Desert Seasons

 Jesus was in the desert for forty days before His earthly ministry. He was tempted at the very core of His identity. I don't know about you, but I am not usually eager to spend time in the desert or the wilderness. Sometimes it is unavoidable, and other times (like Lent) we seek it out. Our family spent a solid eight months in an unsought personal wilderness after we left Uganda. 

In the wilderness, everything you once believed is questioned. The sand and sky stretch for miles. You don't know how long it will last. You are forced to simplify down to basic necessities. The landscape is dull. You are pushed to your very limits. It is so disorienting. 

And, if you are open, God longs to draw near in those seasons. It is sometimes easier (and sometimes harder) to sense Him in the wilderness when everything else gets stripped away, and we realize the depth of our need for Him. He isn't tricky or hiding. And so this Lent, as we lay aside the things that draw our attention away from Him, and settle into the quiet places, I pray that He meets you. 

I hope that He will feel like a cool drink of water to your thirsty soul and that you will get a real sense of Jesus alongside you; He never asks anything of you that He wasn't willing to do first. 

Lenten Discipleship Journey

 

I'm sure you've seen Asbury University in the news recently. There has been an outpouring of God's Spirit over the past two weeks. It has been powerful, precious, and overwhelming. It began during the season of Epiphany- a season of light and revelation! We have certainly had an epiphany. Jesus has come to the center and has our full attention. Now, we are about to enter the Lenten season. 

Ash Wednesday is a time when we consider our finitude- our deeply human limits- the fleeting aspect of our single life. "Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust." I have poured myself out the past two weeks and on this Ash Wednesday I hear Him saying- "frail daughter, I am God and you are not. You are not limitless. You may embrace your humanity and rest." And I am grateful to be reminded that He breathed life into dust and created humanity and He can again breathe life into my dry and weary soul. 

The Lenten journey takes us into the desert places- it continues to reveal the places we would rather hide- it exposes those disordered desires that only He can satisfy. {and I don't know about you- but after the thousands of pilgrims that traveled to Wilmore- I'm ready for some desert solitude}

Join me on this daily journal- He wants to meet you in the desert places as we journey towards Easter. 

Laying Down my Ideas...

These are difficult days. We have finally succumbed to COVID-19. There is an actual war being waged on the other side of the world. And today is Ash Wednesday. A day to remember our humanity and come face to face with our sin and mortality. Yet, I don't know about you, but I am all too aware of my limits, frailty, and humanity this year. We are on day 12 of isolation and my grace and patience started to wear thin, so I decided this is the perfect day to reorient myself. I have always loved Lent. We have tons of old blog posts with my thoughts and our family traditions if you want some inspiration. 

We began 2022 with energy, hope, and lots of people attending Bible study. But as the weeks passed, we canceled more events than we hosted and even the ones we offered were sparsely attended. It is easy in those moments to listen to the lies that you aren't doing a good job and that the slow ways of Jesus just don't work. But we've been at this for a decade and I refuse to let the tempter play that card with me. I will teach a fitness class with just one student. I will receive the gift of no one coming to Bible study as an extra night to spend with our children. On a walk with Jesus, He reminded me that He isn't in a hurry, that building something which lasts isn't an overnight miracle, and that just because it feels like we aren't doing much doesn't mean He isn't working below the surface. And so I offer that same encouragement to you- the pace of love is slow, building the kingdom doesn't happen overnight, and He is at work beneath the surface as you wait on Him. 

I am burdened for Ukraine. There is a weariness in my bones and my mind from dealing with COVID-19. Our hearts break for students at Asbury who are hurting, lonely and exhausted. AND those are the very reasons I must slow down and fill my days with beauty, connection, and intercession. The three main disciplines of lent are fasting, giving and praying. This lent I am laying down my ideas of effective ministry. I am giving my attention to the things that matter by building beauty and connection into our days. And I am praying His kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

This quote from C.S. Lewis has been ringing in my heart this week: "

If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.”

What do you need to lay down, to whom do you need to give, and what is the prayer on your heart this Lenten season? 

#monochromaticlent

Lenten Garden 2021

Filling our desert garden with sand and rocks- setting the tomb in the corner- assembling a cross to be the focal point for lent is such a grounding ritual for me. I have to slow and ponder the wilderness Jesus faced for 40 days, examine the ways I am tempted like He was to be relevant, to be spectacular and to be powerful (Henri Nouwen- In the Name of Jesus) and the confess the things I've clung to besides Jesus. 

this year I've also been reflecting on the desert season we have been walking through since leaving Uganda. Throughout this past year we have felt useless, hidden, unnoticed, hurting and weak. We are the ones who have needed support and prayer- not the ones offering it. And to some degree 2020 was a lengthy lenten wilderness for most of us. 

