Hey Sweet Readers...
Well this may be a shorter edition than normal because I am heading for the island for a much anticipated few days near the water! Still - I am not going to leave you high and dry! (Ya see what I did there?)
Well this may be a shorter edition than normal because I am heading for the island for a much anticipated few days near the water! Still - I am not going to leave you high and dry! (Ya see what I did there?)
Featured today are posts by Kaitlyn Bouchillon, Michelle DeRusha, Winn Collier, Glennon Doyle Melton, Kristen Welch, Lisha Epperson, Jen Hatmaker, 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 post by Kaitlyn Bouchillon with It’s Simply Tuesday, For the Love....
"I have a thing for Tuesdays. If I had to marry a day of the week, that would totally be the one. In its unobtrusive spirit, it invites me to breathe again and relish the normal of an ordinary day. Sunday is Sabbath, and I love it dearly. But then Monday comes and takes our breath away with all of its to-do lists and planning and well, all the things. Wednesday is that uncomfortable middle when we’re wishing the rest of the days would just hurry up for the weekend’s arrival.
Tuesday is grace. It is a fresh look at normal life after Monday has rushed as all around. Tuesday is when I begin to breathe again." (This post reviews both Simply Tuesday by Emily P. Freeman, and For the Love by Jen Hatmaker!)
* This post from Michelle DeRusha with God Calls Us to Be in the Minority...
" Of course I’d like to think that I would stop if I witnessed a person in distress in the middle of Grand Central Station, or on the corner of O Street in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska, for that matter. Of course I’d like to think I’d care for the person no one else noticed.
But the truth is, I don’t know for sure. The truth is, I might keep walking. I might assume “someone else” would help, someone more qualified, someone with more time or resources than I.
In fact, the hard truth is, I have walked by.
I’ve walked past the man standing in front of SuperSaver with the tattered cardboard sign.
I’ve walked past the man lying motionless in a filthy sleeping bag on 12th Street.
I’ve averted my eyes when the mentally ill woman lurched past me on the subway, yelling incoherently and asking for help.
I’ve neglected to make the phone call to the friend who is suffering or the relative who just received the dire diagnosis.
I’ve pretended I didn’t notice. I’ve passed by without stopping. I’ve taken the detour to avoid contact. I’ve looked the other way. I’ve registered the distress and suffering of a member of my species, another human being, and I’ve done nothing."
* This post by Winn Collier with Good Old Words...
"Language matters. God came to us as the Word. Our holy book offers us the Living Christ amid words. Words are woven into our God-crafted humanness. It’s hard to imagine how we could know ourselves or encounter our world or even begin to give ourselves to love without sharing language and symbols, without words.
This is why the Church needs poets and storytellers. We need folks who plant a disruptive seed in our imagination, who flip us topsy-turvy with their playfulness and their unguarded revelations. We need poets and preachers who brush past the cynicism, refuse fatigued dichotomies and fashion words like handcrafted dynamite. These happy subversives light the fuse and calmly set the short-wick sentence in our midst.
“That’s why we must be wordsmiths,” says Dallas Willard, “You use words to ravish people with the beauty of the kingdom.” Once words become a commodity, merely one of the tricks in our church-building bag, we wither. If words function only to help us hawk our wares, I promise you that sooner or later, no one will care. No one will ever be ravished with the beauty."
* This post by Glennon Doyle Meltion with Have This Conversation Before You Send Your Baby Back To School...
“I think that God puts people in our lives as gifts to us. The children in your class this year, they are some of God’s gifts to you.
So please treat each one like a gift from God. Every single one.
Baby, if you see a child being left out, or hurt, or teased, a little part of your heart will hurt a little. Your daddy and I want you to trust that heart- ache. Your whole life, we want you to notice and trust your heart-ache. That heart ache is called compassion, and it is God’s signal to you to do something. It is God saying, Chase! Wake up! One of my babies is hurting! Do something to help! Whenever you feel compassion – be thrilled! It means God is speaking to you, and that is magic. It means He trusts you and needs you.
Sometimes the magic of compassion will make you step into the middle of a bad situation right away.
Compassion might lead you to tell a teaser to stop it and then ask the teased kid to play. You might invite a left-out kid to sit next to you at lunch. You might choose a kid for your team first who usually gets chosen last. These things will be hard to do, but you can do hard things.”
* This post by Kristen Welch with The Six Words That Can Change Everything At Home...
“There are 6 words that shortcut us to the point of pain within our family. I learned them on a therapist’s couch (yep, I highly recommend counseling for couples and families during seasons of transition, difficulty or just because you want to be the healthiest version of your family that you can be) and they can not only diffuse a situation, they can help us help each other.
And they are (said tenderly, in love, maybe with a hand on an arm or a step towards our loved one):
What do you need from me?
When our teen is angry masking hurt, the question can help them open up.
When our spouse is upset, but really hiding fear, the question can cut to the root.
When our child is having a hard time expressing themselves…
Isn’t that what we all want? To be understood and heard…”
* This post by Lisha Epperson with When You Live a Generous Gospel (On Being Nimble or Numb)...
