Happy Weekend, sweet readers!
Featured today are posts by Michael Hyatt, Lisha Epperson, Ann Voskamp, Michelle DeRusha, Kaitlyn Bouchillon, Christie Purifoy, Sarah Bessey, Branden Harvey, Dana Butler, Emily Freeman, and 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 below to read the entire post, yes?)
* This one by Michael Hyatt with WHY GOING OUTDOORS MAKES YOU SMARTER, STRONGER, AND MORE SPIRITUAL (3 Life-Changing Benefits of Nature You Can’t Afford to Miss)...
"We all know about the environmental benefits trees and other plants provide. But how often do you take advantage of the mental, physical, and spiritual benefits we get from nature?
According to one article I recently read, “people today spend up to 25 percent less time enjoying nature than people did just 20 years ago.” Why does that matter? Because every day sheds new light on the benefits of being close to nature, and what we’re missing by staying indoors."
* This post by Lisha Epperson over at SheLoves Magazine with When Theology Is Like Poetry...
"Finding God at 21 ushered me into a world of believers. But there were borders and boxes and so many lines drawn; unspoken parameters and edges I longed to look over. It was the kind of faith that left no room for questions. No room for conversations about social justice, or politics. No room for science.
It seemed we were so faithful we forgot the God of beauty and wonder. The God of the unknowing and known. There was only room for religion. The one way or highway kind of church that makes robots out of humans and leaves little room for a dispensation of love come down.
Growing up in God means giving myself permission to explore and experience the gospel beyond the confines of what I’ve been taught."
* This post from Ann Voskamp over at A Holy Experience with When family breaks your heart...
"One of the most destructive attitudes in society today is that family is a noun … and not a verb.
Family is a verb. Family is an action.
And we aren’t merely born into families, families are born out of our reaching out and holding on and serving anyways and giving always. Giving always.
It’s not only the blood in our veins that make us family — it’s the blood and sacrifice in our days that makes us a family."
* This post by Michelle DeRusha with The Importance of Doing Nothing...
"As travel writer Pico Iyer says, “A trip can give you amazing sights, but it’s only sitting still that allows you to turn those into amazing insights.”
Wise words for sure, but I’d take Iyer’s statement one step further and apply it to our frenzied everyday lives as well. Our days are full to the brim with experiences, interactions, goals and obligations (some of them amazing, some not so much), but we can’t understand their relevance, we can’t understand what these experiences and interactions can teach us, unless we stop long enough to digest and process them, to sit with them in stillness for a while.
We can’t turn the sights of days into insights unless we still ourselves from the harried pace of daily life.
Stillness, I’m learning, is a requirement for healthy, fruitful, wise living – and not just stillness every once in a while, whenever we can snatch it, but a bit of stillness intentionally carved out of every day, if possible.
Doing nothing, I’m realizing, is just as important – perhaps even more important – than doing it all."
* This post by Kaitlyn Bouchillon with Blink. Goodbye. Blink. Begin. {What Graduation Is Actually Like.}...
“They say that college is the time when you figure out who you really are. And that’s true. But mainly, I think I already knew. College put my thoughts to the test, challenged my beliefs, and forced me to come to terms with the girl staring back in the mirror.
Over the course of four years, I learned why I believe what I believe. I unearthed questions and learned to sit with them. I saw the wisdom in doubting my doubts. I heard points of view that I had previously merely waved off in my head, and I listened. I saw the other side and stopped to understand.
During those four years, I was forced to confront whether or not “what had always been” would continue to be. The ‘big stuff’ like alcohol and evolution and God. And the ‘little stuff’ that is very much not little, like choosing relationships over results and listening to listen instead of to respond.
I learned about grace and I learned about letting someone else have the final word.”
* This post from Christie Purifoy with This is How to Carry the Weight of the World…
"Is it ever okay to look away? To close the laptop? Plug up our ears? Maybe yes. Maybe no. I’m not really sure.
I did go back and read that blog post. It was as horrific as I had imagined, but there was also a clear call to action. There was a way for people to help, and many responded with a yes.
As I confronted my own feelings of powerlessness, I remembered that no one who prays is powerless.
I may never be able to rush around the world dispensing sure-thing solutions, but I can pray. And that is not a little thing.
Even prayer gives me hope. I have seen, again and again, that when we feel a tug to pray then God is already at work. He is the source of that tug. It is his invitation to join him in the great and beautiful thing he is already doing.
And as overwhelmed as I am, as weak as I feel, I hope I never say no to that."
* This post by Sarah Bessey with Ron and Hermione...
"We had a long discussion about what to name our owls, pairs of names are always fun to consider. Romeo and Juliet? Peanut and Butter? Antony and Cleopatra? Nip and Tuck, á la The Blue Castle? Anne and Gilbert? Elizabeth and Darcy? We settled on Ron and Hermione since, well, they are owls and so the Harry Potter books are entirely appropriate.