Quarantine hit in the midst of lent last year and it doesn't feel like we've been released. As we stayed home and kept our social distance some ugly things rose to the surface of our hearts- things that were easier to avoid when we kept busy.  Maybe frustration, anger, impatience, fear, desire for control rose to the surface for you. Maybe you were stuck in households with people you love and unhealthy habits or patterns were exposed. 

So this lent I sense that the Lord longs to be gracious to us. He knows we've kind of been stuck in a lenten desert for a year. And if you've let Him deal with some of those temptations, patterns and sins this year you may be feeling a renewed intimacy with Him (such a gift from a very difficult season). But maybe He has been putting His finger on some things and you've refused Him access. Could you enter in to this lenten season and surrender those to Him? He walks with us to the cross and promises resurrection life and freedom on the other side!

Looking Back to Move Forward: Pt 1

When we lived in Uganda we spent a lot of our time with university students. Creating space for students to encounter God on their own and in fellowship around the table is definitely a big piece of our calling. Bible studies, leadership retreats, small groups, preaching were all a part of our work with the University Discipleship Movement. I loved meeting with the women on Monday nights our first term in Uganda. Many evenings were spent listening to their struggles and laughing at our common frustrations as women, worshipping with them, and helping them wrestle through tough questions. It was always so encouraging to hear them pray.

Throughout this year we will be taking a look back at our years of ministry in Uganda and then forward at how that might translate into our new ministry with the Francis Asbury Society. 

We believe that there is so much potential in the generations coming up! They are passionate about authenticity, community, truth, justice and the environment (Gen Z Core Values). We love how that lines up with God's heart! We all want to know and be known, for our presence to matter to someone else. But there are also some concerning statistics about their belief systems (atheism doubles among Generation Z). And this motivates us to live in authentic community where our backyard is open and there is food on the table. We don't just want to preach the Word, we want to live it.

So we can't wait to move in and get to know the students at Asbury University and Asbury Theological Seminary as one facet of our ministy with the Francis Asbury Society.

Body + Soul + Mind

God is in the business of restoration. He is a healer. He desires connection and wholeness even more than we do and He doesn't care how long it takes or how painful the process. He cares more about our character than our comfort... a friend of mine likes to remind me.

It has been an intense season. And God is doing some deep healing in my soul. He is renewing my mind. He is arming me for battle. After reading The Bondage Breaker by Neil Anderson and walking through the Steps of Freedom I was set free from some major lies I have been believing and was able to  break some agreements that I have made with the enemy.

So, during retreat in Kenya I felt the need for my body to catch up with my soul.

It is Lent... a preparation season... as I was crucifying more of my old nature, God invited me to experience these truths in a fresh way. By making a physical, public declaration I was identifying with Christ in His death on the cross and in the power of His resurrection! What precious timing.

The work of God is a spiral curriculum. He addresses something within us. We think we have mastered it. Then it comes back around deeper and more thoroughly. I've been saved since I was six years old. I surrendered my future to God when I was thirteen. I surrendered again when my mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was fifteen. I surrendered the daily living of my life to God (dead to self alive to God) my freshman year of college. And countless times since then I've laid it all down. But always deeper and more thoroughly. He is preparing me for some big things (please watch this 1 hour talk)- and all it stirs in me is humility- I've got so far yet to go!!

He is so kind. But also jealous. There is no room in my heart for God + _____...

He doesn't just want our songs on Sunday morning. Or our prayers when we wake each morning. He doesn't just want our weekly tithe. He wants all of us- our whole lives. And the good news is- when we give Him all of us, we get ALL OF HIM. Seriously the best news ever. He wants authority over my eating, my resting, my preaching, my parenting, my screen time, my spending... and guys, I want that too... He is so good. I can trust Him with it all. There is so much freedom there! Just a one piece life. (I struggled to find the Ann Voskamp post about living a one piece life- here is an excerpt from another blog- sorry I can't link it for you)

"When you let all the fabric of your life weave fluid together — the kids, the serving, the going, the giving — your life becomes this seamless tapestry. Live into the kind of ministry that lets you bring your life with you. Live into the kind of vocation that lets you live a full life. The work of family can flow fluid into the work of serving, which can flow fluid back into the fabric of the family, and family and ministry and your life’s work can be a One-Piece Life and what corporate model threatens to make our lives so profoundly disconnected? What corporate model has infiltrated our collective thinking such that family and work and living and modelling for the next generation what life is all about —  has left us with painfully disjointed and fragmented and compartmentalized lives? When you live a One-Piece Life — you don’t see your life as falling to pieces as much as it is falling together.... 

