding All Over Yourself...
"When I hear the should in a sentence, it’s a trigger that I need to re-evaluate. Should is a sign I’m making decisions from guilt and condemnation instead of conviction.

And really, should is most often a result of comparison. I should be thinner, sexier, less talkative, more thoughtful, a better parent, you insert the adjective. Today I am judging myself based on my productivity about how I am using my hours. In a split second I created an unreasonable standard for myself that became an instant joy-sucker.

Living a should-life is one of diminishment."


* This post by Sarah Bessey from her Archives (reposted on her blog and here as well because... well - it's still Awesome!) with Tell them about the love that doesn’t show up in movies and love songs...

"Let’s tell them about the vast middle part of love, too, this part right now, the part that doesn’t show up in movies and love songs, the part where my hips have widened and your hair is greying, and some of our dreams are languishing at the same time that others are coming true. About how we’ve become better acquainted and more appreciative of the fruit of faithfulness and gentleness as the years go by.

We’re still choosing each other, over and over and over again, this is what we want, this is what I want, this is what we want, you are who I want, still, then, always.

Let’s make them feel like they’re part of a love story, let’s tell them how love looked for us.

Let them catch us slow dancing in our pink kitchen to Patty Griffin songs, let them hear us say it out loud: we used to sit in an empty baseball stadium in the middle of the night and kiss behind home plate. Oh, and how when they were little, we put them to bed early for two reasons – first, it’s best for them and second, it made sure we had a few hours together every night to talk or make out or just watch telly.

Let’s hold hands on the gearshift of the vehicle, the way we do, the way we’ve always done, until we’re old and we will tell them the stories of their grandparents and their great grandparents..." 

* This post by Ann Voskamp over at A Holy Experience with What Every Hard Week Ahead of You Needs...
"Standing there, looking right into me and the abyss of the mess of me that I’ll never get all right. And it comes down to this:

Christianity is the only hope for this broken world because there’s no other way for the broken to get the Nails they need to rebuild.

That’s what this week needs, that’s all this week needs most:

More than needing schedules and productivity, this week will need a Savior and prayer.
God’s not asking me to produce– He’s asking me to pray.
God’s not asking me to climb ladders — He’s asking me to kneel and let go.

Right there at the mirror, right at the beginning, the week begins to unfurl in slow, in hope.

And that’s what I whisper into the mirror:

His grace will be more than just sufficient — His grace is guaranteed to actually save.

Time, me, the week, all redeemed and miracles happen in mirrors and to people we know. When we know Christ, we always know how things are going to go — always for our good and always for His glory."

* This post by Emily Wierenga with The Truth About Social Media - And How It's Wrecking Us...
"We are free, friends. You, sister, are free, from what Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest tells you. We no longer need to live according to the culture around us. And it’s when culture begins to wrap its tentacles around us that we forget whose we are—Christ’s, set free by his extravagant love to do one thing: love others.

The gospel is really that simple—it’s us, being saved by love, so that we might express that same love to a dying world.
What does it matter if our towels don’t match or we don’t have a chalkboard declaring the menu for every upcoming meal? What does it matter if our dreams aren’t turning out the way we’d hoped, or we aren’t “trending” on Twitter? Someone’s mother is crying for fear of her child not living to see the next day—because in spite of working from sun-up to sun-down, she can’t even provide him a bowl of porridge.
Nothing else matters.
So, let’s love."

* This post by Emily Freeman over at Chatting at the Sky with What Love Never Does...
"...as I rounded the corner near the wooden walking bridge, I began to whisper the three words that describe what love never does.

Love never fails.

The words brought tears, partly because I know they’re true and partly because I don’t always see the evidence of their truth in the world. What does it mean that love never fails in light of the pain around the world – Ferguson, Syria, West Africa, our own hearts?

Sometimes I want love to be whatever I want, whatever I think sounds nice today. But love is specific, spelled out here in the middle of 1 Corinthians. And I know these descriptions of what love is, what love isn’t, what love does and doesn’t do are true because when I am loved for real, the love works. It doesn’t fail.

I desperately need someone to sit with me, to not be a jerk, to remind me of truth, to bear and believe and hope and endure all on my behalf. And when Love moves in my presence, I know it. And I begin to re-examine my own ideas of failure and success.

But love isn’t just something that happens to me, Love is someone who moves within me and invites me to move toward others."


* This post Gathering of Posts over at The High Calling with What Ferguson Taught Us About Hope including posts by Deidra Riggs, Lisha Epperson, Jennifer Dukes Lee, and more...
"Last weekend, The High Calling and several others visited Ferguson, Missouri, to listen. We heard stories from pastors, police, and members of the community. All week, we are sharing what we learned from this experience in a bonus theme What Ferguson Taught Us, chronicling everything from our time with Capt. Ronald Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol to our time with people on the street."


* This one right HERE where I talk about When Community Needs to Have Voices...
"...we all know that there are risks. I am guessing that not a one of us has escaped being hurt at one point or another. We humans can be horrid.  We are flawed and selfish and sometimes mean.  And yet, we long to belong... we love to be loved. To be heard, and valued, and appreciated.

Not a one of us is immune to needing Community, and listen - I know firsthand how difficult it is to find it sometimes! But it is worth the effort... worth the search... worth the risk...  

For we were created to live and dream and love and serve and to do it all together, side by side... hearts connected, arms linked up, heads bowed down.  

Your people, whoever they may be... they are out there! Go and find them!"

And lastly... the video... because that is how we do! This will be even funnier if you, say, have a teenage daughter... but still... either way... enjoy!

Post by BuzzFeed Video.

Happy Weekend, ya'll!