God Grows a Blog, God Grows it All

{I'm taking my annual blog break December 20th-January 3rd. I'll be back to kick the year off with my favorite group of writer's for the first Five Minute Friday of 2014!

It's a time for me to refocus and to just relax into life with my family over the holiday. I hope you'll do the same. I hope you'll quiet the noise and take some time to be. 

Be with Jesus who came to be with you. 
Be with the friends and family that God has given you right before your eyes. 

I'm grateful for each of you that take time to read my scribbles in this place. Wherever God takes my word offerings know that you are the dearest of readers to me. I can't wait to share more in 2014. For now here are a few words (and some playlists!) to leave you with as we close the book on 2013.}

Cease striving. I read it in between the lines as I ponder Advent.

It's no accident that our calendar puts this celebration of Christ's coming at the end of the year. A mere week before we start another trip around the sun we sit elbow to elbow in church with candles balanced so that melting wax doesn't scorch our skin to remember the Son who dared to trip around the sun with us in human flesh.

And I can feel the pull when I look at January 1st looming just ahead. The way that I think every year that I have to be more and do more. The words that I write? They burn a hole in my soul some days. They have burned their way from brain, to fingers, to screen and some times it can feel so futile to write post after post to the few that read.

Here is the truth about it all.

God grows a blog. God grows a soul. God grows it all. 

God is a master gardener and He can grow as much as He wants in fallow ground.

I think it was Jennie Allen who said that she has never met a writer who knew exactly what they did to make their words take flight and soar to the top of the bestseller. They all say that they really couldn't explain it. They all say it is God-sized.

What is your dream? What is that thing that you think no one sees even though you pour your heart and soul out and into it? 

Keep doing that. Keep doing the art that makes your soul full and trust that God will take it where it needs to go. 

I know that platform matters. I know that in this world where everyone is a writer or artist or creating something it can seem like there isn't room for more. But might I just say that there isn't room for more, but there is room for you. 

I'm happy to make space on my bench.
I'm happy to scoot over so that you can do your art right next to me.

And if you get that book deal or make that cover art or sing that hit song or sale a billion e-books or get that amazing job or birth a beautiful baby or tackle that pile of laundry or adopt Ugandan orphans or kill all those dust bunnies for good or take cookies to the neighbors or buy your dream house or clean out the attic or whatever it is that you put your hands too...I'm going to be cheering and believing that God grows blogs and souls and He dares to do it any day of the year.

This year I'm embracing God's ability to make much out of little. 

I'm going to keep believing that I don't need thousands of devoted readers. I just need one God who can take my little and make it His much. I want to encourage us all to embrace this truth and then stand on this side of the sun once again a year from now and worship the God who did it all.

{Oh, I almost forgot. Two! Count them two! Playlists for Christmas! Enjoy and allow the gift of music to draw your heart deeper into Christ's coming and promise to come again.}

In the Bleak Midwinter                                         Christmas Shake


{One last thing. I'm finishing up Dressember and I'd love to raise a little more for the work of the International Justice Mission. You can follow the final days of the project on my instagram feed and read more about how you can take part in ad"dress"ing issue of injustice globally.}

These Full and Holy Days

My mind has been drifting back in time this past week. I've been remembering holidays past. Some have been glorious gifts of life and others have been days simply to survive.

I recall tables full of food, more food than anyone should eat. We'd wade into the yard full bellied to pick up pine cones and pecans. My mom would choose the most ill-suited Christmas tree. The one that required the most sawing, cutting and cursing from my father as he shoved it into the tree stand like a too small high heel on a too large lady's foot.

I remember Christmas parties, with dancing and giant video cameras set to record moments more precious than we knew.

Then there is the loss. The last Christmases with ones we loved. Those we still love and the seats that  will forever be empty in our hearts. All of these scenes fill my mind with memories and my senses with cinnamon, nutmeg, bonfires and pumpkin pie.

I've been remembering, but I've also been re-imagining. 

What can a day of thanks be in the midst of a life of thanks? 
What can Christmas be for the Easter people? 
How will my daughter remember these years of childhood wonder? 

When my daughter grows to womanhood, what is it that I want her to know about these holidays, these full and holy days?

I want her to know that every day we embrace the Gospel is a holy day.

A holiday worth celebrating. There is always a reason to give thanks even if that reason is hard found through tears

Each year brings new seats filled and others left vacant. This year we will miss a grandfather, a hero and Christ follower, and we will welcome the littlest among us to take us to the table of wonder like only children can. It is the give and take of the years.