I have profaned the sacred, treated the holy in an unholy way. There are times, I still do. But I am prayerfully purposing to walk towards all of life as sacred ground, all of life as hallowed--because God is here, everywhere.

For me, it is about holistic living. We know that our health is not limited to just what we eat, or just if we exercise, or just where we live, or only what medications or vitamins we take, but it is about being a whole person--all of those elements factor into our being healthy. To live a spiritually holistic life, one can't simply have "Bible time" and expect to nourish an intimate relationship with Jesus. It is about keeping company with Jesus for the other 23 hours of the day, speaking with Him, singing toHim, praying to Him, calling out to Him, resting in Him--living in Him. There is no divide between holy and sacred. God wove life to be seamless, a tunic like Jesus’: one piece. For all is in Him. “In God…we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). “Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from Thy presence” (Ps. 139:7).


Some may think of this as "Practicing the Presence of God"--but to do that we have to practice being *aware* of the presence of God. He *is* already here--we just need to wake up. We do not have to practice *making* Him present--He walks this moment with us.


His word is not confined only to a quiet time for “they are not just idle words for you—they are your LIFE”( Deuteronomy 32:47).


Life is our liturgy. *All* of Life is our time with God.

Throughout your day, you will worship God, together. And you'll learn to die to self together. There will be no fragmented scraps of learning, home-life, friends, work, God.

You will make a one-piece life--hallowed threads of parenting, love, education, living, creativity, wonder, sacrifice, and God all woven together. You'll wear it, and it will fit: Grace, Love, Gratitude." -Ann Voskamp

Ash Wednesday

I last wrote during Advent and now it is Lent. I love Lent. Yes, that's weird. But I feel strangely at home during this desert season. Perhaps I know that He loves to show up during the hard times... I love this article from 1890: The Alluring.

"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her." -Hosea 2:14

This year we are preparing to return to Uganda, raising funds and raising our kids... it is a hectic season. And so I crave the solitude of the desert. We are fixing our eyes on the God we can trust in this crazy season! I AM: 40 Reasons to Trust God. And I am already loving it.

And for me, I found this free Lenten ebook (just subscribe to her blog and you get the book!). Sabbath and Lent two of my favorite things! What if we could give up one day a week for Lent and see what God can do?

For further Ash Wednesday inspiration:

• Lent Resources 2010
• Ash Wednesday 2011
• Ash Wednesday 2012
• No Ash Wednesday post 2013
• Ash Wednesday 2014
• Ash Wednesday 2015
• Ash Wednesday 2016

Into the Desert

"living, rather than preaching, the presence of Christ in the world" -Charles de Foucald

"...their life is more or less hidden from the world..."

"It is inseparable in so many respects from that of their neighbors; but the life of prayer and devotion finds practical expression in their availability and hospitality to others..."

"The search for God- and God alone..."

these are the words that are guiding me as I ask God what He wants of me this lent.

After the winter holidays, festivity and feasting what my soul needs is fasting. And I could not be more excited about the book that will guide me this year. The Desert. I have always loved the wisdom of the desert fathers. This book is speaking my heart language.

And my word for the year, lean in, is also guiding my lenten practices. I am leaning out of facebook, so I can lean in to the relationships around me. I am leaning into the hiddenness of this season. I am not just seeking God in solitude, but also in availability and hospitality to others. I am leaning in to small, everyday moments via my instagram: #monochromaticlent. My goal this lenten season isn't to give up all kinds of crazy things, but to truly and intentionally live out my highest priorities on a daily basis.

Lent: A Path through the Chaos

These are the words that are percolating in my heart as I prepare for Lent 2015: 

"Jan Richardson writing in her post, The Artful Ashes, shares what she discovered when she undertook a project where she learned to draw in charcoal: 'Taking up a new medium, entering a different way of working, diving or tiptoeing into a new approach: all of this can be complex, unsettling, disorienting. Launching into the unknown and untried confronts us with what is undeveloped within us. It compels us to see where we are not adept, where we still lack skill, where we possess little gracefulness. Yet what may seem like inadequacy-as I felt in my early attempts with charcoal- becomes fantastic fodder for the creative process, and for life. Allowing ourselves to be present to the messiness provides an amazing way to sort through what is essential and to clear a path through the chaos. 

