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If you haven’t yet heard the Kingdom of God described this way, you should store it in your mind’s pocket: everything is upside-down. The first are last, the strong are weak, the wise are fools and the poor are rich. ⠀ If I were to take the upside-down-ness of Kingdom life and infuse it into a 2019 phrase, it would be, “The ordinary is glorious.” ⠀ Every day we’re sold the prevailing message that glorious living is on the OTHER side of ordinary jobs, ordinary clothes, ordinary bodies, ordinary finances, and ordinary homes. ⠀ But here’s a practical reminder: our society literally CANNOT function without bank tellers, post office employees, garbage truck drivers, gas station attendants, baristas, teachers, data entry specialists, mechanics and personal assistants. We need moms and dads to remove the Cheerios stuck up their kid’s nose at 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon. We need waiters and waitresses and Lyft drivers. We need pear-shaped bodies and strawberry-shaped birth marks. We need broken toaster ovens and milk spills on the kitchen floor. ⠀ What I’m trying to say is, everyone can’t be a billionaire entrepreneur! But everyone CAN live a glorious life. ⠀ Because real glory (think holy, magnificent) is in the breath you just took. It’s in the breath you’re taking now. It’s in surrendering self-protection to Divine love. It is in self-sacrifice, not self-promotion.Glory is in the first signs of sunshine after a week of rain. It is in grocery shopping, when the not-yet-ripe avocados are on sale. It is in your favorite playlist on Spotify, the way your husband holds your hand in the car, and late-night group text messages with your best friends. ⠀ Glory is in brokenness, when you’ve got more bills than money and your knees are bruised from praying. Glory is in breakthrough, when, after years of infertility, you see a positive pregnancy test. ⠀ A glorious life is not *out there* in some fantasy world where people sip margaritas by the pool in bikinis all day. It is something YOU are invited to experience. Your life is GLORIOUS because God loves you and he is inviting you to be a part of HIS story. ⠀ Let’s accept the invitation and embrace our ordinary lives 🖤
EDIT: We literally shut down the Starbucks app because of all the transactions across the country!! 😂😂😂BUT over 30 women were able to get a drink today because of the generosity of our online community :) I am not going to collect any more money (the rest that was left over I sent individually to each person that wanted a drink until my Venmo reached zero!!) ...but YOU can send any friend in your life $6 and give them a drink, on you! :) Such a simple way of showing someone you love them!!
I love sharing this story each year as a good Valentine’s reminder 😂💕 ⠀ Today is filled with red-and-pink highlight reels of perfect relationships while friends who are single or in less-than-ideal relationships can feel alone. So partnered with these beautiful photos, here’s a story from February 14, 2017. ⠀ Todd spent the day working on a gift for me. He picked me up from work, expecting to take me home and surprise me, but I told him I was starving and wanted to go somewhere nice! ⠀ When I think “nice”, I turn into Massimo Bottura and will not accept anything less than a Michelin-starred restaurant. ⠀ When Todd thinks nice, he thinks, “What will make me full and require the least amount of money.” ⠀ He suggested Buca di Beppo. I have a weird complex with Buca because everything comes from cans and smells like tomatoes and it freaks me out. I made a snarky comment about how Buca di Beppo is like Tennessee’s Osteria Francescana and said, “Fine.” ⠀ I am not lying, we did not say more than five sentences to each other at dinner. He was confused as to what he did wrong (“I HAVE AN AMAZING SURPRISE FOR YOU AT HOME!”) and I was upset because he wasn’t treating me to something fancy for Valentine’s Day (“WE ARE EATING AT BUCA DI BEPPO AND IT SMELLS WEIRD”). ⠀ We got in the car and hashed it out. I said he was stingy and didn’t understand the importance of doing *nice* things (COULD I BE ANY MORE SNOBBY). He grasped the steering wheel and calmly asked why we HAD to make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day on the ACTUAL day, and not celebrate it over the weekend when I didn’t work ten hours in the bridal mill (that’s what he called David’s Bridal😂). I walked into our home to find our bedroom decorated from head to toe with a tent like Jude Law made in The Holiday. There was a note and wine and a teddy bear. ⠀ I SOBBED like a baby and apologized. He said he didn’t want to ruin the surprise because he knows how much I love surprises. I told him to ruin the surprise next time so we don’t end up fighting at Buca di Beppo while our waitress talks about hair products. ⠀ Anyways.. Moral of the story: You’re normal. Every day isn’t a fairy tale. Love is worth it.