We will celebrate and mourn and find that the two can coexist for those who love God.

We will remember that grace and pain are reliant on one another. 

Jesus gave grace while He gave His own life.

Our thanks is loaded with meaning when it flows from a heart that isn't always grateful.
It is beauty the same as grace covering people who lack grace. 
I freely admit that my heart is not always grateful and grace is not often on my tongue.

I struggle each day to find the thousand gifts that line our lives. I often overlook them. They often get stuck in the corners of life between busyness and my own life-isn't-fair attitude.

These fleeting days that pack the last months of our year are a chance to reclaim thanksgiving in our hearts. A chance to put the year in perspective and remember that great things come from little.

A young girl. A miracle.  A baby. A Savior. All of it is an opportunity to take back the stolen joy from hard years, and up all nights and too much suffering in a world gone mad. Cling to hope and you can find joy in the hardest places.

We are the Easter people year round, but in these months, for a few moments we can be the Easter children wide-eyed with wonder and gratitude over so much given and a King come to redeem it all.

Our Real Need This Christmas

A dirty manger reflecting a rugged cross.
A reflection of death in new life.
A Savior come for the sake of sinful man.

It is in the words of my Advent readings that I see my need. This Savior come is only joy after it has become an indictment (Good News of Great Joy for December 2nd). 

In the Kingdom of God the way up is always down. 

It makes it all the more disheartening that this season has become synonymous with excess. Over spending, over eating, over drinking, over and over again. Year after year we over indulge only to find ourselves guilt ridden on January 1st.

Our real need isn't more. Our real need is for a Savior. 

That tends to be the elephant in the room at our awkward, drink-filled office Christmas parties and our all too often not-so-Norman Rockwell family gatherings. It isn't a wonder that January has been called the worst month of the year for depression. We have made our resolutions and by mid-January we have failed our resolutions but the whole year lies ahead.

And to think that all this bumper to bumper traffic, lights strung by the millions and fist to fist combat for the biggest and best deals is because of a baby in a manger in the tiny no-stoplight town of Bethlehem. 

Advent. The Coming. The first coming that points to a second coming and Hope.

HOPE. 

The King who came and who wrapped Himself in human skin and who was wrapped and swaddled and placed in a humble manger. He is the beacon of hope. He is the indictment on our lives that leads to freedom.

He is the hero who does the unthinkable. He saves His enemies. He saved me.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Romans 5:10

If Advent is going to bear fruit in this winter season then it has to have a robust affect on our hearts. We can't afford to wait till Christmas day to nod our head to Luke 2 and sing a few songs.

It is in the midst of wrapping paper and Christmas cookies that we have to acknowledge all the ugly in our hearts. We have to acknowledge our need. Not our need of one more Christmas gift for the cousins or the need for a new wreath for the front door.

We have to acknowledge our great need for a Savior.  Jesus already bought His gift for you. Paid for it not on credit, but with His life's blood.

You can't out give Him.

The way to thrive this season is to stop striving and admit your need. Enjoy the lights. Hang the greenery. Decorate trees. Eat cookies. Sing loud the ancient carols. Celebrate.

It is true joy when you've found real joy. The real filling to our real need.

Taking Time

It happens every year, but we always seem to act surprised. These holidays roll around and time warps and it can be so easy for life to warp.

We see through a glass dimly and between pumpkin pie, peppermint mochas, and sales ads we can find it easier to enter a holi-daze. A get the shopping done, bake the cookies, and trim the tree induced stupor that leaves us ready for the New Year so that we can make a fresh start.

This season should be our fresh start and not a time to exhaust ourselves with passing things.

Isn't this season all about birth and new life? 
Aren't we counting advent and all the days down to the remembrance of a singular glorious day?

I managed to squeeze a minor in philosophy into my three years of college. I found in those few years a fascination with time. I read Boethius and pondered Aristotle and acted like I understood it all, but the truth is I was only able to understand one thing; God is bigger than time and our days are numbered by an eternal God.

I like to boil that down to this one joy filling, life giving, heart dancing thing. 
 
In Christ, time belongs to us. 
Time is ours for the taking. 

