That Thing I Do Now - Vol 79

Hey ya'll! Happy Weekend!

We woke up to snow on Friday morning... Snow! (We haven't had any of that yet this Winter! I know... haters gonna hate and all of that but just hold on -it gets worse better... by Friday afternoon - it was GONE! Mostly melted away!) 

Anyway - Welcome to the Weekend!

Usually what that means around here is a bit more down time to read all the things, which is why I am always more than happy to hook you up with some of the best reads I have found from across the interwebs this week!

Featured today are posts by Emily Freeman, Shauna Niequist, Erika Morrison, Ann Voskamp, Hannah Boning, Kaitlyn Bouchillon, Michelle DeRusha, a post from right here... and - of course - a video to wrap it all up!

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

* This post by Emily Freeman over at Chatting at the Sky with The Spiritual Discipline of Learning Nothing...

"...learning is good and disappointments are an opportunity for growth. But I’ve grown weary of trying to squeeze a lesson out of everything, of always asking what God is trying to teach me in every circumstance, of seeing the world through lesson-colored glasses.

I am guilty of managing my experience of difficulty so my struggles don’t feel wasted. In this action, I fear I’ve missed sacred times of healing in the darkness because I’ve wanted to rush ahead to the more understandable light. I have bullet-pointed my soul so that things make sense and have regarded God only as my teacher, forgetting he is also my friend.

School is good and necessary, but in my heart I long for home."

* This post by Shauna Niequist with Stocking The Pond... 
"The first step in writing happens way before the typing: it’s the stocking of the pond. Take notes on your phone, snap pictures, scribble on the back of receipts–notice everything. The first part of writing is noticing.

I think part of why I genuinely love being a writer is because I’m a detail person, a noticer. I’m endlessly fascinated by color and tone of voice and texture. I have a great memory for extremely inconsequential details. Except here’s the thing: when you’re a storyteller, there’s no such thing as an inconsequential detail.

Stories are made of details. What makes a good story is that the details bring the themes to life. A love story is just an idea until there’s a kiss and a lipstick mark, and a Bright Eyes song playing in the background. A story about conquering fears needs shaking legs and a heavy backpack, a hot sun and scratchy socks, and the smell of pine needles and sweat. Stories are built on details.

If I you want to develop your storytelling skills, develop your noticing skills. "


* This post from Erika Morrison over at The Life Artist with Just Touch Them!...
"My mama isn’t a regular person, she’s a stranger in an increasingly strange land. She doesn’t want what most people want and is uncomfortable with mainstream pursuits and passions. She is the only one I know in my whole sphere of relationship who actually goes to the gutter to invite people into her home for the holidays and proceeds to make a Martha Stewart experience for the dead broke and back busted, like they are the real royalty. You should see her hands and the way they serve, how her arm muscles move when she kneads dough for the hungry.

My mom has a lot of rubber on her road because she doesn’t just talk about good works and good ideas, she goes to the razor edge of her comfort zone and takes a risky headlong dive into the unknown. Kingdom come is her anthem, a full-bodied chorus ringing between her rib bones; making heaven come to earth is the only way for her not to feel like such an exile."


* This post by Ann Voskamp with Dear Real You — Meet the Mirror of You ...
"If you can breathe and murmur your thanks, it’s still a mighty good day.If you can breathe and murmur your thanks, it’s still a mighty good day.

And because the way you live your ordinary days is what adds up to your one extraordinary life..."

* This one by Hannah Boning over at Hannah Ponders with beloved...
"...so, a tattoo.

it’s simple. one word. my handwriting, with a little help from the tattoo artist to even out the loops on the e’s and the height of the d. just a few inches. left forearm, closer to the elbow, on the inside.

people ask me about it sometimes, the girls that took me or friends from home seeing it for the first time or people noticing it peeking out from a sleeve. sometimes I get asked, do you love it?

yes. yes, I love it.

except when I don’t.

see, that one word on my arm declares, staunchly and boldly and permanently, that I am beloved. that my identity rests in being called beloved – not earning it and not performing for it and not following the rules and not being good – but simply that One has called me beloved.

what a beautiful truth.

and so I love it, except when I don’t believe it, that beautiful and impossible truth."


* This post from Kaitlyn Bouchillon with On Quieting Our Stories and Carrying the Light...
"I don’t believe He’s calling me or you to go save the world. He’s already come to do that. It is finished.

But I do believe that He has told us to tell our stories. Not because they’re beautiful or miraculous or life-changing. No, I think we’ve been called to share our stories because our hearts were just as dark, our eyes just as empty, our hands just as blood-stained. And then, Jesus. And now, because of Him, they are beautiful and miraculous and life-changing. Because He is.

We don’t need to tell his story or her story, we need to tell His story. If you tell your history then you tell His story. He’s the One who saves the day. He’s the One who enters into the very darkest, bleakest of nights and whispers truth and love so strong and right and good.

He is Light. Always breaking through."

* This one by Michelle DeRusha on That Time I Rejected the Word God Chose for Me...
"Every year around New Year’s Day the blogosphere fills with One Word posts and announcements. If you’re not familiar with the One Word practice, it goes like this: Instead of penciling a laundry list of resolutions into your journal, you choose a single word that will serve as a touchstone throughout the year. I’ve participated in the One Word in the past. One year I chose “surrender.” Another year it was “trust.”

This year, though, I didn’t even contemplate a One Word. I wasn’t interested. I had bigger fish to fry. Fish like figuring out the disaster that is my professional life. Fish like getting a job, thank you very much. Choosing One Word was a luxury I didn’t have time for.

I didn’t choose One Word this year.

Instead, God chose one for me.

Yeah, this is typically how it works with God and me. I get all on my high-horse and make big proclamations about what I am and am not going to do, and he turns my plan right over on its backside.

I don’t have time for all that One Word foolishness, I declared.

“Oh, I know you don’t, honey. Here’s your word,” God replied right back."


* This one from right HERE with An Invitation to Put Down Your Mask, and Ask God a Question...
"For over a decade, God has been reminding me of who I really am... He sings it over me, He loves it in to me, and when I am tempted to believe old lies, to revert to old ways, to put on old masks, He laughs at me with wonder... because He knows...

He knows the truth.

It doesn't take much time for those old masks to no longer fit!
He sees the Real Me! ...and He sees the Real You, too, my friend!

When we begin to step into who He created us to be, the old ways of hiding or pretending are not so easy to fall back into. 

Oh - don't get me wrong.  You can do it... (*I don't recommend it!) but the longer you live out loud and step in to who He originally meant you to be, the taller you stand and the braver you get... and it's amazing to me how we all want to be free - but we're often unconvinced of how freedom comes in letting go of all the trappings of being enslaved.

We think there is comfort in blending in, in being like everyone else, in going along with the majority... but comfort and freedom are often not the same thing!

Our sense of comfort can keep us small and hidden... locked up and locked out.

No... what I long for - for me, and for you... is FREEDOM!"

Lastly, we like to wrap This Thing up with a video... This is part of a 20 day free online devotional series by Havilah Cunnington based on her book, I Do Hard Things.  This video is all about helping you understand what God holds you responsible for! So good! Enjoy!

        

Happy Weekend, my friends!