Welp, anyone’s thoughts that turning the calendar to a new year might magically help things was….hopeful, but wrong. The days still bringing uncertainty and require us to navigate a host of emotions. There are many coping mechanisms, but one I wanted to remind you is particularly useful. Music is the language of the soul, that can help from therapy to mood enhancement. Music has the ability to connect you to your emotions, which can help you process things. A sad break up, a sunny day, a bit of melancholy can all find mirrored expression in song.
However, sometimes you don’t want to stay where you are. You don’t want to keep experiencing what it is that you’re already feeling. You need to move on from that space. That is when music can become a very useful tool
Sometime in life you look around and realize that YOU are the leader, the one in charge, even if that just of a party of one: yourself. It’s then that you realize emotions- though valuable and important, meant to connect us with human and spiritual experience- were never meant to be the Guide, the Boss, or the Captain. Emotions are fickle, easily swayed, and often swelled. They make a terrible front man.
There’s a quote from the U.S. Navy SEAL Creed that feels so appropriate.
“I serve with honor on and off the battlefield. The ability to control my emotions and my actions, regardless of circumstance, sets me apart from other men, uncompromising integrity is my standard. My character and honor are steadfast. My word is my bond.We expect to lead and to be led. In the absence of orders, I will take charge, lead my teammates, and accomplish the mission“.
We can’t lead with emotions. So what can we lead with? How about leading with what the world needs most right now? How about we lead with Love.
Love is not just an emotion. Love is a state of being, a character, and a truth. Love is many things, but it is never pushy, controlling, or thoughtless. Love is selfless, patient, forgiving, and kind. Love is a force to be reckoned with. Love sometimes requires great bravery, because hatred wages a war against it. But Love shows up anyway, creating the necessary. And Love never fails.
It’s time we let Love really lead us. For that to happen, though, I don’t know about you, but I can’t find enough in myself. Not the emotion love nor the bravery to act on it. It’s not hidden with the change and the crumbs at the bottom of my handbag. It’s not tucked into a coat pocket and forgotten like a dollar bill. It’s not in the pantry or available from prime delivery.
I have some measure of love, from what I’ve received. But what happens when I get to the end of it? When my fuse is short or my well is dry? When I want to give more but can’t seem to do it. When all I want to do is hide?
Real deep Love is not from me, it’s not by me. But it is everywhere, and it’s abundant. It comes from God alone and it’s perfect. All I ever have to do is position myself underneath the flow of its incredible grace.
I don’t have to create the love or courage that I need for these trying days. I need to only lead myself, lead my emotions and my overworking brain, to a place where I can receive it. I need only to position myself beneath the waterfall, beside those still waters.
Then what splashes out of me when I’m bumped, spills over when I’m full, or pours from of me when I’m broken will be something that’s beyond me.
The only way for that to happen is to let the good stuff in. How the heck do you do it? With prayer. With reading good stuff. And for me, so often, with music.
Music has been an incredibly beautiful piece of the picture for me. Every day, at various times throughout the day, I turn on songs that literally seem to fill my soul. They not only encourage me, they remind me of that great Love God has for me, and the great love he has for the world. You don’t have to listen to what I listen to. But you can be mindful of what you are feeding your soul.
While the world has been crazy about healthy, organic, Non-GMO, vitamins, supplements, and superfoods, they have neglected to think enough of what we are feeding our souls.
Needing courage? Then put in courage. Needing peace? Plant peaceful songs or instruments. Need more love? How can any of it still out of you if it hasn’t been put in? Listen to songs that fill you with the deep waters of the Love that there is for you , especially from the divine source . For how can anything good pour out of us unless it’s put in there? Life is constantly bumping against us, things are always spilling out. So it’s time we take responsibility as grownups, and feed ourselves the way we should. With what both we and the world need.
You don’t have to listen all day or even any day. Start with a song that makes you feel more of the love that your soul needs. Stop feeling thirsty, and give yourself what you need. See if you feel any differently after listening, go from there. There’s no right way to do this. There’s just finding a better one each day.
I decided to put together a playlist to share of some of my favorites. It’s on Spotify, which seems like the easiest way, and you can access it here>>>>playlist.
In case you’re not on Spotify (which is super easy and free in case you’re wondering), I wrote down the playlist. You can search for theses songs on whatever platform, video service, or music streaming service you prefer!