"In the 2 block walk across the park to the train station, I see it. The harsh reality of life, the ever-widening space between those who have, those who have not and everything in between. Growing up surrounded by a concrete landscape makes you numb. Dedicated green spaces like Central Park are an invitation to enter a safe a space, to remember a dialogue exists between hard and soft, that sunrise and sunset are real everywhere – that the middle ground is where we learn to negotiate the terrain – to feel.
We train ourselves, our heart and emotions to nimbly dance around it all. We call it survival. Survivors know too many feelings can be dangerous. We can pull back the curtain to see the beauty of the heavenly realm at any time but its opposite exists too. That’s the part we grow numb to.
Across the street from the park is the Lincoln Correctional Facility. When my heart won’t let me pretend not to see it, I fret over the truth of a school to prison pipeline, a system that disproportionately finds people of color in its clutches. Park-side, men sprawl on benches lining the entrance. They aren’t locked up, but you wouldn’t exactly call them free."
* This post by Jen Hatmaker over at Today with Back to School: How to Not Completely Lose Your Crap...
"I recently completed the marathon called Getting Five Children Ready for Back to School, and now I need therapy. I spent around 400 million dollars, drove to a dozen stores, and almost became a serial killer over folders with brads. The kids have gym shoes, regular shoes, new clothes, new backpacks, lunch boxes, and school supplies out the yin-yang; we’ve been to back-to-school night, orientation, schedule pickup, and freshman camp; I filled out personality inventories, insurance documents, volunteer forms, registration packets, and parent contracts; we’ve had haircuts, vaccinations, eye exams, pep talks, bike tune-ups, and meltdowns. The refrigerator was stocked. The pantry was filled. The lunch accounts were updated. The lectures were given. On the first day of school, the kids were photographed at home and with teachers because humiliation is an important part of childhood.
It will take an entire calendar year to recover so I can do it again."
* This one from right HERE with When Benches (and Tuesdays!) Beckon You To Slow... A Book Review for Simply Tuesday by Emily P. Freeman...
"So y'all know how I adore Emily Freeman, right?
I adore her because I think we are kindred in many ways and I know that when I grow up (I know - I'm older... whatev's) I want to be like her... but she just keeps reminding me that what I really want is to be more like me. Yeah. That. Because I adore her so much, sometimes I forget...
But Emily... she is consistent in reminding us to just be us... to stop trying to strive and instead, make space to let our souls breathe.
When I heard about Simply Tuesday (and read the subtitle: "Small-Moment Living in a Fast Moving World.") I just knew...this book? This is all kinds of wonderful and filled with all kinds of wonder. It is full of confirmation of things that God has been doing in and working through me for awhile now and it is so nice to find an invitation to do a little soul breathing and bench sitting and embracing of the small.
I have read all of Emily's books and have loved each of them. It seems often, she writes words that my heart has long cried out to say before my mind could really find the way.
Simply Tuesday is easy to read but this doesn't mean you should breeze right through it!"
Tuesday is grace. It is a fresh look at normal life after Monday has rushed as all around. Tuesday is when I begin to breathe again." (This post reviews both Simply Tuesday by Emily P. Freeman, and For the Love by Jen Hatmaker!)
* This post from Michelle DeRusha with God Calls Us to Be in the Minority...
" Of course I’d like to think that I would stop if I witnessed a person in distress in the middle of Grand Central Station, or on the corner of O Street in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska, for that matter. Of course I’d like to think I’d care for the person no one else noticed.
But the truth is, I don’t know for sure. The truth is, I might keep walking. I might assume “someone else” would help, someone more qualified, someone with more time or resources than I.
In fact, the hard truth is, I have walked by.
I’ve walked past the man standing in front of SuperSaver with the tattered cardboard sign.
I’ve walked past the man lying motionless in a filthy sleeping bag on 12th Street.
I’ve averted my eyes when the mentally ill woman lurched past me on the subway, yelling incoherently and asking for help.
I’ve neglected to make the phone call to the friend who is suffering or the relative who just received the dire diagnosis.
I’ve pretended I didn’t notice. I’ve passed by without stopping. I’ve taken the detour to avoid contact. I’ve looked the other way. I’ve registered the distress and suffering of a member of my species, another human being, and I’ve done nothing."
"Language matters. God came to us as the Word. Our holy book offers us the Living Christ amid words. Words are woven into our God-crafted humanness. It’s hard to imagine how we could know ourselves or encounter our world or even begin to give ourselves to love without sharing language and symbols, without words.
This is why the Church needs poets and storytellers. We need folks who plant a disruptive seed in our imagination, who flip us topsy-turvy with their playfulness and their unguarded revelations. We need poets and preachers who brush past the cynicism, refuse fatigued dichotomies and fashion words like handcrafted dynamite. These happy subversives light the fuse and calmly set the short-wick sentence in our midst.
“That’s why we must be wordsmiths,” says Dallas Willard, “You use words to ravish people with the beauty of the kingdom.” Once words become a commodity, merely one of the tricks in our church-building bag, we wither. If words function only to help us hawk our wares, I promise you that sooner or later, no one will care. No one will ever be ravished with the beauty."