(The Ashes) beckon us to consider what is most basic to us, what is elemental, what survives after all that is extraneous is burned away. With its images of ashes and wildness, Lent challenges us to reflect on what we have filled our lives with, and to see if there are habits, practices, possessions, and ways of being that have accumulated, encroached, invaded, accreted, layer upon layer, becoming a pattern of chaos that threatens to insulate us and dull us to the presence of God." from the app Lectio Divina- Lent

Make Disciples of All Nations

Photo by Stacy Salvatori Photography

Matthew 28

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations..."

Happy Easter! Thank you for praying for Uganda with us during the season of Lent!  We pray that your heart was encouraged and challenged as you prayed through the book of Matthew with us.

We leave you with Jesus' last words in the book of Matthew- a challenge to be on mission with Him!

Pray for us and our university students as we strive to obey this command to make disciples of all nations.

Nothing is Impossible!

Matthew 27:57-66

They made the tomb "as secure as they knew how" and still You rose!  May all the best efforts of the enemy be as nothing to You!  Thwart all of the plans of the evil one.

Even on this dark Saturday, we don't mourn as those who have no hope- You were victorious!  We know the end of the story and You conquered the grave!  Have victory today over darkness and evil and corruption in Uganda!

Truly this was the Son of God!

Matthew 27:1-56

As we focus on the cross today, let us have

{boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith} -Hebrews 10:19-22

 May all in Uganda say, Truly He is the Son of God!  And put their faith in Him.

Keep Watch with Him

Matthew 26:26-46

“Couldn’t you men keep watch with Me for one hour?”

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

Ask for special grace and strength today to keep watch with Jesus for an hour.  Dedicate your lunch hour, or the first hour when you should be sleeping, or that middle of the night hour when you just can't sleep... and intercede.  Watch and pray.  Surrender your will to His.  Allow Jesus to share His burden for Uganda with you.  And faithfully carry it with Him today.

Betrayal

Matthew 26:1-25

"Why this waste?" 
"For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always..."
"One of you will betray Me..."

Oh God, forgive us for thinking that doing good is the same as worshiping You- it can be, but it isn't always. Teach us how to love You and love others.  May we focus on You and Your ways- not our own grand ideas of missions.  May we seek to walk with You and minister everywhere we are.  And may that be enough.

Forgive us when our actions betray You.  When we love our money, ease, status, or stuff more than we love You- forgive us and change us!  Lead us to the cross this week- apply the knife of the cross to all of our old self.  Make us more like You!

Glorious Throne

Matthew 25:31-46

When You, the Son of Man, come in Your glory, and all the angels with You, You will sit on Your glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before You, and You will separate the people one from another...

We can't wait for that day!  To see Your glory... to bow at Your glorious throne... but some are not ready.  You tarry because You long to be gracious to every nation!  Thank You for turning our eyes to Your return- but keep our feet here, and our mouths ready to give testimony to any who may not know You!  One day You will gather all nations before You- but until then send us out to the nations!  That all may know and worship You on that glorious day!  

Keep Watch!

Matthew 25:1-30

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

At the start of Holy Week we hear a reminder: Keep watch- stay awake- be ready!  As we worship our Savior, mourn His death and celebrate His resurrection this week may we remember that He is coming back soon!  

Pray today for the lost in Uganda who are not yet ready for His return.  Pray for missionaries, pastors, and other fellow Christians to be bold and beautiful witnesses!

Ready

Matthew 24:32-51

be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect...

Come quickly, Lord Jesus!  He tarries out of love- pray today that all would come to know Him!  May we diligently share our faith, may we love sacrificially, and pray without ceasing for the lost. 

To all nations!

Matthew 24:1-31

...the love of many will grow cold.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come...

It is believed that the next wave of missionaries will come from South America, Africa, and China... Pray today that the gospel will be preached to all nations!  Pray for those who are training and equipping the next generation of missionaries.  Lift up Kennedy and Lillian Kirui and Jonathan Mayo as they lead the University Discipleship Movement.

Hearing His Heart

Matthew 23:37-39

O {Uganda}... how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing...

Can you hear Jesus' heartbeat here?  Spend some time resting on His chest, ask Him to share His heart's cry with you for Uganda.  May we weep as He does over the lost and wayward. 

Hypocrisy

Matthew 23:1-12

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees hypocrites!  For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside are full of extortion and self-indulgence...

Pray today for all the lukewarm Christians in Uganda- those who claim to be believers, but don't honor God in their lifestyle.  These "Christians" might look good on the outside, but don't have a vital, thriving relationship with God.  These may be Ugandans, and they may even be Christian workers- pray that the Holy Spirit would convict of sin, expose areas of blindness and darkness, and bring wholeness and healing. 

Oh God, may we not neglect the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith!