Our friend Sharon always reminds us “Words matter!”
The truthful, timely word, the encouraging word, the destructive one. They are all composing the story of our life.
Like a mess of Christmas lights though, we often get tangled up in the fearful words. The “not enough”, “failing grade”, “grim prognosis”, “overwhelming odds” words. Continue reading
It’s Fearless Friday, and I’m so excited to introduce another guest writer to you! John and I have had the privilege of walking alongside Kari and Matt Norman for several (10??) years now. They are a remarkable young couple who lead authentic, examined lives of faith in Jesus. You’ll see that from Kari’s words today!
Last Wednesday my husband and I watched our twin boys climb up the school bus stairs, smile and wave through the window, and head off for their first day of kindergarten. It was a marking moment, and one I’d envisioned in my mind’s eye many times.
I had been holding it together so well! Until the day before… when despite best efforts, I cried at the parent teacher conference when asked if this was my first child entering kindergarten. I said, “Yes, my first, and my second.” Pause. “And my last, all at once.” Cue the tears. The teacher reached across the table, held my hand, gave me a look that conveyed genuine care, as well as a nod that seemed to say, “You can hold it together. Really, you can! Um, please… can you?”
She didn’t know that I’d had six miscarriages along the way. Continue reading
I had a lunch meeting a few weeks ago. The purpose was for me to help a World Vision guy do some brainstorming and networking. At least that’s what I thought.
I’m pretty creative. I’m good at ideas. I’m good at making work for other people. It’s a gift. My family likes to say “God loves you and Laura has a wonderful plan for your life.” So I was feeling good about meeting with Bradley (the guy) and giving him some ideas. That is until he finished telling his story, turned to me and said, “I want you to run a half-marathon with Team World Vision to raise money for clean water in Zambia.”
What the what?! Not much surprises me. Even less than that leaves me speechless. This did.
I don’t run. Unless I’m running from a bear.
I’ve tried running. I hate it. Truly hate it. Bike, walk, play tennis, golf? Absolutely! Run? Ugh, please no!
As I reflected on the possibility, Fear whispered in my ear:
Honestly, one of the loudest whispers was: This will be a painful, grueling boatload of work and you don’t want to do it.
But Bradley said three things in that meeting that made me think maybe his idea was so crazy that God might actually be in it and I needed to pay attention.
1. He said this run is for clean water, something I’m passionate about. Dirty water is the leading killer of kids under 5 in the world.
In Zambia two years ago I danced with women as a well was dug and fresh water gushed out. They sang “Come and see what God has done.” The old woman next to me spoke in wonder “He saw us. He answered our prayers.” Wouldn’t be incredible to part of an answer to someone’s prayers?
2. 80% of the people who run on Team World Vision are not runners (as in, never done it). And that’s both scary and inspiring. When Bradley speaks to churches his theme is fear not. My one word for this year is Fearless, the word I’m trying to live into. As he spoke I sensed a little nudge. Perhaps this is a tailor made (albeit crazy) invitation to step into something scary that God desires to use.
3. My first response was unequivocal. There is no way I can do this. (Did I mention I. Don’t. Run. Ever.?). But maybe that’s an additional reason why this might be of God. Perhaps, besides providing water, there is something He wants to show me of Himself in this hard thing. His power perfected in my weakness.
There are many days of “small things”, but sometimes God invites us into something big and hard and seemingly impossible.
I think, in this case, God’s answer to Fear is “What if I run with you and do something bigger in and through you for others than you think is possible?”
So, although I have visions of my daughter (who may be running with me), dragging my lifeless body across the finish line, October 26th (Lord willing) I will be running (or shuffling) the Twin Cities Monster Dash half-marathon. You can join me running here! They have a great training program – starting from zero.
You can donate here.
It’s Fearless Friday! I hope you’ll join us on our One Word adventure this year.
Recently I was with two different friends, at different times, in different places who, with hesitation and eyes cast down, admitted their dreams to me.
You know,the big dreams of what they’d really like to do and be. They were afraid to say them out loud. Afraid they’d seem too…big. Too crazy.
But they were brave and told the truth. And it made me think of this video I saw recently.
I watch this and I think, aren’t we all just like this little guy with evidence smeared all over, afraid of admitting to God what He already knows?
Afraid to name either the smelly garbage or the shiny brilliant hopes that seem crazy, but that are as clear to Him as the sprinkles on our face.
What is it that you’re afraid to name?
It’s not like God doesn’t know, but still He graciously asks us the same the questions He’s been asking for centuries.
“What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51)
“Why are you here?” (1 Kings 19:9)
And maybe most importantly, “Why are you so afraid?” (Mark 4:40)
You know what terrible thing happened when my friends shared what was in their hearts with me?
Absolutely nothing. They didn’t implode and disintegrate. Bob Costas didn’t come on T.V. and broadcast the ridiculous news that two idiots had said some wacko stuff.
When they told me I was delighted! I was excited for them and I wanted to enter in and roll up my sleeves and help. And with my response, there was, on their faces this look of relief…and almost wonder that they had named this big thing and were still there and it was ok and not so scary after all.
Could it be that even though God sees all of our sprinkles – the evidence of every hope and fear, every dream and sin and wound – He invites us with His questions to come to Him and name it all so that we see that it’s not so powerful or scary after all.
And then He brushes the sprinkles off our face and says, “Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to it!”
And so begins His work of refining and redeeming, equipping, and guiding.
