You Need To Save This For When it’s Hard To Keep Going: About Resolutions & Getting Through 2024
Ann Voskamp | Faith Stories
by Ann Voskamp
2M ago
Right about now is when it starts to get even harder to put one step in front of the other toward those hopes of yours. Because it’s now the second week of January. And the research says that “80% of people forget their resolutions by January 12,” and the health app Strava, analyzing more than 98.3 million uploaded data points, even goes far to dub January 19, just around the corner, “Quitter’s Day.” You don’t have to work to become someone better to get to be loved — you’re already loved, so you get to become the someone you were always made to be. And sure — there’s a part of you that does ..read more
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Sometimes Doubt God is Really Real? I’m Done Merely Believing in God. I’m Doing This Instead.
Ann Voskamp | Faith Stories
by Ann Voskamp
1y ago
The truth is, after a brutal couple of years, I have decided I do not simply believe in Jesus. I am done with that life. Mainly because it turned out to be guttingly empty and hollow  — and, frankly, not enough.   After years of navigating all kinds of personal heartbreak, and family trauma, and the whole lot of us living through global upheaval and political and cultural divisiveness and polarization, this is where I find myself landing:  I do not merely believe in Jesus, I live in Jesus. “I do not believe in Jesus, I live in Jesus.”  In this polarized war over what is t ..read more
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What’s the answer to All This Suffering? When You Need Answers for Your Broken Heart
Ann Voskamp | Faith Stories
by Ann Voskamp
1y ago
W hy in the world is there such staggering suffering in this heartbreaking world?  It was four Lents ago now, that I’d been sleeping beside a hospital bed for 12 days, been sleeping alongside the brave 300 children curled and splayed in stacked floors of beds under the sign: Hospital for Sick Kids. Maybe what we need is more than good answers in the midst of suffering — what we need is good people  to walk through the suffering with us.  How many times had the hallways buzzed with Code Blue, Code Blue? How many times had a child’s cries and begging no’s seized us down these ha ..read more
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When You Pray But God Doesn’t Answer With The Miracle
Ann Voskamp | Faith Stories
by Ann Voskamp
1y ago
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Essential Secrets On How to Wait Well
Ann Voskamp | Faith Stories
by Ann Voskamp
1y ago
Waiting for the right time, can feel like everything is going wrong. The sacrament of waiting can feel the hardest of all. You can bet on it these days, every morning when we rise and look at the calendar, we think: How long, Lord, how long? How long till parts of our story turn around, how long till our tender hearts mend, how long till there’s healing in a deeply fractured world, how long till we all get to breathe even a little bit easier? The sacrament of waiting can feel the hardest of all. They say waiting is the drumming of impatient fingers. Or the unbearably slow watching of the fa ..read more
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When it Seems God Doesn’t Hear Your Prayers
Ann Voskamp | Faith Stories
by Ann Voskamp
1y ago
A lady flat-out told me, and I can’t forget it, and I think of her again and again, that she doesn’t know how she’s going to live through what she’s going through. What if you’re looking for light at the end of a tunnel — that turns out to be a cave with only a dead end? A friend whose oldest son drove down the road only to lose control on loose gravel and lose his ability to ever walk or speak again? The very same friend whose husband now just walked out and left her high and dry after 30 years of sleeping spooned together side by side under cotton sheets? She tells us that lump she found? Is ..read more
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Real Hope Ammunition For Your Hard Battles
Ann Voskamp | Faith Stories
by Ann Voskamp
1y ago
W hen the woman reached out to hug me just before I got to the door, she whispered it in my ear and I barely heard it through what was leaking down her cheeks, “I don’t know if I’m going to live through this.” She pulled back and looked me in the eye: How do you keep taking one step after another — when you want to be on another road? “Maybe it’s — I just don’t know how — to live through this?” I read her eyes and she reads mine and how do you hear the voice of the Shepherd still calling your name when the lies from the pit keep calling you names, and you can’t breathe for the shame? How do ..read more
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Need a Rescue in The Middle Of The Year? How to make June the new January
Ann Voskamp | Faith Stories
by Ann Voskamp
1y ago
The snowball tree out at the mailbox is this flurry of flakes in the middle of June. So you can go out to get the mail and stand there with all these petals round your feet. You can realize: A year can evaporate before you know it. In the middle of a culture of outrage, where judgement can be be our dialect of choice and angry, finger pointing posts can go viral and sicken our communal well, you can just want to stop at the end of the lane and watch the sun over the fields. “The best way to live a good year is to do a reset halfway through the year.” You can want to smell the flowers an ..read more
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Dare to be Delighted In
Ann Voskamp | Faith Stories
by Jess Thompson
2y ago
Jess Thompson is one of those people who makes you laugh hard and then slow down and sigh with relief when she preaches the Good News. You know that feeling that maybe God just tolerates you but isn’t very glad to see you? Perhaps you grew up believing He was far off, but can I tell you a good thing? He actually delights in you. Don’t believe me? Let Jess encourage your heart today. A mama and daughter, she reminds us of the beauty of everyday life and how to find Christ in the valleys and victories. It turns out, he’s right there in the middle, welcoming us in. It’s a grace to welcome Jess to ..read more
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The Sabbath Road to Happiness
Ann Voskamp | Faith Stories
by Courtney Ellis
2y ago
Courtney Ellis believes in the beautiful wisdom from Mary Poppins: a spoonful of sugar does help the medicine go down. It’s why she’s so passionate about God’s gift of playfulness—the joyful opportunity to connect, celebrate, and just have fun. Play is much more than a luxury item: it’s a necessity for healthy souls, families, communities, and churches. In seasons of difficulty, play can help refill our empty tanks, reenergizing us for the work ahead. She’s grateful to her three young children—her best playfulness examples!—as well as to her husband, Daryl, who often wakes her up with songs ab ..read more
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