Those days when you think that you simply must get this or that done at the expense of all the things that really matter...STOP. Those days when you think that you need to send that one more email while the baby plays by herself...STOP. Those days when you think that turning the t.v. on rather than talking face to face with the one you love...STOP. Those early mornings when you bounce onto facebook rather than cracking the Word...STOP. Take time and make it give joy in return.

I often complain that I don't have the time. I don't have time to give selflessly. I don't have time to listen fully. I don't have time to read one more book...sing one more song...open my heart just a little bit more. If I'm honest I don't have time because I don't take time.

Time is there for the taking. We take time and we mold it into something that works for us. The bigger job is molding it into something that works for the Gospel alive in our lives and the lives of those we love.

Some of us are planners and others of us are confessedly not planners. I would say that most of us land somewhere in that no man's land in between. We try to plan, but the best laid plans of mice and men...sigh...The only thing I know for sure is if we don't take time, time will take us. It will take us for a tilt-a-whirl type ride that finds us wrapping presents in the car on the way to grandma and grandpa's.

Take time and bleed it dry. This holiday season take time and squeeze all the goodness out of it.

I'm not going to phone it in this season and I'm not going to weary myself without reason. I'm not going to let the hustle and bustle get the best of me. In all this waiting and longing that is Advent I'm going to wait long at the feet of Jesus and share some of that with you, my friends. I'm going to take time for all it is worth.

Join me in the taking.

The End is Only the Beginning

The stockings have been hung.

Children are wide-eyed with expectation.

Are you wide-eyed with expectation?

Because the end of the story is only the beginning.

When Christ came He came to crush death and crush it He did. He crushed that old serpents head clean off and there is a day coming when He will return and deal the final blow to sin and sickness and death shall be no more. Shadows will be no more.

This past week has found me longing for that time, heart sad and longing for all to be made new. I hear so many say that the events of this past week couldn't have happened at a worst time. I don't disagree, but I think if it had to happen...if this sin sick world had to convulse in such an ugly way then, why shouldn't it be right now? Right now in this moment when we turn tear stained cheeks and sorrow sad eyes to a manger, and a baby, and a world turned upside down and inside out by a God who drew near to our sorrow and grief. A God who entered into this hemorrhaging world as a baby and fought every second for our freedom.

In Christ, we are free. Ponder that a moment.
In Christ we, the children of the only rightful King, are free.
His righteousness hangs around our necks and covers all the ugliness and we are free and fearless and our fate is not left to chance. Our fate is left to a God who stands on either end of our lives, sees all, knows all and perseveres to call us His own.

This Advent do we dare to take Him at His Word? Do we dare to embrace the righteousness that is ours in Christ and live fear-free, anxiety free? If our belief is in  a baby then our faith will stay infantile, but if our belief is in a King who came as a baby, died as a sacrifice, rose as a victor and will come again as our Savior then there is nothing that man can do to us. Christmas isn't meant to keep us living small Christian lives believing in a tiny baby who coos and crows from a wooden cradle. Christmas, Advent, this Coming that points to His Coming Again and all that we are celebrating is meant to lead to a life lived big for a God who gave big. A God who gave His own son a ransom for many. We are the many. We are the ransomed who can shout out loud "in His name all oppression shall cease..."

I've been all too guilty of stopping at the baby with a sideways glance to the cross. The glory of God shown round about and that glory still shines from the star of Bethlehem, but that glory is only meant to cast a light on our need and illuminate the cross for our needy hearts. My prayer is that the hopes and fears of all our years would be met in Christ tonight, right now, and always. Christ the baby, the sacrifice, the victor and the Coming King.

I've loved sharing my heart for this Advent season these past 5 weeks. I hope you are thriving in the midst of it all. 
Taking Time
Capture It. Now.
Our Real Need This Christmas
Celebrate BIG!

Could you use a little more inspiration?
Maybe you don't want to be in the kitchen all day on Christmas...try this Apple Pie Breakfast or this Crockpot Egg Brunch Casserole.
If you're looking for some holiday tunes might I suggest a little She & Him?
Need just one more simple craft idea? Maybe a grouping of these yarn ornaments will do the trick!
Oh, and if all else fails grab a free Redbox code, rent a movie, order Chinese food, turn on the Christmas tree and relax.

Celebrate BIG!

Put down the to do list and step away from the wrapping paper. Turn on some Christmas tunes...you know, like James Brown or Cee Lo Green and just dance it out. When did Christmas become synonymous with stress? This should be a time for the Easter people to celebrate! Sometimes it feels like it is all or nothing. Either we have to be pious and straight faced about a virgin and a baby and a Savior drawn near or we embrace the glitter and excess and sugared goodies uninhibited.

