Something Beautiful

In November my favorite pastor preached a sermon that really hit me and has stuck with me. He was preaching out of Joshua where the Israelites cross the Jordan River and enter the promised land after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. There they are at the edge of the river. The command is simple: cross the river and take the promised land. The river is just overflowing its banks, at the height of the flood season, in fact. But all they have to do is cross it. That was the command from God. Retrospectively it is easy to say that they have nothing to fear, but standing there, looking at that river, I imagine there were plenty of worried thoughts. But that first step into the water was what changed everything. The river stopped flowing. It backed up. The Israelites crossed on dry ground. How incredible! They entered into the promised land because of a single step. We all have a "promised land" that we are facing. We all have a flooded River Jordan between us and tha

*I had every intention of posting this nearer to my birthday, but here I am and three weeks have passed. Please forgive me. I have a dream of one day having a birthday party where at the end of the night all my guests leave with presents instead of me. As I'm not quite at the point in my life to do that yet, I hope that instead this post may be a present to you. And don't worry, when I am at that point in my life, you're all invited. When I turned 25, I was so excited. I just knew that 25 was going to be the best year yet. I just had this feeling, you know that feeling, that something glorious is right around the corner. And after my 25th birthday something glorious did happen. I experienced brokenness as I had never yet experienced it. I had dreams die, deep heart dreams. I lost friends, dear heart friends. I had opportunities taken from me, ones that made my heart stir. For the first time in my life I identified with Naomi in the story of Ruth. I was Mara, b