I don’t think we’re going to move. And it’s entirely the fault of the forest. I live in a tidy little neighbourhood of identical houses, sure, and I don’t have a yard, I get it. But we have the silence of the night and a creek, we have Ron and Hermione, we have the trees, and I don’t think I’m ready to give that up. Maybe I’ll change my mind. A trampoline and a garden would be nice.
When life can feel a bit dull and prosaic, my forest nights somehow keep me grounded in the dense amazement of being alive. I remembered an old Roald Dahl quote I read once, “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
I believe in magic.
I believe in ordinary and repetitive and daily boring life and the way magic hides in plain sight."
* This post from Branden Harvey over at Storyline with The Unexpected Benefits of Being Stuck...
"I made plans for the move and dreamed of what life was going to be like when I got there. The ever-present sunshine would bring people out their houses and onto the streets. I would bump into Bieber at the local cafe.
My socks would always, always be dry.
And there was a girl there I maybe liked.
Everything was going to be great.
The only problem was, all my plans fell through.
I tried to move to California. I Bob Goffed it. I sat outside of the offices of deans and presidents, begging for scholarships. I applied for loans. I looked for roommates and jobs. I did every possible thing I could do. But everything fell through. Nothing worked. I was stuck. My socks were still wet. I was miserable.
Oh, and the girl said she didn’t like me back.
But then something amazing happened.
I realized I had one of two choices. I could either sit around complaining about being stuck—how life was unfair, and if only this opportunity or that opportunity had worked out for me, things would all be different.
Or, I could decide to make my own opportunities and choose my own fate.
The first one sounded really boring, so I decided to pick the second."
* This post by Dana Butler with Love Covers {in which I breathe deep and get honest with my fellow Jesus-followers}...
"If I could lay aside my fear of speaking bold truth-in-love for just a moment — if I were brave enough to be completely honest with you — this is what the burning in my bones would have me say:
My precious fellow lovers of Jesus:
It is so unfunny when we are unkind to those with whom we disagree and call it a joke.
It is not funny when we write and publish satire in order to make a humorous or outrageously overstated point about those whose life stories, experiences, and challenges are impossible for us to fully understand.
It is not funny when we write or perpetuate the sharing of sarcasm about white-on-black violence or black-on-black violence or Caitlyn Jenner or homosexuality, or even about Rachel whatever-her-last-name-is who has posed as a biracial woman for however many years but is, in actuality, white. {White, and most likely very mentally disturbed, which is kind of beside my point, but not really.}
It is not funny when we rejoice in or otherwise make light of the newly (or oldly) uncovered moral failure of celebrities or politicians with views to which we don’t subscribe.
It is not funny when we are flippant about Obama or Hillary or Huckabee or Miley or the Duggar family or whoever else unwittingly causes the next insanely-sensationalized social media failure-feeding frenzy.
I write all these things with a profound heaviness in my pounding heart and I keep catching myself with this accidentally-anguished expression on my face as I write, because Christians, my so-deeply-treasured friends, where is our love?"
* This post over at Emily Freeman's titled six things about soul space...
"Soul space is a fancy way of saying: your invisible self needs some elbow room. That could mean prayer, reflection, Scripture reading, or silence. Or it could also happen in the kitchen or at an easel, in the car or the grocery store. The Bible says we live and move and have our being in him. If he exists in me, then where I go, he goes. Worship isn’t confined to a specific posture or location.
Soul space doesn’t just happen. It is possible to be quiet on the outside but still have a cluttered soul. It is also possible to be outwardly active with a soul that exists in a spacious and enlarged place. We have to choose which path our mind, will, and emotions are going to follow."
* These are just two of the six things. Click her name to read all six!
* This one from right HERE with When Fear is No Longer the Boss of You... A Birthday Post.
"We can attempt to live a safe life and it will keep us small and --really, there are no guarantees. You can do all the things right, but life still comes at you.
I lived for nearly half of my days, thinking that I could live small and quiet... simple and free of heartache if I was just careful/good/smart (fill in your own blank) enough.
I know... (Well, I know now!)
What I was was delusional. I tried to stay small and blend in and fade out... to not attract attention or cause (too much) of a stir...
Those Good Girl Days are over and more than Safe and Sound, I want Big and Loud!
I am quiet by nature and I suspect that won't change, but I want to find brave rising up more often!
I want to stay present in these moments and bring all of me to every day and this is the gift that I am giving myself this year: To be me, wherever I go!"
According to one article I recently read, “people today spend up to 25 percent less time enjoying nature than people did just 20 years ago.” Why does that matter? Because every day sheds new light on the benefits of being close to nature, and what we’re missing by staying indoors."
* This post by Lisha Epperson over at SheLoves Magazine with When Theology Is Like Poetry...
"Finding God at 21 ushered me into a world of believers. But there were borders and boxes and so many lines drawn; unspoken parameters and edges I longed to look over. It was the kind of faith that left no room for questions. No room for conversations about social justice, or politics. No room for science.
It seemed we were so faithful we forgot the God of beauty and wonder. The God of the unknowing and known. There was only room for religion. The one way or highway kind of church that makes robots out of humans and leaves little room for a dispensation of love come down.
Growing up in God means giving myself permission to explore and experience the gospel beyond the confines of what I’ve been taught."
* This post from Ann Voskamp over at A Holy Experience with When family breaks your heart...
"One of the most destructive attitudes in society today is that family is a noun … and not a verb.
Family is a verb. Family is an action.
And we aren’t merely born into families, families are born out of our reaching out and holding on and serving anyways and giving always. Giving always.
It’s not only the blood in our veins that make us family — it’s the blood and sacrifice in our days that makes us a family."
"As travel writer Pico Iyer says, “A trip can give you amazing sights, but it’s only sitting still that allows you to turn those into amazing insights.”
Wise words for sure, but I’d take Iyer’s statement one step further and apply it to our frenzied everyday lives as well. Our days are full to the brim with experiences, interactions, goals and obligations (some of them amazing, some not so much), but we can’t understand their relevance, we can’t understand what these experiences and interactions can teach us, unless we stop long enough to digest and process them, to sit with them in stillness for a while.
We can’t turn the sights of days into insights unless we still ourselves from the harried pace of daily life.
Stillness, I’m learning, is a requirement for healthy, fruitful, wise living – and not just stillness every once in a while, whenever we can snatch it, but a bit of stillness intentionally carved out of every day, if possible.
Doing nothing, I’m realizing, is just as important – perhaps even more important – than doing it all."
* This post by Kaitlyn Bouchillon with Blink. Goodbye. Blink. Begin. {What Graduation Is Actually Like.}...
“They say that college is the time when you figure out who you really are. And that’s true. But mainly, I think I already knew. College put my thoughts to the test, challenged my beliefs, and forced me to come to terms with the girl staring back in the mirror.
Over the course of four years, I learned why I believe what I believe. I unearthed questions and learned to sit with them. I saw the wisdom in doubting my doubts. I heard points of view that I had previously merely waved off in my head, and I listened. I saw the other side and stopped to understand.
During those four years, I was forced to confront whether or not “what had always been” would continue to be. The ‘big stuff’ like alcohol and evolution and God. And the ‘little stuff’ that is very much not little, like choosing relationships over results and listening to listen instead of to respond.
I learned about grace and I learned about letting someone else have the final word.”
* This post from Christie Purifoy with This is How to Carry the Weight of the World…
"Is it ever okay to look away? To close the laptop? Plug up our ears? Maybe yes. Maybe no. I’m not really sure.
I did go back and read that blog post. It was as horrific as I had imagined, but there was also a clear call to action. There was a way for people to help, and many responded with a yes.
As I confronted my own feelings of powerlessness, I remembered that no one who prays is powerless.
I may never be able to rush around the world dispensing sure-thing solutions, but I can pray. And that is not a little thing.
Even prayer gives me hope. I have seen, again and again, that when we feel a tug to pray then God is already at work. He is the source of that tug. It is his invitation to join him in the great and beautiful thing he is already doing.
And as overwhelmed as I am, as weak as I feel, I hope I never say no to that."
* This post by Sarah Bessey with Ron and Hermione...
"We had a long discussion about what to name our owls, pairs of names are always fun to consider. Romeo and Juliet? Peanut and Butter? Antony and Cleopatra? Nip and Tuck, á la The Blue Castle? Anne and Gilbert? Elizabeth and Darcy? We settled on Ron and Hermione since, well, they are owls and so the Harry Potter books are entirely appropriate.
I don’t think we’re going to move. And it’s entirely the fault of the forest. I live in a tidy little neighbourhood of identical houses, sure, and I don’t have a yard, I get it. But we have the silence of the night and a creek, we have Ron and Hermione, we have the trees, and I don’t think I’m ready to give that up. Maybe I’ll change my mind. A trampoline and a garden would be nice.
When life can feel a bit dull and prosaic, my forest nights somehow keep me grounded in the dense amazement of being alive. I remembered an old Roald Dahl quote I read once, “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
I believe in magic.
I believe in ordinary and repetitive and daily boring life and the way magic hides in plain sight."
* This post from Branden Harvey over at Storyline with The Unexpected Benefits of Being Stuck...
"I made plans for the move and dreamed of what life was going to be like when I got there. The ever-present sunshine would bring people out their houses and onto the streets. I would bump into Bieber at the local cafe.