 I think that these holidays can be holy days full of celebration. Big, loud, toe tapping celebration. Advent is meant not just to remind us of the first coming of Christ, but to point to the joyous day when our hero, the Savior, Jesus will return to rescue His own. It isn't joyous unless you know this truth, unless you embrace the baby, the cross and the Coming King.

If you know this truth then...proceed with the joy. Do it up BIG! 
{note: BIG joy can be super simple}

Kids do joy better than any other group of people. Get them in on the act. Fill your home with music. Obey Buddy the Elf and spread Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear. Fill your home with beautiful things. Smile like you have a secret...share that secret with someone who doesn't know {hint, hint, it is all about the Coming King}, give out big hugs or big air hugs (the flu is going around, boo), use way more glitter than should be legal, laugh until you snort at some point, stay up late watching a good Christmas movie, put a Christmas tree in every room, Griswold up the eaves and overhangs, cozy around a fire, eat popcorn and hot chocolate for supper, buy a big beyond reason gift for someone in desperate need---> Maybe something from this catalog, perhaps a life saving surgery for a child?

Go overboard with joy this season. 

Need some ideas? Need a good laugh? Need some more joy?
How about these adorable stocking holders! Pretty nifty!
Here is a guy on a buffalo...don't ask...just enjoy it for what it is. 
What about something from Lisa Leonard designs, gasp at the beauty!
Hand drawn joy from my dear friend Amy Davis!

Our Real Need This Christmas

A dirty manger reflecting a rugged cross.
A reflection of death in new life.
A Savior come for the sake of sinful man.

It is in the words of my Advent readings that I see my need. This Savior come is only joy after it has become an indictment (Good News of Great Joy for December 2nd).  The way up...it is always down. It makes it all the more disheartening that this season has become synonymous with excess. Over spending, over eating, over drinking, over and over again. Year after year we over indulge only to find ourselves guilt ridden on January 1st. Our real need isn't more. Our real need is for a Savior, but that tends to be the elephant in the room at our awkward, drink-filled office Christmas parties and our all to often not-so-Norman Rockwell family gatherings. It isn't a wonder that January has been called the worst month of the year for depression. We have made our resolutions and by mid-January we have failed our resolutions but the whole year lies ahead. Advent. The coming. The first coming that points to a second coming and hope.

HOPE. 

The King who came and who wrapped Himself in human skin and who was wrapped and swaddled and placed in a humble manger. He is the beacon of hope. He is the indictment on our lives that leads to freedom. He is the hero who does the unthinkable. He saves His enemies.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Romans 5:10

If Advent is going to bear fruit in this winter season then it has to have a robust affect on our hearts. We can't afford to wait till Christmas day to nod our head to Luke 2 and sing a few songs. It is in the midst of wrapping paper and Christmas cookies that we have to acknowledge all the ugly in our hearts. We have to acknowledge our need. Not our need of one more Christmas gift for the cousins or the need for a new wreath for the front door. We have to acknowledge our great need for a Savior.  Jesus already bought His gift for you. Paid for it not on credit, but with His life's blood.
You can't out give Him.

The way to thrive this season is to stop striving and admit your need. Enjoy the lights. Hang the greenery. Decorate trees. Eat cookies. Sing loud the ancient carols. Celebrate.

It is true joy when you've found real joy.

Enjoy a few links to slow your heart and remind you of your need for the Savior who is God with us.

Advent Conspiracy {Wonder what it looks like to turn the season on it's head? These folks did too and they want you to know what they know.}
Advent at Ephesus {The purity of the Sisters voices is stunning. A great soundtrack to meditate on the season}
Good News of Great Joy (Free e-book by John Piper) If you want to have daily, personal Advent readings run don't walk to download this e-book (did I mention it is free?) and get caught up! 
Some free wall art full of joy from (in)courage! {download a lovely PDF, print, insert into thrifted frame and voila low to no cost holiday decor!}
Looking for creative stocking stuffers for the kiddos? How about some free printable prayer cards courtesy of The Time Warp Wife? 

Capture It. Now.

I pulled a piece of paper from the desk. A blank slate for holiday planning. Gift giving. Parade watching. Light capturing. Stocking hanging. Cooking baking. It all has to be squeezed into a month that is filled with the rest of life. Now is the time to begin taking time. Right. Now. Before it gets away. Capture it. Now.