1- The Voice of God – Dante Bowe**
2-The Story I’ll Tell- Maverick City Music
3- The Blessing (Live)- Kari Jobe
4- You Hold It All Together – Maverick City Music
5- Awake My Soul- Hillsong Worship
6- Protector (Live)- Kim Walker Smith
7- Pieces (spontaneous) -Bethel Music **
8- Sing My Way Back- Steffany Gretzinger
9-No Fear In Love – Steffany Gretzinger
10- Reckless Love (Spontaneous)- Bethel Music
11-House on a Hill- Amanda Lindsay Cooke **
12-Sails (Live)- Pat Barrett
13-Always Good (Live)- Hannah McClure
14-It Is Well – Kristene Dimarco
If this is a new concept for you, and you’re feeling unsure about it, I get it. I starred a few songs that are really beautiful starting points. Even if you never listen to any one of theses songs, I hope that this has made you think about what kind of steps that you can take to ensure a little more peace and love in your days. I know, everyone could use more of both right now. Xoxo
Tomorrow will mark the Epiphany. Epiphany has several meanings, and one is “a sudden revelation or insight”. Epiphany also is a notable day in the Church, celebrating when the wise men found Jesus, thereby representing when all Gentiles then found Jesus.
We seem to be living in a time of continued insight and revelation, to all sorts of information, and it can be confusing or overwhelming. It’s important to keep in mind this: Truth is never silent. We just sometimes need to do a better job at paying attention.
The wise men, who sought truth by looking to the stars, finally found it. The ultimate Truth. God’s love come from heaven to earth. They didn’t even understand all of what it meant yet. How could they? Whether they understood it or not had no bearing on whether it was true.
We are all wise men. At first, at least. We are seeking truth, turning over rocks, looking for understanding. Big truths, little truths. All of it. Sometimes we find it, and keep it. Other times we might return those pieces holding truth back to their place- in disbelief, or to cover it from our eyes, try ignore it. Because it’s too hard or too unreasonable or unfathomable. It will not cease to be true.
When we find truth or Truth, we can choose to be like children, cover our ears, close our eyes, and wish it to go away. Worse yet, we could choose to be like King Herod, who when he found out the truth, felt that it would jeopardize his position. And so he sought to destroy it.
Herod’s plan to destroy the truth didn’t work out, by the way. The truth accomplished what it came to earth to accomplish. Even if others didn’t know what even happened. Truth always triumphs, even when people don’t accept it. Even when it doesn’t look like anyone was hoping.
One of my favorite Christmas cards of all says , “Wise men still seek Him.” We can choose to be wise men if, after finding truth, we don’t walk away from it. Especially the biggest truth of all, of the baby who would save us from ourselves. We can come, too, and kneel before the One who Is.
Truth requires humility and faith, both. Truth can’t be ignored forever, and it is never is forgotten. Once someone knows truth, even a sliver of it, they will always know it. Even if, or rather when, their mind tries to talk them out of it. Your heart will still always know. Truth doesn’t disappear. Truth is not silent, nor will stay hidden forever. We just sometimes need to do a better job of paying attention. Truth never lies. We just tell ourselves some or a lot of those.
My prayer this year is for more LOVE and UNDERSTANDING. See, sometimes lies start with misunderstanding. So I would like to find more of both. With continued discovery, and uncovering. Maybe you would like to join me. It is wise to never stop seeking truth. Those that do are on a continued journey of discovery. Oh, to be a wise man, who hears, who humbles himself, and who shares with others. Even if you’re not sure what anyone will do, yourself among them, when you find it. Truth is not intimidated by anything. It changes things when it speaks.
Truth is, Jesus IS truth. The way, the Truth, the Life, according to scripture. So if you want to find truth, sure you can read as many articles as you can. You can peruse the internet. You can ask a lot of questions. For me, the best question I can ever ask is to the Truth himself. Jesus what do you say?” Not “what would Jesus do?” But, rather “Jesus, what are you doing?” The first question is that of a dead religion. The second is to a living, breathing savior. Who longs to reveal himself.
Because this Truth, this Jesus? He’s worth trusting. He is worth finding.
He brings with himself more understanding. Even if you don’t get a clear answer right away, or maybe even ever, you can’t ever go wrong asking and trusting Him. Who IS truth. Even of what we don’t yet understand. Getting closer to Him will always always always be worth it.
