foreign places.

The suitcases are empty and the laundry is folded after a recent trip to Portland and Montana, but I’m still unpacking my thoughts.

At the end of our trip, my dad said that out of all of his kids, he would have thought I’d be the least likely to move far away. I had to agree with him--I am a homebody to the core. I love Portland, I love our families, and I love the familiar. It still surprises me sometimes that we’ve made our way across the country to places that were once foreign, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. God, in His patience and grace, has given me so many opportunities to trust Him as we’ve encountered new towns, different cultures, and unfamiliar faces. He has taken me to foreign places and shown me the depths of His provision, the beauty of His plans, and the heart of His people.

Though I once was afraid to venture beyond my front door, He has proved Himself faithful in all places. And now, I sense that there are new places He longs to take me.

His word says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20)

Sometimes, often times, I open the door for Jesus, and then I ask Him to kindly make His way up to the attic of my heart where I can think about Him, know that He’s there, and call on Him when I need to, all the while quietly refusing to let Him dine at the table of my heart, refusing to sit face-to-face with Him and take in what He is calling me to do. It is safer, easier, to keep Him in the attic.

But God does not call us to a safe, easy life. He calls us to fling open the doors to the foreign places in our hearts and love, bearing all vulnerability, absorbing all risk, fleeing what the world tells us is good for something better.

God has led me to unfamiliar places, and my prayer is that by His grace, I will allow Him to invade the foreign places in my heart, that I might be emptied of myself and filled with Him.

xoxo.

truth for today.

This verse in Hebrews stood out to me this morning. God has been gently and subtly placing things on my heart lately, and I believe He's preparing me to produce vegetation, not just to cultivate for myself, but for others. As I came across this verse, I was reminded that part of the preparation is rain.

This week in Greenville has been filled with rain. We started our long run yesterday morning on a trail covered by trees, and they were already dripping from heavy rainfall earlier in the morning. A few miles into my run, I came out of the trees onto an open part of the trail just as the rain was picking up again. It came streaming over my face, into my eyes, over my mouth, making it difficult to see the trail as I wiped my face to keep going.

Rain makes things unclear and uncomfortable. When you're caught in it, it covers you completely, offering no escape from its cold, wet heaviness. It is at times beautiful, and at others dismal, but it is always necessary. Without rain, there is no life.

My prayer is that I would welcome the rain in my life, knowing that even in its heaviness it is good, and trusting that at the right time, the rain will give way to the harvest.

xoxo.

the first few days in our new home.

Different seasons of life are marked by different expressions of God's faithfulness. I have felt so clearly in the last few years God's provision, His perfect will, and the ways in which He says, trust me, I will come through for you always. 

In this new season, I also sense God's matchless beauty. The wonders of His hands, the glory of His name. Through His creation, He whispers, if I created this, the Heavens and the Earth, should you not also trust me with every detail of your life?

I also sense His call to dig in, living deeper in relationships and less in stuff or circumstances. He has given us a clear mission, one that we can only pursue by trusting daily, hourly, in Him.

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act. Psalm 37:4

xoxo.


photos from my iPhone of our first few weeks in Greenville: camping (nutella/banana breakfast s'mores anyone?), picnicking, setting up our new place, summer reading, enjoying God's creation, and lots and lots of running. 

more than i imagined.

A few people have asked if I'm feeling nervous about our move. And I almost surprise myself each time I say, "No, not really," because two years ago, when we were facing our move from Oregon to Texas, I felt a lot of uncertainty. We were leaving family, friends, familiarity. In this post from April 2011, I wrote...

I will have the opportunity to find a new community of friends and family-away-from-family.

And, most importantly, I will still have the joy and the trials and the opportunities for faith that come with being constantly refined by Christ's presence in my life. And likely in ways I can't even imagine. 

And it's been so, so true. God provided us with the best community--especially in our dear friends at UBCabilene. It's been an honor to serve alongside a such united group of believers who are truly committed to reaching Abilene for Christ. There have been so many small, sweet moments where I thank God for bringing us into a wonderful community. Small moments that have meant so much, like being given a dining table just before Thanksgiving, or seeing smiles on the faces of my FamilyLife girls every Wednesday night. 