What is something you’ve been afraid to talk to God about – a crazy dream, a deep wound, a secret sin, a profound desire – and what’s happened when you’ve named it with Him?
For those of you new to this blog, you may want to read about One Word and our Fearless Fridays.
I’m flying to Chicago today to speak at a retreat for the church where I grew up, and yes, I’m a tad nervous.
Some (many?) of the women who will be there know me. You know… in a way that can be embarrassing. They watched me grow up and they introduced me to my husband and they were at my wedding. They have seen a lot of awkward. And perhaps remember some ill-advised words or jump-before-you’re-ready-moments. This is a bit…daunting.
What’s ahead of you today that requires “undauntedness”?
What is it that helps us to walk secure into situations like these?
There’s a message that Bill Hybels preached a few years ago that I have thought about more than most and it’s been helpful in this daunting stuff. In the message Bill talked about Hezekiah’s prayer in 2 Kings 19.
The Assyrians are coming against the Israelites. The king of Assyria sends a letter trash-talking Hezekiah and the God he holds fast to. Hezekiah could easily have been daunted by this super power of the ancient world, but he spreads out the threatening letter before the Lord and prays.
“Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord, are God.”
The key question that has rolled around in my brain as I’ve prayed ever since is, “What’s your ‘so that’?”
Whether it’s anticipating a really hard conversation or confrontation, or a big project or a new business venture, or a physical goal, or an application… if there’s fear associated with it, it must be important to you. Why? What would you say?
“This is important to me so that…?”
Really? There’s a lot of muck in our many motives. But if our “so that” is to bring glory to God it drains the daunt out of the situation.
Because if we’ve worked as hard as we can to prepare, and laid out our situation before God, and can honestly say “I think…as best as I can tell (and I know no motives are completely pure) I want to do this well so that You will be glorified.”
Then it’s not about us.
We have nothing to lose and nothing to prove. The ball’s in God’s court. We can relax and move ahead undaunted.
It’s up to Him to add His “extra” to our “ordinary”, His “super” to His “natural”.
Because “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Cor. 4:7)
How’s it going with your One Word? I’d love to hear what you’re learning!
It’s only been 3 weeks and I already want to change my One Word. Maybe “change” is too strong, but “refine”? Yeah.
My word is Fearless. But when I say fearless I don’t mean the opposite of timid or fearful.
I mean “resolute”, “secure-enough-in-God-to-proceed”.
I think “undaunted” may be better.
Undaunted is a “nevertheless” word. One that throws “but God…” in the face of “but what if?”
I think one of the reasons I’m so enamored with the word “undaunted” is because I recently read Christine Cain’s book by that title.
It’s Fearless Friday in our One Word year! Catch up and join us!
You may think you have the best family in the history of the universe, but you don’t.
I do.
I know I don’t deserve it. I don’t recycle enough and I can be petty and selfish and I sometimes pray for things like losing weight when many are starving, and there’s a lot of other bad stuff I’m not going to tell you about.
The only thing I can attribute my family to is grace. Period. But there you have it. Yes, we have our own set of crazy, but I’m still convinced my family is the best.
Anyway, now that we’ve got that straight, I want to introduce you to one of my two wonderful brothers. I like to call him “Baby David” and he calls me “Sweet Sis” and he is one of the kindest, most godly men I know. He’s on the right below, washing dishes at Thanksgiving with John.
Last Friday he wrote me such an encouraging note in response to the One Word post. He, like so many of you, will text or email, or FB message me with these incredibly rich insights that others don’t get to see unless they’re in the comment section here on the blog. So I asked David if I could post some of the words from his email and he graciously said “yes.” Here’s what he wrote:
Last week, with fear and trembling, I shared my One Word for 2013 – Fearless.
Ironic, I know. But there are so many important, relevant, good words! What if I got it wrong? I really prayed about strong, brave, secure, equipped, enough… What if it feels to God like I’ve thrown down the gauntlet (where did that phrase come from?) and says “It’s on!” leading me into situations to stretch me uncomfortably? What if this year just shows how fearless I’m not?
And then I remembered the two words fear always asks: “What if…” And I said “So what.”
I hope you’ll enter into this year-long adventure too.
I’ve loved hearing from you through email, text, and FB and I hope more of you will share your words here. Some of your OneWords I’ve heard so far are Margin, Relinquish, Trust, Live, Content, Enjoy…
So here’s what I’m thinking…We’re going to rename “Spirit Stretch Fridays” (You may not have even known that was a thing. I’ve kind of dropped the ball).
From now on it’s gonna be Fearless Fridays. I’ll be posting on different aspects of Fear because I think it’s a pretty universal challenge and is related to so many other challenges. AND, I’m going to be asking some of you to send me guest posts about your experiences with your One Word.
Here’s my thought for the day around “Fearless”.
“Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s just deciding that fear isn’t calling the shots anymore” Bob Goff
Soooo…here we go!
I’ve been reading and listening to boat loads of advice in the past two weeks on resolutions, goals, and all things to make the 2013 me stronger, more successful, and more godly (all with a flatter tummy of course).
You too? Feeling a little overwhelmed?
Some advocate shorter term goals and then evaluation and refinement, instead of setting big year-long goals. I like that.
Others suggest making a “stop” list. Yeah, I like that too.
And others admonish us to start and end our goal-setting with prayer. Yep. Good word.
But the newish “in” thing seems to be choosing ONE WORD for the year.
Trashing a list of resolutions and instead focusing on one word, one word to live into with God for the year.
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