Christmas decorations, songs and lights fill the landscapes around us. Maybe if we’re lucky, cookies fill our belly, too. We wait for the one magical day marked by a visit from Santa, and most importantly, the celebration of the birth of Christ. Yet while we wait, we are already celebrating Christmas. Advent is a time of waiting, a time of hope looking forward, and simultaneously celebrating what already is and has been. Advent means “the coming or arrival of something or someone that is important or worthy of note.” It is ‘already’ (arrival) and ‘not yet’ (coming).
Many people can identify with this, from waiting for a package until its arrival, or when you travel, in the space before the wheels of the plane land at your destination. Builders and carpenters know this feeling. They start with a plan for a building or a piece of furniture which exists first only in their mind’s eye, long before it appears. Already and not yet. Parents know it this, too. We know what it is to have a child stand before you, to see all at once the baby that they once were, the adult they might yet be, and who they are exactly right now- the length of their arms and the shape of their beloved face. Past present and future. Already, unfolding and not yet.
But perhaps it is something that mothers can understand, most of all.
Image courtesy of The Saints Project.com
The hope of advent was born in Mary the moment that her heart decided that it could be. And it lived there long before anyone knew about it, or certainly knew what was to come. It was and was not yet, all together.
Mothers cannot only imagine what it felt like to be Mary, pregnant and waiting, we have done it too. None of of us have birthed a savior, by any means, but we understand what it means to hold space for something unseen, to bear both a promise and a child at the same time. We know what it is to be in the waiting and the celebrating.
It’s not easy, this waiting, not by any means. You stretch and grow unfathomably, to sustain the baby and hold the weight of it. While everyone waits, you alone carry. Every time you walk up the stairs, bend down to put on your shoes, or attempt to clothe both you and the promise, you remember what it costs, this waiting. Your body and soul bears the weight of its becoming.
Ironically, though, motherhood is not defined by one birth or one bearing. It is a thousands births, all of them painful, as you watch your children grow and be reborn, right before your very eyes. Not one of these births is alike, except for the way they explode in your heart.
I think this is exactly what God meant when he inspired man to write the words about Mary “she pondered these things in her heart.” Mary was experiencing the heart wrench of motherhood. Of holding both past, present, and future together inside one singular beating heart.
It was in the moments between the angel telling her that she’d bear the son, to his actual coming. When the shepherds came and they all looked upon the baby-his lips, his downy hair, his tiny fingers- and they could hardly grasp what it meant. It was in the space between his birth and his resurrection. Between his sleepless nights and little boy wanderings. When he outgrew his mother and began to look like the man we imagine.
Things change, babies grow, and yet we somehow hold them all in our hearts simultaneously. It is in fact, one of the miracles of Motherhood, the one in common with the miracle of Christmas. For one heart to hold both promise and heartbreak, hope and longing, present and past, future and family. We bask in the weight of the glory that was held, for a time, in a tiny human container that could fit in the crook of an arm.
It’s enough to make someone cry.
The other day I did something that I try not to do too. I looked back at pictures of my kids from three years ago this week, and of course, I cried. The tiny faces and smaller little bodies put a lump in my throat and an ache in my heart. I could practically smell that baby head and feel it’s downy softness tucked under my chin as I carried it. I held back most of the tears but there were enough for that now three and a half year old baby to notice. I looked from the image of him to the very presence of him before me. I loved them both equally, felt like I held them both in my minds eye at the same time. My son noticed the tears. “God bless you mommy. And God bless you when I was a baby too.” The word blessing shot back through time and space, like an impossible arrow hitting its impossible target. As if they really do exist all at once.
We begin the Advent season with preparing and we spend this time in hopeful expectation. Yet know that he already is come. Jesus who was, and is, and is to come. Our hearts hold the three things in somewhat equal measure- all true, even if they seem dueling. Past, present, and future, bound together. It is waiting and hold the weight of what is and what is yet to be. Longing and expectation, some promises already realized, holding both seen and unseen, all exactly at the same time.
Motherhood and advent are alike in this: it is a holding all of multiple things at once. Future hope and past moments, all while experiencing the joy and struggle of the current hours. It is sometimes an act of courage to not be swept away in sentimentality. It is also an act of courage to walk forward into the future, holding hands and too knowing you’ll someday let go. It’s living squarely, decidedly, in the moment that’s before you.
It’s in the heart of a mother. It’s in the heart of a parent. It’s the heart of a builder. It’s the miracle of Christmas. Love come down from heaven, all around us, breath, skin, and bones, Already and Not Yet.