My socks would always, always be dry.
And there was a girl there I maybe liked.
Everything was going to be great.
The only problem was, all my plans fell through.
I tried to move to California. I Bob Goffed it. I sat outside of the offices of deans and presidents, begging for scholarships. I applied for loans. I looked for roommates and jobs. I did every possible thing I could do. But everything fell through. Nothing worked. I was stuck. My socks were still wet. I was miserable.
Oh, and the girl said she didn’t like me back.
But then something amazing happened.
I realized I had one of two choices. I could either sit around complaining about being stuck—how life was unfair, and if only this opportunity or that opportunity had worked out for me, things would all be different.
Or, I could decide to make my own opportunities and choose my own fate.
The first one sounded really boring, so I decided to pick the second."
* This post by Dana Butler with Love Covers {in which I breathe deep and get honest with my fellow Jesus-followers}...
"If I could lay aside my fear of speaking bold truth-in-love for just a moment — if I were brave enough to be completely honest with you — this is what the burning in my bones would have me say:
My precious fellow lovers of Jesus:
It is so unfunny when we are unkind to those with whom we disagree and call it a joke.
It is not funny when we write and publish satire in order to make a humorous or outrageously overstated point about those whose life stories, experiences, and challenges are impossible for us to fully understand.
It is not funny when we write or perpetuate the sharing of sarcasm about white-on-black violence or black-on-black violence or Caitlyn Jenner or homosexuality, or even about Rachel whatever-her-last-name-is who has posed as a biracial woman for however many years but is, in actuality, white. {White, and most likely very mentally disturbed, which is kind of beside my point, but not really.}
It is not funny when we rejoice in or otherwise make light of the newly (or oldly) uncovered moral failure of celebrities or politicians with views to which we don’t subscribe.
It is not funny when we are flippant about Obama or Hillary or Huckabee or Miley or the Duggar family or whoever else unwittingly causes the next insanely-sensationalized social media failure-feeding frenzy.
I write all these things with a profound heaviness in my pounding heart and I keep catching myself with this accidentally-anguished expression on my face as I write, because Christians, my so-deeply-treasured friends, where is our love?"
* This post over at Emily Freeman's titled six things about soul space...
"Soul space is a fancy way of saying: your invisible self needs some elbow room. That could mean prayer, reflection, Scripture reading, or silence. Or it could also happen in the kitchen or at an easel, in the car or the grocery store. The Bible says we live and move and have our being in him. If he exists in me, then where I go, he goes. Worship isn’t confined to a specific posture or location.
Soul space doesn’t just happen. It is possible to be quiet on the outside but still have a cluttered soul. It is also possible to be outwardly active with a soul that exists in a spacious and enlarged place. We have to choose which path our mind, will, and emotions are going to follow."
* These are just two of the six things. Click her name to read all six!
* This one from right HERE with When Fear is No Longer the Boss of You... A Birthday Post.
"We can attempt to live a safe life and it will keep us small and --really, there are no guarantees. You can do all the things right, but life still comes at you.
I lived for nearly half of my days, thinking that I could live small and quiet... simple and free of heartache if I was just careful/good/smart (fill in your own blank) enough.
I know... (Well, I know now!)
What I was was delusional. I tried to stay small and blend in and fade out... to not attract attention or cause (too much) of a stir...
Those Good Girl Days are over and more than Safe and Sound, I want Big and Loud!
I am quiet by nature and I suspect that won't change, but I want to find brave rising up more often!
I want to stay present in these moments and bring all of me to every day and this is the gift that I am giving myself this year: To be me, wherever I go!"
Lastly, we close This Thing up with a video each week and sometimes it is funny and sometimes it is worship... this time it's an hour interview - so feel free to skip it, unless you too love love love the Gilmore Girls!
Enjoy!
(And you're welcome!)
Happy Weekend!
(And you're welcome!)
Again so much goodness! Dana's post was SO GOOD! Everything I've been wanting to say. And somehow I missed Kaitlyn's post. So so good too! Missed you at FMF but glad you were celebrating your birthday with those you love!
ReplyDeleteHey there! I know - I missed y'all too! And then I got home and saw the word and I already wrote about Fear this week so I took that as a sign to stay unplugged a bit longer! ;) (It was nice!) So glad that you enjoy these little round ups each weekend! xoxo
DeleteThanks for including me in your roundup of online goodness Karrilee! You bless in ways I can't describe. I so appreciate your kind and generous heart. Happy Sunday almost Monday!
ReplyDeleteI love you so, my friend, and your words undo me in all the best ways! It is always my honor to share them (and help spread awareness of your awesomeness... or at least of His through you... For me, it's always grace and beauty in motion!)
Delete