Because They’re Thirsty

Mar 222012
0 Comments Posted by Amy in Go Global, Posts .

Some of the world’s biggest problems are the easiest to solve – like the clean water crisis:  More people are dying today from lack of access to clean water than from all other forms of violence.  Roughly 30,000 people a week, and 90% of those are kiddos under age 5.

And we can be a part of the solution – by literally providing a source of clean water to a village or a community that without our help, stays thirsty.  Will you help?  World Water Day (yup, that’s today!) seems like the perfect time to say YES!

As much as I’d love to travel to these developing nations and dig my hands into the dirt – we can leave that to the experts at Charity Water. But  from right where we are we can give the gift of water.  It’s easy. And it doesn’t have to cost you more than your favorite coffee house drink.

Will you join my campaign with Charity Water and fund a water project for a community that’s thirsty? Together, we can do this!

Here’s the details:

Join my Because They’re Thirsty campaign.  You can track our progress as we aim to fund a water project – with $5,000 we can provide a community with a lasting source of clean water.  And that’s amazing. Through Charity Water – 100% of our giving goes directly to the water project.

Spread the word, share the link: http://mycharitywater.org/Becausetheyrethirsty

Give. If you’re not convinced it’s a worthy cause – try spending the day without turning on your faucet. At all. For any reason. That’s a reality for 1 billion people in the world, and it doesn’t have to be.


Let’s BE the change we want to see in our world…

Because Love is Beautiful

Mar 192012
0 Comments Posted by Amy in Posts .

What is it that makes love so beautiful?

It’s the way our stories become our story. 

It’s the beauty of being woven together, an entanglement that creates strength.

It’s the freedom found in those unguarded, see-me-just-as-I-am  and love me still moments.

It’s in the knowing that love isn’t confined by space or distance or time.  Love  just is.

It’s in the recognition that love is a force to be reckoned with, and to experience it a gift, always.

Love inspires us to reach high, to dream big, to take the risk…

Love is what makes our stories, our story, so beautiful.

Live Love Loud

Feb 152012
0 Comments Posted by Amy in Motherhood, Parenting .

Squished on his twin bed, next to his stuffed moose and on top of his star-embroidered quilt… I sought his expertise.

I wanted to know how he experiences my love, and so I asked him.  

I was surprised by how readily he replied, without much contemplation, as if he were just stating obvious facts:

Because you smile at my art

We snuggle a lot

The song you sing me before bed

Reading stories together

…and the big hugs you give me

He listed the very things I so easily lose sight of amidst busy schedules, tiredness, sibling squabbles, fixing meals, brushing teeth, and good night prayers.

And he challenged me to remember, It’s not necessarily what we do for our children but instead how we connect with them that speaks the loudest of love.  

I want to live love loud,

The Cocktail for Change

Feb 012012
1 Comment Posted by Amy in Grace .

We’re one month in to the New Year!  Did you make any resolutions, set any goals, or decide to take-on that something, one thing, anything during 2012?

Whether your sights were set on changes for the New Year, or if you are embracing the newness of today  - we all want to change something. 

But that something is probably resistant to your meddling.

If you’ve tried to conquer this something and come up short more than once – I’m guessing you’re missing a key ingredient for success:

Grace.

Grace is a vital part of the cocktail for really changing your life - or any part of it. You need at least 3 parts grace to 1 part self-discipline.

How do I know?

I’ve run on the fumes of self-discipline and I know that they don’t get you far.  At most they’ll help you finish a sprint – but for the long-term, marathon of our lives we need something sustainable. Something (Someone) bigger than ourselves.

We need Grace:  The gap filler, the fresh-start, the do-over, the start-again, the don’t quit, the don’t get discouraged but keep pressing on change-agent that is grace.

What  is your something, one thing, anything  this year?

Here’s to a fresh start,


Taking The Red Pill

Jan 302012
0 Comments Posted by Amy in Posts .

I love it when movies tell parallel stories.  When the plot unfolding onscreen mirrors a tension that we identify with – in a way that makes it feel like the characters are telling a story of our own.

The original Matrix does this so well.  I know it’s about a decade old – but I’ve been having an urge to watch it again, for probably the dozenth time. My well-worn copy is still packed away somewhere – in a rubbermaid tub among the stacks lining our garage wall.  I’ll be digging through them tomorrow…

(You’ve seen it, right? If not, stop reading and go watch it already.)

It’s the scene where Neo has to choose between the red pill and the blue pill that gets me every time. Everything hinges on his choice. If he chooses blue, he forgets his opportunity to know the truth, to see the world and his place in it for what it really is, and he gets to go on living an uncomplicated life. But if he chooses the red pill, he will get the truth. All of it. And it will set him free, but it comes with a price.  The price of of knowing that once you know the truth you live with it, in it, and you can never go back to not knowing it.

And sometimes, knowing the truth is hard.

Even when it comes with freedom.

And we get this choice every day.

…not just once

but endless opportunities to live our lives with eyes wide open. And our hearts open still. 

So…red or blue for you today?