I see a momma running around the house, one project to the next, all of them interconnected. She feels overwhelmed, and behind in every single one. Some days she does better than this. But not today.
After three complete circles around the house of unfinished business, she makes the coffee. It can help. As it brews, she sits and waits, with memory. Burdens of what she did wrong this morning already, what she will probably do wrong again later, despite her greatest wishes otherwise. She looks around and sees again all she’s still getting wrong.
She returns to the pot, even before it has finished brewing. She reaches for a cup, sets it down. She sighs out her overwhelm. This coffee may make her rattle even more, but it’s the least she can do. Maybe it’ll give her the pep or the clarity she needs to take a next step.
A song comes on, and it cuts through the noise.
“When You walk into the room, everything changes.”
She puts down the coffee cup that she didn’t even fill yet. She sits, kneels, or maybe stands right there by the cupboard. Now she remembers. With a breathe in, now, she smells a peace that she could never pour into a cup. She fills the cup with her tears, the room with the sound of her heart. Not breaking, though.
Being made more whole. She remembers now, what she needs most of all. Who she needs most. A very real presence.
“You’re what I need, Jesus.
I may need to organize my thoughts, my life better. But I need you to reorganize my heart most of all. I am so thirsty. So, so thirsty. But not for more coffee or even a smoother hamster wheel.
I need you.”
Right there in the middle of the mess of paperwork, and unrest, unmet expectations, she finds for herself a few moments. Not to recall her faults, as usual, but to consider instead the goodness of God, and His great love. It washes over her soul. Warms her more than coffee. Refreshes her weary soul. Reorganizes her hearts. Calms her troubled mind.
This is what she truly needed. And to this Maker she’ll return.
Again, and on repeat, when her soul feels empty or sorrow or scattered.
She’ll get back to the place with the one love that will never run dry. The place where her cup truly overflows.
Theres an express invitation right now for each of us. It might sound crazy, but there’s an invitation from a very Living God. To sit with him, to be with him. To walk with him in the cool of the day. To be known by him and to know him.
“I have come that you might have life” is not spoken from heavenly places, from a distant God. Not ever, and certainly not now. It is spoken from someone standing right by your side. Someone strong, kind, and loving. I’ve see Him and he radiates goodness.
“ I have come.”
This invitation is not someone else’s. It’s yours. That is the express invitation of God to the world. You don’t need full understanding or seven talking points to enter into this blessed communion. You need only one.
Yes.
Your “yes” meets Jesus and everything changes. For the better, yes, but for ultimate redemption, too. You can’t get better than that, loves.
He is the answer to every prayer you have. Every. Single. One.
Take a minute or five. Wherever, however you can. See for yourself if this, if He, is what your soul needs.
“Jesus inform my heart. Calm and transform my mind. Meet with me. Renew me with your Love. Overflow from me. Because I need it. So everyone else around me..”
For a very long time I’ve had a hypothesis about the verse “God gives you the desires of your heart.” Though I had heard it used many times as a way of reassuring a loved one ( You want a baby, a new job, a trip to Mexico’s? Well, course God wants bless you that way! Trust God!”) Though we should trust God and actively talk these things over with him (because no one cares to hear about it as much as he does), I think it actually a gross misunderstanding to interpret things this way. A well meaning interpretation, but a rather childlike one.
What I think it really means is much less centered around what God will do for me, and more grounded in what we will do, and do most extraordinarily, for God.
The things you love and want to participate in? There’s not meant to be handed to you any more than any parents is meant to hand things directly to their child when they haven’t earned it.
It is rather, that your destiny is both intrinsically tied to what you desire and will ultimately be expressed through your participation.
It is not about gifts from God; it’s about using your gifts for God.
The things that get you excited, engaged, and passionate? Those are the places you need to lean into.
It doesn’t mean waiting around for a package delivery from Fedex, UPS, or Heaven itself that will give you what you’ve always wanted. It means you that you’re meant to spend time pursuing those things, expressing your God-given talents, and sharing what comes from them as you follow that pursuit. It’s a present that is unfolding in your life all around you.
It means an active participation in the areas that excite you, that then enables those dreams to be realized in your lifetime.
It’s not never, it’s not yesterday or even right now. It’s always. It is work in progress. If you are alive, it is still both possible and important. Wherever we find ourselves on the life trajectory, it’s not too late to pause the unintended or unplanned orbit, and lean into the places and causes that make our heart skip a beat or two.