* This post by Glennon Doyle Meltion with Have This Conversation Before You Send Your Baby Back To School...
“I think that God puts people in our lives as gifts to us. The children in your class this year, they are some of God’s gifts to you.
So please treat each one like a gift from God. Every single one.
Baby, if you see a child being left out, or hurt, or teased, a little part of your heart will hurt a little. Your daddy and I want you to trust that heart- ache. Your whole life, we want you to notice and trust your heart-ache. That heart ache is called compassion, and it is God’s signal to you to do something. It is God saying, Chase! Wake up! One of my babies is hurting! Do something to help! Whenever you feel compassion – be thrilled! It means God is speaking to you, and that is magic. It means He trusts you and needs you.
Sometimes the magic of compassion will make you step into the middle of a bad situation right away.
Compassion might lead you to tell a teaser to stop it and then ask the teased kid to play. You might invite a left-out kid to sit next to you at lunch. You might choose a kid for your team first who usually gets chosen last. These things will be hard to do, but you can do hard things.”
* This post by Kristen Welch with The Six Words That Can Change Everything At Home...
“There are 6 words that shortcut us to the point of pain within our family. I learned them on a therapist’s couch (yep, I highly recommend counseling for couples and families during seasons of transition, difficulty or just because you want to be the healthiest version of your family that you can be) and they can not only diffuse a situation, they can help us help each other.
And they are (said tenderly, in love, maybe with a hand on an arm or a step towards our loved one):
What do you need from me?
When our teen is angry masking hurt, the question can help them open up.
When our spouse is upset, but really hiding fear, the question can cut to the root.
When our child is having a hard time expressing themselves…
Isn’t that what we all want? To be understood and heard…”
* This post by Lisha Epperson with When You Live a Generous Gospel (On Being Nimble or Numb)...
"In the 2 block walk across the park to the train station, I see it. The harsh reality of life, the ever-widening space between those who have, those who have not and everything in between. Growing up surrounded by a concrete landscape makes you numb. Dedicated green spaces like Central Park are an invitation to enter a safe a space, to remember a dialogue exists between hard and soft, that sunrise and sunset are real everywhere – that the middle ground is where we learn to negotiate the terrain – to feel.
We train ourselves, our heart and emotions to nimbly dance around it all. We call it survival. Survivors know too many feelings can be dangerous. We can pull back the curtain to see the beauty of the heavenly realm at any time but its opposite exists too. That’s the part we grow numb to.
Across the street from the park is the Lincoln Correctional Facility. When my heart won’t let me pretend not to see it, I fret over the truth of a school to prison pipeline, a system that disproportionately finds people of color in its clutches. Park-side, men sprawl on benches lining the entrance. They aren’t locked up, but you wouldn’t exactly call them free."
* This post by Jen Hatmaker over at Today with Back to School: How to Not Completely Lose Your Crap...
"I recently completed the marathon called Getting Five Children Ready for Back to School, and now I need therapy. I spent around 400 million dollars, drove to a dozen stores, and almost became a serial killer over folders with brads. The kids have gym shoes, regular shoes, new clothes, new backpacks, lunch boxes, and school supplies out the yin-yang; we’ve been to back-to-school night, orientation, schedule pickup, and freshman camp; I filled out personality inventories, insurance documents, volunteer forms, registration packets, and parent contracts; we’ve had haircuts, vaccinations, eye exams, pep talks, bike tune-ups, and meltdowns. The refrigerator was stocked. The pantry was filled. The lunch accounts were updated. The lectures were given. On the first day of school, the kids were photographed at home and with teachers because humiliation is an important part of childhood.
It will take an entire calendar year to recover so I can do it again."
* This one from right HERE with When Benches (and Tuesdays!) Beckon You To Slow... A Book Review for Simply Tuesday by Emily P. Freeman...
"So y'all know how I adore Emily Freeman, right?
I adore her because I think we are kindred in many ways and I know that when I grow up (I know - I'm older... whatev's) I want to be like her... but she just keeps reminding me that what I really want is to be more like me. Yeah. That. Because I adore her so much, sometimes I forget...
But Emily... she is consistent in reminding us to just be us... to stop trying to strive and instead, make space to let our souls breathe.
When I heard about Simply Tuesday (and read the subtitle: "Small-Moment Living in a Fast Moving World.") I just knew...this book? This is all kinds of wonderful and filled with all kinds of wonder. It is full of confirmation of things that God has been doing in and working through me for awhile now and it is so nice to find an invitation to do a little soul breathing and bench sitting and embracing of the small.
I have read all of Emily's books and have loved each of them. It seems often, she writes words that my heart has long cried out to say before my mind could really find the way.
Simply Tuesday is easy to read but this doesn't mean you should breeze right through it!"
Lastly, we close This Thing up with a video each week and sometimes it is funny and sometimes it is worship... this time, well - this time it is a little Zac Ephron & Jimmy Fallon. (You're welcome!)
Happy Weekend!
Happy Weekend!
That video is so much fun!! And such a great list. That post about words was so so good. Hope you are enjoying your little vaca.
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