Receive. Give. Live.

Jan 262012
2 Comments Posted by Amy in Everyday Faith .

There are so many things in life that are depleting. You know, the things that suck the air out of your lungs, toss a load of bricks on your chest or that just seem hell-bent on squelching whatever is passionately kindling in your heart.

…can you name a few?

I can.

And I bet you can add a few names to your list.

And I don’t want to be one of them.

I want to live in grace. 

Be life-giving

Encouraging

Real. Hopeful. Inspired and inspiring. 

I want to live in the grace that’s been given to me

and I want to extend  it to others. To everyone.

The challenge, is doing just that.

Receive. Give. Live.

Define Yourself

Jan 232012
5 Comments Posted by Amy in Everyday Faith, Posts .

Maybe we’re aware of it. Maybe we aren’t. But we all have them – words that define us. Your definitions (or the ones you’ve received from others) might be as obvious as a neon sign. Or maybe they’ve attached subtly and steadily over time so that their imprint runs deep; they’ve burrowed in to the hard-to-reach places of your heart.

But they are there. These definitions bind together stronger than nails join wood and they build our inner framework, on top of which we build our lives.

So we need to define ourselves intentionally.

We need to hold on to those definitions that are life-giving and demolish the ones that bind us, limit us, confine us.

Today, I’m swinging a sledgehammer at some definitions I’ve allowed to linger that are not who I am. Or who I want to be. Or who He says I am.  And I’m challenged to fill their voided space His definitions of me. And to live from that place.

It is this brief clip that has challenged me to take an inventory of my definitions and to do some internal demo and remodeling.  A woman, an abortion-survivor, who has plenty of reasons to define herself by her pain and rejection, chooses instead to be defined by God. And the result, is beautiful.

I’m not defined by my suffering…I am so filled with the knowledge of God’s love for me – my life is Sacred and I’m defined by God. My life is beautiful.  - From Every Life Is Beautiful

How are you defining yourself today?

Knowing the Difference

Jan 202012
4 Comments Posted by Amy in Posts .

There is a difference between resting and hiding.

Solitude verses apathetic comfort in the shadows.

I’ve been somewhere in between but challenged to recognize the difference.

 The difference is distinguishable by what’s been produced during our exile.

When we hide, things fester.  Our hearts get murky. Our spirits begin to spew ugly.

When we’re apathetic, we survive our moments instead of living them. Our laissez-faire approach  emphasizes the everything is permissible without heeding the but not everything is beneficial. 

On the other hand, resting and solitude produce strength. We come away with a heart momentum that gains ground instead of losing it. We are nourished instead of depleted, we invest our moments instead of squandering them.

I’m no stranger to either side of resting or hiding, I’ve had my share of both, and now I’m back.

Finding Tangible Grace

Sep 292011
0 Comments Posted by Amy in Everyday Faith, Grace, Motherhood .

I experience grace most tangibly when I reach the end of myself. And I don’t know about you – but I’m there, at my own end, more often than I’d care to admit.

{I’d like to think I can manage my life and invest in those I’ve been entrusted with with relative ease. Truth is, I can’t.  My to-do list is chronically longer than the hours available in each day.  I have more goals than I have action-steps, and I’m pretty sure it should be the other way around. My life is full of love and yet my ugly side surfaces more readily than my choice to be unconditional and extravagant in how I love back. My ability to respond to my 3-year-old’s sass with patience, peace, and life-giving words instead of angry commands is not nearly as practiced as it is held in my own parenting ideal.}

And so I stumble often.

Come up short.

Face plant.

And I can stay in that place and keep grinding my gears until I’m absolutely on empty… or I can ask for grace in those life-moments that are full of hard and rich with opportunity…

…and watch what seems like an inevitable “systems failure” become a tangible testimony of how powerful grace is.

That I can finish what I start…

That I can love well…

That I can shepherd hearts instead of solely managing behavior…

That is grace.

The end of us is the beginning of Him.

It’s right where I want to be.

In grace.

Because We Screw Up… A Lot

Sep 232011
2 Comments Posted by Amy in Posts .

Have you ever been hurt by well-meaning people that misrepresented God’s heart for you?

I have – and while wincing from the sting I nearly missed that God is so much bigger than the ways He is misrepresented.

It seems like it should be obvious – but it’s hard to disconnect our expectations of God from the experiences we have with His (beautiful but flawed) people.

Should I state the obvious? We’re human, and we screw up, a lot. We hurt each other and we disappoint each other, and it’s often easier for us to lash out in hurt and with judgment than to extend the same unconditional love and grace that God extends to us.

So when we hear that God’s love for us is never-ending, relentlessly pursuing, never-giving-up, never-leaving, unbreakable, constantly passionate – it can be easier to turn away from Him all together than try to reconcile the way He loves us with anything else we’ve known.

And therein lies the beauty of grace. It is completely other because He is completely other. The way God loves us can’t be reconciled with what we know – because apart from Him we will never find a love that never fails us.

Have you ever been stuck trying to reconcile the way He loves you with anything else you’ve known?

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