That’s the sweet spot. The sweet spot for which we were created. Don’t downplay it. Don’t compare. This is not a multiple choice or a paint by number. This is uniquely you.
There is neither sacred or secular, either. Foster care and painting, politics and pastoring, dog training and human teaching. They all have a place, alike, and not one is more important or meaningful than another. If it’s in you, it’s needed. God literally gave you the desires of your heart. It takes all kinds, all calling, to bring about the immense purpose of God in the world. Your piece in that puzzle matters. Our dreams are not by accident. They are placed in our hearts, directly related to where and why we need to spend out time, love, and resources.
Tell me, what are you bravely going to pursue, knowing that God has already given you those desires. Not because he’s waiting to gift you with them in reality, but because he’s waiting to see what you will do to make them happen.
So there’s no shortage of pontificating going on in the the web-iverse these days (I think I just made up that word, but we’ll go with it.) I myself wrestle almost daily with when to speak and when to be silent. Measured words are wisdom. But isn’t silence golden, after all?
That depends on what you’re talking about. Shutting out noise is good. Shutting out lies, even better.
But tell me, when is Truth silent?
Truth be told, it never is. It is always speaking, and sometimes, it uses words. It speaks to the hearts of men. It speaks in nature and in whispers. It speaks in books and music and art. It speaks in many ways, everywhere.
Sometimes Truth speaks through your life. Sometimes it needs your words, too. So use them today, and every day, well.
It makes me think of one of my favorite children’s books, Frederick. Frederick is a tiny mouse who, with his family, is supposed to be preparing for winter. While they are collecting seeds, nuts, and hay, he appears to be daydreaming. When winter finds them all shivering, alone, and wanting together, they turn to Frederick. He had been busy collecting sunshine and warmth, words to bring them love and courage when they needed it most.
What have you been collecting? Maybe it’s time to share that warmth and that light with the world. Especially if it’s anchored in love and tethered with grace.
Always listen for truth. Live it at all times, and speak it when necessary.
You are responsible for what you say and what you do. You are also responsible for what you don’t. Make sure your words and silence are both meaningful and important, motivated by love. Then, don’t be stingy. The world needs the warmth you’ve been collecting.
And if you’re worried about getting it wrong, don’t be. If what you thought to be true doesn’t stand up in the light of day, real Truth never condemns. It always sets you free. That’s part of the whole process.
May we ever be ever-guided by Truth and Love together. Go love the world like you’re supposed to today, and always. It gets a bit dark when you’re not fully you.
Hey, I'm Courtney, a pretty ordinary girl who thinks we've all been called to an extraordinary life and love story with God. I'm passionate about family, faith, motherhood, and the adventure of every day. I write lots of words, mostly because I can’t help it- and I think it's one of the things I was born to do. I hope that something I write encourages you, to walk in your own unique purpose and calling, set free to love and give it away, starting wherever you are today. That's what Courting the Extraordinary is all about. Finding the good all around you, and giving it away. Finding, too, the God of all goodness who wants to walk with you.
I love quiet mornings, coffee, prayer and “work” before sunrise. Quality time with my family is my jam. I can be found grinning ear to ear when we're out on an adventure. Whether that's in our own backyard or exploring someplace new all-together, I’ll for sure note something beautiful about nature aloud-and maybe repeatedly, ha!. Life is a beautiful, precious gift, and an adventurous path to travel! We might as well learn how to love.
Hey, I'm Courtney, a pretty ordinary girl who thinks we've all been called to an extraordinary life and love story with God. I'm passionate about family, faith, motherhood, and the adventure of every day. I write lots of words, mostly because I can’t help it- and I think it's one of the things I was born to do. I hope that something I write encourages you, to walk in your own unique purpose and calling, set free to love and give it away, starting wherever you are today. That's what Courting the Extraordinary is all about. Finding the good all around you, and giving it away. Finding, too, the God of all goodness who wants to walk with you.
I love quiet mornings, coffee, prayer and “work” before sunrise. Quality time with my family is my jam. I can be found grinning ear to ear when we're out on an adventure. Whether that's in our own backyard or exploring someplace new all-together, I’ll for sure note something beautiful about nature aloud-and maybe repeatedly, ha!. Life is a beautiful, precious gift, and an adventurous path to travel! We might as well learn how to love. 