And the joys and trials that we've faced in these two years have pushed me to lean wholly on God's plan and provision. We haven't experienced the highest elation or the deepest grief, but we have, in those small, sweet moments, known the joy that comes from serving Christ even through our daily struggles. 

Ephesians 3:20-21 says, Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. 

God has done immeasurably more than all I could have asked or imagined, not in loud or jaw-dropping ways, but in those small, sweet moments which have moved mountains in my heart. And so I trust that He'll give us just what we need in the days ahead. 

off we go.

At the end of January, I wrote these words on the chalkboard in our kitchen. 

Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him, and He will act. 

Those words--simple, but so profound--have been woven into the past three months. They've been spoken in prayer and echoed in thought. They've calmed fears, they've calmed emotion, and they've brought peace. I know that God is not transactional, but I also know that His Word is true. If you commit your way to the Lord, and if you trust in Him, He will act. It may not be in ways you'd expect, it may not be without mystery, but He will act. I believe today, more than ever, in the power of His Word, and the power of His will. Not because everything has gone according to my plan, but because I've tried, each day, despite my imperfections, to let things go according to His. 

And so it's with a deep sense of joy and gratitude for what the Lord has provided for us that I write... 

we're moving to South Carolina!

Landon has accepted a job as head cross country coach at Bob Jones University, with the opportunity to start a new cross country program. I've also accepted a position as the assistant cross country coach, and we're both thrilled about what the future holds. 

There are many, many details to figure out and a lot of work to be done, but we know that with each step, if we commit our way to the Lord, trust in Him, then we can rest assured that He will act.

He is faithful!

Photos are from our trip to Greenville last month.

xoxo.

pruning.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. John 15:1-2

John 15 has been one of my favorite passages for many years. I revisited it last night, as I'm seeking to rediscover the words Jesus spoke just before He went to the cross. I imagine He must have had a sense of urgency to share all He could with His disciples to help them make sense of what was about to happen, and to give them insight as to how they should respond, how they ought to carry out His message.

After reading through John 15 last night, these words are spinning in my head: He cuts off. He prunes. Our Father is the gardener. We are the branches. He cuts off the unfruitful branches. He prunes the fruitful branches.

There are areas in my life that the Father knows are unfruitful. Parts of my personality that don't reflect Him. Sometimes, I don't even know they're there. I've become so used to my dead, ugly, unfruitful branches that that's just the way I am. I have flaws, so what? I have fear, don't we all?

But God wants to cut off those dead, ugly, unfruitful branches. He knows that behind the flaws and fear is someone made in His image, someone who was made to bear fruit.

And even the branches that are fruitful, He still prunes those. He gives attention and care to every branch, every ounce of me, pruning, cutting away, shaping, replanting, that I might bear much fruit.

Right now, He's in the process of replanting me. Uprooting me. And you know what happens when a plant is uprooted? The roots are exposed--my roots will be exposed. Those hidden branches, the dead ones and the unfruitful ones, more of those may show. But I trust that if I remain in Him, He, the master gardener, knows exactly what to cut off and what to prune as I grow, and as I bear much fruit. May I welcome the pruning.

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:8

in every good work and word.

May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word. 

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

new + reconciled

 

Isn't this a great time of year? We come together with our families to celebrate the one who came to save us, and we look forward to new beginnings, new blessings, and new trials. As I reflect on this, I see not just the birth of a Savior, but my own reconciliation as one who has been saved. Each day the profundity of this reality becomes more clear (though I can never fully comprehend it), and with this clarity comes a softened heart, one that desires to make Him Lord in every area of my life. Not in most areas, not in some areas, not in the areas where it's comfortable--in everything. And because I have hope, because I have been united with the one who saves, I feel compelled, convicted, and called to share this hope, this saving grace and this transformative journey. I have journeyed here, and yet I have so far to go. May He be glorified.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

xoxo.

managing the mystery.

xoxo.

know.

give and inherit.

xoxo.

soul, spirit, joints, and marrow.

xoxo.