I don’t know if you’ve heard of the term “introjection” before- I hadn’t until my therapist described it a few weeks ago- but it’s when a person absorbs the words, attitudes or beliefs of people around them to the point where they cannot separate those things from themselves. It is the opposite of projection. ⠀ Some people, as a defense mechanism, naturally PROJECT their issues on other people. If I feel insecure in my relationships, for example, but refuse to work through it properly, I might project my insecurity on others, filtering every word through a distorted lens of fear/rejection rather than love. ⠀ Other people, like me (!), naturally INTROJECT. This means I tend to absorb the thoughts and beliefs of others as a defense mechanism in order to feel less pain. I tend to let the input of others become part of my identity without discrimination. An example of this from my own life is when my English professor suggested I didn’t write with depth. I didn’t critically think through his comment. The idea never crossed my mind that his words could be ONE person’s opinion. Instead, I absorbed his words and believed them about myself as a way to protect against future comments on my writing. I made jokes about how I wasn’t a deep thinker and didn’t have the capability of writing properly. ⠀ Another example of introjection is if you walk into a room and everyone’s in a bad mood, and your instinct is to assume it’s YOUR fault. ⠀ We all respond to our environment and the opinions of others differently...but if you tend to introject, I’d encourage you to read through Colossians 1, which talks about how you are reconciled, blameless, holy and loved. ⠀ You are not the sum of everyone in the world’s opinions. Their words are not inseparable from your identity. Absorb truth, absolutely, but don’t absorb everything you hear! God has given you a spirit of power and a sound mind, able to discern truth from falsehood! Embrace the Spirit’s work in you. Feel the power of a blameless identity, freed from the changing thoughts of others. ⠀ Be free from absorbing lies to avoid pain. ⠀ The words of others might sting, but they do NOT have to take root in your soul.💕👑
This morning I woke up and thought about Queen Elizabeth (I don’t know why but that’s not the point 😂🤷🏼‍♀️). I imagined her sitting down for a morning cup of tea— in her crown, of course— just for some random stranger to barge in her palace and spew hateful words at her, questioning her right to be queen: ⠀ YOU DON’T DESERVE TO BE QUEEN! YOU AREN’T GOOD ENOUGH! YOU ARE POWERLESS! SOMEONE ELSE SHOULD BE LEADING! YOU DON’T HAVE AN IMPORTANT VOICE! ⠀ Then, in my imagination world, Queen Elizabeth shrugged and said, “Actually, it’s my birthright to be royal and look around, pal- I live in a palace! So BYE!”👵🏻👸🏼 ⠀ ⠀ No person has the right to call you unworthy. No person has the right to call you unloved. No person has the right to call you worthless, unheard, unseen, ugly or forgotten. ⠀ The only people with the rights to your identity are you and Jesus. Jesus gives it. You receive it. ⠀ But every day, (hurt) people barge into our tearooms and fling THEIR pain on us in order to make themselves feel better. And you know what we do without batting an eye?! We agree with those lies! We walk right out of the palace, throw away the crown, and hide in shame, forgetting our God-given identities as co-heirs with Jesus. ⠀ It is a fact, not opinion, that you are loved. It is a fact, not opinion, that you are chosen. It is a fact, not opinion, that you have purpose. ⠀ When opinions are flung your way, then, straighten the God-given crown on your head, reject those lies and keep walking in love. ⠀ Today? Well, today is a great day to remember the Queen! 👸🏿👸🏽👸🏼👸🏻 ⠀ 📸Photos from my wedding 3 years ago, when I wore a for-real crown 👑 ⠀ *Also worth noting: you don’t have the rights to anybody else’s identity! Not your parents or politicians or kids or friend or strangers on the internet. It is fact, not opinion, that THEY are loved, too. When you feel your heart tugged towards snarkiness, slow down and ask God why you’re lashing out. What wound needs to be healed? What am I trying to overcompensate for? Why am I insecure? But you don’t need to dismantle someone else’s identity in order to feel better about yourself. That mentality only imprisons YOU🤷🏼‍♀️
For most of us, worrying is as comfortable as breathing. It makes sense. In the era of internet outrage, we fall asleep and wake up to extreme inflammation and fear-mongering. ⠀ Did you know many diseases are caused by body inflammation? ⠀ Imagine how much our minds and emotions suffer because of the inflammatory messages we’re inundated with every minute of every day! Even when we PEE, we scroll through social media and see murders and violence and hateful opinions and snarky comments. ⠀ I just want to remind you, there are industries that literally PROFIT off YOUR fear. There will never be a day you turn on the news to find them say, “Honestly, nothing to report over here! It’s been a pretty good day!” ⠀ No— they profit off your addiction to fear and fearful information. They profit when you are angry. They profit when you disgust others. They profit when you buy into one-dimensional caricatures of other people, groups, and places. ⠀ They profit and we find ourselves dehumanized— unable to see the good in our world and others, especially others we disagree with. ⠀ This is the first time in history- literally, EVER- that human beings have had immediate and unlimited access to information... and sometimes I wonder if we are suffering because of it. ⠀ I wonder if the fear we’re being fed is tainting our ability to use our imagination for good. I wonder what it would be like to imagine the future world as BETTER than before. What would it look like to use our God-given resources and giftings to bring us there? I wonder what it would look like to reclaim imagination from the grip of fear, dreaming in the direction of Love, knowing God loves the WORLD and everything in it. Knowing God’s heart is for GOOD, not destruction. Knowing King Jesus gets the final word, and WE get to participate in the advancement of his kingdom.