Today is December-Eve. Advent Eve. Tomorrow begins the the countdown to Christmas. 25 days to be mind-full of the gift that God gave to all in a tiny babe's clothing. Last year we lit a candle a week for Advent. The idea of Advent isn't new. I know many of you are light years ahead of me on this one, but I do think that the slow down and the counting of the days during this rushed season is revolutionary. It speaks volumes about what we value. I want to value Christ above all. I hope that is your heart too. Let's make much of Christ for the next 25 days and every day after.

This year I am making an Advent calendar that I hope will span the years of our little family. My husband and I have had several conversations on what we want to make the holidays for our family. We both want to be intentional about entering into the season with Christ at the forefront. The best place to start making these holidays more holy is by making each day more holy.

• Start an Advent calendar (Reminder: It doesn't have to be fancy!)

• Do an Advent devotional by yourself or with your family 
•  Desiring God is offering a free Advent devotional e-book!
• Light candles for Advent (a simple and beautiful reminder of the season!)
  
  
  

• A Jesse Tree with daily devotionals  
• Thanks Simple Mom for a great outline! 
• A beautiful devotional with printable ornaments for coloring is offered for free a A Holy Experience! Thanks Ann! 
•  Make each day of this Advent season an opportunity to serve others. 
• Rake a neighbor's yard
• Take canned goods to your local food pantry
• Bake cookies for an elderly neighbor, take them over and stay to chat
• Buy a gift for an Angel tree child. 

I'm no expert on Advent activities. This is a learning process for me as I work to shape my families traditions into something that has eternal meaning and value. All I know is that this season isn't about how many deals we get on Cyber Monday or how beautiful our tree looks. That is all well and good, but it isn't eternal. Jesus, God is with Us, the Great I am come to save sinners like us. That's the good stuff. The stuff that we can pass to our children forever. That is the glorious that is in the mundane of life and infinitely worth pausing and celebrating during this season.

Add your own favorite Advent traditions in the comments! How do you stay mind-full during the holidays?

Taking Time

It happens every year, but we always seem to act surprised. These holidays roll around and time warps and it can be so easy for life to warp. We see through a glass dimly and between pumpkin pie, peppermint mochas, and sales ads we can find it easier to enter a holi-daze. A get the shopping done, bake the cookies, and trim the tree induced stupor that leaves us ready for the New Year so that we can make a fresh start. This season should be our fresh start and not a time to exhaust ourselves with passing things.

Isn't this season all about birth and new life? Aren't we counting advent and all the days down to the remembrance of a singular glorious day?

I managed to squeeze a minor in philosophy into my three years of college. I found in those few years a fascination with time. I read Boethius and pondered Aristotle and acted like I understood it all...but the truth is I was only able to understand one thing...God is bigger than time and our days are numbered by an eternal God.

I like to boil that down to this one joy filling, life giving, heart dancing thing. 
In Christ, time belongs to us. 
Time is there for the taking. 

Those days when you think that you simply must get this or that done at the expense of all the things that really matter...stop. Those days when you think that you need to send that one more email while the baby plays by herself...stop. Those days when you think that turning the t.v. on rather than talking face to face with the one you love...stop. Those early mornings when you bounce onto facebook rather than cracking the Word...stop. Take time and make it give joy in return.

I often complain that I don't have the time. I don't have time to give selflessly. I don't have time to listen fully. I don't have time to read one more book...sing one more song. If I'm honest I don't have time because I don't take time. Time is there for the taking. We take time and we mold it into something that works for us. The bigger job is molding it into something that works for the Gospel alive in our lives and the lives of those we love.

Some of us are planners and others of us are confessedly not planners. I would say that most of us land somewhere in that no man's land in between. We try to plan, but the best laid plans of mice and men...sigh...The only thing I know for sure is if we don't take time, time will take us...It will take us for a tilt-a-whirl type ride that finds us wrapping presents in the car on the way to grandma and grandpas.

Take time and bleed it dry. This holiday season take time and squeeze all the goodness out of it. 

We're taking a break from 5 Minute Friday for the month of December. I'm planning a little series entitled, Taking Time to Thrive: Transforming the Holidays Into Holy Days each Friday. I hope you'll read along as I explore how to slow this whirlwind season down a bit and find a way to breathe in the midst of it all.