I wrote a long post that didn’t make sense, but I want you to know this present moment is a sacrament- a holy opportunity for you to commune with God. When Jesus died and the veil split from top to bottom, God was communicating this simple message: I AM EVERYWHERE. My presence is not sequestered to buildings. My love is not confined. I am not bound by space or time or past or future. You don’t have to summon me like a genie, you only need to wake up. ⠀ You can find me in sun rays that ease your mind and bird songs hailing from magnolia trees. You can find me in Winter’s first snow that stills the chaos and the clearance aisle at Target with crying kids in the background. I’m in work meetings and first dates and and breakups and walks alone at Radnor Lake. In rainbows and belly laughs and the smell of freshly cut grass. In nail polish and event planning and Pinterest boards. In paid bills and odd jobs and excel spread sheets. In the movie that made you cry and that first sip of morning coffee. In your neighbor’s daily wave as she grabs the mail and in the exhale you feel after a long day’s work. In your favorite slippers. In group texts. In a warm bath with the fancy bath salts. ⠀ I am in death and birth and suffering and joy- I am in it all. ⠀ And yes, especially today, I am in matcha lattés and chocolate chip cookies from RH Cafe. ✨ ⠀ ^^do you have anywhere you’ve seen God this month? I feel like a million bucks after making my list and would love to hear yours! ⠀ #faith #gratitudelist #grateful
On my way to work this morning, I had a distinct memory of a conversation with God a few years back. I was doing the dishes, staring out the window, asking why so many of my dreams felt like failed launches into space—they LOOKED like they were going to succeed until something crazy malfunctioned and caused them to blow up in mid-air. I pictured rocket after rocket, dream after dream, launching halfway into the sky before bursting into flames and plummeting back to earth. ⠀ Then I heard a whisper: Let’s shift your perspective. ⠀ Suddenly I remembered a video of a multistage rocket launch from my trip to NASA. In (incredibly) oversimplified terms, a multistage rocket is exactly what it sounds like: multiple stages, or rockets, stacked on top of each other. The bottom stage contains fuel for the ground launch and gets the rocket into the air. When the tanks run out of propellant, the first stage detaches from the rocket and falls into the ocean. This propels the second stage into gear, until it runs out of fuel and detaches. This process carries on until only the satellite is in orbit, freed from the dead weight of empty fuel tanks and lower stages. ⠀ Then it clicked! God doesn’t do failed rocket launches. He works in stages. He works to propel us. He works to free us from the weight of sin that easily entangles us, as the author of Hebrews wrote. ⠀ I needed to see my life through a new lens. ⠀ Sometimes it’s hard to let go of the thing that launched you from the ground into the air, right?! Sometimes we’d rather hold on to dead weight because we’re used to it and it’s comfortable. But God’s intention is for us to let go and propel even higher than before. ⠀ So be encouraged. If you feel like lots of things have exploded and fallen into the ocean, know that God isn’t in the business of failed rocket launches. He is in the business of propelling, refining, and freeing. ⠀ Keep dreaming. Sky’s the limit. 🚀
One of the first books my therapist recommended was called Codependent No More by Melodie Beattie. Like many people, I had never heard of the term “codependency” even though it dictated my life and relationships. ⠀ A simple way I’ve come to understand codependency is this: “I’m only okay if YOU’RE okay.” When I started working through this concept, I kept coming back to a phrase Jesus said in John: “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” ⠀ It’s one thing to lay down your life because you KNOW your identity (love). ⠀ It’s another thing to be drained of life because you’re BEGGING for identity (codependency). ⠀ Whether crowds celebrated Jesus or crucified him, his identity was rock solid. We don’t see him nervously explaining himself. We don’t see him questioning his purpose when Judas betrayed him. We don’t see him shying back from his message when the Pharisees belittled him. Jesus was loved. Full stop. ⠀ What an invitation for us to receive: follow Me! Follow me into alignment with your Father. Follow me away from codependency and into joyful communion! Follow me into God-dependent servanthood instead of codependent striving. ⠀ If you’re thinking, “This is great but I don’t know if I struggle with codependency, help me!” here are some ways it has shown up on my life: ⠀ 1. People-pleasing. Trying to control others into loving me by being/doing what I think they want. ⠀ 2. No boundaries. Defending every “no.” ⠀ 3. Avoiding arguments. Scared to share my real thoughts and feelings for fear of relational tension. ⠀ 4. Taking ownership of other people’s actions and feelings. ⠀ 5. Disproportionate amount of anxiety and stress connected to relational tensions. Obsessing over every word I ever said in a conversation to see what I could have done or said better. ⠀ Lots of people (women, oftentimes) have been taught that codependency = godliness. That shutting up and stifling your opinion to keep the peace is spiritual. But what if God says different? What if God isn’t afraid of your voice, but wants you to step out in the open, confident in your identity?! ⠀ That revelation might start a powerful movement if you ask me. 🤷🏼‍♀️
Faith is not for the fearless. ⠀ Faith is a choice- a shaky uncertain messy ten seconds of courage type of choice- to trust God’s got you, whatever “got you” looks like. ⠀ Faith is digging your heels deeper and deeper and deeper into the dirt when winds howl, and lightning strikes comfort into rubble. ⠀ Faith is looking at the future, eye to eye, and laughing. ⠀ Faith is standing on the edge of a cliff on the edge of eternity and jumping. ⠀ No parachute. No plan B. ⠀ Just trust. ⠀ Trust that, by grace, abundant life is on the other side of cliffs and unemployment and spiritual winters and divorces and deaths and births and losses and griefs and birthdays and Mondays. ⠀ Trust that something will grow. Trust that YOU will grow. ⠀ Faith is not for fearless heroes of biblical times. Faith is for us. Stay at home moms, office managers, dads with dad jeans, teachers and therapists. Faith is for us.
Just want to share a quick encouragement for anyone who feels like the rug is getting pulled out from under your feet: ⠀ As you guys know, Todd’s job situation changed unexpectedly on January 1st of this year, 12 hours after God gave me the word “Faith” for 2019. To be honest, neither of us thrived with Todd on the road for 200+ days, but it was stable and comfortable and all we knew. ⠀ Even though we both sensed God inviting us to pursue creative endeavors together, the risk seemed too daunting. We kept saying “We’ll take it seriously NEXT year” which turned into 2017 which turned into 2018 which turned into 2019. ⠀ Then, in the words of my therapist, God ripped off the Band-Aid. 😂 ⠀ And honestly? It has been awesome. ⠀ I mean, our grocery budget sliced in half IMMEDIATELY, but our faith has grown wide. Bizarre financial provisions have popped out of nowhere. Todd is finishing his instrumental EP @thefuturereality, something he’s dreamed about for years. We have leaned on each other like never before. We are experiencing God like never before. ⠀ It’s easy to view difficult seasons as obstacles on the way to blessings. But what if, in the Kingdom, the obstacle IS the blessing because it draws us into Love? ⠀ It doesn’t make pain or finances or health issues or breakups easy, but it DOES offer a fresh perspective; an opportunity to surrender to love instead of writhe in your illusion control. ⠀ And when your grip loosens, you will be free. Free to embrace the life you have instead of envy the life you WISH you had. ⠀ What if the biggest frustration in your life is a gift? What if your job loss is an open door to trust God and choose faith in the face of fear? What if your breakup is an opportunity to align with an Eternal Love? What if your disappointment is illuminating an idol on the throne of your heart, an idol that will never truly satisfy you? ⠀ What if you, in your deepest pain, are deeply Blessed? How would that change your perspective?
⠀ The internet can be a messy battleground of venom-laced words, traumatic images and Bible verses wielded as weapons to wound... ⠀ ...and if you find yourself overwhelmed by it all, or maybe even worse- numb to it all- it’s okay to step back and breathe and remember you are loved by God. ⠀ You aren’t enslaved to a never-ending negative news cycle. ⠀ You are a free person because of this Good News: Jesus loves every last one of us. ⠀ If you’ve been triggered, traumatized and shamed because of your second cousin’s ex-girlfriend’s grandmother’s post, wondering if God could ever love a person like you, here’s the sign you’ve been looking for: ⠀ JESUS LOVES YOU. ⠀ The essence of his nature is to love, not condemn. His posture towards you is kind, not accusatory. ⠀ He loves you deeper than ocean trenches and higher than galaxies a billion lightyears away. ⠀ And maybe, just maybe, there’s a wounded heart out there who needs to be told she matters even though the internet is outraged. ⠀ A broken heart who needs to know God is not disappointed in her. ⠀ A shamed heart who needs to be reminded there’s a God who calls her worthy. ⠀ Maybe you need to know this simple truth that keeps the world spinning: God is enthralled with you and he’s really, really proud to be your dad.

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